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Home My WebLink About1998-12-15 Bd Comm minutesMINUTES IOWA CITY BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1998 - 5 P.M. CIVIC CENTER COUNCIL CHAMBERS PRELIMINAR Subject to Approval MEMBERS PRESENT: Susan Bender, Lowell Brandt, T.J. Brandt, Kate Corcoran, William Haigh MEMBERS ABSENT: None STAFF PRESENT: Melody Rockwell, John Yapp, Dennis Mitchell, Traci Wagner OTHERS PRESENT: Bill Cloven, Chris Wheeler, Larry Greiner, Jim Douglass, Randy Van Winkle, Marvin Lynch, Dave Elliott, Dan Yeager, Walter Foster, Steve Schallau, Beth Fruwese, Debbie Meadows, Sue Landau, Teri Greiner, Amy Becker, AI Westcott, Heather Hartzell, Shidey Westcott CAII TO ORDFR: Chairperson Haigh called the meeting to order at 5:03 p.m. ROII CAll: All members were present except for Corcoran who ardved at 5:30 p.m. right before consideration of FXC97-0018. CONSIDFRATION OF THF OCTORFR 14. 1998. BOARD MINUTI=S: MOTION: L. Brandt moved to approve the October 14, 1998, Board minutes as submitted. T.J. Brandt seconded the motion. The motion carded by a vote of 4-0. SPI:CIAI FXCFPTION ITFMS: 1. FXC98-0004. Public hearing on a request submitted by Enterprise Rent-a-Car Company Midwest to extend a March 11, 1998, Board decision approving a special exception to establish an auto and truck-oriented use, an auto rental agency, for property located in the CC-2 zone at 1101 S. Riverside Drive. Yapp said on March 11, 1998, the Board approved a special exception to permit a car rental agency at this location in the Gateway One Plaza on South Riverside Drive. He said the applicant has requested a six-month extension due to lease negotiations and construction delays. He said that staff has been aware of those issues, and feel it is reasonable to allow the six-month extension. Public hearing opened. Bill Cloven. City Rental Manager for I=nterprise Rent-a-Car, said there has been no change in how they would do business in the new location since the last time they came before the Board. He said that they anticipate that the lease negotiations will be completed in the next two weeks, and they plan on relocating, if given approval, within the next three months. _ Public hearing closed. MOTION: L. Brandt moved to extend the expiration date to April 3, 1999, of FXC98- 004, a special exception approved by the Board of Adjustment on March 11, 1998, to permit an auto and truck-oriented use, a car rental agency, to be established on property located in the CC-2 zone at 1101 S. Riverside Drive. Bender seconded the motion. iowa City Board of Adjustment Minutes November 18, 1998 Page 2 L. Brandt said he thought the request seemed raasonable and thera were some unforeee~l,... delays. He said all the factors that the Board discussed when granting the special exceplllt.~ would still hold. Bender agreed, and said thera has been no significant change lif circumstances so she saw no reason not to grant the extension. T.J. Brandt and Haigh also agreed. The motion carried I;I.Y ~" vote of 4-0. I=XC98-0008. Public headng on a request submitted by S & J Development to extend a May 13, 1998, Board decision appmving a special exception for a club to be established in a Rural Residential (RR-1) zone for property located at the end of Phoenix Ddve, extended. Rockwell said on May 13, 1998, the Board appmved a special exception to allow a club to be located within the Country Club Estates. She said approval was subject to a number of conditions. She said at the Board's October meeting, the decision was amended to eliminate the requirement for an approved final plat pdor to construction. She said the applicant had anticipated City Council approval of the preliminary plat and commencement of the pool construction in October. She said the preliminary plat has not yet been approved by City Council due to technical deficiencies associated with the plat and access concerns raised by an adjoining property owner, neither of which impact the location or design of the club facility or site. She said the access considerations were pdvate agreements that were reached years ago, and now prevent the preliminary plat from going forward until the access issues are resolved. Rockwell said the Board's approval of the special exception is valid for a pedod of six months after its decision is filed with the City Clerk. In this case, the Board's decision is due to expire on November 28. 1998, because the preliminary plat has not been approved and construction permits cannot be obtained by that time. She said the next available Council meeting at which the plat may be considered is December 3. She said the applicant is requesting a six-month extension of the Board's approval to allow sufficient time for the preliminary plat to be approved and construction to begin. She said staff feels the request for a six-month extension of the Board's May 13, 1998, decision approving a club on property located at the west end of Phoenix Drive extended, is reasonable. Haigh asked what date the special exception would be extended to. L. Brandt said to May 28, 1999. Public hearing opened. There was no public comment. Public hearing closed. MOTION: L. Brandt moved to extend the expiration date for FXC98-0008 to May 28, 1999, a special exception approved with conditions by the Board of Adjustment on May 13, 1998, to permit a club to be established in a RAILROAD-1 zone at the end of Phoenix Drive. T.J. Brandt seconded the motion. Bender said the circumstances have not changed significantly to alter the Board's decision, and it seems like a reasonable request. She said it is apparent that the applicant did not have a way to foresee that the access issues would be a problem. L. Brandt and T.J. Brandt said they agreed. ' Iowa City Board of Adjustment Minutes November 18, 1998 Page 3 Jim The motion P-nted hY .' Vnte nf 44). FXe97-00:20. Public headng on an application submitted by Jim O'Brlen, on behalf of property owner Jim Stetzel, for a special exception to permit the establishment of an eider congregate residence on Lot 8 of Longfellow Manor Subdivision for property located in a Medium Density Single-Family Residential (RS-8) zone on Longfellow Place. Rockwell said the applicant is requesting an indefinite deferral because there is a transaction going on at this time to transfer the property into a different ownership. She noted that to date, the eider congregate residence established on Lot 7 has not been occupied. She said the applicant has agreed that it would be best to get that one completed and occupied pdor to coming to the Board to request that an eider congregate residence be established on Lot 8. She said staff the request for an indefinite deferral is a practical and reasonable means of dealing with the situation. L. Brandt asked if the indefinite nature of the deferral would be a problem for staff. Rockwell said it would not be a problem. Public hearing opened. There was no public comment. Public hearing closed. MOTION: L. Brandt to defer FXC97-00~0 indefinitely until the applicant resubmits the request. Bender seconded the motion. T.J. Brandt said he thought it Was fine if staff did not have a problem with it. The motion carried by a vote of 4-0. F=XC98-00::>4. Public headng on an application submitted by Housley Swafford Properties, on behalf of property owner Petro-King, Inc., for a special exception to permit an auto and truck-oriented use, that is a muffier/lube shop, to be established for property located in a Community Commercial (CC-2) zone at 606 S. Riverside Drive. Yapp said this property is located on the east side of Riverside Drive just south of the Iowa Interstate railroad tracks on the location that was formerly occupied by Coastal Mart gas station. He said the property has been vacant for some time. He said the CC-2 zone allows an auto and truck-oriented use to be permitted by special exception, and noted the requirement for a special exception of auto and truck-oriented uses is related to concerns about how these uses handle vehicular ingress and egress, compatibility with adjacent uses and aesthetics. Yapp said staff is recommending that the north driveway be closed due to visibility concerns. He said there is a solid concrete railroad abutment adjacent to the street right-of-way, which inhibits visibility from the driveway. He said drivers in through-traffic vehicles may have a difficult time seeing cars turning out of that driveway onto Riverside Drive. He said this segment of Riverside Drive, between Benton Street and the railroad underpass, has the tenth highest accident rate (number of accidents/volume of traffic) and the fifth highest total number of accidents in Iowa City, based on accident data between 1992 and 1996. Yapp said closing one driveway would improve the safety on Riverside Drive by eliminating one of Iowa City Board of Adjustment Minutes November 18, 1998 Page 4 the conflict points. Yapp said the applicant had submitted a revised site plan that shows the site with only one driveway. Yapp said regarding compatibility with adjacent uses, the adjacent uses include the railroad to the north, the Iowa River and Iowa River Corddor Trail, which is under construction to the east, and Soccer Too and a warehousing facility to the south. He said two other automobile- oriented businesses, Linder Tire and Professional Muffler, are also located on this block of Riverside Ddve. Yapp said staff feels that an auto and truck-oriented use is appropriate for this area. He said the proposed site plan includes improvements and additional landscaping. Yapp said regarding the intensity of the use, the applicant has told staff that they expect to service about 25-30 cars per day in the muffler servicing portion of the site and the lubricant/oil changing portion of the site could turn over about one vehicle every 15 minutes per stall, which would be 12 vehicles per hour at their fastest rate. He said this is less intense traffic than was the case with the previoOs use, the gasoline/service station. He said if the Board is inclined to approve the special exception, staff recommends that there be a condition that there be only one ddveway serving the site. L. Brandt asked if there was a concern with the ddveway location. Yapp said staff is recommending that the north ddveway be closed, and either the south driveway be used or a new driveway be created toward the middle of the site. He said the new site plan submitted by the applicant shows a driveway in roughly the middle of the site frontage. Public hearing opened. Chris Wheeler of Design Build Associates Contractors representing Housely Swafford Properties said the owner has no problem closing the north driveway for safety and aesthetic purposes. He said they would like to move the south entrance to the center of the site because as traffic moves north, pe, ople would likely be past the establishment before they see the south entrance to the site. Public hearing closed. Bender asked how to word the motion based on the new plan. She said she was not sure that she wanted to allude to a plan that none of the Board members have seen. Mitchell suggested saying that the remaining driveway may not be located on the northern part of the property, and can be located in the middle or the southern part of the property frontage. Wheeler showed the revised site plan drawings to the Board. MOTION: L. Brandt moved to approve FXC98-0024, a special exception for an auto and truck-oriented use to permit a muffler shop and lubricant facility to be established on property in the CC-2 zone at 606 S. Riverside Drive, subject to the existing north driveway being closed and there being only one driveway providing vehicular access to the site, as shown on the site plan submitted by the applicant with the revision date of November 13, 1998. Bender seconded the motion. Bender said it seems like a reasonable application. She said one of the standards that the Board has to look at is the consistency of the proposed use with the surrounding property. which has certainly been met in this case and she did not see a conflict with the type of use. She said she is always concerned with safety, and she appreciated the applicanrs willingness to be flexible and take staffs recommendation about closing the northernmost driveway on a very difficult and busy street in Iowa City for a matter of public safety. Iowa City Board of Adjustment Minutes November 18, 1998 Page 5 L. Brandt and T.J. Brandt both agreed. Haigh said he thought this would be a big improvement for that property, and moving the ddveway would help safety concems. The motion c=rrled hY ~ vote of 4-0. (Corcoran arrived at 5:30 p.m.) FXC97-0018. Public headng on an application submitted by Parkview Evangelical Free Church for a special exception to permit a religious institution expansion, that is, the construction of a new addition and parking area, for property located in a Low Density Single-Family Residential (RS-5) zone at 15 Foster Road. Rockwell presented the new site maps to the Board. She said the Parkview Evangelical Free Church, which is located at 15 Foster Road, is requesting that the Board approve a special exception to allow the addition of an approximately 30,000 square foot church building with an entryway connection to the existing church building and the development of a new parking area to serve the expanded facility. She said the Board considered this special exception application at its October 14, 1998, meeting, and at the request of the applicant, voted to defer this item to its November 18, 1998, meeting. She said the Board advised the applicant to provide more definitive information about why the amount of parking being requested (544 parking spaces) in a low density residential area is justified. She said the Board also asked the applicant to consider revising the parking area plan to provide more of a buffer between the parking area and the residential properties to the west, and to show details of the proposed landscaping and lighting of the parking area. Rockwell said the applicant has submitted a revised site plan that shows the west edge of the proposed parking area paving and the northwest ddve 11 feet further to the east; the parking area was 29 feet from the west property line on the October 1998 site plan, and is now shown 40 feet from the west property line. She said the northwest ddve is approximately 58 feet from the west property line, as is the southwest ddve. She said the site plan also shows the parking area paving pulled back from Foster Road (from 20 feet to 30 feet and more because of the way the parking lot is angled) and from Taft Speedway (from 20 feet to 25 feet and more). She said given the expanse of the proposed parking area, in staffs view these buffers are still fairly minimal. Rockwell noted that there is less paving involved with the revised site plan. She said according to the applicant, the redesign of the parking area has resulted in 14,000 square feet less paving needed, while the number of proposed parking spaces increased very slightly from 544 to 546 parking spaces. She said this was accomplished by adhering to Iowa City parking area design standards; overwide aisles and oversized parking spaces were reduced to the required dimensions. She said this resulted in a seven percent decrease in the proposed parking lot surface area. She said in terms of the landscaping, the applicant has indicated that a 40-foot wide planting area between the parking lot and the west property line will contain a planted berm with a variety of conifers and deciduous trees, and shrubs, such as barberry and dogwood bushes. She said a detailed landscaping plan has not been provided, and the existing willows in the northwest corner of the site are not mentioned. She noted that the Board had received two differing views from neighboring property owners on whether the willows should be retained or not. Rockwell said that no details, other than verbal information had been provided to staff regarding the lighting. She said that there has been some indication that the lighting could Iowa City Board of Adjustment Minutes November 18, 1998 Page 6 have split controls so that the lights on the west edge of the parking lot would not be on as often as those nearer to the church. She said the church has submitted parking projections to demonstrate that the proposed amount of parking will be needed. She said according to the projections, a peak parking demand of over 500 parking spaces is not projected to occur for another five years. Rockwell said the Board may want to consider limiting the maximum number of spaces to be provided during the first phase of construction in 1999, for example, to 400 parking spaces, and allow the applicant to landbank the additional 146 parking spaces. She said the Board could specify that the landbanked spaces could only be converted into parking spaces when it is demonstrated that the parking is needed. She said the Board could designate that the Director of Planning and Community Development be the entity to determine whether the additional parking spaces are warranted. She said staff would suggest that the landbanked spaces not be converted into parking spaces for a minimum of three years after a certificate of occupancy is issued for the proposed new sanctasium building. She said staff would also suggest that the landbanked spaces be located not only along the west edge of the parking area, but along the street rights-of-way as well. She said if the Board is inclined to approve the requested special exception, they may want to apply specific conditions to ameliorate the effects of an enlarged parking area within a low density residential neighborhood. She said these conditions could include requiring that the applicant 1 ) reduce the amount of parking constructed initially and/or landbanking a certain number of parking spaces for a minimum of three years after a certificate of occupancy is issued for the proposed new sanctasium building, 2) maintaining the buffer widths shown on the site plan submitted on and date-stamped November 12, 1998 (a minimum of 40 feet between the parking area and the west property line, 30 feet between the parking area and Foster Road, and 25 feet between the parking area and Taft Speedway), 3) submitting a landscape plan to be approved by City staff that provides effective screening of the parking area, and 4) constructing the northwest and southwest drives so the west edge of the paving of those drives is a minimum of 60 feet from the west property line. She said the Board may also want to consider a condition concerning the parking area lighting. Rockwell said she received a number of letters in addition to the ones included in the packet. She said letters had been received from Frederic Yocum, Jr., Kirsten Rosenquist and Steven and Judi Rachke in support of the Parkview parking request. She said she also received a fax from Dr. H.D. Hartsell, who brought up some concerns about the parking expansion. Rockwell said received numerous telephone calls regarding this issue, and she noted that she had transcribed a summary of the telephone calls for the Board's review. She said she received a call from Heather Hartsell, who expressed her concerns about the huge number of parking spaces being requested, and suggested the possibility of phasing in parking as needed. Rockwell said Shirley Westcott also called and submitted a letter. Rockwell said Lisa Holcomb, who attends Parkview Church, called to stress her support for additional parking, as did Dr. Gary Schmidt and Beth Fruwese. She said Lois Coon called on behalf of her husband, Eugene, and herself, neighboring condo owners, who attended the meeting with the church. She said one thing that the Coons suggested in addition to adding a fourth service, was to consider having some of the parking placed south and east of the new addition instead of expanding the parking entirely to the west at this time. Rockwell said that she also received calls from Beverly Johansen, Fran Ottsen, Jim Greenwich, Alisha Dawson, EIlie Donahue, Mark Mesnick, Eleanor McClellan and Judith Platz, who are Parkview members and expressed the need for expanded parking. She said one person who called said it was unsafe to have the parking along drives and the street, and others mentioned that with the new addition there would be more people and more parking would be required. She noted that McClellan also submitted a letter. Rockwell said Iowa City Board of Adjustment Minutes November 18, 1998 Page 7 she also received cells from Heather Martinson and Sonatina Femandez, who exprelled. their support of the parking expansion for Parkview. She said she received a cell fi'o~;.':~: ." Margaret McDonald earlier today, who asked the Board to review the design of ~'~; ' proposed building to be sure that it is compatible with the surrounding residential area. McDonald also urged the Board to retain as many existing trees in the area as possible. Rockwell said she also received calls from Cindy Redlinger, Tonya Miller,-Tom Sunblat and Betty Doublebee, who all urged that the parking request from Parkview be approved as requested. L. Brandt noted that the parking outline in the revised plan is basically the same as was presented at the October meeting, except everything is just compressed. Corcoran asked how many parking spaces the church currently had. Rockwell said the applicant could best respond to that question. Public hearing opened. larry Greiner. chgirm-n of Parkview's Deacon Board and Building Committee said the church currently has 290 existing, asphalt parking spaces. Haigh asked what the square footage was for the current parking area. Greiner said he did not know. Greiner gave a presentation regarding the church, its attendance figures and parking needs. Greiner said Parkview has existed on its current site since 1985. He said their mission statement is to intentionally make more and better disciples of Jesus Chdst. He said that part of doing that is providing the tools for their members and attendees, including worship, adequate facilities and adequate parking for the constituency. He showed a line graph that illustrated Parkview's average weekly sanctuary attendance, which was over 800 people. He said that this process started in 1995, when the church decided to define and study their needs before continuing with the 25-year building plan. He said they engaged Robert A. Lee, who is a licensed architect and nationally known church consultant to help them study efficiency of facility use. He said Lee recommended that the church start building in 1996 and 1997, that they build a sanctasium to seat 770 people in a three-service format, a new lobby and new restrooms, construct 7,500 square feet of additional classroom and expand their current parking area. He said Lee recommended that Parkview should accommodate a total worship attendance of 1,670 with an expected sanctasium attendance of 618 and a have 690-space parking lot by the year 2001. Greiner said from 1996 to the present, Parkview had engaged in a fundraising and design campaign. He said the sanctasium is designed to seat 800 people on a full-sized basketball court. He said they have also added additional classroom space, designed a 650-square foot kitchen, designed a new narthex area with a lobby and restrooms, planned to remodel existing office space and redesigned the parking lot to accommodate 546 parking spaces. He showed a table and line graph that illustrated the 1997 Parkview attendance data. He showed an aerial photo of the Parkview parking area taken at 10:40 a.m. on November 15, and said that while some of the parking spaces in the back of the lot were empty, there were at least two rows of cars not parked on the asphalt. He gave the following people-per-car ratios: 1.95 people-per-car for the 8:30 a.m. service, 2.3 people-per-car for the 9:45 a.m. service and 1.87 people-per-car for the 11 a.m. service, and said this is some of the information the church is using to project future attendance and needs. He said they took that information and plugged it into the formula for projected attendance for churches of their type that was given to them by the consultant. He conceded that they do not project the proposed parking lot to be full until 2003, but he said that is only three to four years away. Iowa City Board of Adjustment Minutes November 18, 1998 Page 8 Greiner showed a slide with the original site plan and another with the revised parking lot plan. He said they have increased the west buffer to 40 feet, the north buffer to a minimum of 30 feet and the south buffer to a minimum of 30 feet. He said it has been a win-win situation, because they have reduced the parking lot surface by over 14,000 square feet so they have to spend less money on asphalt, and it reduces the amount of water retention and the overall parking lot size. He said by Iowa City standards, the reconfigured parking lot contains 520 regular, 12 handicap and 14 compact car parking spaces. He said they are very flexible with regard to the parking lot lighting. He said he thought it would be very easy for the church to split the control and timing on the lighting. He said buffer landscaping is an important issue. He said the church would like to include the neighbors in the planning process. Hr said they invited neighboring property owners to be on the Landscape Committee, and that is why no landscape plan has been presented. He said they held an informational meeting on November 8. He said 41 neighboring households were invited, and eight people representing six households attended. He said they would continue to seek neighborhood input regarding the landscaping plan, and the church would meet or exceed all City requirements regarding the landscaping, which would include larger trees from their existing parking islands when feasible, a mix of conifers and deciduous trees, lower bushes under the trees