HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-09-19 TranscriptionSeptember 19, 2005 City Council Work Session Page 1 of 53
Council: Bailey, Champion, Elliott, Lehman, O'D.onnell, Vanderhoef, Wilburn
UISG Rep: Schreiber
Staff: Atkins, Dilkes, Franklin, Helling, Howard, Karr, Miklo, Nasby, O'Malley, Rocca
Tapes: 05-57 & 05-58
(TAPE BEGINS)
B. CONSIDER A MOTION SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING FOR OCTOBER 4 ON
A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE ANNEXATION OF APPROXIMATELY
51.9 ACRES LOCATED ON AMERICAN LEGION ROAD (ANN05-00002)
Franklin: This is the formally-known as the Fairview Golf Course.
C. CONSIDER A MOTION SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING FOR OCTOBER 4 ON
AN ORDINANCE CONDITIONALLY REZONING APPROXIMATELY 51.9
ACRES FROM COUNTY RESIDENTIAL (R) TO LOW DENSITY SINGLE-
FAMILY RESIDENTIAL (RS-5) FOR PROPERTY LOCATED ON AMERICAN
LEGION ROAD (REZ05-00018)
Franklin: Likewise, Item C is setting a public hearing for October 4 on the ordinance to
rezone that property from County Residential to Single Family Residential.
Lehman: Either your microphone isn't working very well or I've got old ears.
Bailey: I dan't hear either.
Lehman: It's hard for me to hear you.
Vanderhoef: Uhhh... on the Fairview thing will we get annexation at the same time as the
rezoning?
Franklin: Yes. Annexation is Item B and the zoning is Item C. Okay?
Vanderhoefi Okay.
D. CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE CONDITIONALLY REZONING
APPROXIMATELY 92 ACRES FROM INTERIM DEVELOPMENT
RESIDENTIAL (ID-RS) ZONE TO LOW DENSITY SINGLE FAMILY -
SENSITIVE AREAS OVERLAY (OSA-5) ZONE FOR PROPERTY LOCATED
WEST OF KENNEDY PARKWAY AND EAST OF CAMP CARDINAL ROAD
(REZ03-00019) (PASS AND ADOPT)
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Franklin: Item D is pass and adopt on the Cardinal Ridge rezoning.
E. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE PRELIMINARY PLAT OF
CARDINAL RIDGE, IOWA CITY, IOWA (SUB03-00024)
Franklin: Then you have the preliminary plat...well, shoot...I wanted to show you where
the sewer lines are but it's not on this version.., so...
Lehman: You mean the ones that go to the south?
Franklin: Right, just because that was the issue that was of concern.
Lehman: That's just an issue that is determined by engineering, isn't it?
Franklin: It's all been settled, it's on the updated preliminary plat and comes down at this
point and at this point and then there is a twenty-foot easement that comes here
just in case. So, it hits both the Ahrens property and the Nepola property.
F. CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE CONDITIONALLY REZONING
APPROXIMATELY 2.19 ACRES FROM INTENSIVE COMMERCIAL (CI-1)
ZONE AND MEDIUM DENSITY SINGLE -FAMILY RESIDENTIAL (RS-8)
ZONE TO COMMUNITY COMMERCIAL (CC-2) ZONE FOR PROPERTY
LOCATED BETWEEN NORTH DODGE STREET AND DODGE STREET
COURT, EAST OF CONKLIN LANE (REZ05-00003). (PASS AND ADOPT)
Franklin: Then Item F is the pass and adopt on Dodge Street Court.
Lehman: Okay.
Franklin: And that's that.
Lehman: That was quick.
Development Code / Presentation by P&Z Chair (item 4a)
Franklin: I'm going to start the next one. Well, now we begin. What we're going to talk
about tonight...the first session that we have with you on the zoning code. This is
a document that the Planning and Zoning Commission has spent two and half
years on. The Council will be spending approximately three and half months to
try to get this done by the end of year current term. These initial meetings that
we're having with you tonight and then the 26th and 27th, next Monday and
Tuesday, and anything that you want to do subsequently, in terms of work
sessions, will be educational in that it's trying to get you familiarized with this
document as much as we can. Tonight what we're going to do is go through some
background, because not everybody was on the Council when we started this.
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We'll cover the Planning and Zoning Commission's perspective - Bob Brooks
has a few comments that he would like to make tonight - and then Karen Howard
is going to go through kind of the broad principles of this document so that you
have the rationale within which the Commission has made their recommendation.
So, first of all...thinking back on 'why did we start to do all of this'? Obviously
one reason was because we had a rather dated zoning code. The last time it was
comprehensively redone was in 1983. There were basically three things that we
were trying to accomplish with this. We're trying to get consistency between our
Zoning Code and the Comprehensive Plan. The code, as I said, was last done in
1983. Our Comprehensive Plan, which has been used as the guide for
development of Iowa City and whatever role City Government has in that was
done in 1997. So, there's obviously a little bit of disconnect that goes there. So,
one of the goals was to get the Zoning Code consistent with the Plan...because
the Zoning Code is a tool that you use to implement the plan. Another goal was
to evaluate and reduce regulatory barriers to affordable housing. This is
regulatory barriers. Obviously we can't deal with the issues of land cost,
materials, or labor, which also contributes to the cost of housing. To look at it to
see what was in our current code that could be changed to enable us to contribute
positively towards affordable housing in Iowa City. Then, lastly, one of the
purposes to make the code more user friendly...to make it intuitive so that when
you look at it, it made sense to you...to increase the ease of enforcement...part of
this was 'what were the problems that we had with the existing code that were
presenting problems for enforcement and for people who were the subject of that
enforcement -to make it more understandable...and then to make the processes
more efficient and predictable. We hired Duncan and Associates to do an
analysis, which was completed in 2001. That is this document, which was
affirmed by the City Council in 2001, and at that time the Council gave us
direction to proceed with drafting an ordinance that followed what was outlined in
this analysis. So, that's what we used as the basis for drafting. We started out, as
many of you know, hiring Duncan and Associates to do that drafting. That did
not work out for a couple of reasons and they were released from their contract in
August 2002. We then began drafting the document in house and that involved
the City Attorney's office, Housing and Inspection Services, as well as Planning
staff to put a draft together for the Planning and Zoning Commission then to work
through. Some of the things that we looked at when we were doing that drafting
had to do with these issues of why we were evening approaching the code at this
time. One of the biggest things is that we were doing it at that staff level. We
were taking from the Duncan analysis but then also looking at some of the
enforcement issues that we had. So, Housing and Inspection Services being part
of that was critical. The first section was sent to the Planning and Zoning
Commission in January 2003. They of course have made the recommendation to
you this August. So, it's been a rather lengthy, deliberative process. I want to
commend the Commission because they put a lot of work into this project. It was
hard work.., it required a lot of patience on their part...they met for extra
meetings in addition to their regular workload...they had public input
meetings...they were responsive to that and did very well at listening, discussing,
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and deliberating. At this point I'm going to ask Bob Brooks to come forward and
he will just give you a perspective of the Commission.
Brooks: Thanks, Karin. As Karin mentioned, this was a rather lengthy and complicated
process. I've only been on the Commission a little over a year so I'm only
bringing a perspective of a very short or at least about half of the time frame.