like barberry and dogwood and a small landscaped berm. He showed an illustration of a possible cross-section of the landscaped berm. Haigh asked about the willow grove. Greiner said the willow trees are not included in their vision of the landscape plan. He said they would like to see something that provided more screening during the time of year when the leaves fall off the trees. He said they would like to see some conifers planted there and possibly some red cedars for year-round screening. He said that he understood that there were some plans for the water main going through the area by the City, which will take out some of the willow trees in the process, L. Brandt said at the October Board meeting, some Board members expressed specific concerns about the number of parking spaces, not just the expanse of the parking lot. He said the revised proposal returns to the Board with two more parking spaces than the number the Board expressed concerns about at the October meeting. Greiner said the church does not think that in the next two to four years any fewer number of parking spaces will properly function for them. He said their concern is if they do less parking spaces now, they will lose some of the economy of scale from the contractor, their cost per square foot will increase because it is a smaller lot, and regrading later will also add costs. L. Brandt noted that some of the material the Board received from staff and neighboring property owners indicated that there were some suggestions made about the church considering some other possibilities including starting the first service 15 minutes earlier and starting the second service 15 minutes later, or adding a fourth service. Greiner asked if L. Brandt was suggesting that the City wants to get into the business of managing the church. L. Brandt said he was not suggesting that, he was curious as to the church's response to those suggestions. Greiner said the church board has looked at all those suggestions, taken surveys of their attendees about the earliest times they will come to church and the latest they will stay. He said they have tried to manage the service times so they can serve the most people, and the earlier and later times did not work. Jim Douglass. Parkview Administrator said the church has looked at the timing issues of the services in great detail, but what they are talking about is an issue of parking capacity. He said it is a fact that if more time were allowed between services it would make the transition traffic flow much easier, but that does not affect the total number of people who are there during those hours. He said people are there in the building and taking up parking spaces Iowa City Board of Adjustment Minutes November 18, 1998 Page 9 regardless if the sen/ice starts 15 minutes later or one hour and 15 minutes later. He said the parking information in the presentation is the result of parking counts done dudng the middle of the hour when there is no transition traffic. He said their concern is the building design, how many people are really inside the building and how many parking spaces are necessary for that number of people. Douglass said the other issues related to traffic are important and valid considerations; they are not suggesting that they need more parking spaces to alleviate traffic problems. He said they are talking about more parking spaces for people who are actually in the facility at any given moment. He said in considering church dynamics in the planning process, people fall into two categories while in the building - either they are in worship or elsewhere in the building, such as in a classroom, and those two groups exist in the facility at the same time. He said on a national average, there will be 60% of the total number of worshippers elsewhere in the building at the same time, and Parkview was almost at that figure last Sunday. He said by starting with the number of parking spaces in the lot, factoring in the number of people per vehicle, and taking that number, working backwards and applying the number of people attending the worship service and 60% of that number elsewhere in the building, you will get some interesting figures. Douglass said given the per car occupancy that Greiner stated Parkview is experiencing, which is on the low side of national averages, and using those numbers, one would find that the parking lot would be full long before the building would be. He said using those numbers, the parking lot would be full if the heaviest attended worship service increases only by 38% from what it was last Sunday, and that is not drastic growth and would not take long to happen. He said the parking lot capacity would be reached when the heaviest attended worship service is only 54% larger than what it currently is, and the proposed sanctasium building will seat roughly twice what the existing facilities currently accommodate. Douglass said they have taken this information and the study results seriously because they are dealing with money contributed by a lot of people. He said since the church is congregationally governed, all the points that are being discussed at this meeting have already been discussed during presentations to the membership. He noted that in the last two years, there was a definite leveling off of growth for Parkview, and while some people might take that as an indication that their growth will not be as great as projected, that information simply validates what their consultant told them. Douglass said the consultant told them to begin building right away or the church would start to see a plateauing of growth and attendance, and that is exactly what is happening at Parkview, because when you are full, you are full. He said the growth they have experienced over the last number of years has been done with one arm tied behind their back, and they have been operating at a distinct disadvantage with facility limitations and not having the space to do things. He noted a recent example of 200 junior high kids at a church lock-in that was held at the Coralville Recreation Center because the church did not have enough space to hold it. He said when they have more space for classes during the worship services, there would be more people in the building. Douglass said the church has looked at the projections and figures, and while they do not want to pave paradise and put up a parking lot, they know the reality of how their church exists, the number of people who attend and their growth patterns. He said for the church to do anything less than what they have requested based on intelligent and careful planning would be bad stewardship. He said regarding the phasing of parking spaces, at first blush it seems like it could be a good solution for this situation. He said in the short term, it would cost the church less and the neighbors could like it, because the entire paved lot would not be there, but he said he did not think that phasing was a realistic solution. He said he was Iowa City Board of Adjustment Minutes November 18, 1998 Page 10 very concerned about the notion of a three-year minimum before the landbanked spacol could be used. He showed overheads of the proposed site plan with a line dividing the parking area. He said that everything to the fight of the line on the first overhead represents a replacement of the number of parking spaces that the church already has. He said the line on the second overhead represented an increase of 50%, which is 50 more parking spaces than mentioned. He said that does not come close to any of the church's projections, and due to the parking lot dimensions even a change of that magnitude did not do a lot for the big picture. Douglass said the church is concemed about being sensitive and doing everything they can with landscaping and buffering. He said they find themselves caught between designing something that will work from the technical and staff point of view, designing something that they feel is realistic and will meet Parkview's needs and be a responsible use of their property and finances, and designing something that will meet the needs and interests of the neighbors. He said they realize that whatever the type of buffedrig going into the area, it will cost the church a significant amount of money. He said they would rather put the money into people, programs and the new facility, but they realize that it has to go for landscaping and they will do that to try to make it the best it can be. Douglass said he did not think that there was any person in the room who would not like to take money out of the concrete parking lot and put it into the building. He said that in the course of planning for this project, they have had to deal with a lot of tough questions, and they feel like they have met those questions. He said he appreciated Margaret McDonald raising the question about the proposed building, because nobody else has talked about the building much in this process. Bender asked about the suggestion that the southeastern part of the property be looked at for this parking lot expansion, particularly given that Parkview's plans show a further future extension and more building in that area. Douglass said that is an area that it looks like, at this point, they will have to use. He said that is a question of when it would be the best to do that. He said they have known since Lee gave his presentation that there are real limits to what they can do on their current site. He said he thought the Parkview members, although they have not voted on it, would like to see an auditorium worship center that could be a benefit to the church as a more formal worship setting, as well as to the entire community. He said they know they cannot make the auditorium as large as they would like, because there is no way to park the number of people on their site to accommodate it. He said he did not know whether it would be beneficial to look at that now, or that it would change the reality of what is going to be used in the long term. Randy Van Winkle said that he is a Parkview member and member of the project design team. He said on numerous Sundays he and other church members have had to drive around the parking lot two or three times in order to find a parking place. He said while he would not leave because he could not find a parking space, part of the church's mission is to reach out to people that do not attend church a lot. He said they have found through some anecdotes that people will leave and decide not to come back if they cannot find a parking spot or seat in the worship center. He said that is why the attendance has leveled off a bit, because people do not attend when they feel the sanctuary and parking lot are full. He said the current parking lot for this sanctuary size is too small, and they have not even proposed twice the parking spaces when the proposed sanctasium is about twice the size of the current sanctuary. He said some parking concerns may still exist even at the proposed 546 spaces. He said they have attempted to have a fourth service several times on Saturday and Sunday nights, but it has not seemed to work out. Iowa City Board of Adjustment Minutes November 18, 1998 Page 11 Van Winkle said the City parking lot requirements are minimum, and they do not feel that they should apply in this case due to the low person-to-car ratio the church is actual~ experiencing. He said there am too many considerations to get into regarding all the design decisions, but they have looked very carefully at all the places where they could put parking on the site and at the number of parking spaces that they feel are necessary. He said they do not at all feel that they would be providing excess parking. He said he would actually like to see more parking proposed, but thought the church would have to settle for the proposed 546 spaces. Marvin Lynch said he is an l 1-year member of Parkview church. He stressed the importance of people in all this over the importance of the parking and building expansions. He said he has invited people to church who seem to be hesitant to be part of what is going on as it is, yet seem to have a need for spiritual input in their lives. He said these people are willing to come, but have to face the obstacle of not having a place to park. He said the church believes there needs to be as few obstacles as possible, because they want to make sure people can take advantage of the programs the church offers and lead more productive lives. Dave Flliott said he is a Parkview member and Sunday school teacher there. He said incorporating a new service also means incorporating new things for people in that service, such as childcare and Sunday school teaching. He said it is difficult to duplicate workers and volunteers for that extra time. He said increasing the timing between services also creates a hardship for teaching kids, too. He said dudng the times between services, it is difficult to have a well-organized teaching environment for the children, because they are coming and going with their parents. He said the nature of the church is a corporate worship service and environment, and as the church is fragmented into more and more services it is more difficult to identify people in need. He said spreading services out time-wise would cause the church to lose a very important feature that it offers, its community. Elliott said he is also worded about the landbanking suggestion. He said he thought it would be expensive to do a double construction enterprise, and he did not understand why a three- year minimum would be wdtten in. He said he questioned that number, and thought it would have to be defended if implemented. Dan Yeager said he is not a church member. He said the church has created two soccer fields on the plateaued area that was once lower, wetter ground. He said Parkview's caring attitude has shown through by trying to contact the neighbors, revise the site plan and create a better buffer zone. He noted that the church is also offering the community two additional soccer fields, and that their current parking lot also serves as a basketball court. He said the fact that the church contacted 41 different neighboring households and less than 15% showed up for the meeting is an indication that while there are genuine concerns, they have been addressed quite well by the caring attitude of Parkview. He said that they continue to serve the community the best that they can despite having limited facilities, and he thought that attitude would carry through in developing the landscaped buffer zone. He urged the Board to approve the special exception, support Parkview and their support in the community. Walter Foster said he is a captain of the communion teams and a bible class teacher at Parkview. He said he has been a Parkview member for five years, and in that time he has seen an explosion of membership. He said the current parking lot is continually overflowing, and the church drastically needs more parking spaces as soon as they can get them. He said once they have the spaces, he feels the church will recover some lost membership, because people will be able to get in. He said if they get their building program going, he Iowa City Board of Adjustment Minutes November 18, 1998 Page 12 anticipates another membership explosion. He recommended that they receive the full allotment of proposed parking spaces dght away to alleviate the parking problem. Steve Sch~ll=u said he has been a member of Parkview for ten years. He said he and his family have not been able to attend worship service with their 13-year-old daughter for the last two years. He said church members with junior high and high school-aged children have to decide if they want the children to participate in a Sunday school class geared toward that age group, and if so, they have to attend worship separately. He urged the Board to pass the special exception as a whole package. He said that for the last three years he has been parking on the grass as far away from the church as he can because he wants new people coming to Parkview to stay; to have a place to park and not leave due to insufficient facilities. He said the senior pastor's wife came to the 9:45 a.m. service on Sunday, and had to leave because there was no place for her to park. He said he teaches Sunday school and arrives 30 minutes eady to ensure that he has a parking spot and can be there on time. Beth Fruwese said that she also wrote a letter and called because she is very concerned with this issue. She said that she gets to church very early in the morning and parks far away, because she ministers to others. She said that she would like to see Parkview continue to grow. She encouraged the Board to pass the special exception as a package, because they need it. Debbie Meadows. office mRnager at Parkview said there are over 2,500 people on Parkview's regular attendance and membership database. She said they just completed a mailing to 790 households. She said they check their records quarterly to make sure that they keep the people who are attending on the database. She said if the church had an event where they are trying to invite all members and new people, they would not be able to fit everyone in three services. She said they have expanded to five services for their Christmas program. She said they have had to issue free tickets so they know how many people are planning to come to the service in order to save space for people who may come in as a result of the publicity. She said they have done some outreach events, and it is a real job to figure out the Iogistics of getting people in and out and timing everything so as to not exceed the facility and parking lot space. She said she works dudng the 9:45 a.m. service, and has witnessed people drive into the parking lot, drive around looking for a space and ddve out when they cannot find one. She said she has also seen people come into the lobby, look into the sanctuary, linger for awhile and then leave because there are no available seats or space. She said facility-wise, the church is full almost every day of the week, and while they encourage outside groups to use the church, they have had to cut back on that because there is such a demand for the church space. She said they have been approached to hold large funerals and weddings that no other church in the community can accommodate, and Parkview can barely accommodate them. She encouraged the Board to approve the special exception as submitted. Sue Landau said she is a worship team member at Parkview. She said the issue of safety is very important to her. She said she has 17 and 11 -year-old daughters, and she has to be at church at 7:45 a.m. on Sundays to prepare with the rest of the worship team and stays at Parkview until 12:30 p.m. She said her oldest daughter can drive herself and her sister to church. She told of a time when her children came late to worship service, because the only place they could find to park was on a side road about a block-and-a-half from the church. She said it has happened several times since then. She said it is a concern to her not only for her own children, but for other children trying to come to church, and people in the neighborhood out jogging or riding their bicycles. She said she thought is was a dangerous situation, and hoped the Board would look beyond the inconvenience it would cause to the neighbors to develop viable solutions to avoid an adult or child being injured or killed in that Iowa City Board of Adjustment Minutes November 18, 1998 Page 13 location on a Sunday moming. She said in the 11 years that she has been a member of Parkview, she has found it to be an incredibly cadng community, and listed a number of activities that members have done to help others in the community. She said she hoped the Board would think about the positive impact Parkview could have on the community if they' are allowed to grow and serve this population. Ted Greiner said she is involved in children's ministry at Parkview. She said one of her friends, who attends Parkview is wheelchair-aided, and it is very difficult and dangerous for her to get in and out of the church on Sunday mornings because there is so much traffic going in and out of the parking lot. She said those who attend Parkview know how desperate the current parking situation is without the proposed additional space to the building. She encouraged the Board to approve the special exception as submitted. Amy Recker. 5:7 Pentire Circle, said it was stated that 41 households of the Idylwild area were invited to the meeting with the church members. She said in all actuality only 12-16 condominium units are along the property line that would be affected, so it would not be expected that the rest of the households that are located further away from the church property would necessarily be interested in attending the meeting. She said she did not want the Board to interpret that information as apathy on the part of the neighbors in the area. She emphasized that this is a residential area, and she is a resident of that area. She said her screened-in porch and kitchen, bedroom and bathroom windows face the parking lot, so the aesthetic appearance of that area is very important to her. She said she did not argue with the fact that there are times on Sunday mornings, for about a two-hour window, when the church could use more parking spaces. She said, however, she is still not convinced that the church has adequately justified the number and extent of the parking spaces that they are requesting. She said she is very concerned with overpaving that area. She said she has a two-story condominium, so any trees or shrubbery planted would screen the first level, but it would take a long time for trees to grow high enough to screen the second level. She said she also supported staffs two-phase suggestion for building the parking. AI Westcott. 38 Camborne Circle, said he is not against expansion by the church, because they need the room and do good things, but he feels that the proposed parking lot is much too large for a residential area. He said there is a small period of time, for two to three hours, on Sunday when they would need this parking. He said the rest of the time, even though · there are other activities that go on dudng the week, the extra parking lot space is not needed. He said there is seldom more than one-fourth of the parking lot used during the rest of the week. He said he has been a member of the First Methodist Church in iowa City for over 50 years. He said it is a very vibrant and growing church, and has existed a long time at its present location without any parking lot. He said not having a church parking lot did not seem to keep people from attending church there. Heather Hartsell. 58 Pentire Circle, said on the gr. aph that was shown during the church's presentation regarding attendance from 1995 to the present, it was admitted that there had been a slight decline in attendance over the past two years. She said it has not increased the way that it had up to that point in time. She said it is conjecture that the leveling off of attendance is related to a lack of parking spaces. She said based on a recent report from USA Today, the national birth rate has declined. She said by the church's own admission, the church is the most poorly attended institution in today's society, and less than 12% of the people in Iowa City attend church. She said she did not know why Parkview thinks it is outside the confines of this 12% attendance by saying that increasing the parking spaces would only increase attendance another 38% over what they have at the present time. She noted that the national average was discussed when these figures were mentioned; yet there was no indication as to where Iowa City falls within that national average. She said the Iowa City Boar of Adjustment Minutes November18,1998 Page 14 student population fluctuates, and there is a seasonal effect there, so there is also seasonal effect in terms of parking. She said this request for parking is for a two-hour perkxl of time once per week, and that would vary with the time of year. Hadsell said the neighbors are not against the fact that Parkview needs a larger facility and an increase in parking, but she did not feel that they have shown type of increase they are requesting is warranted. She said the neighbors asked that several things be considered, one of which was moving the last row of parking spaces. She said the last row was moved back from the west property line, and while they do appreciate that consideration, removing that last row of parking spaces would make a difference to any neighbors who have windows or porches facing the lot. She said there is also a noise factor as cars make less noise if they are parking sideways in a spaca instead of coming into the space head on. She said the berm would only cut out a cedain pad of that, and it was disappointing for her that that issue was not addressed as requested. She said there was also no mention of changing the northwest entrance. Hartsell said she was also disappointed about the lack of flexibility regarding intemal changes at Parkview. She said that people walking the equivalent of a block-and-a-half to Parkview is no different than how far people walk to attend the downtown churches. She said by the church's own admission, they would prefer to put some money from the parking into the people and their programs. She asked if that meant that if the money was put into the parking that the church would not have it to put into the people and programs, and asked if there would be a need for all of that parking then. She said she would like to see the parking installed in two stages, and if there is a continued need for parking demonstrated in three years time, then it would warrant putting in the additional parking. Shirley Westcott. 38 Camborne Circle said she spoke at the Board's October meeting and wrote a letter to the Board. She said the residents are a small group who lives there, but they do live there and they look at the area all day, seven days a week. She said they would rather not have that much parking. She said there are some retirees in the neighborhood who had already left for the winter and were not available to attend the church's informational meeting. She also noted that the neighbors received notice about the Sunday meeting on Thursday, so it did not give some neighbors much time to plan to go. She said they would like to save the willow area, because it is a big buffer. She said even with the leaves gone, it is still thick enough to be a buffer zone to cut sound and lighting from the church area. She asked Rockwell where the City's 25-foot easement was for the water main in that area. Rockwell said it extended south from the Foster Road right-of-way. Westcott said she thought most of the willows would not be touched by the water main project. She suggested that the north driveway off Foster Road be eliminated or be moved further to the east. Larry Greiner said people invited to the informational meeting were on the City staffs mailing list. He said the people invited may not have only been from Idylwild, but could have been from the surrounding neighborhoods and were on the list due to the notification radius. Walter Foster said the church was there before the condominiums were built, so the neighbors chose to come and live there knowing that the church was already there, and it did not seem to bother them when they moved in. AI Westcott said that they did not object to moving there with the church configuration, willows and parking lot that is currently there. He said when they moved in they were told that is how things would stay. He said that one reason they moved there was due to the Iowa City Board of Adjustment Minutes November 18, 1998 Page 15 willow and grass areas, and they would not have moved there if they had known a parking lot would be constructed dght up to their back door. Ted Greiner said someone mentioned that they walk a block-and-a-half to church and someone else mentioned that they attend a church downtown with no parking lot. She said there are no sidewalks going into the Parkview facility, so if you have to park outside the parking lot, you have to park out on two roads that have traffic on them. She said it is dangerous to park out on the roads when there is no space in the parking lot, and it is not quite like downtown where there are sidewalks to walk on. Public hearing closed. MOTION: L. Brandt moved to approve FXC97-0018, a special exception to permit a religious institution expansion, that is the construction of an approximate 30..acre square foot addition and connecting foyer and an expanded parking area for property located in the low density single-family residential (RS-5) zone at 15 Foster Road, subject to the applicant 1 ) reducing the amount of parking constructed initially to 400 parking spaces and landbanking 146 parking spaces for a minimum of three years after a certificate of occupancy is issued for the proposed new sanctasium building, 2) maintaining the buffer widths shown on the site plan submitted on and date- stamped November 12, 1998 to provide a minimum of 40 feet between the parking area and the west property line, 30 feet between the parking area and Foster Road, and 25 feet between the parking area and Taft Speedway, 3) submitting a landscape plan to be approved by City staff that provides effective screening of the parking area, and 4) constructing the northwest and southwest drives so the west edge of the paving of those drives is a minimum of 60 feet from the west property line. Bender seconded the motion. Bender said she was pretty disappointed in what she feels is a lack of flexibility and willingness to change on the part of the church. She said she did not think that any Board members or neighbors were questioning that the church is a vital part of the community, as is every other church in the community. She said it does great works, has a vibrant membership, and she did not think that anyone wanted to harm that. She said she took offense to the fact that the Board has almost been accused of that. She said she thought the Board gave some very specific items at the October meeting that they really feel are objectionable about the plan, and it is sort of unbelievable to her that the revised plan came back to the Board with additional parking. She said she understands that the church has a mission, but the Board also has a mission to apply standards evenly and fairly across the community, and they have heard many applications from churches in residential neighborhoods in her four years on the Board. She said what she thinks is being asked of the Board is to apply different standards to this church, and she would not do that. She said that part of the Board's mission is to protect the rest of the community and the neighboring property owners, and that is why these items come to the Board as special exceptions. Bender said she did not think that the number of neighbors invited to or present at the informational meeting made a difference to her. She said requesting parking that is 276% beyond what is standard and required for parking for this type of institution is too much. She said there is a lot of conflicting information, and she did not think that the church had proved that it needs 546 parking spaces. She said when looking at the church's own graphs and materials, only some of the 9:45 a.m. services came close to filling the 290 spaces. She said she did not believe that it was proven that 546 spaces were needed. She said the church talked about people leaving the sen/ices due to insufficient parking, and yet there is an aerial photograph that shows empty spaces at the west edge of the lot. She said she Iowa City Board of Adjustment Minutes November 18, 1998 Page 16 could not and would not approve the special exception in its current form. She said she could possibly be persuaded regarding the landbanking. Bender said she did not think she had received an adequate answer as to why the southeast comer of the property could not be used for future parking. She said them will probably be future expansion there and even more additional parking spaces being planned. She said she is concerned about this much parking in a residential neighborhood. She said she concurred with the neighbors in that they did not choose their properties knowing that there was this type and magnitude of expansion planned. She said she thought it was too much. L. Brandt said he shared some of Bender's concems, but he complimented the church on following through with several things that were of concern to the Board, one of which was the buffering. He said he appreciated the fact that the plan came back with some extra space and the notion of the berm along the west side and on the northwest and southwest comers. He said he noted part of the Board's concern in October was generally the amount of parking spaces they were dealing with, and said he was concerned about the probability of an expected need for even more parking spaces. He said the presumption is if things happen the way they are being presented to the Board, even the total requested amount of parking would not solve the parking problem. He said the intent of the RS-5 zone is to provide for single-family residential development consistent with a predominantly single-family residential character of Iowa City. He said compatibility of development in this zone shall be encouraged, and non-residential uses should be planned and designed to be in character with the scale and pattern of the residential development. He said this issue is his pdmary concern; not is the church doing good things, because it obviously is. He said the issue is also not should the church be allowed to grow; the issue is the compatibility of the expanded church facility in terms of the neighborhood. He said there has not been much discussion about the building. He said his concern is with the amount of vehicular traffic that is essentially being encouraged in an RS- 5 zone, particularly for a relatively short time during the week. He noted that the area is zoned RSo5, and it is primarily for the people that live in the neighborhood. He said he did not have a problem expanding the parking beyond what is there. He said the Board did not have a special formula to determine the correct amount of parking for an RS-5 zone. He said the issue is before the Board, because the City zoning code expects some citizen review and not blanket approval for any proposal that comes before it. He said the issue is not whether or not an operation is growing, good or bad; it is an issue of compatibility in terms of scale and design. T.J. Brandt said he did not have a problem with the parking lot expansion, and said he liked the idea of the two stages of parking, so that after the church has shown that they need the extra parking space they can have it. He said that would serve both purposes, because the Board would not be allowing the 546 spaces all at once, but if the church needed to use that space they would have the option to do so. He said he is torn knowing what construction costs .are. He said he can also see the church's standpoint of wanting to do it all at once and avoid the regrading if it does occur. He said knowing that they are dealing with an RS-5 zone and the compatibility with the neighborhood, he thought the only feasible way to approach the situation was to landbank the extra parking. He said he would like the church to be able to access the landbanked parking earlier than the proposed three year minimum if they need it before then. He said he did not think that any Board member knew the correct number of parking spaces for the lot. He said if the parking spaces are landbanked, the Board has served its purpose by cutting down the parking lot size by not allowing the whole Iowa C~ty Board of Adjustment Minutes November 18, 1998 Page 17 thing and has given the church the option to use the landbanked spaces for parking if they ..... prove it necessary. He said he would support the special exception with the landbanking. T.J. Brandt said he is impressed with the church giving the landowners an additional 11 feet since the last meeting. He said the landscaping on the west side is another big question. He said only time will tell if the church will continue to grow and prosper in the community, and he would like to see that happen. He said because of that he is a bit more lenient toward providing for the church, because he knows the good that the churches do for the community. Rockwell asked the Board to designate who would make the decision about the landbanked parking. Haigh said the Director of Planning and Community Development should be designated for that. Haigh asked if the Board approved the landbanked spaces, and also approved the three-year minimum, what would happen if the church found that they needed that space in one year or 18 months. Mitchell said the church could come back to the Board and ask for an amendment for a lesser time. He said otherwise they would be stuck waiting the three years to use the landbanked spaces. Haigh said he agreed with most everything that was said. He said the issue comes down to compatibility of the church expansion in the RS-5 zone. He said he did not like the language of the three-year minimum, and said he would be in favor of an amendment to change it to a shorter pedod and to designate the Director of Planning and Community Development as the entity to decide whether or not additional parking spaces are warranted. Corcoran said this is a difficult matter to decide. She said she was rather surprised that the church's revised plan had more parking than the previous plan. She said the question really is the nature of the area, and since it is an RSo5 zone, the Board must consider the needs of the neighborhood and that area. She said that she also favored landbanking the parking spaces. Bender said she thought that the Board gave some direction in October about eliminating the 44 or 46 parking spaces that directly faced the Idylwild condominiums. She suggested an amendment that would do that, and said they could reduce the number of landbanked spaces to 100 or include language that states that there will not be parking facing Idylwild in that area. She said she realized there is more buffer there in the revised plan, but she thought that the Board had directed the church to totally remove that line of parking spaces. L. Brandt asked if they should suggest that the landbanking be'done on the western side. Bender said yes, and to also reduce the number of landbanked spaces unless they are going to come from another place on the property. She said she was trying to do the math, and if the number from last Sunday's attendance was 707 people at the busiest time as compared to the average for the 9:45 a.m. services, it shows 82 more people than last year at this time. She said if there are 2.3 people per car, she only sees 35 extra parking spaces necessary, not 250 more. Mitchell said t the amendment could say to eliminate the western- most row of parking spaces in the most recent site. plan submitted. Corcoran said there are 46 spaces in that row. L. Brandt asked if Bender was suggesting to start with a larger amount of approved initial parking. Bender said no, she wanted to start with 400 and landbank less than 146. Bender said that they could use the language to eliminate the western-most row of parking spaces facing the property line on the most recent site plan. L. Brandt said since them are 46 spaces there, the language could be to construct 400 initially and landbank 100 spaces. Bender said it would depend on how the new plan was configured. L. Brandt said the Board does not want to do all the design work. Corcoran asked if it was critical to stipulate that Iowa City Board of Adjustment Minutes November 18, 1998 Page 18 there not be spaces facing west toward the condominiums. Mitchell said that could be included if the Board does not want the cars facing west toward the condominiums, but if they want the buffer to be increased the pdor language they discussed would be better. Bender said she was more concemed about the buffer space, and was secondadly concerned about the cam facing west. L. Brandt said that the church added 10 feet of buffer and the berming from the previous plan. Bender said it was her recollection that the Board had asked for that row of parking to be omitted, not for additional feet of buffer and to leave the row in. L. Brandt said he did not think there was consensus by the Board on that issue at the October meeting. Bender asked about the willow area. L. Brandt said he was not concemed about it. Corcoran noted the letter submitted from a neighbor that said the willow tree roots were growing in their back yard, but tonighrs testimony from the neighbors showed that they are in favor of retaining the willows. T.J. Brandt said that whether the trees am willows or pines, the church is willing to spend the money to make that area a nice buffer with shrubbery and trees that would adhere to the area. He said neighborhoods also change, and they could look back at this area with new landscaping and say that the area really looks nice regardless of whether the willows are there or not. He said knowing the church is willing to do something to ensure that the buffer remains is enough. Bender said she thought it would be a shame to tear out what is working when it is a natural habitat and is enjoyed by the people who live there 365 days a year. She said she did not see why it should be tom out when it is there and working. She said that sort of points to the whole stance of inflexibility on the part of Parkview. T.J. Brandt asked if the City would get into the willow area with the new water main. Rockwell said it is difficult to say because staff has never had a map that shows exactly where the willows are in relationship to the property lines. She said the Director of Public Works has indicated that the water main project will not take out all the willows, but may remove some. T.J. Brandt said his concern was that by the time the construction equipment is in there to do the City water main, there may not be a very large patch of willows left to act as a buffer. L. Brandt said he is comfortable in strongly encouraging the church to work with the neighbors regarding the landscaping, and noted that the church has heard the concerns of the neighbors regarding the willows and the buffer. L. Brandt said that he is not interested in landbanking spaces and said he had a problem with the total number of spaces. He suggested the 400 initially constructed spaces with 100 landbanked and eliminating the western-most row of parking spaces. T.J. Brandt asked if the western-most row was eliminated, could the church landbank an area in the southeast part of the property. L. Brandt said that the Board is dealing with the submitted site plan, and noted that Parkview is always free to return to the Board with a new proposal, but felt that they should work within the current proposal. AMFNDMFNT TO THF MAIN MOTION: L. Brandt moved to amend the main motion to include the amount of the parking constructed initially to be 400 spaces with no more than 100 parking spaces landbanked, and the landbanked spaces to be converted if demonstrated to .the Director of Planning and Community Development that the additional parking is needed, and further that the west 46 parking spaces be eliminated from the site plan date-stamped November 12, 1998, and this amendment would eliminate the three-year period that was stipulated in the main motion. T.J. Brandt seconded the motion. The amendment carried by a vote of 5-0. L. Brandt said his concerns still are that the church is located in an RS-5 zone and the scale of the project, particularly as it relates to parking. He said he would prefer that a parking Iowa City Board' of Adjustment Minutes November 18, 1998 Page 19 expansion be approved, but at less then whet was recommended. He Mid he would al~o have preferred approving a lesser amount of parking and not the landbanking because he thought that was sUII a lot of parking in an RS-5 zone. Haigh agreed with L. Brandt, in that it is a lot of parking in an RS-5 zone, but he liked the landbanking concept, because it gave the church the opportunity to justify and expand the parking if necessary. T.J. Brandt said he did not want to cut the church off of future expansion or parking if needed. He said the church would have to show the need, and if so, it is there for them to use. He said if they do not show a need or until that need adses, the landbanked area would stay greenspace. Corcoran said she would vote in favor of the motion as amended. She said she would like to see the church be able to grow and increase their attendance, and she hoped that the 1 O0 landbanked spaces would be sufficient. Bender said she had a problem with taking out the three-year minimum time period, with the existing buffer and with the general scale of the entire project. She said she did not have anything against the church or their wanting to grow, but given the aspirations with this kind of growth, perhaps there should be some thought about looking at another facility at another location. She said she would not support the motion. The main motion c~,rrled by a vote of 3-2. with T.J. Rrandt. Haigh and Corcoran voting yes and I. Brandt and Render voting no. OTHFR: Rockwell said that there had been no applications for Haigh's Board position, and asked Board members to encourage people to apply for that position. Rockwell said she would be on medical leave during the month of December, and asked if the Board would consider postponing the farewell luncheon for Haigh until she returned in January. The Board agreed to do so. Rockwell said the December meeting will have an appeal to the Zoning Code Interpretation Panel's opinion that accessory parking cannot be provided outside of the zone where the principal use is located. She said because Mitchell and Sarah Holecek are involved as City employees supporting that opinion, they cannot represent the Board at the meeting. She said Holecek will probably be presenting the case for the Zoning Code Interpretation Panel and Mike Kennedy will be presenting the case for the Romanowskis. She said Steve Greenleaf has agreed to represent the Board. BOARD OF ADJUSTMFNT INFORMATION: Bender said she would be absent from the December meeting. ADJOURNMFNT: MOTION: Bender moved to adjourn the meeting. T.J. Brandt seconded the motion. The motion carried by a vote of 5-0, and the meeting was adjourned at 8 p.m. November 18, 1998 Page 20 Minute~ eubndlled by Trod Wegner. William Haigh, Chairperson Melody Rockwell, Secretary MINUTES IOWA CITY BOARD Of APPEALS MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1998 - 4:30 P.M. LOBBY CONFERENCE ROOM - CITY CIVIC CENTER MEMBERS PRESENT: MEMBERS ABSENT: STAFF PRESENT: OTHERS PRESENT: Anna Buss, Robert Carlson, Gary Haman, Wayne Maas, John Roffman, Tom Werderitsch John Staska Tim Hennes, Andy Rocca, Dennis Mitchell Greg Allen CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Carlson called the meeting to order at 4:32 p.m. CONSIDERATION OF THE OCTOBER 5, 1998, MEETING MINUTES: Carlson suggested changing the first sentence on page four under the "Conclude Public Comment On Proposed Amendment To And Forward Recommendation To City Council For The Adoption Of The 1997 Uniform Building Code" to "Roffman raised a question about attic access doors." Carlson said on page 5, under "Foundation Wall Reinforcement" "dow pin back" should read "dowel pinned back" in the fourtl~ line. MOTION: Roffman moved to approve the October 5, 1998, meeting minutes as amended. Haman seconded the motion. 'l;he motion carried by a vote of 5-0. / REQUEST FOR A VARIANCE FROM HOUSING CODE SECTION 14-5E-17:K:4('a), CEILING HEIGHT OF HABITABLE ROOM: Hennes said that the plan included in the packet represents approximately 50% of the third floor, so you assume that as being the centerline and there is the same situation on the other side. He said that the third floor is entered by stairs coming up to the other half through the unused area into the bedroom. Maas asked if there was a head room problem above the stairs. Allen showed where the stairs were on the plan. (Buss arrived at 4:30 p.m.) Hennes said that the housing inspector felt that if the wall was removed, the room was considered all one room, put in an escape and rescue window and install a fire escape as required by the Housing Code it would be fine since there is the same situation in the other half. Allen said that would be acceptable. Maas asked if there was a chase going up through the middle. Allen said he thought there was a chimney and a closet there. Rocca said that the staff recommendation was acceptable for the fire department. MOTION: Carlson moved to accept the staff recommendation for a variance from Housing Code Section 14-5E-17:K:4(a) with the following conditions: 1.) entire third floor becomes one room; 2.) attic fire escape installed (per housing code); and 3.) an escape and rescue window installed to the fire escape. Werderitsch seconded the motion. The motion carried by a vote of 5-0, with Buss abstaining. Iowa City Board of Appeals November 2, 1998 Page 2 OTHER BUSINESS: Carlson said Mark Hall gave him and Hennesa letter from the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB). The letter indicated that the Board should adopt the latest tables from CABO One and Two Family Dwelling Code for foundations. Hennes said that Hall had assured him that those tables were also out of the International Building Code, which are the ones that the Board was looking at the last meeting. He said the table the Board had was in a different format than what Hall had previously seen so he did not recognize it, but he did say that it was the same table. Carlson said that the Homebuilders would apparently still like the Board to change to the other set of tables. He quoted the letter written by Ed Sutton, P.E., Director of Construction Codes Department, "That is why treating a basement wall as a retaining wall with no support top makes no sense to me as a registered professional engineer with 25 years of experience." Carlson read, "Such tables provide economical and technically correct design. They are current industry standard and should be accepted as such in your jurisdiction." Carlson asked what the Board thought they should do on this matter. Werderitsch suggested waiting until the Homebuilders come back to the Board on the issue. Roffman suggested handing out copies of this letter, the tables proposed by NAHB and the tables that the Board proposed at the last meeting so members can see any differences in the tables. Carlson said that this would be presented to the City Council informally at their November 16 workshop meeting. Mitchell said the Council would set the public hearing on this issue for November 17. Carlson asked if members should present anything in the Code specifically to the Council. Hermes said that he would prepare a memo to Council highlighting some of the main issues, and would get a copy of that to Board members before that meeting. Carlson suggested that members read through the memo from Hennes and look for issues that they can contribute on. Cadson said that if the Homebuilders would .get up and ask, his recommendation to Council would be to adopt the Code as it is. Then the Board could review the tables and modify them later if necessary. Rocca noted discussion initiated by the Homebuilders to Council, and the Board was directed by Council to review items within the codes that added significant cost to construction. He asked if the Board would be