Some of the other Commissioners who are here have sat through the entire
process and understand maybe a little better than I do some of the complexities of
dealing with rewriting a code of this magnitude from beginning to end. We had
over or around thirty separate work sessions where we dealt specifically with
issues and ideas and concepts and proposals that the Planning staff would bring to
the commission and to say that there was always unanimous agreement would not
be true. Anything of this magnitude is never going to be an easy, slam-dunk
process...but I think through the series of meetings that we had and talking
through all of the issues we came to consensus that we were heading in the right
direction. As Karin mentioned, part of what was guiding us was the report from
Duncan and Associates. The other thing that was guiding us was the
Comprehensive Plan that was written in 1997 and approved by the Council and
two of you are still members of the Council when that was approved. In addition
to that, there's a whole series of district and neighborhood plans that were
developed after the Comprehensive Plan... all of these documents contain the
vision and concept and idea of what the citizens of Iowa City would like to see
their community be. All of those plans and the comprehensive plan were done
with a great deal of public input and deliberation. So, we looked back at these
documents and the Duncan report as kind of our bible and direction and our
roadmap as to where we wanted to be. So, that is what we kept going back to
each time.., and I would encourage everyone who looks at the zoning code - it
can not stand by itself. You need to go back and look at what the community
vision is and what the future that the citizens wish for in the community to be able
to understand and appreciate some of the things that we did. Through those thirty
meetings went through a lot of deliberation and discussion and arrived at the code
that we have presented to you for your review and deliberation and evaluation and
hopefully, of course, all of us hope an affirmative end at the end of the process.
We also had a series of public forums, open houses...where we asked the public
to come in where they could meet one-on-one with us, staff and commission, to
answer questions, help them work through something this complicated and
involved. We also then had public hearings, at which time we received a number
of ideas and concepts and all of that was put down in a matrix form where what
the community and the citizens were proposing, some explanation of that, staff
reviewed that and made some recommendations...we looked at it then at the
commission level and then considered each one as to whether it was something
that we wanted to pursue further and in many cases we did adopt some of those
recommendations and included them in... for other reasons we decided that we
were going to hold fast where we were. So, the process has been very
deliberative, very participatory, many groups and individuals were given the
opportunity from the beginning to get copies of all of the draft information that
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the commission was getting and they received that information from day one until
we finally took our vote on the proposed code...so they've had a wide range of
opportunities to be involved and have input and contribute to the process. We did
feel that we had to go back and always keep in mind the vision that is created in
the Comprehensive Plan and the district plans when we finalized our draft. Karen
Howard, who I think has been eating and sleeping and hopefully not drinking the
rewrite of the code, is going to walk you through some of the more pertinent areas
where we looked at innovative ways and concepts to bring some new life to the
zoning code. So with that, Karen, it's all yours.
Howard: As everyone has said this is a complex document, it's a large document so I'm
just going to try to provide an overview and focus on some of the things that have
been talked about and debated the most, and brush over the things that have not
been so debated or controversial. As Karin mentioned, one of the purposes of the
rewrite was to make the code more user friendly. Some of the things we tried to
incorporate into the code include a 'How To' guide to give folks an idea of how to
use the code. We included a table of contents with page numbers. Real simple
things to help people use the zoning code. We put it in a full-page layout - rather
than have the columns - which added pages to the zoning code but made it much
easier to read. We put things into tables and added more illustrations. We also
included approval procedures, which already are followed in this City but there is
no explanation of those procedures. We have a lot of folks coming to us and
asking us 'This is what ! want to do...how do I go about it'? We thought it would
be important to have the procedures laid out in the code so that it's easy for
people to follow those. So, some of the things that you may have heard is that the
zoning code has grown tremendously, a lot more pages...these are some of the
reasons why. We also repeated some questions so that people didn't have to flip
back and forth. So, you'll find that...because people aren't reading from
beginning to end. Their using the code for a specific purpose and we felt it was
much easier. Right now, in the current code, you have to flip back and forth
between the building and housing codes, sometimes to the public work sessions of
the public code. This, we feel, made it much easier to use the code. Then toward
efficiency and making the code more effective. There were several things that we
focused on. One of the most important things in the code, which is often missed,
is that we currently have a long list of specific land uses in each particular zoning
district in the City. This is very similar to many codes across the country...many
cities have this type of code but what happens over time is that you keep adding to
those lists and it becomes very complex and you may exclude things that you'd
really like to have in your community and pretty soon it makes no sense. What
we tried to do was take all those long lists and come up with broad categories.
Some of the reasons why is that it allows commercial/industrial areas to
accommodate a wide variety of compatible businesses over time. So as you get
new types of businesses that you can't anticipate today that they will fit into these
broad categories and you won't have to keep amending the code and adding to
those long lists. Also, to help level the playing field so that similar businesses
will be subject to the same standards, review and approval processes over time.
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Another element that you may have heard about is the good-neighbor meetings.
Right now we have a voluntary good-neighbor policy. We encourage developers,
particularly for larger projects, to meet early with surrounding neighborhoods to
foster open communication, help dispel misconceptions and facilitate
development that will fit into the neighborhood. The Commission, I know, was
very concerned about this because time and again what they've seen at the
Commission level is that if the developers meet early with the neighbors, it often
helps things move faster through the Commission level. If they don't, sometimes
that first hearing, particularly, there's a lot of misconceptions that have to be dealt
with and a public hearing forum is not very conducive to easy discussion. Now,
the reporting requirements for this are fairly minimal. Basically they just have to
report who they sent the notice to, they have to have a meeting, and then have to
report the minutes of that meeting. Another goal of the project was to try to
consolidate zoning districts. I know it was mentioned at least once but the City
Council at a meeting that I was at some time ago, that we maybe have too many
zoning districts. We studied the zoning the districts we have to see if we could
simplify the code. Most seem to be serving some particular purpose in the
community. There were a couple of things that we felt could be deleted from the
code and incorporated in other ways into the code. First of all, there are factory-
built housing residential districts -those are manufactured housing parks, they're
single-family developments and should be treated the same as other single family
developments - the difference being that they're not subdivisions, and so they
need a separate process. We have a process in the code...that's our plan
development process to deal with unusual or different types of housing
developments and so all those standards fit very nicely into our plan development
process. The other zone that we felt was a little outdated was the Central
Business Service Zone. This was a zone that has been around for about thirty
years. It was developed at a time when we had a more suburban type model of
zoning. It seems to be out of step with the goals for the areas adjacent to our
downtown. This received a lot of debate the Commission level. There are only a
few remaining areas of CB-2 zoning. The area just directly east of the downtown
between downtown and College Green Park, to give you an idea...the area north
of downtown along the Marketplace Commercial Area... and then some little bits
and pieces south of Burlington Street that are leftover remnants. The reason I say
that it's a little out of synch with what our vision is for down town. When the
CB-2 zone was adopted, this was the kind of model that it really...under full build
out of the CB-2 zone would encourage tall skinny buildings with large parking
lots around them. The current existing CB-2 areas are really already developed at
a fairly low scale to fit in with surrounding neighborhoods. There's never been a
kind of market to support this kind of development so this is what this existing
development is. We can get into more detail at the work sessions and when you
discuss those re-zonings. With regards to commercial and industrial areas, there
are fairly minimal changes to these zones, at least in the initial draft...the initial
public-review draft that was released in March. The basic changes were to reduce
' parking requirements for many commercial and industrial businesses. We felt the
parking requirements were maybe too high to implement better access
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management systems.., and I'll explain that in a moment...and to adopt
landscaping and screening standards that are more realistic. We really have very
limited and very un-flexible standards in our current code. In response to requests
from the public at the public heatings, the Planning and Zoning Commission
agreed to also implement standards for big box retail. This was an imputes of
course to the Walmart and the fact they they ....so the Commission asked us to
incorporate the same types of big box retail standards that you adopted with the
new Walmart. So, there are some misperceptions also floating around the
community.., some rumors about commercial development. I think probably
because folks have not really read the current code...but we already have fairly
detailed standards in our neighborhood commercial zones, in our downtown area,
in our central business zones to keep those areas pedestrian friendly. Those
standards have already been adopted into the code. There haven't been any
changes to those standards. The other commercial zones also, other than these
changes, haven't really changed much. With regards to reducing the parking
requirements, the idea there is that if you have your parking requirements set too
high, it reduces the ability, particular of older commercial areas, to adapt to and
adopt and accommodate new businesses over time. These areas were built when
parking wasn't needed as much so when new businesses move in... often, what
we've experienced particular in little commercial strip developments, is that they
don't have enough space on their lots for the parking that is required. Yet, they
seem to have enough parking for what is actually demanded. So it seems rather
co~tnter-productive to economic development to require that extra parking when
they don't actually need it. With regard to the new access management standards,
we don't have very good standards in our code right now for the control of the
location and number of driveways, particularly along arterial streets. We do have
some standards in our public works standards but we felt we needed to have a
more comprehensive look at that piece of the code. This would help over
time...and makes no requirements to current development...but as properties
redevelop over time, it will encourage businesses to share driveways, consolidate
driveways, and provide access across properties. It just makes our commercial
areas work a little better together. With regards to landscaping and screening
standards, there were some issues of concern that came up. Right now, in our
current code, outdoor storage of materials and equipment is not even allowed in
our commercial areas except by temporary use permit. That's not a very good
system. There's a lot of businesses that need outdoor storage areas.., so that's not
a very flexible system. Our current landscaping and screening requirements lacks
flexibility. We basically have one standard that is six foot high arborvitae -
which really is not a very good standard for a lot of different kind of screening.