addressing that issue during their presentation. Cadson suggested that Hermes find that correspondence from Council to see how the Board has responded to those issues. Roffman asked if the mechanical engineer position on the Board was close to being filled. Carlson said he did not know. Hennes and Mitchell said they would check the by-laws for that position's requirements and get back to the Board with that information. Haman noted last month's discussion and deferral about the code update class requirements for licensing, and said he had no problem with them. He said that he would like to see the classes offered locally. He said that they need to know the code updates, and it would be a good addition. Carlson said those could also serve as reminder classes. Maas said that electrical code update classes are mandatory for license renewal. Carlson said that staff should draft an amendment requiring plumbing code updates for the Board's review. Maas said that he would like to get started on reviewing the 1999 edition of the National Electrical Code before everyone gets too busy this summer. Hennes said that Pat Hansen has already started to look at it. He said that Hansen has already attended one update class, and would like to start bringing the information before the Board in early spring. Roffman said he was in Coralville getting a permit and talking about the foundation issue, and they said to let them know what came out of the discussions because they would likely adopt the same provisions. Iowa City Board of Appeals November 2, 1998 Page 3 ADJOURNMENT: MOTION: Carlson moved to adjourn the meeting. Roffman seconded the motion. The motion carried by a vote of 6-0, and the meeting was adjourned at 4:58 p.m. Minutes submitted by Traci Wagner. Approved: Robed Carlson~ Board of Appeals Date hisbldg~min~boa 11-2 .doc MINUTES IOWA CITY HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION NOVEMBER 12, 1998 - 5:30 P.M. CIVIC CENTER COUNCIL CHAMBERS PRELIMINA Subject to Approval MEMBERS PRESENT: Lars Anderson, Frank Gersh, Mike Gunn, Doris Malkmus, Pam Michaud, Marc Mills, Linda Shope, Michaelanne Widness MEMBERS ABSENT: Trudy Day, Betty Kelly STAFF PRESENT: Scott Kugler OTHERS PRESENT: Richard Carlson, Osha Gray Davidson CALLTO ORDER: Chairperson Malkmus called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF ANY ITEM NOT ON THE AGENDA: There were no items. REVIEW OF 1999 PRESERVATION PLAN IMPLEMENTATION REPORT: Malkmus said she would like to review the report Kugler created after their meeting of September 24, 1998. Kugler said he used the same format that was used for the last two years. He explained this is the report that will go to the City Council. No minutes were taken at the meeting; however the report is the product of the meeting and shows the Council what the Commission's priorities are for the next calendar year. The Commission can also refer back to the report. Malkmus said that for each priority issue, a task group was named in the report. She requested that the members of each group give an idea of their timeline for accomplishing each item. She said they should start setting an agenda for what they wished to accomplish each month. Review and Update Procedures, Guidelines, and Ordinance As part of the task group to "Review and Update Procedures, Guidelines, and Ordinance, Anderson commented that he thought they were going to gather information about what other Commissions had done regarding appeal rights, etc. and would have some information that Kugler could forward to the Commission by the next monthly meeting. Mills, who was also assigned to this task, said that rather than provide language for the group to evaluate, he thought they would first provide a checklist of issues that the group needs to discuss. The Commission would make a decision on the substantive needs and later talk about how the language would be drafted. Anderson said he thought that even before this, the group wanted to first see information on what other commissions had done. Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission November 12, 1998 - 5:30 P.M. Page 2 Malkmus asked Anderson and Mills if they would be able to provide a list of substantive issues for the Commission in terms of guidelines and procedures after they had reviewed what other Commissions had done. This would not necessarily have to be a checklist. Anderson and Mills agreed. Malkmus said she believed this should be looked at right away because it was first mentioned in June. By the December meeting, they should have a fairly good idea of how to present a rough draft. Malkmus said she also wanted to bring up that the Commission's ordinance allows them to create and utilize procedures and guidelines; however bylaws have to be referred to City Council. She said they should make an individual bylaw change to have an architect ex officio member or someone with specific training on board. This should be completed right away instead of waiting until they had tightened up all ordinances. Widness asked what would happen if they wanted to ask a person from another profession, such as a builder, for advice. Kugler said that in terms of changing the bylaws, the Commission would specify in the ordinance what range of professions they would like. If people from different professions applied at the same time, the Council could decide who to appoint for the term. Malkmus said she thought this should be added to their agenda for December. This one item for an ex officio will be sent ahead to the Council and the others will follow later. Longfellow Historic District For the Longfellow Historic District issue, Widness said the task force had not met and may not have anything for the December meeting because of the Thanksgiving holiday approaching. However, she said that the group will continue to do their part. Malkmus said that is fine because she thinks they have all year to complete this. Widness said she is a member of another committee which will take priority. For Education Outreach, they are charged with redoing the maps and brochures. Malkmus said that for Longfellow, it seems they need to come up with guidelines for the neighborhood as they create it and before they see vinyl siding. She asked if there was a sense of urgency to move ahead on Longfellow. Kugler said that last spring when they were holding the wrap-up meetings on the survey, a number of residents were interested in the designation and were told this would be a priority. Governor Street Conservation District residents were told this as well. He said he did not believe the Longfellow District would be in any danger if it were put off for some time. Because Gersh lives close to the district, Malkmus asked him if he sensed any urgency. Gersh said there was earlier this year and last year. Malkmus asked if this was the case even with the controversy over aluminum siding. Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission November 12, 1998 - 5:30 P.M. Page 3 Gunn said vinyl siding is definitely controversial. He attended the meeting at Longfellow school in late spring. He said there was an attendance of 20-25 people who were all in favor. The neighborhood would like to see the designation. Malkmus said that perhaps they should solicit the neighborhood for assistance in coming up with guidelines for what they would like to see. Widness said they could write the neighborhood association and explain to them that they are working on the designation and need guidelines for the neighborhood. She said they should decide for which areas the Commission would like input. She also asked if this request would be in a letter format and if the letter should be reviewed by everyone. Malkmus said she didn't think the letter was as important as making the contact with the neighborhood. Gunn said the neighborhood has meetings periodically and it may be sufficient just to let them know. Kugler said the one danger with this is that the standards the Commission must use in the historic districts are the Secretary of the Interior's standards, and the Commission may use a set of federal guidelines or any guidelines it develops to help implement those standards. He does not want to rely too much on the neighborhood to decide on certain standards. Malkmus said another option is to ask the neighborhood to describe its character-its sense of time and place. Rather than having hard and fast guidelines, this would provide some information for people thinking of doing renovations. Gunn said he thought that if people came up with something that is not compatible, it could be explained and dealt with. Gersh said he thought it would be good for the neighborhood-to come up with the guidelines to begin with, even if it did have to conform to the Secretary of the Interior's standards. This would allow for more discussion to begin with and the neighborhood would know what to expect. Malkmus asked who would be willing to approach the officers of the Longfellow District. Widness said she would, but would like to tell them some specifics about areas to consider. Kugler said they already have a set of guidelines and the Commission may want to look at those first to see where the guidelines may be deficient. The Commission could review them to make sure nothing's missing. Widness asked if the contact would be made after the guidelines had been redone. Malkmus said she was trying to avoid that and would view this as a step back. Kugler said he wouldn't want to ask the neighborhood to reinvent much of what they already have. The guidelines just need to be fine-tuned. Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission November 12, 1998 - 5:30 P.M. Page 4 Anderson asked why not send the guidelines the Commission already has and ask the neighborhood for their input. Malkmus asked if they should also inform the neighborhood of resources for creating guidelines. Kugler said that is fine if the neighborhood is willing to do the work. Anderson said it should not have to go that far because the guidelines should be fairly obvious. Malkmus said it is the ~ner points of architecture that need to be looked at. She said she is very much in favor of giving the neighborhood association what the Commission has in terms of resources and experience. Gunn said that for the next meeting, he would like to discuss issues of contributing structures and non-contributing structures and what is compatible with historic districts so that the group has a better understanding of where to apply the standards and how strictly to apply the standards. He did not feel that there was a consensus on the Commission about those issues. Malkmus said she believed the group should consider the fact that the Longfellow neighborhood is very homogeneous because many of the houses were built during the same time period with similar characteristics. She said this might be a good place to find out what it means to be compatible. The Commission may learn more from actually coming up with the guidelines in terms of what they mean by "compatible" than they would from a discussion of compatibility in a platonic sense without the particulars. Gunn said he still thought this was too nebulous. Prioritization of where the standards apply strictly is an important issue. He has heard very different opinions of what compatibility means. For example, he would hold an historic structure that is contributing to a district to higher standards than an outbuilding at the back of a lot. He said that those distinctions have to be made before the group can go forward. Malkmus asked if they would need to do this before they contact Longfellow. Gunn said he did not think so, but that it is a necessary discussion. Malkmus asked for a volunteer to bring this up to Longfellow. Widness volunteered. Governor Street Conservation District Michaud, who is working on the Governor Street Conservation District with Gersh and Gunn, said they have completed the guidelines but still have to work on the illustrations. Gersh said he understood the City graphics person was supposed to do that. Kugler said they have not had the staff time because of other priorities. Malkmus asked if the group planned to have a neighborhood meeting in March. Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission November 12, 1998 - 5:30 P.M. Page 5 Gersh said not until after they have completed the guidelines so that they have something to show. Kugler said they need to provide some direction on what needs to be sketched. Malkmus said she would like to get a sense of how things will unfold over the next year and asked Michaud if she had any sense of a timeline. Michaud said it seems that all of these projects will be in progress over the next few months. Anderson commented that perhaps updates at each meeting should be placed on the agenda. Malkmus said that will happen but wants to coordinate this so that at some point Longfellow and Governor converge. Then they can be presented to the Council together. This would be the largest historic district the Commission has ever proposed. She said that to have a report explaining clearly that this is a solid district, and explaining the conservation districts, would be beneficial. Staffing Issues To update the Commission on staffing issues, Kugler said the Department's budget includes a proposal for an additional staff member. This would increase the staff time for this Commission from 1/4-time to 1/2-time. This has been forwarded to the City Manager, who will put together a recommendation for City Council. Whether this is included in the recommendation has not yet been decided. If not, the Commission may need to lobby the Council members and send someone to speak at Council meetings if it wishes to push for this. The public hearings for the budget happen in February or March and the budget is adopted in late March or early April. Malkmus asked if the Commission could request that the person have training in historic preservation. Kugler said that the details have not been determined yet. The proposal requests one new staff member, which would increase staff time in three different areas. One of the responsibilities of the new person would be staffing for public arts. Malkmus said that including historic preservation in ongoing planning for this position is something the Commission should be lobbying for. Montgomery-Butler House Malkmus said there did not appear to be a need for additional discussion on the Montgomery- Butler House. Survey and Evaluation of Original Town Plat, Phases I, II, and III Malkmus asked about the grant funding. Kugler said they would discuss this under Item E. Historic Landmark Designations Malkmus said this was something they could discuss under Item D. Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission November 12, 1998 - 5:30 P.M. Page 6 Education/Outreach Malkmus asked Widness if she could provide an update. Widness said she could not because Kelly is taking the lead on the map and she has not talked with her. Widness said it would not be an item for the December agenda. Malkmus asked for any other comments about the Preservation Plan implementation report for 1999. There were none. Malkmus said she believes they will be focusing primarily on procedures and guidelines for the next couple of months and then move into a discussion of Governor and Longfellow in the middle of the spring. Kugler said he would forward the Preservation Plan implementation report on to the City Council. Iowa City Historic Landmark Nomination: 2-6 South Linn Street ('Harmon Building) Kugler said nomination of the building has been filed as expected. He distributed photographs of the building and commented on the Commission's process. He explained the Commission's ordinance allowed any member of the public to nominate a building. After the public hearing, the Commission could vote to recommend the building for historic landmark nomination, post-pone the decision for a future meeting, or choose not to recommend the building. If in favor of the recommendation, the nomination would be forwarded to the Planning and Zoning Commission. They would review this in terms of its relation to the comprehensive plan and any proposed public improvement plans. They would make a recommendation to City Council and this designation would ultimately be decided by City Council. If not nominated, the process would stop. Kugler also mentioned that a copy of the nomination was sent to Marlys Svendson for another expert opinion. Svendson feels the building is eligible for designation as a local landmark. Kugler referred to a memorandum from Assistant Planning Director Jeff Davidson that outlined the steps taken on the planning for the proposed parking ramp. Public Hearing Opened Richard Carlson, 309 Finkbine Lane, #10, said he prepared the landmark nomination for the Harmon Building. He believed the nomination spoke for itself and was glad to hear Svendson agreed that the building is eligible. Rather than speak about the building, he chose to speak about the implications of the Commission's decision. Carlson said he, of course, is in favor of the nomination and believed the Commission should not stop the nomination at this point. He said it should not be the Historic Preservation Commission's (HPC's) role to stop the process because a parking ramp is planned for the site. That would be the Planning and Zoning Commission's responsibility. He said the HPC's role should be to only look at the historic significance of the building, not at other uses for the site. He requested the Commission vote on whether or not they believe this building is eligible for local landmark designation. Osha Gray Davidson, 14 South Governor Street, thanked the Commission for their hard work. He said he believed that historic preservation is a vital role and a vital job, and gets to the issue of what the soul of the community is. He said he believes the Commission has the job of safeguarding the integrity of the soul and the identity of Iowa City. He has lived here since 1972 and has seen many beautiful, historic buildings demolished over the years. He said some were beautiful and should have been preserved, and some lacked aesthetic quality yet should have been preserved because of their historic value. Davidson said he is now fortunate enough to live Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission November 12, 1998 - 5:30 P.M. Page 7 Queen Anne House on Governor Street. He said he often thinks about people who have looked out those same windows and the people who have passed by. He said he talks to his children about this to give them a sense of the history of the community. He said buildings like the Harmon Building have stories and lives involved in them. These buildings are the repository for the stories and lives of people who came to Iowa City before us. When torn down, the buildings are not only demolished, but also the stories of Iowa City residents. He said that it is the Commission's job to safeguard these stories. He realizes the Commission already knows this or they would not be serving on the Commission. He reiterated that the past is important and irreplaceable. He then thanked Richard Carlson for the work he did on outlining the history of the building. He also said that this is a perfect example of why there needs to be a comprehensive survey of downtown to determine which buildings are historically significant. Davidson closed by saying he was glad to hear in the meeting that there might be more resources devoted to historic preservation with the addition of a staff member to the City. Public Hearing Closed Gersh said this was a well-reasoned and thorough proposal by Mr. Cadson. He stated that it seems cut-and-dried because the building obviously meets the criteria. Malkmus asked if there was any further discussion. Commission members indicated that they were ready to vote. MOTION: Anderson moved to nominate the Harmon Building at 2-6 South Linn Street to be designated as an Iowa City Historic Landmark and to forward the nomination to the City Council and Planning & Zoning Commission. Michaud seconded the motion. The motion carried by a vote of 8-0.. Kugler said this information will be sent to the state, who must provide comments before the Planning and Zoning Commission can vote. This will be on the agenda for the next Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. Malkmus asked if a representative of the Historic Preservation Commission should attend the meeting and report on the HPC's decision. Kugler said he thought that would be appropriate. Malkmus volunteered to attend the December 3 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. Discussion of Upcoming CLG Grant Application Deadline Kugler said that they have two grant cycles coming up. The deadline for the CLG grant is December 15. This program is limited to certified local governments and is aimed at assisting with surveys and things of this nature. The HRDP grant deadline is January 15. This program not only funds surveys, but also bricks and mortar type projects. Therefore, there is more competition for the HRDP grant. He said they have tried through both programs to fund Phase III of the original town plat survey but have not been successful. He said the Commission needs to decide if they would like to try again or seek other funds for the completion of that project. Malkmus asked when they would find out about the CLG grant. Kugler thought it would be the end of April. Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission November 12, 1998 o 5:30 P.M. Page 8 Malkmus said that in the past the Commission regularly received almost every grant they applied for. However, now there is more competition for CLG money. She said she talked with previous chairs who said that the more districts the HPC has, the more able they would be to preserve history. Because the Commission does not have any jurisdiction over downtown or the houses by Mercy Hospital, they cannot do much. Malkmus said that the comprehensive plan advised them to evaluate and nominate neighborhoods one after another if this had happened, the Commission would have been finished with all of the neighborhoods by this year. She said this will not happen; therefore they need to think about what they want to do with the application. She asked Kugler if there would be enough money to complete this project. Kugler said it will depend on the actual cost of the project, but there probably is enough "matching" money to complete Phase III without the grant. Kugler said he would look into the possibility of using this money in this manner. However, this will impact the size of any other grant they can request. Gersh asked what phase they are talking about. Kugler explained that a survey has been completed for basically half of the north side. They are in the process of surveying the southern half. They agreed to survey all of the north side and Goosetown together. The balance of Goosetown east of Governor Street is what they have been trying to get grant funding for. Gunn asked if when the previous grants were applied for and denied, was matching money provided only if the grants were received. Kugler said that the City budgets about 6,600 hours per year. He said it comes out of a larger pool of money but that much of it is basically designated for the Commission to use to leverage grant funds. Kugler said there is money for this year and because the Longfellow neighborhood contributed some of its neighborhood money for its own survey, there was money left over from the year before. Gersh questioned whether the Commission has to receive a grant in order to have access to the City funds. Kugler said that is what he needs to investigate. Mills asked how much the survey will cost. Kugler said they have estimated from $13-:15 thousand. He said he would have to look at the previous grant applications to know for sure. Kugler said Svendson Tyler gave the estimate that was used on the grant application. Gersh said the Commission was not really told why it was turned down in the past. Kugler said they generally have received good comments; however the proposal has to be ranked high enough. All grant applications are reviewed by staff members who put together Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission November 12, 1998 - 5:30 P.M. Page 9 comments in a report to a committee. The committee takes that information, reads all of the applications, and ranks them. The rankings are sent on to those in charge of the funding. They start from the top of the ranked list and go down until they run out of money. Michaud asked if the fact that they have received so much money before played a part in the decision. Kugler said they heard from one of the committee members a few years ago that there were concerns Iowa City receiving all of this money. However, Iowa City was one of the few commissions that was organized and applying for grants regularly. Malkmus asked if the City has near enough money to fund these three projects without grants. Kugler said he thought they would, if the unspent matching money was carried over. Malkmus asked, considering Michaud's point that Iowa City has received its fair share of money, if there is any alternative project (for example, tightening up their ordinance) to make their chances for funding more likely. She said she does not believe thero is anything intrinsically wrong with these applications even though they have received funding for them before. A unique project may get more attention. Kugler said a lot of communities will be asking for funding for survey projects. The committees have seen basically the same type of application from Iowa City for years. Perhaps with a different project, it would be given different consideration, but he did not know. He said they were funded a few years ago to hire someone to develop the conservation district ordinance. That was given a fairly high ranking. Malkmus asked for any proposals for what the Commission's strategy should be this time. She asked if they apply for the CLG grant on December 15, when would the project have to be completed. Kugler said in July 2000. He is not sure for the other grant because the deadlines have changed. The application deadline has been moved up from May 1. Malkmus said that even though they do not have the funding to designate new historic districts on a regular basis, they have the Longfellow District for which no additional funding is needed, just follow-up work. She said the Commission should be careful in determining where they ask the City to invest its money. She asked if members were willing to apply for the CLG again and wait until April for the results. Gersh asked how much work thero is in applying for the grant. Kugler said they generally ask someone from the Commission to put the application together, and then he will do the editing. He said the filing for Phase III will be fairly easy because the application has been completed before. Malkmus asked if there was anything that the Commission should do differently from the staff point of view. Kugler said that from the staff point of view, he would like to see some of these projects wrapped up before moving on to new neighborhoods. For areas such as Longfellow and the Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission November 12, 1998 - 5:30 P.M. Page 10 Dubuque Street area, it is not a matter of receiving grants, it is a matter of Commission members working in those areas to finish up and put a report together. If too many areas are being looked at without finishing up on what has been started, people will wonder if the Commission is going to follow through on anything. Gersh said perhaps they should forget about the grant proposal. Malkmus said they may not receive it, but they do not necessarily have to give up writing it. Mills said that if this proposal is basically done, he does not see any problem with turning it in. He asked if they end up spending some of their own money to finish this up, will the Commission look better next year. Kugler said that is not one of the state's official criteria. Gersh volunteered to work on the CLG grant application. Kugler said that they need to also make a decision about the HRDP grant at the December meeting. Malkmus asked if they could also apply for a grant for Phase IV. Kugler said that the state probably would not want to put money towards something where the survey is not even complete. They have told us that in the past. Malkmus said that for the HRDP, they should think not only about the consultants, but also about any bricks and mortar things Iowa City needs. Kugler added to also think about the Commission's ordinance. Malkmus asked the Commission to think about projects for which they would like to apply the HRDP grant. She said that the HRDP grant will be on the December agenda. Discussion of Incorporating a Demolition by Neglect Clause in the Historic Preservation Ordinance Michaud said she wrote a memo on November 5 describing the situation around College Green. She said it seems unusual for houses close to downtown to be unoccupied. However there are two with absentee landlords; one in San Francisco and one in Davenport. The Davenport landlord thought he would sell the house quickly 10 years ago for the purposes of a fraternity or sorority. He did not realize the property was not zoned for that use, and may not have realized that he cannot build anything larger. Michaud said it may be that he was temporarily busy and will now fill up the house at 528 East College Street. However, she feels that they should add an amendment saying that a building should not be allowed to be demolished because of neglect. She provided a few examples of that type of ordinance in her memo. Gersh asked what the ordinance says now. Kugler said there is no provision for demolition by neglect now. He said that in the Preservation Plan, in the memo from Clarion Association (who took a look at the Commission's ordinance), it was suggested that if a building is demolished by neglect, there should be a restriction in building on the property in addition to a monetary fine. Gersh said he thought they had to pass on something if it was demolished. Kugler said that this would be addressing someone who lets their building go. A condemned building is a different situation than someone just wanting to tear a building down. Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission November 12, 1998 - 5:30 P.M. Page 11 Michaud asked if the wording recommended by Clarion was adequate. Kugler said it was just an example. The Commission needs to look at it more closely to see if it fits with their ordinance and if it is the type of penalty they are looking for. Michaud said for the house at 528 E. College, she received a history of it starting from 1868. There was an original limestone one-room house that was added on to. The house has not been. She said that the walls that have been added can be easily removed. She asked what they were thinking about for the phrasing an ordinance. Mills said they have not looked at it, but the important thing is to put something in the ordinance. They can bring some examples and review them. Malkmus asked if Mills would bring some examples that he felt were appropriate to the next meeting. She said they will not be reviewing the ordinance as much as their guidelines and procedures. She said the ordinance issue is separate and will be decided at a later time. As far as the issue of the two properties, she asked if there was any imminent danger to the properties. Michaud said the property on Dodge Street is still empty and the chimney is gone. She said that it does not seem likely that the landlord would let them deteriorate because there is an adjacent house that is well-maintained. However, she said that there should be a reminder sent to the landlords. Malkmus asked Michaud if she would like the Commission to send a reminder and if there was anyone who would be willing to write it. Michaud said she would write a reminder. Kugler said they would have to be careful. He would prefer they wait until the next meeting to have people review the wording, The Commission does not want to look like they are telling people what to do, Mills said he believes the ordinance part of this should definitely be reviewed and would not want to go to the Council with it yet unless there is an emergency. Michaud asked if they should call the owners first. Malkmus said that she liked the idea of a letter instead and noted that they should just offer a reminder that older buildings deteriorate quickly when unoccupied. Kugler said that as part of the letter, they could offer the landlords resources and help. He said there is the HRDP grant and they are eligible for money as part of the national register district. The district is listed on the National Register. (Anderson left the meeting.) Consideration of Minutes from the September 10 and October 1, 1998 Meetings For the September minutes, Widness said that on Page 1, bottom paragraph, Steve Jacobsen Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission November 12, 1998 - 5:30 P.M. Page 12 should be listed as from NNW, not MNW. Also, on Page 5, the second to last sentence of the first paragraph is missing the word "was." The sentence should read, "Kugler asked if Keil's reference to mortar was really lime." On Page 12, in the fourth paragraph, an extra "was" appears in the first sentence. MOTION: Widness moved to approve the September 10, 1998 meeting minutes with the afore-mentioned corrections. Malkmus seconded the motion. The motion carried by a vote of 7-0. For the October minutes, Shope said she was not present. Widness said that on Page 2, the third full paragraph, fourth sentence, should read "effect" rather than "affect." Also, on Page 8, the first large paragraph, sixth line from the bottom, should say, "ceiling and" rather than "ceiling a." On Page 9, Widness questioned the wording of the motion that said, "contemporaneous." It could not be determined whether that was the actual wording, so no change was requested. On Page 12, the second paragraph, last sentence, should show that Widness, rather than Michaud, said she would help Anderson with refreshments. MOTION: Gersh moved to approve the October 1, 1998 meeting minutes with the corrections noted above. Gunn seconded the motion. The motion carried by a vote of 7-0. Commission Information/Discussion Kugler distributed a letter from Brad Houser who has more information about the fiber-cement product and a couple of other buildings. Kugler said he is not sure what the letter is requesting. Kugler said that he called him and said that if he wishes to have this considered again, he should make a request to the Commission to amend the certificate that was granted to him. Kugler said Houser should also submit at that time any new information he would like the Commission to consider. The letter mentions using alternative siding. Gunn said he had suggested to him that if he could find test criteria from cold weather, the alternative product may be worth considering. Gunn said that if it is a good product, it will be a good product to use in Iowa City's historic districts because it is inexpensive. Gunn said he has been testing a piece of the product himself by soaking it in water and then placing it in the freezer. He said the piece has been through approximately 30 deepfreeze cycles and he was unable to tell a difference after a month. He said he would like to see the information from the manufacturer because the appearance is very close to wood, yet is inexpensive. The product has lasted three decades in hot, humid climates and holds paint. He said if they are trying to get away from vinyl siding, they need an alternative to $2 per foot redwood siding. He would like to have a siding discussion and will put together a proposal for discussion at the next meeting. Kugler said he visited Celebration, Florida while on vacation and noticed they used the product almost exclusively. Kugler said he was impressed with the appearance. Malkmus asked if the members were comfortable with an agenda that includes discussion of the Commission's guidelines as well as substantive discussion about materials and contributing structures. Kugler added that discussion of the ex officio member, the HRDP, and a discussion of the grant funds will also be on the agenda. Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission November 12, 1998 - 5:30 P.M. Page 13 Widness said related to the siding issue is the issue of places like the Summit Street house that wanted to add a four-season sunroom on the back. She said they kept making the point that you could not see the room from the street. She said she was reminded of John Shaw's comment from the Old House Seminar that historic districts are not movie sets. The whole structure has to be considered, not just what can be seen from the street. She said that she believed this should also be part of the discussion. Malkmus said there are two issues with this. Neither the Secretary of the Interior's standards nor the state laws require them to do anything except with what can be seen from the street. However, in their own ordinance, it states that changes in appearance shall pertain to changes in appearance which are visible from a public way or from adjacent properties. This sets a higher standard. Widness said that she thought Gunn's drawing-of-the-line between contributing and non- contributing structures made more sense than front vs. back. Gunn said that a contributing structure in an historic district should be preserved with almost no exceptions according to the Secretary of the Interior's standards. However, non-contributing structures, such as new structures and outbuildings, should be administered differently. He said that by looking at contributing vs. non-contributing, the issue of whether or not it can be seen from the street becomes obsolete. Structures that are not visible from the street can still create problems. Gunn said that they should not say "anything goes" for non-contributing structures. He commented that the Secretary of the Interior's standards can be expensive and difficult to adhere to, and the Commission should enforce those in certain cases. In cases where the Commission can be more lenient, he believed they should be. He said that he does not feel that a new building should have to look like an 1880s replica. Kugler said that he also wanted to let the Commission know that the owners of 536 S. Summit Street were not happy with the Commission's decision, and this may be an issue in the future. He said that he also received two letters and wondered if someone from the Commission would respond to them. Gunn said he would answer the e-mail Kugler received from a person who wishes to add a second floor to his house. Shope said she would answer the letter requesting historical information on the old hospital and the Eastlawn building. ADJOURNMENT: MOTION: Widness moved to adjourn the meeting. Gersh seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned at 7:15 p.m. Minutes submitted by Wendy Larive. ppdadmin\min\hpcl '~ -12.doc MINUTES IOWA CITY PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD OF TRUSTEES REGULAR MEETING OCTOBER 22, 1998 MEETING ROOM A THURSDAY, - 5:00 PM Members Present: Winston Barclay, Linda Dellsperger, Mary McMurray, Mark Martin, Anne Spencer Staff Present: Maeve Clark, Susan Craig, Larry Eckholt, Debb Green, Heidi Lauritzen, Martha Lubaroff, Liz Nichols, Others: Kate Hess, Practicum student CALL TO ORDER: In the absence of President Singerman, Vice President Martin called the meeting to order at 5:15 pm APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes of the regular meeting of August 27, 1998 were approved unanimously after a motion by Dellsperger/Barclay. UNFINISHFD BUSINFSS FY00 Budget. Craig explained that the budget was completed and sent over to the City's Finance Department. The total request is ,~3,315, 687 which is a 6.77 increase over last year. When asked about the proposed janitorial positions, Craig explained that she raised the request for cleaning supplies and expenses at Board input from the September meeting. A formal motion to approve the budget was made, seconded and approved unanimously. Barclay/McMurray. Book Drops craig reported that they have been ordered. Concrete is being poured this week at Hy Vee. The estimated time of arrival for book drops was four to five weeks from the date of order. Craig plans on another week for installatio~ and publicity. She is hopeful that the week of November 9 or 16 might be reasonable to aim for. Craig asked the Board for suggestions on media coverage. In response to a question about Alec and whether or not he could be part of the media coverage, Craig responded that Alec will be used to promote projects with electronic connections. NEW BUSINESS Strategic Planning process: Craig introduced a discussion regarding the pros and cons of strategic planning in order to get the Board thinking about the process. Craig's concern has to do with timing. As she explained, If we follow a five year cycle, this winter would be the time to update our Strategic Plan to take ICPL BOARD OF TRUSTEES October 22, 1998 PAGE 2 effect in FY 2001. Some staff are concerned about the time involved given that the new automated system will be up this spring and we will be training staff and public. Planning takes a large time commitment to be reflective and do it right. On the other hand, being on the verge of a building project with a building program that is five years old and probably out of date means that if a referendum is passed in March, we would have to revise and update the building program immediately. The Library environment and Iowa City environment have changed dramatically in five years. We may not have the choice to not plan because of changes in libraries. A big impact on library services is due to the Internet, a word that doesn't even show up in our building program. Spencer spoke about her participation in the planning process five years ago. She found it fascinating because of the participation of such a wide variety of people who were part of the process. She is in favor of working on a new plan. Dellsperger feels that strategic planning is very vital and should be fit in. Craig explained that the Public Libraries Association has issued a new document that is designed to help libraries plan. Barclay pointed out that his experience with strategic planning has not been as positive and questioned how the plan was kept up to date. Since the previous planning process, once the initial series of meetings, which included the original planning committee were completed, the Board has been the group to review the plan as it impacts budget issues. The Board serves as the body that reviews the plan and brings changes into the process. Craig wanted to introduce the idea and get a sense of how the Board felt. The consensus of the Board is that we do need to plan. Craig said she would put it on the agenda in November with some sort of process and time line. Building Project/Sales Tax Report & Discussion Barclay reported that he had talked to Swaim about a meeting where Singerman had hosted several people who have stated strongly they oppose the sales tax because they believe it is regressive. The meeting was cordial, but appeared not to change any minds. City Council is having a special meeting on October 29 to open a public hearing on the ballot language in order to solicit comments on it and the policy statement. The Council will continue that public hearing on November 3. At that time they Will close the discussion, discuss at their informal meeting on the 16th and possibly vote on it on the 17th. It is important that the Library Board have people at each of those evening sessions to deliver a statement. A report of the meeting of the evolving campaign committee was given. There was a lot of discussion about the actual ballot, an alternative and whether there was a preference for one version. The committee will meet on Saturday to reach consensus and make a recommendation to the Council . The leaning of the Board is towards the simpler version of the two in order to make it more understandable to the public. Craig asked what message the Board would 'like to convey to the committee. Response: The Library wants the referendum to pass and if a shorter version will make it easier to convince the voters, then that is what the Board would prefer. Parker, Greenleaf and Dellsperger volunteered to attend on the 29th. Singerman will be back in town and most likely will attend as well. The possibility of using the Englert Theater space seems to be problematic according to the Center Space people because it has no wing space and very limited back stage area. Dellsperger feels that it would be a great auditorium and could be used for many events. It would be a project that would enhance Iowa City. Martin stressed preserving the united front ICPL BOARD OF TRUSTEES October 22, 1998 PAGE 3 that we have established with the CenterSpace group. Craig will let Board members know more about the schedule for the hearings. STAFF REPORTS Phone System. Lubaroff reported on the progress of the new phone system. A purchase agreement has been signed with Digital Communications/McCIoud USA for an expanded telecommunications system. This change will allow voice mail, and automated attendant features that will enable us to provide some library information, such as hours, programs, etc. at the touch of a button. We feel this system will provide better customer service for our patrons and make it easier to communicate with library staff. Implementation time line for the automated system. We are in the midst of preparing worksheets, analyzing data and looking at possibilities for moving data and using it in other ways. There are several groups of people working on it. Hal Penick, the Systems librarian, has reported that the for data wiring project in preparation for this change has been completed. A much improved networking system is in place. The new catalog will be ready in April. Childrens Room computers will be up and running soon. This is a result of the Gates grant and will give World Wide Web access to kids. Book gala invitations for the 8th of November went to the Post Office today. During that evening, the official launching of the Titanic event will take place. The Foundation's annual report is being prepared. Green and Eckholt prepared a proposal for Mercantile (formerly I st National). The bank made a commitment for continuing POPO's Puppet Festival for three years and additional funding for Sunday family programs. We are appreciative of Mercantile's generosity. FINANCIAL REPORTS First quarter expenditures are on target for this time of year. Materials budget is ahead according to plan. We spend it down and then begin spending money from the Endowment. Receipts are down slightly. Enterprise Fund is down but we hope to see a turn around when we add the ability to pay for print from the World Wide Web. Gifts & Bequests report. Displays different 'gift funds. Quarterly Reports Output measures. Across the board, things are down slightly this quarter. A few things went up like electronic services. Other large public libraries in Iowa are seeing a similar adjustment to circulation. It is also being seen across the country. People are using the Internet for some of their information needs. We have to analyze what that means to our services and adjust accordingly to it. Craig predicts that this sets a trend that we will see through the year. ICPL BOARD OF TRUSTEES October 22, 1998 PAGE 4 A reminder of November Board Meeting which is held on the third Thursday. DISBURSFMENTS Review VISA expenditures. Approve disbursements for August. Unanimously approved after a motion. Dellsperger/Barclay. ADJOURNMFNT: Meeting was adjourned at 6:30 pm after a motion by Spencer/Martin MINUTES ~ ~,~.~.~ Agenda item 3A IOWA CITY PUBLI~ LI~ BOA~.D OF TRUSTEES REGULAR MEET!~ .,. .... ., .. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19;:1'998 - 5:00 P.M. .~ ~: ... .. ~..~ =.~ ,: ,, :,, Staff present': ,=~' Maeve Clark, Susan Craig, Larry Eckholt, Debb Green, Heidi Lauritzen, ' ' . .... Ma~ha Lubaroff, Liz Nichols, .' ..Dthe~S.~:, David Schoon, City Planner, Patrick Finney, Practicum student "CA~L TO ORDER: . President Singerman called the meeting to order at 5:03 p.m.. Treats were in order because of the positive vote of the City Council regarding a ballot resolution for a 1% local sales tax option in March. APPROVAL OF MINUTFS: There was a correction to the minutes for October. It was p. ointed out that it was Martin and not Dellsperger who seconded the adjournment motion. The correction was noted. Minutes were approved as corrected after a motion by Parker/Dellsperger. UNFINISHFD BUSINESS Sales Tax vote: City Council passed the ballot resolution. This has been a long and arduous process. The Board believes it to be a good ballot. Explaining the sales tax is a complicated issue since there are many details to learn. David Schoon, Economic Development Planner for the City of Iowa City artended the Board meeting. He is currently working on a number of downtown projects. He explained that a local option sales tax is an additional 1% on top of the 5% that the State collects. Local governments decide what their share of the I percent is used for. In Iowa there are 482 jurisdictions that already have a local option sales tax. Of the ten largest communities, only three do not as of this date. Taxable items include apparel, dining out, home furnishings, services such as banking, utilities, building materials and supplies. Things that are not taxable are prescription drugs, unprepared food, gasoline and automobiles. Hotel rooms are subject to state but not local option because of the existing hotel/motel tax. The sales tax works like the State's tax. A business collects and submits to the State. It is imposed on a where delivered basis. Where the item is delivered determines where the tax needs to be paid. If Iowa City has a tax, you purchase an item, pick it up in Iowa City you pay the tax. If you have it delivered somewhere in Iowa City you would still pay. If the item is delivered to another city where there is no sales tax, you would not pay. If a store from Cedar Rapids sells you something and delivers it to Iowa City they should charge you a sales tax. Revenues are distributed based on a state mandated formula. Two factors: 1) population, 2) property taxes which are based on a factor determined in 1982-1985. There may be discussion in the future about using a more current number to calculate that part of the formula. The legislature has established it but hasn't changed it. Schoon prepared tables which were calculated by distribution of funds using 1982-1985 and 1996-1999 figures and the difference in the amount that would be received. ICPL BOARD OF TRUSTEES NOVEMBER 19, 1998 PAGE 2 Agenda item 3A Schoon reviewed the process we are going through now. City Council has placed this on the ballot by approving the resolution. Contiguous communities have until January 25 to come up with their ballot language. Noncontiguous communities in the county may choose to vote at the same time, but the law does not require them too. The election is scheduled for March 30 although the County auditor has some flexibility over that. This will be a county wide election; each community comes up with their own ballot proposition describing how they would use the revenue. To adopt the local option sales tax 50% + one of the people in that area has to vote in favor of the sales tax. In each community they are voting on a separate ballot. Johnson County unincorporated gets 25% of the sales tax and they write the language for their portion of the county. If it passes in one community in the contiguous areas, the area that approved it will get it. A community can opt out of it with a vote by the City Council if other communities do not pass it. Schoon described the impact on various sized households based on figures he prepared. The numbers that he presented are not specific to Johnson County. These numbers are based on Midwest regional data to give us the impact on households. There was also information about the water rate which would be stabilized for eight years as a benefit of the sales tax. An average household would save 980-90/year on water bills if the sales tax was adopted. In terms of the impact on households, a question was asked about a time period upon which this was estimated. Swaim asked if there was information regarding how much a family earning 915,000 would likely spend on sales tax vs. a family earning 9100,000. Schoon said his information was broken down by income levels and not the size of a family who receives that income. There were no more questions for. Schoon and he was thanked by the Board for his attendance. 