So, that kind of lack of consistency really discourages in reinvestment in our
existing commercial areas over time. Just to give you some idea of the new
toolkit of landscaping standards to apply to different situations...for parking areas
for example, there is a standard where you screen with low-levels
screening.., screening the parking lot from the sidewalk. It helps the pedestrian
safety and also improves the look of our commercial areas. For our outdoor
displays, such as a car dealership where they're displaying goods for sale. They
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don't want a high screen in from of it. They just need some low level grass,
basically, some low level shrubs if they choose to do so... some way to buffer
basically the display area from either public sidewalks or public streets. Outdoor
storage areas...the new standards for where those areas should be located on the
lot, basically not up by the public street but set back from the public street and
screened with a higher screen. Moving on to our single-family zoning strategies.
As Karin mentioned, the goal to provide new opportunities for lower cost housing
in the community...right now the zoning code is really a tool that sets minimum
standards for lot size and lot width. You can always build larger lots and in fact
we did a survey for the last subdivisions over the last ten years and the average lot
width in Iowa City is approximately 85 feet. One way, of course, that you can
provide opportunities for lower cost housing is to lower the minimum lot size and
lot width standards. This will provide an opportunity for developers to develop
smaller lots. It doesn't mean that they will, but it's a fairly passive tool to allow
the opportunity for developers and low income housing providers or anyone who
chooses to build smaller lots. This just gives you some idea...this was a study
that was done by the greater Minnesota Housing Fund, which is a non-profit
housing developer...on the savings that you can get and this is in a small
community in Minnesota, so obviously the land prices are higher here in Iowa
City, but to give you some idea of how much cost you can save by reducing the
lot width and the lot size, even with adding an alley on this one, you save
approximately ten thousand dollars in this example from what you would do in
building a larger lot. That's because you save paving from the front street and
you save costs running the sewer and the water lines as well. It's mentioned again
and again in our comprehensive plan, the benefits of compact development and
how we're trying to encourage compact development, quality neighborhoods, in
smaller amounts of areas so that we're not drawing out into the countryside but
also providing quality neighborhood for our residents who are closer to
amenities...where it's easier to walk and you can also save some amenities like
environmental features of the land.., you can cluster the developments. So,
there's a lot of benefits to compact development. The developer can sell more
lots, the housing consumer gets lower cost housing, it uses less land, it slows the
outward growth of the City and also provides some opportunity to preserve
unique features of a site. One of the...we asked Duncan and Associates to
identify any regulatory barriers and they felt that...our lot sizes are actually quite
small compared to some other communities but they did feel that one of the
possible barriers to the vision of affordable housing is our relative lack of vacant
land zoned for higher density single family and multi family development and this
is true in many communities. There is often a strong resistance to rezoning for
higher density development. Now that is true in Iowa City. If you look at a
zoning map, most single family zoning in the city is low density single family.
Predominately we have RS-5 zoned neighborhoods. We do have some medium
density, single family residential RS-8 zones and very little high density RS-12
zone. So why is there this resistance to higher density housing in the community?
Some of the things we have heard through our comprehensive planning efforts are
that the narrow frontage allow for less room for residential aspects of the home.
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There's less space on each lot for the pedestrian entrances, street trees, and front
yard landscaping. It's just a matter of the math. Smaller, narrower lots leave less
room and it's a little hard to fit everything on the lot. Also, if you have front
loaded garages, the sidewalks often get interrupted by the wide driveways. When
you have wide driveways and narrow lots, you have less room for on street
parking, So, I guess the challenge that the Planning and Zoning Commission had
and they toured a lot around Iowa City and surrounding communities to observe
these different types of neighborhoods. So, is it possible to build affordable small
lot neighborhoods that have safe streets and attractive public spaces? There's
really two aspects to our residential neighborhoods. We have the private space,
which is the individual home lots and we have the public spaces, which are, of
course everybody thinks of public spaces as being our parks, but one of the most
important public spaces that we have in our community is our neighborhood
streets. The neighborhood streets are some of the most well-used public spaces in
the community. When we have district planning meetings the thing we hear about
most is people are concerned about their public streets. The private market
doesn't do a very good job of providing public spaces.., so part of reducing some
of the community resistance is figuring out how to set your zoning standards to
both have good private spaces on the land and how that private space meets the
public space is very important. It's the same types of things we've been doing in
our zoning codes for years and years. If higher density housing is planned in a
manner that respects the public spaces as well as the private spaces, people tend
not to notice that it's higher density housing. In our comprehensive plan, we talk
about these compact, walkable neighborhoods with a diversity of housing types.
Elliott: Karen, could you just...what do you mean when you say how private space meets
public space. Can you explain that? I don't follow, I guess.
Howard: Well, when I'm talking about the private spaces I'm talking about the private
home lot. In the private market, home builders and developers are selling a home.
They're selling the amenities in the private space. People want a big yard or no
yard at all. That influences what types of home lots they purchase. They may
want a big family room or whatever. That's the private space in the
neighborhood. The public space is not only the park but all the public streets, the
public sidewalks.., and when we say how that private space meets that public
space, the zoning standards often have set backs and they say 'to make a uniform
streetscape you have...' - you know what I'm talking about?
Elliott: Yes, that's fine. Thanks. I just wasn't quite following. Thanks.