4B. Planning Process A proposed calendar for Strategic planning was included in the Board packet. Singerman explained that since she was not here for the discussion last month, and having seen the calendar in the packet, her recommendation would be to postpone long range planning until after the computer conversion and the refer. endum. Since we are planning for the fiscal year 2001, a delay of three months would not seem unreasonable. Swaim agreed with Singerman about delaying the process as did most Board members. Craig will redo the calendar to reflect a planning calendar that would start in April. In addition, if a referendum passes, we would need to do another building plan. Craig felt we could do that collaterally along with a plan. No action is needed. NEW BUSINESS None STAFF RFPORTS Book Drop Update: The Book drops are here and Craig is working on arrangements to put them in place. They will be in place no later than next Tuesday morning. There is a display in the library lobby and ads will be in the paper for the grand opening on the 24th. ICPL BOARD OF TRUSTEES NOVEMBER 19, 1998 PAGE 3 Agenda item 3A New Community & AV Services Coordinator. Kara Logsden who has been Director of the UIHC Patient's Library was hired to replace Barb Black. She will be here for !nservice Day and officially start on December 14. Budget Meeting Craig had a budget meeting with the City Manager and Finance Director. She felt it was positive and they saw the worth of the request for permanent maintenance staff. The Development Office report was included in the packet. Eckholt said that things were moving along nicely for the Titanic dinner and people were enthused about it. Phone report. Lubaroff reported that the new phone system would be installed the night of the 8th of December. Training will take place on the 7th and the 8th both on the system in general and voice mail. She feels that this new system will get callers routed more efficiently and cut back on the load that Switchboard carries currently. The Reference Department will have a call routing system that will enable callers to get to the reference librarians more efficiently. It will be a big change but a good change she feels. Pay for Print: Nichols reported that she is waiting to hear back from the vendor. They responded favorably to the changes we have in mind and she hopes we'll be on track for installation during the 2nd week of January. She is cu eT~tly planning for printers. Nichols rr reported that she had a lengthy interview with Jim Jacobsen of the Cedar Rapids Gazette regarding technology changes and she expects an article to be coming out soon. Childrens Services has a new reference desk in a new location. Green felt that this two person, workstation allowed the staff more visibility of the children's area. They are in the process of gearing up for installation of the multimedia and computer stations which were funded by the Gates Foundation. Craig included an article about our new friend in Terrace Hill, Christy Viisack, first lady-elect of the State. The article detailed her love of libraries. COMMITTFF RFPORTS/PRFSIDFNT'S REPORT The Building Committee now becomes a CamPaign Committee; a group of about 15 people who will be meeting every month. They are in the process of getting organized as a Campaign committee. They will be meeting to talk about committee functions and structure. There will be committees for fund raising, public awareness, community outreach, campaign relations, legal requirements and volunteer recruitment. Once the committees are defined and a job description is ready, Board members will be recruited. Singerman said there is a lot to do and wants Board members to be thinking about their roles. Singerman gave a very special acknowledgment to Craig for all the work she's done to get us to this place. ICPL BOARD OF TRUSTEES NOVEMBER 19, 1998 PAGE 4 Agenda item 3A COMMUNICATIONS Two nice letters included in the packet. DISBURSFMFNTS Review VISA expenditures for October 1998. Approve disbursements for October. Dellsperger/Swaim. Approved. SFT AGFNDA ORDFR FOR DFCFMBFR MFFTING Reminder of Legislative Day, December 9 at 5:00 p.m. ADJOURNMFNT: ~' I er Meeting was adjourned at 6:30 p.m. after a motion by Swajm/Del sp ger. MINUTES PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION NOVEMBER 12, 1998 MEMBERS PRESENT: Barbara Endel, Judith Klink, Bruce Maurer, Matt Pacha, Rex Pruess, Allen Stroh, Kathy Wallace, Ross Wilburn MEMBERS ABSENT: STAFF PRESENT: Ken Fearing Terry Trueblood, Mike Marilyn Kriz, Don Yucuis Moran, Terry Robinson, GUESTS: Tony Malkusak (MMS Consultants), Trevor Maxwell (Press-Citizen) FORMAL ACTION TAKEN Wilburn modified a statement under Commission Time, paragraph 6, page 3, to more accurately reflect the intent of his comments by deleting the third sentence and replacing it with: "Wilburn noted he gave specific feedback to the person about how one could appropriately express a legitimate concern regarding SPI (Special Populations Involvement) coaches actions, techniques, or coaching philosophy. In addition, Wilburn encouraged the individual to utilize their tutor to effectively communicate any concern in writing." Moved by Wilburn, seconded by Pruess, to approve the October 14, 1998 minutes as amended. Unanimous. SPECIAL POPULATIONS PROGRAMS Moran reported on the process of selecting, training and orienting temporary employees who are hired for the SPI (Special Populations Involvement) programs. The department puts out a job bulletin twice a year, with the application process ongoing. The majority of individuals hired for the Special Olympics program are college-aged individuals with a background in Therapeutic Recreation. Many SPI employees work only two to five hours per week, which results in those more dedicated to the program and its participants. Staff training consists of each employee receiving a staff policy manual which is reviewed with them by the Program Supervisor. Also included in this manual are handouts dealing with the Special Olympics program. The Special Olympics organization also provides the department with its staff training manual. Individuals are trained for two hours and asked to attend a SPI program/class as a participant/assistant for two hours. Semi-annual meetings are held with parents of Special Olympics participants to receive their feedback. Moran noted the main problem is with employee retention. Wilburn asked if the SPI leaders had access to an on-site supervisor if problems arise. Moran stated with respect to the Special Olympics program there is a Coordinator present; with the regular SPI classes, the Program Supervisor will periodically visit the classes. With respect to the turnover problem, Wilburn asked if there was a need for other support, policy or salary increase. Moran indicated the budget includes a request for salary increases, which will help the division compete in the marketplace. Wilburn indicated this information was Parks and Recreation Commission November 12, 1998 Page 2 helpful to him, enabling him to answer questions about programming and the qualifications and skills necessary for a SPI instructor. Moran stated it was time again for each Program Supervisor to give a presentation to the Commission on their respective programs. SKATEBOARD PARK Excerpts from past meetings containing references to a possible skateboard park, along with drawings of potential layouts for same were provided to the Commission. The proposed project is presently included in the capital improvement program. Pacha asked where the proposed project appeared on the Commission's priority list; Trueblood stated the Commission has not prioritized the capital improvement projects in the past 3/4 years. Trueblood gave a brief history on the skateboard park issue. The two sites primarily mentioned are City Park and Terrell Mill Park. Pruess asked if it would be lighted; Trueblood indicated it was not included in the cost estimates. Trueblood felt the park probably should include security lighting; he also indicated that his inclination is to provide it free of charge at this time, but that could change, which would necessitate fencing and supervision. Endel felt the City Council was making a business decision instead of a recreational use decision in trying to get the skateboarders out of the downtown area. She would rather see the land and resource going towards a project that would appeal to a larger percentage of the public. Pacha felt one drawback in him supporting a skateboard park, was the lack of an organized group to oversee and financially support it, such as with the Iowa City Kickers Soccer Park and the Scanlon Gymnasium. Stroh indicated location would be the key, noting the south of Burlington Street plan where nothing has happened. He felt this location meets the location criteria and would act as an attraction to get people to this area. Maurer questioned the City's liability if such a facility was unsupervised. Klink noted skateboarding as being important to young people, and in comparison to other routes they could go, this provides a good alternative for them. Pacha stated he would like the Commission to prioritize the capital improvement projects. This would give the Commission direction and would also reveal where the skateboard park is ranked. Trueblood noted the City Council has indicated they would like staff to proceed with gathering information and developing a plan now rather than later. The consensus of the Commission was to go through the prioritization process with the capital improvement projects, which will determine rank order and year. Trueblood indicated the majority of the December meeting would involve discussion of fees and charges. Pacha requested the C.I.P. prioritization be scheduled for the January commission's meeting, unless necessary to do sooner, in which case it will be on the December agenda. Parks and Recreation Commission November 12, 1998 Page 3 FY2000 BUDGET A summary of the FY2000 operating budget was distributed, with Trueblood reviewing each division's request. He noted the request for temporary employee wage increases throughout the budget. This is a city-wide request in order to address the problem of attracting and retaining temporary employees. Pacha asked Yucuis when the City Council would be finalizing the budget with respect to the capital improvement projects. Yucuis noted it would likely be towards the end of January and that the City Council would welcome the Commission's prioritization of projects. WATERWORKS PARK UPDATE Trueblood reviewed the conceptual plan as it presently stands, along with preliminary cost estimates. Klink noted the plan is to establish a viable eco-system and natural area and felt the sculptures did not fit in. She would also like to see local naturalists involved in the planning process. Stroh indicated he would like to see more access and view points to the Iowa River. Maurer asked if the overall project would be eligible for a REAP grant; Trueblood noted it would be, as would other grants which the City will be pursuing. Endel asked that the Riverfront and Natural Areas Commission be given an opportunity to review the conceptual plan also. RIVERFRONT AND NATURAL AREAS COMMISSION REPORT Pruess reported the commission discussed the Elks Club proposal and possible encroachment, and a creek clean up program where people can apply for funding to help the water flow through the creeks better and to deal with pollution. Staff person Brad Neumann is being asked to champion and promote this program by helping neighborhoods apply for this funding. PARKS AND RECREATION FOUNDATION REPORT Pacha reported the Scanlon Gymnasium project is approximately one month behind schedule. Original plans were to have the facility open by April 1st. COMMISSION TIME Endel reported the Tuesday evening Women's Volleyball League has been very impressed by this year's organization of the program; schedules were received prior to the start of the season and they are playing at the Recreation Center. Klink shared pictures of an area north of San Franciso. They are converting an inlet into a park and raising funds for a memorial grove of trees and benches. Parks and Recreation Commission November 12, 1998 Page 4 CHAIR'S REPORT Pacha expressed appreciation to Klink for committee for next year's Commission officers. heading the nominating DIRECTOR'S REPORT Trueblood reported on the following: Recent HiGh Winds. Robinson indicated some problems were experienced in some of the parks due to the recent high winds. Also with the leaves off many of the trees, staff is seeing more trees which were damaged in the June 29 storm. Commemorative Stone. A commemorative stone in memory of Iowa City historian Irving Weber has been placed in Terrell Mill Park by the Lions Club. Wetherbv Park Improvements. A joint neighborhood meeting was held with the Pepperwood Neighborhood Association and Friends of Wetherby Park to discuss improvements to Wetherby Park. The amount of $100,000 is budgeted in next fiscal year for these improvements. A conceptual plan will be developed and presented to the neighborhood in January. Miller/Orchard Area. A memo to City Council from City staff regarding reconstruction of Benton Street between Orchard Street and Sunset Street was distributed. Also, staff contacted Mace Braverman to determine if he would be interested in selling his property (1.99 acres) along Benton Street. He indicated he may be, noting it was recently appraised at $125,000. New Appointee. Craig Gustaveson has been appointed to the Commission and will be replacing Ken Fearing who did not reapply; Klink and Pruess were reappointed. ADJOURNMENT Moved by Maurer, seconded by Stroh, to adjourn. was adjourned at 6:45 p.m. Unanimous. The meeting MINUTES PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 19, 1998 - 7:30 P.M. CIVIC CENTER COUNCIL CHAMBERS 12-15-98 J 3b(7) , PRELIMi,"IARY i Subject to/ ppr0vai: I MFMBFRS PRFSFNT: Ann Bovbjerg, Benjamin Chait, Pam Ehrhardt, Dick Gibson, Marilyn Schintler, Dean Shannon, Lea Supple MEMBF:RS ABSFNT: None STAFF PRFSENT: Bob Miklo, John Yapp, Sarah Holecek, Anne Schulte OTHERS PRFSENT: Bob Downer, William Buss, William Knabe RFCOMMFNDATIONS TO COUNCIl: Recommended denial, by a vote of 3-3, with Ehrhardt, Gibson, and Shannon voting no and Schintler abstaining, of RF798-0016, an application submitted by Christian Retirement Services to rezone a 0.2 acre parcel from Medium Density SingDe-Family Residential (RS-8) to High Density Multi-Family Residential (RM-44) for property located at 703 Benton Court. (A motion to approve a rezoning requires four affirmative votes.) Recommended approval, by a vote of 6-0, of SUB98-0020, a preliminary and final plat of resubdivision of Lots 3, 4, 5, and 6 of W.B. Development, an 8.33 acre, eight-lot commercial subdivision located on the south side of Escort Lane, subject to securing a permanent means of access to Lot 4 and approval of legal papers and construction drawings by staff prior to City Council consideration of the plat. Recommended approval, by a vote of 7-0, of SUB98-0029, a final plat of Village Green, Part 16, a 30.85 acre, two-lot residential subdivision with two outlots located at Wellington Drive, subject to legal papers and construction drawings being approved by staff prior to City Council consideration of the plat. CALL TO ORDI=R: Chairperson Supple called the meeting to order at 7:35 p.m. PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF ANY ITFM NOT ON THF AGFNDA: There was none. ANNOUNCFMFNT OF VACANCIFS ON CITY BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS: Supple said there were vacancies on the Board of Adjustment, Board of Appeals, and the Riverfront and Natural Areas Commission. She said that serving on a board or commission is an opportunity to provide valuable input to the City as well as a chance to have a say in how the City progresses. NFW PLANNING AND 7ONING COMMISSION MFMBFR: Supple welcomed new member Marilyn Schintler to the Commission. Planrang & Zoning Commission November 19, 1998 Page -' RFTONING ITFM: RF798-0016. Public discussion of an application submitted by Christian Retirement Services to rezone a 0.2 acre parcel from Medium Density Single-Family Residential (RS-8) to High Density Multi-Family Residential (RM-44) for property located at 703 Benton Court. Yapp said staff received a draft of the proposed private covenants discussed at the last meeting, Holecek said that the covenants state that the use shall be limited to the surface parking, in conformance with Iowa City standards, meaning that the setback would need to be reestablished as previously discussed by staff. She said that if the use of the property should change, there would need to be a site plan that would come through the Planning and Zoning Commission as well as the City Council. Holecek said the second attached document is the Conditional Zoning Agreement, which, in looking at the parameters for approval or disapproval, brings into concern compatibility with the surrounding neighborhood in looking at the criteria to be adjudged for approval or disapproval of the rezoning of that particular parcel. She said the two documents together have reached the point the Commission is trying to get to, whereas the Commission would not only see a site plan but would also have the basis to approve the rezoning or a change in the CZA based on compatibility as well as setback and other performance standards imposed by the Iowa City zoning code. Supple asked if these documents would address the request to incorporate the language that this rezoning would not be setting a precedent for future rezonings in the immediate area. Holecek said the record of this language would stand as to the recommendation to the legislative body, as far as the intent of this action. She said it is not necessarily appropriate to include such language in a CZA because a CZA is meant to address those types of needs caused directly by the rezoning. Holecek said that, regarding the protective covenants and restrictions, the record stands for what the intent of the legislative body is on this matter. Gibson asked if the Commission would be voting on this item after being presented with new information just before the meeting. Supple said the Commission could take a short break to allow time to read the document. Gibson said he intended to vote against this rezoning but felt it would be a real sham for the Commission to vote before thoroughly digesting and discussing the document. He also asked if there has been an effort on staff's part to discover alternatives to the rezoning solution to this problem, and if staff has decided there are no viable alternatives. Yapp said that was correct. Gibson said but he is concerned about the method of trying to accommodate the apparent desires of Oaknoll and conveying rights that vastly exceed what Oaknoll is asking for in order to accommodate its request. Bovbjerg asked Holecek if it would be possible to still make corrections if the Commission approved this item, incorporating the covenants and restrictions, if flaws were discovered before the item went to the City Council. Holecek said that any comments, suggestions, and revisions could be honed out before going to City Council. She said this would be reviewed by legal staff, and legal staff would then give a recommendation at the City Council level as to whether or not to accept any particular changes. She said this could be made clear in the record by indicating this was subject to additional revisions or amendments as proposed and reviewed by legal staff. Gibson asked whether or not it has been determined that the development potential as far as parking or additional development of the existing Oaknoll property has been tapped out or whether there is some additional residual there that would permit this parcel to be developed Planrang & Zoning Comm~ssion November 19, 1998 Page ,~ wholly in terms of a facility that did not require any parking because of untapped parking potential on the existing property. Supple asked if this lot was going to be incorporated into the entire Oaknoll lot. Holecek said it would not be, unless the Commission requested it. She said it is a freestanding lot of its own accord. Holecek added however, per the zoning ordinance, if there are two lots under one ownership, it is effectively considered one parcel. Gibson said then that any residual, unused parking capability on the major Oaknoll property could be used to satisfy the parking requirements for this property and thereby permit it to be fully developed with building. Holecek said theoretically that is probably correct. Yapp said he believed, from looking at the site plan, that the facility has one more parking space than is required by City Code at this time and is virtually developed to its full potential. He said that right now Oaknoll has a two- level parking structure to provide the required parking because there is not enough surface area on the site. Yapp said Oaknoll could put another level on the parking structure, but the site is pretty well developed. Bob Downer said there is currently in place a special exception with regard to parking on the existing Oaknoll property that was first granted in the early 1970's to reduce the parking requirement to half of what the ordinance required, primarily because of the age of the populace. He said there has been some increase in subsequent construction, particularly the two°level parking structure that is there now. Downer said he was surprised to hear Yapp say that the ordinance requirements were met because he didn't think that much had been added. Downer said that in any event, the two levels of the parking structure do not connect because of the rise of the hill. He said the lower level is entered at one point and the upper level at another, so that there is no circulation from that that would permit the addition of another deck; the space that it occupies just isn't large enough to allow the connection of another level. Downer said that with the various setbacks and things of that nature, it would be essentially impossible to add any parking to that site without another structure. Ehrhardt asked if the special exception to allow less parking would continue if there was another building. Yapp said the exception did not apply to future building but applied only to what was in existence at the time. He said the newly constructed units were required to have adequate parking. William Buss said he did not understand how the restrictive covenant works. He said it did not seem to be incorporated into the agreement and therefore appears to be a unilateral statement by the owner. Buss said he did not understand how that has any binding affect on anything. Holecek responded that the protective covenant places the City of Iowa City as the third party beneficiary of the covenant in the second paragraph that is unnumbered and reads, "for its benefit and the benefit of City of Iowa City, Iowa." Buss said that if this document is not part of the other document, then it would have no effect. Holecek said it is part of the other document. She read from the CZA, under number seven, "It is understood that CRS has contemporaneously placed as restrictive covenant on the real estate above described for the benefit of the City. Nothing herein shall be deemed to negate or supersede." Holecek said the CZA refers back to the fact that the protective covenant and restriction does indeed exist and that both are, although independent, restrictions on the development of the property. Buss said he had no question about the CZA being an agreement that has binding effect but said that even statement seven simply recites that there is an independent undertaking that is not part of this agreement. He said that third party beneficiaries are third party beneficiaries of contracts, and he did not understand the contract that this unilateral statement and the protective covenant and restriction are a part of. Buss said if this were expressly incorporated as part of the agreement rather than simply referred to, that would take care of the problem. Downer said the applicant would be willing to do so. Planning & Zoning Commission November 19, 1998 Page ,+ Bovbjerg said that on page one, in paragraph number three and on page two in the top paragraph of the document, it sounds as though any request for development would come through the Planning and Zoning Commission and would not just entail an administrative site review. Holecek confirmed this. Public discussion: Bob Downer. 