Howard: So what our comprehensive plan says about these things is that we want
neighborhoods with residential character and homes that respect their
neighborhood streets. Here you have a streetscape where you have the residential
aspects of the home up front and have attractive public spaces in our
neighborhoods. You have room for the street trees and front yard landscaping and
you have streets that are pleasant for walking, biking, and visiting, and you have
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room for on-street parking. It's not just about creating affordable
neighborhoods.., it's not just about reducing costs for the private space. It's about
insuring the long-term value of the neighborhood because you don't just want
housing units to sell just once.., you want neighborhoods that people are willing to
invest in in the long term. You want neighborhoods that people are willing to
invest in for fifty to eighty years. We have neighborhoods like that in our
community. The question is... 'Here's two neighborhoods, these are the same
housing unit - exactly the same housing unit, one faces the public street, one has
the garage facing the public street...you can see that there's just not a lot...this
isn't meeting or respecting how the public space meets the private space' and you
have to ask yourself, which of these neighborhoods is going to be sustainable over
the long term? Which of these neighborhoods are people going to be willing to
invest in over time. The Planning and Zoning Commission took a two-pronged
approach to housing affordability and reducing the costs and adding value to our
neighborhoods. We want to increase opportunities for lower cost housing
primarily by allowing higher density housing but also come up with some
strategies to reduce community resistance and create higher quality
neighborhoods. Right now, to get higher density, we rely on our plan
development process. Developers have to apply for a planned development
overlay rezoning, which of course you are aware has to go through rezoning
hearings. The intent there is to allow for some opportunity for creative or
innovative projects. The pros to that process is that it has some give and take and
sometimes negotiations results in a higher quality development. It does provide
flexibility...this process is intended to substitute somewhat to the strict adherence
to zoning laws, however, there's some real frustrating parts to the this process.
It's usually lengthy, there's a lot of negotiations that occur, a lot of back and forth.
It's also difficult to be consistent over time and apply these standards consistently.
So, one the possible solutions for small lot development is to allow that compact
development by right without having to go through a plan development process.
So, as part of streamlining that process means you have to come up with some
standards, some zoning standards for that smaller lot, higher-density housing to
maintain the same residential environment enjoyed by our lower density
neighborhoods. The Commission looked at the same types of things that come up
again and again through the plan development process and tried to incorporate
them as standards into the code. There's many ways to meet these standards and I
think there's a lot of misinformation floating around there about residential design
standards and how everything with have to have alleys and everything will have
to have a detached garage...a lot of that is just simply not true. Basically there's
many ways to meet the standards for detached single family homes. There's one
paragraph and all it talks about is how that public spaces meets private spaces and
keep the residential aspects of the home up front and the garage not to
predominate. That's basically the only standard. There's no architectural
standards whatsoever for the single family detached homes. Some of the specifics
in our RS-8 zone establish that as a small lot single family zone and the reason for
this right now is that it hasn't been working particular well. It was intended
originally to provide smaller home lots for more affordable housing. What it
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actually turned out to be is more of a duplex zone because this zone allows
duplexes and so that's what's getting built and then you don't have a very mixed
neighborhood, you have all duplexes rather than a mix of single family and
duplexes - which was the original intent of this zone. So, to get back toward that
original intent and provide a mix of affordable housing types in the neighborhood,
Duncan and Associates actually recommended that we change the RS-8 zone to
allow duplexes only on the comer lots and then establish some standards for those
comer lots.
Vanderhoef: Karen, was there any discussion on that particular item on the percentage within a
plat rather than location of 2.
Howard: Percentage of?.
Vanderhoef: Duplexes versus single family?
Howard: This was an original proposal very early on from Duncan and Associates. I think
it may even be -
Vanderhoef: But I mean did the Commission?
Howard: The Commission never...I don't believe...I don't recall any time that they
discussed a percentage. Traditionally we've found that percentages don't work
very well because what you have to do is...over time...any time we have tried to
implement a percentage in a zoning code, we've ended up repealing it later. We
had percentage requirements for example in our CN-1 zone for offices but then
how do you know what you're going to get over time? The first guy is going to
come in and build five duplexes and he's taken up the entire percentage. So, the
idea is to mix the housing types into the neighborhood and not consolidate them
in one area. For a number of reasons the comer lots are really chosen as a good
way to incorporate duplexes because you can have one unit face one street and the
other face the other street, so for all practical purposes it really fits much better,
looks and appears like they're single family homes. In that same idea was
incorporated in our RS-5 zone and as you remember as I said most of the
residential property in Iowa City is zoned RS-5...so this will open up new
opportunities for duplexes and zero lot lines in our RS-5 zones. Also, there is a
proposal to allow accessory apartments and owner-occupied single-family homes.
This is something that is in our current code now. It hasn't been that well used. I
think there are often private covenants that prevent this sort of thing. There may
also be private covenants that prevent duplexes, but that's something that the City
can't control. This will allow that to happen if the developer so chooses. This is
an illustration of the comer lots and why they work well for duplexes. It just
provides for a little extra room to fit those types of housing units in the
neighborhood. You don't need as much lot - well, you need a little more lot area
than you would need for a single family home but certainly not as much as you
would need for two single family homes.., so it saves some costs and provides
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more affordable units for a neighborhood. Finally, in our RS-12 zones...this is
our high-density zone. This is the zone intended for townhouses, high-density
duplexes...right now this zone is not very useful - that's why we don't have much
of it. The lot widths and lot dimensions are not conducive to townhouses even
though that's what it's intended for. So, we've changed those dimensional
standards to allow townhouses by right...but then once again incorporated the
standards for townhouses that we have typically negotiated through the plan
development process. Then, one of the things that we heard early on from the
Home Builders Association when they got the early draft was that they liked the
idea of allowing more compact development, higher-density housing by right, but
then suggested that we have a more incentive-based system. So, that's what we
tried to incorporate into the code to allow compact development through the
single family zones. This would allow developers to reduce the minimum lot
width and size, get more housing units per acre in all of the single-family
zones...RS-5, RS~8, and RS-12, provided that they meet certain standards.
Basically that standard is that one paragraph that I mentioned before about the
garages and how they place the homes on the lot. So, once again there's a lot of
rumors and misperceptions out there floating around that there's detailed
architectural design standards for single-family homes...that's not the case.
There's no requirement in this code that all neighborhoods have to alleys...there's
certainly an opportunity to...developers can do it today...there will be new
opportunities to do it with the new code. There are some things that encourage
alleys but there's no requirement for alleys. There's no requirements that houses
have to have detached garages. There's lot of different ways you can meet the
standards in the code. In fact, the largest production home builder in Wisconsin,
Meridian Homes, which was National Homebuilder of the Year, has 41...if you
look at their website...they have 41 different home designs on their website and I
had a hard time finding one that did not meet the standards that are in this code.
There' s also this idea that this is somehow new urbanist code. I think if you
asked a new urbanist he would laugh at this or else get angry. There are some
communities that are trying out new urbanist codes and that's a form-based code
and this is nothing...this is nothing similar to a new urbanist code. If you have
questions about that I can explain it...but just to set that aside. With regard to our
multi-family zoning strategies, this is also of course a very affordable housing
option in Iowa City, but there's also much community resistance any time there is
a rezoning application for multi-family housing. In our current code, we have
multi-family site development standards in our central planning district. What we
heard from many neighborhoods and citizens are our district planning is they
wondered why we just applied these standards to our central planning district,
why not apply them city-wide. So, what we've done with this new code is take
some of those basic standards and applied them city-wide in all of our multi-
family zones. We found over the last five years since these have been
implemented that they're really working quite well and they've really helped to
reduce public resistance to multi-family zoning. Another item that you might
hear about.., one of the proposals to increase the parking requirements in our
PRM zone. That's our planned high-density residential zone and our CB-5 zones
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for apartments that have large number of bedrooms. The original intent of this
zone was that we assumed that if they were that close to downtown or the
University that they wouldn't be bringing in a car but that hasn't really panned
out...we've found that a lot of people are bringing their cars and there aren't
enough parking spots being built on those properties and it's spilling out into the
neighborhoods. Right now you can tell, if you can build a five-bedroom
apartment in these zones but the requirement is only to provide one and half
parking spaces.., so the Commission felt that was really not enough to address the
demand for parking. Another important change to the code is that we needed to
clarify our occupancy standards. This is different from residential density. This
is the number of people that can live within each housing unit. With the changes
implemented through the Neighborhood Housing Task Force... I'm not sure I got
that name right...it was a longer name...but there were some goals of that and
objectives from that task force to address occupancy issues for rental units in the
community. The Housing Inspection Services Department has been going around
and. documenting on every rental permit the number of people that can legally rent
that particular unit. That will be documented and then we can grandfather that in
(SIDE ENDS) rental properties can maintain the same occupancy that they have
today. From the date that the new code is adopted and new rental units that come
on board would then have to comply with these slightly lower occupancy
standards. We concentrated the reduction on our high-density single family and
low-density and medium-density multi-family zones. It basically reduces from
four to three persons per dwelling until and from five to four per persons per
dWelling unit.