172 South Linn Street, said he is the attorney for the applicant. He proposed, with respect to paragraph seven of the CZA, a modification of that to make the terminology consistent between the two documents to read, "It is understood the CRS has contemporaneously placed protective covenants and restrictions on the real estate above described for the benefit of the City, which covenants are hereby incorporated in this document by this reference. Nothing herein contained shall be deemed to negate or supersede such protective covenants and restrictions, and CRS agrees to satisfy all conditions herein and in said protective covenants and restrictions." Downer stated that the applicant is willing to make language changes that would provide further clarification. He said that hopefully the applicant's sentiment is clear in that its interest is only in being able to use the property for parking purposes and in its willingness and intent to come back before the Commission in the event of any change. Downer said that on behalf of the applicant he would waive any objection to any comments in that regard that the Commission might make before this goes to the City Council. He said he would give his approval to leave this open as far as comments on the document are concerned. William Buss. 747 West Benton Street, distributed a document to Commission members, saying he did not hand it out in advance because he was not certain what the status of this would be. He said he just reviewed the document regarding the restrictive covenants before the meeting and had no problem with the document itself, given the incorporation of the change that was proposed. Buss said he still has the positions he presented to the Commission previously. He said there is an alternative temporary permit avenue that is available that is not being utilized for reasons that are acceptable to those who do not think it should be used. Buss said that is available, and it seems clearly unacceptable to use a drastic up-rezoning for a purpose that he does not object to, although he objects to this method of achieving it. He said that in the document he has presented to the Commission, he notes that should the Commission approve this rezoning, he objects to the Commission doing so on the grounds that it is an arbitrary and capricious decision, inconsistent with the purposes of the zoning laws and the City ordinances in general. Ehrhardt asked what recourse the applicant would have should the Commission recommend denial of this application, and the City Council then denied it. Yapp said the applicant would have the option of applying for a temporary use permit which would presumably be denied, based on discussions with the City's Building and Housing Department, because there is no clear basis to permit a temporary parking lot on this property now that there is enough parking on the site itself. Yapp said the applicant could appeal the denial of the temporary use permit to the Board of Adjustment. Miklo said the temporary use permit would be limited to one year. Planning & Zoning Commission November 19, 1998 Page o William Knabe. 1101 Weeber Circle, said he represented the Weeber-Harlocke Neighborhood. He said the neighborhood association had a meeting the previous week and discussed the neighborhood's appreciation of the Commission for dealing with this problem. Knabe said most people can clearly see that this is a bigger issue than just this application. He said the neighborhood is disturbed by the notion and idea of spot zoning. Knabe said those in the neighborhood association are totally convinced that staff has not stretched its imagination and used its creativity, and he would like to see that happen. Public discussion closed. MOTION: Bovbjerg moved to approve RF798-0016, an application submitted by Christian Retirement Services to rezone a 0.2 acre parcel from Medium Density Single-Family Residential (RS-8) to High Density Multi-Family Residential (RM-44) for property located at 703 Benton Court, subject to the Conditional Zoning Agreement as presented at this meeting and adjusted by Bob Downer regarding item number seven. Chait seconded the motion. Chait said spot zoning was mentioned with regard to this item. He said this property is right next to RM-44 so that it is not really an example of spot zoning. Knabe said the RM-44 property is located across the street and is not an adjacent piece of property. Yapp said this is adjacent to RM-44 property on the north and east boundaries of the property. Chait asked if the applicant would be required to remove some parking, should this be approved. Yapp responded that four spaces would have to be removed because of the 20-foot required setback. Chait said that Buss is an attorney and he believes there is a way around this because using the word temporary doesn't necessarily have a time standard on it. Chait said that staff's point has to do with not having to in some way move this temporary into the future, and it could be temporary without a time standard on it. He said that if this can be done with what Buss thinks is possible, the applicant will be better off and would not have to remove the four parking spaces. Chait said that if Buss is in any way accurate, there should be a solution here. Holecek replied that there are always professionals in the same discipline who disagree. She stated that she disagrees with Buss, and the City Attomey's Office disagrees with the interpretation that temporary can continue on a rolling or revolving basis. Holecek said this eviscerates the whole idea of being temporary, and the current interpretation of the temporary permit ordinance would not allow this to continue on a revolving basis. She said the fact that the use has been there for two years also lends credence to the idea that this is not a temporary use. Miklo stated that Doug Boothroy, in Housing Inspection Services, drafted this temporary use permit ordinance. He said staff reviewed the ordinance, and it was clear in staff discussions that this was meant for very short-term, temporary, seasonal things. Miklo said that although there may be some confusion in the way it is written, the intent was to limit these uses to no more than one year in length. He said staff strongly believes that there is not a provision in the temporary use permit that would allow this parking lot to continue. Ehrhardt said the Commission can get all swept up with the restrictive covenant but needs to remember that the underlying issue here is rezoning this property to a higher density, RM-.44. She said she does not think, for whatever reason the owner may have, that it is a good decision to increase the density to RM-44. Ehrhardt said she could think of situations where hospitals, churches, etc., could buy up property for parking and have it rezoned for a higher density and Planning & Zoning Commission November t 9, 1998 Page ,5 then later either sell it or build at the higher density. She said she would vote against this rezoning. Bovbjerg said she does not see that possibility as such a big danger because anything like that would have to come through the Commission. She said that this would be on the record and would be very solid. Bovbjerg said it is difficult to look at one event and rezone for one event. She said she did not think this is spot zoning and does not think it is setting a precedent. Bovbjerg said that if this changes and the whole block goes to RM-44, what that would show in this case and in other similar cases is that the neighborhood is changing. She said that would have to be taken care of with proper zoning and maybe even changes of ordinances. Bovbjerg said the Benton Street area has changed a great deal. She said these things happen and believes this use and this CZA are appropriate for this land and would vote for the rezoning. Gibson urged his fellow commissioners to vote against this rezoning. He said he agreed with a lot in Buss' document and would use some of Buss' arguments in his discussion. Gibson said he could accept that this is not spot zoning but said that really depends on an individual's definition of spot zoning. He said there is one lot her. e to be rezoned with two properties on the other sides of this lot that are not RM-44 and only one adjacent side that is an RM-44. Gibson said, using the argument of adjacency, that two sides would outweigh one. He said the argument he finds particularly compelling is that this is an accommodation of the private, singular plans of a particular private owner. Gibson said records will show case after case in which the Commission has refused to grant a rezoning on those grounds. He said he was greatly troubled by that, and if that is not spot zoning, it is something else. Gibson stated that the ordinance the Commission is depending on to say this is not a temporary use was passed subsequent to the original City determination that it was appropriate to grant temporary use status to this property as parking. He said he did not know what the basis for that was since there was no ordinance in place to accommodate that. Gibson said now the City has an ordinance that staff is using to say that this is not a temporary use. He said temporary has been defined as one year, but the word "may" in the ordinance confuses the issue. Gibson asked how temporary is defined if a definition for it is not found; he said one way of defining it is "not permanent". He said this use being requested is clearly not a permanent use. He said if the use is to be permanent, this should be rezoned, but he did not think that case has been made. Gibson said this has been used, defined, and permitted in the past as a temporary use, apparently in the absence of any ordinance describing what temporary use or under what conditions something could be temporarily granted. He said he did not find the argument that a new ordinance has been put in place subsequent to that as a very compelling argument to say that now temporary is somehow one year or less. Gibson said he was troubled by staff's apparent underlying assumption that this block will be subsequently rezoned as RM-44. He said that if the Commission thinks this should be turned into RM-44, the Commission should address the entire block and deal with it on that basis, rather than one lot at a time. Gibson said he was also concerned about the impact of this action on the adjacent property owner and would frankly prefer that Oaknoll purchase that property, possibly in some form that would allow the present owner to live there until some future point, at which time ownership and control would come to Oaknoll. He said that would be a far cleaner way of dealing with this and would produce the same outcome. Gibson said he agreed with Bovbjerg that this is a changing neighborhood, and that is the reason the Commission should address this as a full block rezoning. He said that until this can be dealt with on that basis, the Commission should not take an action that conveys considerably greater property use rights on this property than otherwise need to be granted. Gibson said he believes that what Oaknoll is Planning & Zoning Commission November 19, 1998 Page ~ trying to do is completely appropriate, and it is unfortunate that the Commission cannot find a better way of doing this. Bovbjerg asked if the original parking lot was a type of construction temporary use. Miklo said he did not believe there was any formal procedure for granting the temporary parking lot. He said he thought that Oaknoll acknowledged that some of their parking lot would be displaced during construction and asked to use this lot for parking. Miklo said this was done without the benefit of an ordinance, and there was not a formal procedure. Gibson said it appears that the applicant has not exhausted available and appropriate review and administrative procedures that could be run through, specifically a request to the Building Inspector and an appeal to the Board of Adjustment. He said that if Oaknoll went through that process and found that a continued temporary use would not be permitted, then this specific request could be more appropriately addressed by the Commission. Gibson said the points at issue have not been tested and finds the Building Inspector's interpretation of an ordinance that obviously has on its surface multiple interpretations that can be placed on it to be extraordinarily narrow. Supple said she has had a variety of concerns regarding this application, one of which was the RM-44 zoning next to the RS-8 zoning, but that is what is already there anyway so that this would be an extension of that. She said she does not believe this is spot zoning. Supple stated that accommodating the private plans of a particular property owner is often what the Commission does in a case where it seems justified and appropriate for that particular request. She said she has been concerned about conferring on this property rights greater than what she wanted for this property but is now satisfied with the CZA and restrictive covenants being placed on the property. Supple said she feels those restrictions will properly control this property in a manner that keeps it a parking lot until sometime far in the future if the changing neighborhood warrants a change. Supple said her only concern with voting for approval of this, as she intends, is that it may place an undue burden on a future Planning and Zoning Commission and on a future City Council. The motion was defeated on a vote of 3-3. with ;hrhardt. Gibson, and Shannon voting no and Schintler abstaining. Holecek said the applicant can request that this item go on to the City Council with respect to the Commission's recommendation of denial. Supple thanked the applicant and those who participated in the discussion of this item for their input. RF798-0014. Public discussion of an application submitted by Maxwell Development Company to rezone a 21.26-acre parcel, Lot 8 and Outlot A, WB Development, and Lot 1, Resubdivision of Outlot A WB Development, from Intensive Commercial (C1-1) to Sensitive Areas Overlay (OSACI-1), for property located on the east side of Naples Avenue, south of its intersection with Alyssa Court. Supple said some Commission members visited the site on Friday and requested a discussion of the Sensitive Areas Ordinance separate from this item. She said, however, that since such a discussion was not advedised for this meeting, any discussion of the ordinance would have to Planrang & Zoning Commission November 19, 1998 Page b be in the context of this item. Yapp said the applicant has requested deferral of this item to the December 3, 1998 meeting. Bovbjerg said the applicant had indicated that he believed that he could not do any work on the dirt that had been put in places on the property, and she understood that he could, under certain conditions. Yapp confirmed this and said staff clarified that the applicant was permitted to do any seeding, erosion control, matting, and putting down straw in order to control erosion as well as finish the grading that was associated with the utilities installation. He said that as it states in the Sensitive Areas Ordinance, grading associated with utilities installation is exempt from the other requirements. Bovbjerg asked if the dirt on top of the next ravine over can be stabilized over the winter. Yapp said it is probably too late to seed the area, although an attempt could be made with some winter grasses, but the applicant could put in silt fences and matting to stabilize the area. Ehrhardt asked if the applicant is required to do those measures. Yapp said that erosion control measures associated with development are required. Bovbjerg asked if the applicant must therefore do something with the loose soil as it sits now. Yapp replied that the applicant can leave it if it is controlled with things like silt fences and other measures. Public discussion: There was none. Public discussion closed. MOTION: Gibson moved to defer RF798-0014, an application submitted by Maxwell Development Company to rezone a 21.26-acre parcel, Lot 8 and Outlot A, WB Development, and Lot 1, Resubdivision of Outlot A WB Development, from Intensive Commercial (C1-1) to Sensitive Areas Overlay (OSACI-1) for property located on the east side of Naples Avenue, south of its intersection with Alyssa Court. Ehrhardt seconded the motion. Schintler asked if Maxwell was stopped from doing anything. Yapp responded that Maxwell was given a stop work order on the grading work. Miklo added that Maxwell was doing grading without a permit. Gibson said he reread the Sensitive Areas Ordinance. He said that in paragraph 2, under A, where it says, "to permit and define the reasonable use of properties which contain environmentally sensitive features and natural resources, while recognizing the importance of environmental resources and protecting such resources from destruction." Gibson said the term of "environmentally sensitive features and natural resources" is repeated several times throughout the ordinance without being defined. He said one is forced to infer a definition. Gibson said he looked for the definition as a link back to the statement regarding the purpose of this ordinance but did not find that link. He said it is important to understanding what this ordinance means. Holecek said it is defined within several portions of the ordinance. She said the Sensitive Areas Inventory Map Phase I speaks of the Iowa City service area with designations of potential environmentally sensitive areas such as woodlands, wetlands, flood plains, steep slopes, hydric soils, prairie remnants, and geological, historical, and archaeological features. Holecek said that gives an indication of what are sensitive areas on the inventory map. She said that from there the ordinance goes on to discuss each particular feature and what is appropriate and inappropriate within those features as far as development activity and the regulations are concerned. Planning & Zomng Commission November 19, 1998 Page ~ Gibson said that information will help to find a definition of a specific item that is an environmentally sensitive feature or natural resource. He said, regarding sensitive areas protected, the ordinance says, "Portions of a parcel of land containing environmentally sensitive features that are designated on the approved sensitive site plan or sensitive areas development plan where no development activity is allowed." Gibson said they've got to be defined either on that plan or the sensitive areas development plan or this definition is not operative. He said it is not linking back. Holecek said that in discussing a particular type of sensitive area, e.g., slopes, the next section discusses slopes: altered, protected, critical, steep, and regulated. She said the term sensitive areas protected takes in the whole encompassing, but the other definitions state exactly what type of sensitive area one is talking about. Holecek said that from there, one goes to what regulations apply to the type of slope as defined. Gibson asked if that could be put together in a more linked, coherent statement. Gibson said, regarding sensitive areas protected, this ordinance says the sensitive slope protected has to be designated on an approved sensitive areas site plan or a sensitive areas development plan. Holecek said it gets to that point by being a sensitive area as demarcated on the sensitive areas map. She said that when there is a sensitive area indicated on the sensitive areas map and one is developing a particular parcel with a sensitive area within it, one has to, depending upon the type of sensitive area, either do a sensitive area site plan, a sensitive area rezoning, or a sensitive area exhibit. Holecek added that, depending upon what the developer is doing, it may or may not end up being protected. She said that definition is the end result of going through either a rezoning, a site plan, or an exhibit. Gibson asked if the Iowa City sensitive areas map included the Maxwell property. Miklo said the map shows the area as having potentially steep slopes. Supple asked what environmentally sensitive features were on the Maxwell property. Yapp responded that there are mostly critical slopes. He said the sides of the ravines are about 30% sloped and there are also some protected slopes of greater than 40%. He said the critical slopes are a gray area in the ordinance in that they are allowed to be altered with rezoning approval. Yapp said the development plan must conform with the design standards for regulated slopes as in Section 4, which lists a series of criteria. He said the criteria that pertain to this parcel are under 4B where it says, "Grading and excavation shall be minimized on steep and critical slopes." Yapp also read pertinent criteria under 4D, "Street right-of-way and public utility corridors shall be located to minimize cutting and filling" and under 4E, "Existing vegetation shall be retained to the maximum extent possible." Gibson stated that the language still does not tell much in terms of what the intent of the ordinance is. Miklo said the intent of the drafters was to denote that environmental features are not all created equal. He said that some cdtical slopes are more cdtical than others such that any disturbance of them may cause erosion on an adjacent property or may result in problems like the Cliffs Apartments. Miklo said that on a case by case basis, the Commission and the City Council will decide if grading will be allowed in those areas and to what extent. Gibson asked if the fundamental protection of the environment was not part of the original intent of the ordinance then. Miklo said the intent is that on a case by case basis, if there is a critical slope, the City Council, with a recommendation from the Commission, will decide to what extent that area can be disturbed if at all. He said there may be areas where the City Council would decide there should be no grading at all. Gibson said that might be in an area that is not even defined. Miklo said it becomes defined through the rezoning process. He said it becomes protected when there is a plan put before the Commission that shows where the grading is going to be Planning & Zoning Commission November 19, 1998 Page '~ 0 permitted. Gibson asked if that would be because it would cause damage to an environmentally sensitive area. Miklo said that is one of the criteria. He said another criterion would be if it has some scenic beauty. Yapp said the criteria used for slopes is safety in the design and construction of developments; minimize flooding, landslides, and mudslides; minimize soil instability, erosion, and downstream siltation; and preserve the scenic character of hillside areas, particularly wooded hillsides. He said the reason staff recommended approval of the filling and grading of the central area but recommended against the grading and filling of the east area was because the east area is a wooded hillside and it provides a transition between the urban development on Lot 8 and the pond. Yapp said the trees and vegetation currently on the hillside provide a large measure of stability and erosion control for that slope, and so using the criteria, staff recommended not altering that slope. Ehrhardt said the ordinance states that grading and excavation shall be minimized on steep and critical slopes. She said, with regard to the central area, the developer intends to completely obliterate the slope. Ehrhardt asked if staff agrees that would be minimizing. Yapp said it is minimizing while permitting reasonable use of the land. Miklo said that for that small area, it is not minimal; it's the whole slope, but when compared to all of the slopes on the property, it is minimal. Ehrhardt said the central slope would be completely eliminated. Yapp said that in staff's opinion, it would be minimized in the context of permitting the reasonable use of the property that contains the environmental features. Gibson said that is the essence of this ordinance, and if the protection of environmentally sensitive areas can be discounted because of the perceived appropriateness of some development proposal, then he was not sure what the value of it is. Miklo said the purpose of the ordinance is so that each of the environmentally sensitive areas is reviewed before anything happens to it. Gibson said the Commission then is not going to really find any purpose in the ordinance but needs to decide in every case whether the features are worth preserving or not. Miklo said that was correct and that previous to the ordinance, as in the case of the Cliffs, there was no City review of these matters. Gibson said the intent of the ordinance is then to be a review, and there is no assumption that any of these features must be protected. Miklo said there are some environmentally sensitive areas in the ordinance, such as 40% slopes and some of the wetlands, that by definition do not allow discretion. Gibson asked if discretion is then allowed in decisions regarding all the other features. Holecek responded that it would depend on the areas, and if features are compounding each other, then that may minimize the Commission's discretion. She said the Commission and the City Council may at times have to engage in balancing between the reasonable use of property and the purposes of preservation. Miklo said that was very much the intent of the committee that drafted this ordinance. Bovbjerg said that some things could not be denied without a basis so that theFe had to be an ordinance. She said it was a compromise between those parties who wanted to allow development in any manner in any area and those who did not want any development in any location with potential environmental features, so that a hard and fast rule could not be written. Bovbjerg said this resulted in the case by case examination of these issues. Yapp said it is important for Commission members to articulate their reasoning no matter what their votes. Ehrhardt asked if this application had come before staff with.just the upper and central area, would staff have had the same recommendation. Yapp said the recommendation would have been the