Vanderhoefi Does that also have to do with the number of bedrooms? The five to four?
Howard: Well, it should follow that no one would build a new unit with five bedrooms if
they could only rent it to four.., so that should.., but any existing unit of course
that already have five legal residents would be allowed to continue.
Champion: This is only new construction?
Howard: New construction. So, to wrap up here, the Commission feels that this is a more
predictable, enforceable, and user-friendly document that provides new
opportunities to streamline the development review process and provides new
opportunities for lower-cost housing in the community. And they feel that the
minimum standards for commercial and residential development will help meet
the goals of the Comprehensive Plan.
Franklin: Okay, it's a little hard to condense something like this down into a few minutes
but we wanted to give you some more review of some of the rationale and some
of the highlights. Our next sessions are going to expand upon that. The plan at
this point is to have two sessions next week, Monday and Tuesday. What we
would propose is that we follow the matrix that you have been provided and that
is the matrix of public input that gets those main points that were raised by the
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public and what the response was from the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Tkat you go through those and you understand them. The idea at this point before
the public hearing is not that you come to a conclusion as a body but that you
understand what the Commission is proposing to you and why. So, then you can
take the public input and measure your conclusion. Monday night would be the
residential zones and those items are 1-22 and 50-53. On Tuesday night,
assuming we get through Monday alive, we'll do items 23-49 and 54 and 55.
Vanderhoef: 23-497
Franklin: 23-49 and 54-55. That's commercial and industrial and unlike everything else
that is in this. But we thought we needed at least one night to focus on the
residential, which has been most of the discussion as it's gone through. We also
want to have time for the Council to raise any issues that haven't been raised by
the public that you have seen or you have concerns about that you want to bring
up during this, before we get into the public hearings. So, our sense is kind of...if
you're agreeable to using that kind of matrix as a framework within which to have
thc~ discussion, then the idea is that we look at those things and you get to have a
discussion with the Commission about what their thinking was. Does that sound
okay? Okay. The game plan is that on the October 4th formal meeting, we would
set the public hearing on the map, to get that process started. That hearing would
be set for either October 10 or October 18 and I think we can have another
discussion before then to figure out which one you want to do. Of course we'll
have sessions to talk with you specifically about the map changes and those
properties.
Lehman: That works.
Franklin: Alright, we're done then.
TIF Report Update
Nasby: A couple of months ago the Council on Economic Development Committee,
which is Reginia, Bob, and Emie, had asked for just an update on Iowa City's use
of Tax Increment Financing. So, normally I'd add an informational memo in the
packet in January or February, but we wanted to go through some of the projects
and give you an update on where they're at and I put this together. Basically,
we're looking at TIF to grow Iowa City's economy. The Council's direction to
the Economic Development Committee and to staffhas been to use TIF as a
public investment and as a catalyst to build the commercial and industrial tax
base. We have not been using it for residential development. The way that we've
done our TIF use in Iowa City is basically through an individualized approach.
Each project comes to the City, we review the project, it goes to the ED
Committee for recommendation, and then to the City Council. We have the TIF
district set-up but just because you do a project there doesn't entitle a project to
Tax Increment Financing, it still does have to go through the review approval
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process and then the Council votes on a development agreement. That's the type
of system we have. Also, our TIF use has been primarily been through the use of
tax rebates. That approach has been taken to help you reduce risk. If were
putting in public infrastructure or putting money up front into projects and then
the project either didn't happen through it's full volition and realize it's total
value, we could be setting with debt and places that wouldn't have enough tax
base to take off. So, through tax rebates...what happens is that the developer puts
the project up, they meet the thresholds then they meet the rebate. If they do half
the project then they get half the rebate.
Vanderhoefi Annually they to -
Nasby: Tl-~ey have to certify annually to us according to the requirements that are in the
individual development agreements. That's correct. There's our map. We
currently have eight Tax Increment Finance Districts in Iowa City. The number
one, up in the top right-hand comer is Northgate Corporate Park and then we have
number two, which is the Scott Six Industrial Park Area, and then ! don't know
why but the numbers didn't show up. Going back to the west, the gold colored
one is number 3 and then 4 and 5 is the industrial park BDI. As you can see on
the legend it's behind Alpha industrial park. Number 3 is the Sycamore Mall area
and then number 8 is our newest one, one was put into place when we did
consideration of the Alpha project, that's the Highway 6, and then we have also
have a Tax Increment Finance district downtown, which is outlined in the black.
The A and B are property tax exemption areas and that's a little bit different
animal...but those are the areas that we have for tax abatement and revitalization.
Growing out the City's economy...that's what we had talked about initially. With
the nine projects that we have currently underway...we have not quite $61 million
in new taxable value and that's not investment but rather taxable value that has
been added. 728 commercial industrial jobs and those were through Seabury
Smith, Owens, Grant Packaging, United Natural Foods, and Alpha. We get those
numbers when we certify these businesses annually. The retail jobs was
something that was not included in our development agreements but what we did
was go out and stop by each business in these developments, we stopped by each
one, saw how many full time and part time employees they have and we were able
to tabulate this number. So, you can see that there have been quite a number of
retail jobs created or retained through this. We looked at the estimate payroll and
using the certifications that we get from the companies from the industrial jobs
and then we took the retail jobs and assigned it a relative small factor and we were
able to estimate a payroll. You can see these for each one of the projects as we go
through this...but we're talking about another $31 million dollars in the payroll
and that's a lot of money in the community -plus construction and consumer
spending. So, the projects that we have done in Iowa City...this is the Alpha
building...we've got the current assessed value, that's 2005 assessed value. The
inStial value which was the base value when the project started in January of '01.
Then the total growth- that's the increment. That's the total taxable value that
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we've captured in that TIF. Then the number of jobs created and then their
payroll amount.
Elliott: The total growth is the difference between when the TIF went in and -
Nasby: The current, correct. This is all Alpha - same calculations for that project. We
didn't assist with the first building, we assisted with the expansion, their Phase II.
So, that's when you see their initial value of $3.5 million, that's something that
they started with as part of Phase I. United Natural Foods, that was one project
that we had done. They added and essentially doubled the size of the building.
They added 128,000 square feet and within the new building - I think several of
you were at the grand opening - they have a 32,000 square foot refrigerator in
there, so that's an awfully big. Seabury and Smith, that's one that we had done in
the Northgate Corporate Park. It's actually one of the first ones that we had done.
This one you can see the main motivation was the building but there was also a
number of jobs and a fairly significant payroll in that project. Plaza Towers was
another one. That one is currently under construction, as you can see, and will be
complete at the end of the year. We have a minimum assessed value by the
agreement of $27 million. I don't know what the numbers are going to be but
that's the minimum per this agreement. Sycamore Mall...again that was one of
the first ones that we had done. The assessed value is over $12.5 million dollars
now. The initial assessed value in 2001 was $4 million. It had dropped from over
$10 down to $4 and now it's back to $12.5. So, there's a significant growth of
over $8 million dollars and then there's employment and payroll - like I said
before that's one we estimated because that's not part of the certification.
Playmor Lanes...this is one of the buildings...this was the old Playmoor Lanes
building itself. Then just to the left side of that there is also a smaller commercial
building that was constructed on what was excess parking. This project was done
by Mr. Ambrose. It is in the Sycamore/1st Avenue TIF district. It had a little over
$1 million in growth there. Pepperwood Plaza is one of the newer ones that we
had done. Like I said, we had created TIF district number 8 to initiate this
project. There are a number of businesses that have gone in to that project.
They're still putting the final touches on that but even with the partial assessment
that we had in 2005, they have increased the value of the parcel by over $2
million, so it met the thresholds for the first year certification. I'm looking for
that value to continue to climb as that project gets completed and the units get
filled. Big Ten Rentals, again, this one is also in the Highway 6 Urban Renewal
Area. They haven't started on the renovations to the building. That's under way
an:l they're supposed be done with the renovations by the first of January to be
able to take any of the TIF improvements. So, we often talk about how Iowa City
is using TIF and what the impact within the County is, so I got some information
from the Johnson County Assessors Office and this line shows you the percent of
the community taxable valuation. So, what this chart is telling you is that in
Tiffin that 58% of the community's value is located within a TIF district - is
captured by TIF. In Iowa City with 1.46% of our total valuation captured in TIF.
We have over $2 billion dollars in taxable value in Iowa City with that 1.46
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September 19, 2005 City Council Work Session Page 17 of 53
captured in the TIF. I arranged this information in a couple of different ways so
you can kind of see how we rank. This one is by dollars, so when you look at
how many dollars are captured in the increment, Iowa City falls number three in
that respect. North Liberty, Coralville certainly quite bit higher than Iowa City's
use. That's in millions...$317 almost $318 million in TIF. Looking at the use in
Johnson County there's over...approximately $439 million in TIF and 72% of it is
in Coralville. In Iowa City we have 7% of the TIF.
Lehman: Speak up, Steve, this is really, really good news...I want to make sure we hear it.
Nasby: So, Iowa City is 7% of the total TIF use in Johnson County. You can see that
Tiffin is right behind us. When you looked at some of the other slides, Tiffin was
high in the percent of value but in dollars and overall use, this is where these
communities shake out. This is why I've done it in several different ways.
Champion: Can we get copies of this stuff?.
Nasby: If you'd like, sure.
Elliott: Yes.
Nasby: One kind of last measure is what I did is took the Tax Increment and divided it by
the population to get a per capita number...again, just one more measure of the
numbers. You can see that Iowa City ranks pretty low in our use of TIF
comparatively...we're just below Shueyville. So, these are pretty much just the
numbers. Last, I just wanted kind of wanted to summarize that Iowa City
accounts for 7% of all the TIF use in Johnson County and then one other kind of
measure that ! looked at... I looked at what our maximum kind of exposure is in
our TIF. If we rebated or paid off bonds for Plaza Towers - all of those things. If
we went out to the maximum of all the contracts that we have in place, we'd put
out a little over $20 million, but right now we've got almost $61 million dollars in
new taxable value and a little over $31.2 million in payroll and that works out to
be about $4.56 directly returned. Now, I don't expect us to be spending out this
twenty million. Just kind of looking at is as a gauge... Sycamore Mall, for
instance, the maximum value of that TIF rebate was $2 million dollars. We're
probably going to be somewhere in the 60-70% range on that one. This assumed
worst-case...this is where the numbers come out for us. I think it's been a pretty
good investment for us to date. I hope this is the information that you were
looking for. If you have questions, I can certainly entertain them.
O'Donnell: Make sure we get a copy of that.
Elliott: Yes, very much so.
Nasby: Electronically?
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Wilburn: Electronically?
Karr: Steve, why don't you just send it to me so I can put it into this packet and the ones
who want it electronically to be archived and retained...the hard copy I'll just
stick to the other one.
Elliott: Thanks, Steve.
Nasby: You're welcome.
Vanderhoef: Steve, before you go...uuhh...since you're here I'm going to make the request but
it' s something that I learned a little bit about this past week at League of Cities,
but I would like a presentation on Council on New Market Tax Credits and how
they might be used in our areas that meet the...what am I trying to
say...uuhh...not urban renewal but blighted areas is what I'm trying to say.
Nasby: The State of Iowa actually put in an application for New Markets Tax Credits last
year and I had a conversation with them and we actually submitted some info...
Vanderhoef: You have?
Nasby: Yes, we have. Because the State of Iowa was doing it so we piggybacked on their
application.
Vanderhoef: I saw two big projects that are being done in Des Moines using these and the
banks that are supporting those and I think it's something that we haven't -
Bailey: What projects are they doing in Des Moines?
Vanderhoef: Gateway East and Gateway West and they both were blighted areas.
Nasby: I can do that.
Lehman: Steve, do you have this down in...obviously Council said something about getting
this information...but even more important tl~an the Councd getting it, I really
would like to see the media get it. I just think this is totally remarkable.
Champion: Very attractive.
Elliott: A news release is in order.
Vanderhoef: All candidates for Council can use that as a forum for getting more information
out. Good stuff. ,
Champion: Not all of our TIFs are rebated taxes, though? What's the Moen project?
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Atkins: That's a bond. We did do one housing project...the Villa Gardens...ten or fifteen
years ago...
Vanderhoef: 1980 or 82?
Atkins: No, it's been since I've been here...but it's been quite some time. Anyway, we
did do one housing project at that time.
Budget Review
Atkins: Okay, budget review. Do you want to go back over the other two categories, take
another quick look?
Vanderhoefi Uhhh...
Atkins: We can always come back. Okay, all set? We did Public Safety, Public Works,
and these are just things that you would like for us to consider over budget
time...the next category was Community and Economic Development and that
includes things like CBD, Planning and Community Development, Economic
Development, Council of Governments, CDBG, HOME, Human Services
Planning and things such as that. Any thoughts?
Vanderhoef: Okay...uhhh...one is our CB-2 south ofBurlington...the area south of the
railroad tax is pretty mixed and not a high-density -
Atkins: RT Grunts, the Lumber Yard - I know the bar right of way, of course. (Laughter)
Lehman: That would be County...
Bailey: I thought the County bought some of it?
Atkins: The County does have a plan.
Vanderhoef: Along the...uhhh...the Gilbert Street...all the way down to Highway 6.
Champion: What are you talking about, Dee?
Vanderhoef: What I'm talking about is that some of this area is quite blighted and it's not
highest and best use of perhaps of the area and we have already noted that we
have a traffic problem so everything in sort of a large plan.
Bailey: If the County does actually carry out their plan we're going to have a huge traffic
problem at Benton and Gilbert.
Vanderhoef: Right, so, an integrated plan...and this is the area that I'm thinking about.
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Atkins: We are currently in conversations with City Carton about how they might sort
re¢onfigure...not move but reconfigure.
Lehman: Steve, I also think that that conversation really needs to take place between us, the
County, and the University because they're all so integrated in that whole area
and my suspicion is that when those plans start fall out, there may not be a whole
lot of area that we're talking about.
Atkins: Okay.
Vanderhoefi Ahhh ....south of...Kirkwood.
Lehman: The University already has one large building down there and I don't know
what's going to happen on that corner.
Vanderhoef: Yeah, but on the east side of... -
Bailey: You're right, on the east there could be a (can't hear).
Atkins: How about we put on the agenda as we...let us kind of frame it for you.
O'Donnell: East of Gilbert? Where are you talking about?
Lehman: There's a used car lot over there...