same, and originally the plan did only have the two westernmost areas. Bovbjerg said that when a person buys a piece of property, it is governed by whatever zoning is on the property then. She asked what land the property is governed by if the zoning changes after the purchase. Holecek said the property is governed by whatever law exists at the time the Planning & Zoning Commission November 19, 1998 Page ~ 1 development is requested. Bovbjerg said that if a person has already started to develop the property under the old zoning, then that zoning has already been used to establish rights and the development can be completed. Holecek said that was true if permits were issued and the developer has taken substantial furtherance of his vested rights and has investment-backed expectations on those rights. Bovbjerg asked if this property were bought before this was governed by the SAOo Miklo said Winebrenner had the property annexed and subdivided before the SAO was adopted, but he believed that Maxwell bought the property after the SAO was in place. Gibson said that at the environmental seminar, the presenter described the ravines as swales. Gibson said that both of them are very stable swales and are fully grassed and not eroded, and there are no banks and no rivers. He said these are nice, smooth, bottomed-grassed swales. The motion to defer carried on a vote of 7-0. DFVFLOPMFNT ITFM: SUB98-0020. Public discussion of an application submitted by Howard Winebrenner for a preliminary and final plat of Resubdivision of Lots 3, 4, 5, and 6 of W.B. Development, an 8.33 acre, eight-lot, commercial subdivision located on the south side of Escort Lane. Miklo said that when this was last before the Commission there were some issues that had yet to be resolved. He stated that there has been some additional work and some amendments to this subdivision, and those issues are now resolved for the most part. Miklo said one of the issues was access to Lots 5 and 7. He said that previously the access was in the same place where there are several easements, including sanitary sewer and storm sewer. Miklo said the Public Works Department was quite concerned that in the event the private street built over those easements had to be closed for repair of a water or sewer line that there would be no access to those lots. He stated that this has therefore been redesigned and the access easement has been moved to the west so there will be no conflict between the utilities and the easement. Miklo said the other issue was that of sanitary sewer capacity. He said there is limited capacity for this subdivision, and Public Works therefore asked the applicant to do a study to clarify how much capacity there is. Miklo said that based on the available capacity and allocating some of the reserve capacity identified by the applicant, Public Works feels there is adequate sewer capacity for each of the lots and therefore does recommend approval on those grounds. Miklo said that one outstanding issue is access to Lot 4. He stated that there is an agreement that Maxwell will buy that property and will allow access to his private street. Miklo said that agreement needs to be in writing in the form of a recordable document in the event this is ever sold off separately, and staff recommends this be approved subject to that agreement being provided to and approved by staff prior to City Council review of this subdivision. He said staff is recommending approval of this application subject to staff approval of the access easement for Lot 4 and staff approval of construction plans and legal papers prior to City Council consideration of the plat. Holecek said, with respect to the access easement to Lot 4, she has reviewed that and advised to go get that executed. She said that with regard to sanitary sewer covenants, this is a private sewer system, and the City's concern was that there was no backup or other problems with monitoring this area. Holecek said she has reviewed and approved the Planning & Zoning Commission November 19.1998 Page 12 restrictive covenants associated with the property, and they are also being executed prior to City Council consideration. Ehrhardt said that in a previous staff report, it was discussed that Lot 4 was at a lower elevation and could not use the lift station for sewer service. Yapp said Lot 4 could not tie into the Escort Lane sewer because the line is higher than the lot, but it can tie into the sewer line on the Maxwell property, which is what has been agreed to. Ehrhardt asked if the City would have any liability in the event of a sewer problem resulting from inadequate capacity. Holecek said that has been very comprehensively addressed in the covenants. She said the City's only concern is that that does not happen and that there is some monitoring between each individual person so that when someone buys a lot, he understand what the use limitations may be. Holecek said the City does not have any liability but also does not want to see a problem created. She said the result would be a private issue, although the City is doing its best to create a monitoring system. Public discussion: Therewas none. Public discussion closed. MOTION: Bovbjerg moved to approve SUB98-0020, a preliminary and final plat of resubdivision of Lots 3, 4, 5, and 6 of W.B. Development, an 8.33 acre, eight-lot commercial subdivision located on the south side of Escort Lane, subject to securing a permanent means of access to Lot 4 and approval of legal papers and construction drawings by staff prior to City Council consideration of the plat. Ehrhardt seconded the motion. The motion carried on a vote of 6-0, with Gibson temporarily out of the room. SUB98-00~>9. Public discussion of an application submitted by Village Partners for a final plat of Village Green, Part 16, a 30.85 acre, two-lot residential subdivision with two outlets located at Wellington Drive. Miklo said the Commission recently approved a planned development rezoning for four lots here as well as a preliminary pllat that included the entire property with the large outlets that are left for future development. He said the applicant is now submitting a final plat for two lots that will each have nine dwelling units in a cluster development. Miklo said that Wellington Drive will be connected to Scott Boulevard. He said this is in compliance with the recently approved preliminary plat as well as the planned development rezoning. Miklo said staff recommends approval of this application subject to staff approval of construction drawings and legal papers prior to City Council consideration. Miklo said the staff report mentioned that other parts of Village Green had a private tile system for drainage because of the high water table. He said this particular phase will not have such a system because it drains directly into the private lake located on the backs of these lots. Public discussion: Therewas none. Public discussion closed. Planning & Zoning Commission November 19, 1998 Page 13 MOTION: Gibson moved to approve SUB98-00:~9, a final plat of Village Green, Part 16, a 30.85 acre, two-lot residential subdivision with two outlots located at Wellington Drive, subject to legal papers and construction drawings being approved by staff prior to City Council consideration of the plat. Schintler seconded the motion. Supple said this Commission has had a policy that it is appropriate to not have too much of the same thing in one area. She said she believes there may be enough of these condominiums here, even though they are extremely attractive and well cared for. Supple said they are very much alike, and she would like to see the developer propose something new for the future subdivisions. The motion carried on a vote of 7-0. CONSIDFRATION OF THF NOVFMBFR 5. 1998 PLANNING AND .7ONING COMMISSION MF:FTING MINUTFS: MOTION: Bovbjerg moved to approve the minutes of the November 5, 1998 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, as written. Shannon seconded the motion. The motion carried on a vote of 7-0. PLANNING AND 7ONING COMMISSION INFORMATION: Miklo distributed an article about a development that was recently approved in Coralville that was worth noting for two reasons. He said one reason is the use of prairies for natural storm water management. Miklo added that the other reason is the attempt to address the garagescape issue that the Commission has faced several times. Miklo distributed the Northeast District draft plan, stating that the Commission would hold a public hearing on the plan at its December 17 meeting. He anticipated that the item would continue on the agenda to the January 7, 1999 meeting before a vote and possibly a meeting after that. Ehrhardt said she attended the Northeast District meeting. She said that when staff presented the First Avenue extension, she believed that people wanted to hear about the evaluations of other alternatives. Ehrhardt said she thought people wanted to at least hear why staff was not recommending other options. Miklo agreed that was a good point and said that staff did evaluate several alternatives. He said those options could be reviewed at the public hearing. ADJOURNMFNT: The meeting was adjourned at 9:22 p.m. Pam Ehrhardt, Secretary Minutes submitted by Anne Schulte ppdadrnin\mins\p&z1119.doc POLICE CITIZENS REVIEW BOARD MINUTES - December 8, 1998 Lobby Conference Room CALL TO ORDER Chair L. Cohen called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M. ATTENDANCE CONSENT CALENDAR Board members present: L. Cohen, P. Farrant, P. Hoffey, M. Raymond, and J. Watson. Staff present: Legal Counsel D. Russell and administrative assistant S. Bauer. Motion by P. Farrant and seconded by P. Hoffey to adopt the Consent Calendar, as amended, accepting (g) 12/8/98 memorandum from Chief Winkelhake (deferred for discussion with Item 6 on the agenda). Motion carried, 5~0, all members present. RECOMMENDATION TO COUNCIL Accept PCRB Public Report #98-17 Defer action on approval of the PCRB SOP's PCRB SOP's Motion by M. Raymond and seconded by P. Hoffey to consolidate Item #3 on the agenda with Item #6. Motion carried, 5/0, all members present. J. Watson reported on the city council informal meeting at which the PCRB SOP's were discussed. The city attorney presented to the council her memo of November 13, 1998, with recommended changes. Issues included: · The procedure for handling untimely filing of complaints. The recommended change states the complainant may not be heard in person, verbally, to avoid any-possibility that the facts of a complaint be discussed in a public session on the timeliness question or on the question of whether a complaint is against a sworn Iowa City police officer. · In an attempt to avoid an adversarial encounter between the complainant and the officer, the city attorney recommends an ordinance change eliminating notification and participation of the complainant in a name-clearing hearing of an officer. Meeting with City Administration An additional concern expressed was if a complainant had a right to appear at a meeting, would they have a right to participate in a meeting, aside from simply asking questions. Requiring legal counsel to be in attendance at all PCRB meetings. A discussion followed regarding legal counsel's role with the PCRB. Further discussion included: The Board makes no recommendation concerning the proposed ordinance change concerning name- clearing hearings. The Board requests the council to defer consideration of proposed SOP changes. After discussion, the Board directed legal counsel to convey their concerns about the recommended SOP changes to the city attorney, and request a deferment of the counci!'s action on December 15. Legal counsel will report back to the board at its next meeting, December 15. Paul Hoffey reported on the meeting with he, L. Cohen and D. Russell, and City Manager S. Atkins, Chief Winkelhake, and S. Holocek. The primary purpose of this meeting was to enable the PCRB to correct the misimpression about release of names/information to the media. Board members proposed meetings (however many were needed to cover all shifts) with the police officers to explain the PCRB process and its confidentiality obligations. Both the City Manager and the Chief of Police' discouraged this method and recommended correspondence from the Board to the Chief, who agreed to disseminate it to the officers. Other items discussed were: S. Holocek took issue with the "Comments" section of the board's public reports. If the board is critical in its comments, even if an allegation is not sustained, there should be a name-clearing hearing because it is a report critical of an officer. (The board agreed) Chlef's Memo Dated 12/8198 Chief Winkelhake said he recommended that his officers come to name-clearing hearings, but that the union has chosen to discourage it. Discussion followed: - The board directed legal counsel to prepare the letter to be sent to Chief Winkelhake for his officers. The letter will first be reviewed by S. Atkins and S. Holocek. Legal counsel will report on their comments at the board's next meeting. Once approved by the board, a copy of this letter will be sent to city council members. - Because there was concern about perceived misinformation reaching the city council, consideration was given to moving the board's meeting day from Tuesday to one that would accommodate attendance at city council meetings whenever PCRB matters appear on its agenda. Since council work sessions are on Mondays, board members agreed to take turns attending when necessary. - Reconsider the board's policy of *no comment" to the press. - Legal counsel reported on a conversation he had with Chief Winkelhake about the recent newspaper reports, explaining to him that he [the Chief] had complete control over the language that is used in the allegations in his reports. - Motion by P. Farrant and seconded by M. Raymond directing the chair to request a meeting with the city council at one of their informal meetings in the near future. Possible discussion points could include the SOP's, concerns about the media and how it conflicts with the board's confidentiality obligations, the PCRB forums, the PCRB 1997-98 annual report, and others. Motion carried, 5/0, all members present. After lengthy discussion of the memo (item g. in the consent calendar and attached hereto) from Chief Winkelhake regarding identification of officers in his reports to the board, legal counsel was directed to inform the city attorney that, although this information should not go to the press or the public, board members require this information to fulfill its statutory obligations for tracking purposes and for making judgments about an officer's credibility. Legal counsel will report back to the board at its next meeting. At that time, a response will be drafted to the Chief. (This issue is another topic for a meeting between the board and council members.) COMMUNITY FORUM 10/27/98 Comments expressed regarding the community forum held on 10/27/98 at the Newman Center included: - M. Raymond reported on a contact from an individual who expressed a feeling of intimidation by the presence of police officers at the forum. - The information received from the police officers was useful, but board members would prefer some other venue to hear from the officers, - At future forums, a rule shall be adopted that all speakers (including police officers) must sign the sign- up sheet, talk only at the microphone, and adhere to the E-minute rule. RESCHEDULING COMMUNITY FORUM Direction was given to reschedule the community forum originally scheduled for December 1, 1998 to January 19, 1998, at the Broadway Neighborhood Center. Legal counsel stated that Chief Winkelhake and the City Manager preferred this forum not be videotaped. So in keeping with the board's policy for the last forum, direction to staff is to only audiotape this forum. PUBLIC DISCUSSION None EXECUTIVE SESSION Motion by J. Watson and seconded by P. Hoffey to adjourn into Executive Session based on Section 21.5(a) of the Code of Iowa to review or discuss records which are required or authorized by state or federal law to be kept confidential or to be kept confidential as a condition for that government body's possession or continued receipt of federal funds, and 22.7(11) personal information in confidential personnel records of public bodies including but not limited to cities, boards of supervisors and school districts, and 22.7(5) police officer investigative reports, except where disclosure is authorized elsewhere in the Code. Motion carried, 5/0, all member present. Meeting adjourned at 9:00 P.M. Regular meeting resumed at 9:15 P.M. Motion by P. Hoffey and seconded by P. Farrant to approve PCRB Public Report #98-17 and forward it to council. Motion carried, 5/0, all members present. Motion by P. Hoffey and seconded by J. Watson to grant the request from Chief Winkelhake for an extention to December 11, 1998, for his report on PCRB #98-18. Motion carried, 5/0, all members present. MEETING SCHEDULE · Special Meeting December 15, 1998, 7:00 P.M. · Special Meeting December 22, 1998, 7:00 P.M. · Special Meeting December 29, 1998, 7:00 P.M. · Community Forum January 19, 1998, 7:00 P.M. · PCRB priority-setting meeting - to be determined BOARD INFORMATION M. Raymond - reported that the Supreme Court ruled unanimously today that the Iowa statute permitting searches in traffic citations is unconstitutional. After general questions regarding the conflict of interest issue, staff was directed that a general discussion of the conflict of interest issue appear as an agenda item for a future meeting. STAFF INFORMATION S. Bauer - The "attorney services' on the-proposed PCRB budget has been increased, ADJOURNMENT Motion for adjournment by P. Hoffey and seconded by P. Farrant. Motion carried, 5/0, all members present. Meeting adjourned at 9:23 P.M. PCRB PUBLIC REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL 7 This is the Report of the Police Citizens Review Board (the 'Board") review of the investigation of Complaint PCRB 98-17 (the "Complaint"). BOARD'S RESPONSIBILITY Under the City Code of the City of Iowa City, Section 8-8-7 B, the Board's job is to review the Police Chief's Report ("Report') of his investigation of a complaint. The City Code requires the Board to apply a 'reasonable basis" standard of review to the Report and to "give deference" to the Report 'because of the Police Chief's...professional expertise." Section 8-8-7 B{2). While the City Code directs the Board to make 'findings of fact," it also requires that the Board recommend that the Police Chief reverse or modify his findings only ff those findings are "unsupported by substantial evidence," are "unreasonable, arbitrary or capricious," or are 'contrary to a Police Department policy or practice or any Federal, State or local law." Sections 8-8-7B(2)a, b, and c. BOA, RD'S PROCEDURE On September 21, 1998, this Complaint was received at the office of the City Clerk. As required by Section 8-8-5 of the City Code, the Complaint was referred to the Police Chief for investigation. The Acting Chief of Police submitted his Report on October 20, 1998. The Board voted to review the Complaint in accordance with Section 8-8-7 B(1 )(a), which means that it chose to review the matter on the record before it without additional investigation by the Board. The Board requested from the City Council an extension of time of its 30-day reporting deadline to December 18, 1998; such extension was granted. The Board met on October 29, 2 1998, November 3, 1998, and December 8, 1998, to consider the Complaint. The Board offered a name-clearing hearing to the officer involved in allegation 2; the officer waived his rights. FINDINGS OF FACT In September 1998, at 4:19 P.M., Officer 910903, who was driving a marked police car, stopped the complainant, who was driving a pickup truck westbound in the 500 block of East Burlington Street in the lane directly in front of the police car. The complainant's girlfriend was a passenger in the truck. The officer left the patrol car, spoke to the complainant and obtained his driver's license, ran information regarding the stop on the Mobile Data Terminal (MDT) in the patrol car, returned the license to the complainant, and issued a verbal warning to him for speeding 32 mph in a 25 mph zone. The stop was concluded at 4:19 p.m. The complainant stated that he had been driving behind the patrol car for several blocks. He claimed that the officer was intentionally driving slowly in order to watch girls who were walking in the area. He said that, once the street became four lanes, he observed the driver of a station wagon accelerate and pass the patrol car. He said he, too, then accelerated and passed the patrol car. The complainant, a resident of Missouri who only recently came to Iowa City, said he was unaware of the speed limit on Burlington Street. When the officer stopped him immediately thereafter, the complainant admitted he became angry and asked the officer why he was being stopped. He said that the officer answered that the complainant was stopped because he was "stupid for passing a police officer." He said the officer used the word "stupid" at least one more time in their interactions; his girlfriend later supported this allegation. The complainant said that while in the patrol car operating the MDT, the officer appeared to be intently using his rear view mirror to watch a girl walking on the sidewalk. He said that the officer's manner in handling the stop was arrogant. CONCLUSIONS Allegation 1. The officer had no legitimate reason (probable cause) to make the traffic stop. The complainant did not deny that he accelerated to a rate of speed in excess of 25 mph (the limit in the 500 block of Burlington Street) to pass the patrol car. Neither ignorance of the speed limit nor the driving behavior of others is a viable excuse for exceeding the speed limit. The Acting Chief's conclusion that the officer did have probable cause to stop the complainant is supported by substantial evidence and is not unreasonable, arbitrary, or capricious. Accordingly, allegation1 is NOT SUSTAINED. Allegation 2. The officer used language which is inappropriate and condescending in nature. Although there is disagreement over the exact nature of the words used, the Acting Chief's conclusion that the officer's communication with the complainant was verbally condescending and inappropriate is supported by substantial evidence and is not unreasonable, arbitrary, or capricious. Accordingly, allegation 2 is SUSTAINED. Allegation 3. The officer watched girls while keeping the complainan.t waiting in his vehicle. Police department records indicate that the traffic stop that is the subject of this complaint took approximately e!ght minutes. Records from the MDT in the patrol car indicate that at least half of that time was taken up running the complainant's information through the MDT system, and another two or three minutes were required to scroll through the material to obtain specific information. The Acting Chief's conclusion that the officer did not take more than a routine amount of time to make the stop, run the MDT checks, and talk to the complainant is supported by substantial evidence and is not unreasonable, arbitrary, or capricious. Accordingly, allegation 3 is NOT SUSTAINED. COMMENTS The Board considers the Acting POlice Chief's plan to provide formal counseling on public contact and demeanor for the officer to be an appropriate, positive action. DATED: December 8, 1998 POLICE CITIZENS REVIEW BOARD A Board of the City of Iowa City 410 East Washington Street Iowa City IA 52240-1826 (319)356-5413 December 11, 1998 Ernest W. Lehman, Mayor Dear Mayor: At its meeting of December 8, 1998, the PCRB requested me to contact you about a meeting of the PCRB and the City Council. The Board believes there are a number of concerns about its role and we would like to attend an informal work session to discuss these with you. Possible discussion points could include: · The PCRB Standard Operating Procedures and Guidelines · Concerns about media coverage and how it conflicts with our confidentiality obligations; · PCRB forums; · The PCRB 1997-98 Annual Report. The Board feels an open discussion would be very beneficial to both the PCRB and the City Council. Thank you for your assistance and support, and we hope to hear from you soon. Very truly yours, Leah Cohen, Chair PCRB cc: City of Iowa City Council Members TO: FROM: RE: MEMORANDUM Leah Cohen, PCRB Chairperson R. J. Winkelhake, Chief of Police/~'~"' REPORTS TO THE BOARD DATE: December 8, 1998 Some concerns have been brought to my attention regarding the methods for identifying officers in the body of my reports to the Police Citizen's Review Board, as well as the data I provide at the end of the reports which pertain to the officers previous disciplinary history. The concerns focus on the ability to identify officers and the possible creation of bias against an officer because such information is provided before the Board's deliberation on the facts. To address these concerns from now on, the reports I submit will identify the officers as Officer #1, Officer #2, etc., rather than by an assigned number as in past reports. Further, I will not include past disciplinary history, nor past complaint history with my report. Notwithstanding the above, I will supply you with a monthly up-to-date history of Internal Affairs for the year, but will not include any case for which the Board has not completed deliberation and issued its findings.I have included a sample of such a monthly report for your information. I believe these changes will address the concerns of employees, as well as some issues which have been raised by the City Attomey's office. This change in my report format will begin with the next report I submit to the Board. nl ~ ~ ~ c a _c ~ > ~u a _,c a~ < ~ ~ · ~ > uj Q _c a....