Atkins: Even further south.
Vanderhoefi South of Kirkwood.
Atkins: Armory?
Champion: Oh, the armory...that area.
Atkins: Armory, RT Grunts, a lumber yard.
Bailey: You go down Gilbert Street.
Lehman: Dee is talking about from Kirkwood to Highway 6.
Schreiber: That's west of Gilbert is where you're talking about.
Bailey: I was noticing that the other day.
Atkins: I think we need to bring you back something...here's the issues.
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Elliott: I like Emie's comment...I think what you're talking about...we simply need to
stay in touch with all of the entities involve and stay on top of it so that we don't
get into a comer and say 'Gee, if we had only known we could have done this.'
Lehman: I think there are some long term University ideas for that area. We all know -
Atkins: South of the railroad crossing there on Capitol Street... south of that
overpass...that's where it gets a little ragged.
Champion: There's that funny gas station or -
Atkins: There's a funny gas station there too.
Bailey: It used to be...no, it's not there any more.
Champion: I know but the filling is still there.
Atkins: Oh, there's a newer gas station there, there's a BP station there.
Champion: But I mean on the other side...
Vanderhoef: That is one area. The other area is south of Kirkwood and east of Gilbert.
Lehman: Between the animal clinic on the comer and the Highland Court.
Atkins: Where the Heartland Investments is now...they moved into the old Audio
Odessey Building.
Bailey: I think Dee's just talking about...
Vanderhoef: Just that -
Lehman: Across from Nagle.
Champion: Are you talking where Pyramid is?
Atkins: Where Kitty Hawk used to be?
Vanderhoef: I would like for Council to send a letter to both the school district and the County
to say 'We need to all be sitting there' - and the University - 'hearing what's out
there' because if it takes infrastructure from the City, we don't want to be the last
to know how to move traffic in the City around your plans.
Champion: Why don't we bring this up at our joint meeting?
Vanderhoef: Well, I think we should give them a heads up.
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Champion: Well, it's October 19th.
Lehman: I think this is really a long-term sort of thing. If they know what we're thinking it
might give them a better...
Atkins: 'Let us put together some maps and kind of rough out some ideas for you, give you
a list of issues, and I know there are, as Dee pointed out, a number of people and
we do need to give them a heads up.
Lehman: I think a heads up, Steve could be done with a phone call between you and the
University, you and the County, and you and school district.
Elliott: I was just going to say, I hope you're not wrong that you are staying in touch
almost constantly with -
Atkins: Constantly is a little strong.
Elliott: You do sleep at night...let's say periodically. (Laughter)
Vanderhoefi I'd like to get it in writing also...just in general that the Council is interested in
this so that our community knows we're forward-looking on it.
Atkins: Other issues on this one?
Bailey: We talked in the Economic Development Committee about a full-time Economic
Development Director, the purpose of which would be to be able to spend more
aggressively oversee the City's economic development plan and can perhaps can
implement an economic development strategic plan that was developed by the
Committee and approved by the Council... so we could be a little more proactive
in our economic development activities and keep in better touch with some of our
major employers in town. I think it's a challenge with a quarter-time person right
now.
Atkins: Okay, any other thoughts?
Elliott: I think we mentioned when Steve talked about TIF's...we have a really
interesting success story to tell...and I'd like to see us push that a little more.
Bailey: I always like to see us push our success stories. We need a publicist. I think I've
been saying that for two years.
Champion: I don't know how we're going to hire all these people.
Bailey: This is a brainstorming session. That is actually a proactive investment
opportunity.
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Atkins: What does a publicist do?
Bailey: They market you.
Atkins: Oh...movie stars have publicists...
Atkins: Okay, anything serious now?
Bailey: In regards to human services planning...this is something that has been
discussed,., coordinate and look for ways into bringing additional dollars into the
County for human services. I don't know if that's currently under that job
description or not...
Atkins: (can't hear)
Bailey: Coordinate and look for ways to bring additional dollars into the County... grant
dollars...whether that staff person coordinates and supports the writing of grants
for agencies or does some more of that. I think that we're not capitalizing on
dollars that could be brought into the County from foundations and private
sources as well as other governmental -
Elliott: Are you saying that we keep needing new things and the only way to pay for them
is to expand the tax base and the only way to expand the tax base is commercial
and we need to innovatively and proactively expand work on developing that?
Bailey: That's what I was saying for the Economic Development Director...but for
Human Services, I'm talking about grants.
Elliott: And how we're going to pay for it.
Atkins: I had two things. I had your human services -
Bailey: It wasn't an additional staff person...
Elliott: We tip-toe around a possibility that's out there, we never mention it, but
economic development, at the present time, is the only way to get the money to
pay for the additional things that we want...to pay for more personnel, to pay for
more human services.
Bailey: No, this was about the current Human Service Coordinator to look for
opportunities to bring additional Human Service dollars into the County.
Vanderhoef: It's a combination of our CDBG, HOME funds and working with private to
increase the dollars.
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Lehman: Is that the sort of thing that Linda Severson does?
Bailey: I guess I figured it could be a discussion about her current job description. I don't
know what her skill set is...I just think that there are opportunities there.
Vanderhoef: That falls under the JCCOG -
Bailey: Human Services Planning.
Atkins: Got it. Human Services Coordinator. This for me is just a reaffirmation of what
we do.
Vanderhoef: What we have.
Champion: What are our plans for the cute gas station?
Atkins: What station?
Schreiber: The Greyhound Station.
Atkins: You get the gas station next Monday night...that's one of your items you'll be
talking about.
Bailey: You get it next Monday night.
Champion: I get to have it?
Atkins: The next meeting, October the 3rd...
Vanderhoef: One of the things that I have under Solid Waste Management...we're looking at
places to collaborate with other government bodies and I think the recycling effort
could well be an activity to get the County and all of the cities of the COG and the
University...
Atkins: Here's what we did last time for recycling...that was apartments.
Vanderhoef: Right, I want to expand it County-wide in this whole discussion...which includes
the University.
Bailey: I want to find out how we can do recycling with our parks to ensure the
availability of plastic recycling...my mom asked this so ! have to pass it on.
(Laughter) We need recycling and garbage options among our trails. She said the
Sycamore South trail can get pretty grungy. Maybe adopt a trail? But we do need
recycling.., especially plastic bottle recycling options in our park and probably
along our trails...that's the most frequently abused...
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O'Donnell: It's hard to hit those when you're going forty-miles an hour on your bike.
Atkins: I would pay to see Mike on a bicycle. (Laughter) Okay, any others?
Elliott: From your perspective, have we missed any categories or any suggestions from
you?
Vanderhoef: Culture and recreation.
Atkins: ' We're going to culture and recreation next. The only one that I'm a little
surprised as it that two years we lost four police officers, two firefighters, and no
one said 'Get back to our original complement'.
Elliott: We did under public safety.
Atkins: No, the only thing you said was a fourth fire station.
Elliott: I said we need more police and we need the...
Champion: Increase in police staff.
O'Donnell: Along with growing our tax base, maybe we need to look at our contribution to
ICAD. We need a report... I'll be truly amazed at the results from that and how
pr6ductive this group can be.
Atkins: Joe has asked about that so hopefully we can get something in front of you.
Bailey: We need to get an ROI number.
Atkins: He has an ROI number.
Bailey: For Iowa City, not for the area.
Atkins: I don't know about that.
Vanderhoef: ROI?
Atkins: Culture and Recreation. I put this one up because it was one of yours. Restrooms
an:l the festival stage. We have a preliminary budget on that.
Vanderhoef: Complete the East Side Trail.
Bailey: And put in recycling along the way.
Elliott: I think one of things that I need to be reminded of is that while those aspects are
beneficial for the people who are going to use them, to me, I would not be in
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favor of them except that they add to our economic attractiveness.., as far as
economic development. I think they are a key aspect to our economic
development.
Atkins: There were two parts. There was the restrooms and the sidewalk from the parking
lot to the festival stage.
O'Donnell: And lighting along there.
Atkins: Yes, lighting, I'm sure that was part of it too.
Champion: How far is to the restrooms that are there...if we had a sidewalk that went to
them?
Vanderhoefi They're clear around along the other side of the lake.
Atkins: They're a good hike.
Bailey: I t~fink to increase the utilization of this asset...I think restrooms near it would be
good. It's not just Riverside. I think other people rent it.
O'Donnell: Isn't there a ballpark across the way? I think it would have much use.
Atkins: I think it would be a well-received feature for the park, regardless of
whether...because there aren't really that many restrooms out there. What else?
Culture and Recreation...
Wilburn: This is related on the peripheral end... I recall, and I don't remember if it was a
joint session talking with Lane Plugge or not, about getting some type of
summary about the usage and access with schools and the public use or school use
of public facilities, whether there... I don't recall getting some type of summary of
what the current...
Vanderhoef: We got the report on the 28-E type...
Bailey: You're talking about usage for recreation activities, how we share?
Vanderhoef: That's a little different than what we got, yeah.
Champion: You're really talking about the City using school facilities for recreation?
Elliott: And vice verse.
O'Donnell: Which gym did we just build?
Champion: Grant Wood.
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O'Donnell: How's that working?
Elliott: It's not done yet.
Bailey: It's supposed to be done in January.
Lehman: They love it though.
Atkins: The idea.
Elliott: There was collaboration on the Scanlon building. One thing...we went to... I
fo'cget where it was where the students from the University presented information
on I think on different kinds of events that could be destination events.
Bailey: Sports marketing.
Elliott: That would be part of economic development and culture and recreation.
Bailey: But the CVB is initiating the sports marketing...
Champion: What are we marketing?
Bailey: We're marketing facilities.
Atkins: Real simply, Connie, we have some really excellent...for example, girls softball
at Napolean Park - sponsor a tournament, bring people in from surrounding areas.
That's the idea.
Champion: And like soccer since we have that great soccer park.
Atkins: We've got great soccer fields...
Elliott: As opposed to trying to host existing high school and other events that you have
to pay for. We can initiate some event that will bring teams in here. Teams,
people, parents, spectators...
O'Donnell: Is there any interest...and I know I've brought this up several times...about
making one of our swimming pools a little more like a water park?
Champion: No, but I'm for your swimming pool but not in City Park.
Bailey: I don't know that we need a water park given that there are a couple real close. I
think we look at our more regional assets.
O'Donnell: Those other cities are not looking into more regional...
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Wilburn: I don't know that that's necessarily true. When I was on Parks and Recreation
and when you were on Dee we tended to look at assets that were available and
that's what led to the west side related to Coralville, central related to the rec
center here, and one of the impoteses for the Scanlon Gymnasium expansion was
that type of gymnasium facility, so we kind of divided the areas into thirds...and
there's certainly not a Kicker's part everywhere and so there's not a skateboard
park in the other areas. I'm not saying it's wrong to want that...
Atkins: We have some preliminary ideas on what it would cost to put slides and some
other fun things.
Vanderhoef: I am going to go back to our original thought that we still need a park plan and we
need assessment of regional recreational, cultural things.., rather than duplicate
everything...what's missing in there.., and that's where the marketing part...
Bailey: I think we need to be working much more regionally in this area.
Vanderhoef: I do, too.
Bailey: I mean the Bocce Ball courts...have you seen those yet? I think there were
people from Iowa City and Coralville who initiated that.., so I think we're
meeting regional needs in our recreation part.
Vanderhoefi Already they're saying we may need more because...
Bailey: Apparently it's a new Special Olympic sport.
Elliott: Yeah, the Special Olympics are going to be using it.
Atkins: Bocce Ball? Oh, neat.
Champion: What is that?
Elliott: Almost like lawn bowling.
Bailey: For Culture and Recreation... I want to look into rolling the Senior Center into
Parks and Recreation because they've gone to really much more of a program
model than a service model and I think Parks and Recreation does a great job of
programming and it's probably one of our more responsive departments and then
we can get rid of the membership fees, continue the meal program on a contract
basis, and take advantage of an under-utilized City asset.
Lehman: We can still have a membership fee...We charge for using ball diamonds and
whatever.
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Bailey: No, user fees versus membership fees...because if we had membership fees for
parks and recreation, we'd all pay membership fees. So, going to a more user fee
programming model, roll it all under one umbrella, enable parks and recreation to
use that facility- because it's underutilized... I have my office hours there and I
don't see a lot of...I know it's Friday afternoon...but it's not very busy.
Champion: I think part of the financing for the Senior Center, too, is that lunch program.
They're using the space for free, they're not paying for electricity or water even...
Bailey: I think looking at that contract and doing a tight contract and it makes it really...
Champion: We're paying for all the senior center meals that are going to the whole county -
Lehman: And Washington County.
Bailey: I just think clarify responsibilities. (TAPE ENDS - NEW TAPE ) $741,000
budget...when you're primarily doing programming, why not put it to a
der~artment who does good, strong programming. Nobody can argue with our
Pax-ks & Recreation programming, it's great, it's responsive...and it's not a
service center, it's a programming center. I don't know if age segregation in the
twenty-first century is really want people want any more. We have different types
of seniors and Linda has been saying this since I came on the Council. It's a
different type of senior citizen that we're serving, so let's serve it in that manner
rather than the way we used to serve it in the 80's.
Lehman: You see the smoke rising from the building right through the wall. I see it coming
out of the Senior Center.
Elliott: You have to remember that those are the seniors being served...there might be
other seniors that would like to be served in a different manner. I'm not saying
there are, I'm just saying we have to look at both sides.
Bailey: Right, and we could have a strategic plan for the Senior Center and plenty of time
to be able to analyze this, but if we're putting up ideas to consider and looking at
the budget, and you ask how we can pay for it. I bet we could see some cost
savings. The building is probably still very expensive to keep open but...
Atkins: And the building will always be...it's a hundred year old building.
Bailey: There are meeting rooms in that building that aren't used and the library has...you
know, it's hard to get meeting space in the library and probably the recreation
center as well. We could use meeting rooms more actively with out fees if it
became that model. I just want to look at it.
Vanderhoef: I think you're on the right track with that and certainly the old funding stream for
food somehow how disappeared.
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Bailey: We have to have a better understanding of that situation, too.
Champion: I understand it totally...
Bailey: But I don't understand it...why isn't there a contract that clarifies those
responsibilities? That seems irresponsible to me.
Champion: You're right.
Atkins: Anything else in Culture and Recreation? I suspect that you'll hear from the
library... I think they're planning additional hours.
Bailey: T?,ey have to rent their space.
Atkins: What's that?
Bailey: They have to rent their space.
Atkins: They do have to rent their space.
Bailey: That's something we talked about with the Summer of Arts...is looking at the
Friday night being open late for the Friday night concert series to support the
Summer of Arts and getting more people down town.
Champion: I think they're going to have trouble renting that space. It's badly designed. It's
designed for a library.
Atkins: Tk.at was intent - that the library would grow into it some day.
Champion: It's not designed for retail at all. It would never work for retail.
Bailey: Would it work for office?
Atkins: It could be sold...I don't think it could be leased for office.
Champion: I think what you want to do is redo those windows. The architect should have
thought about that. They could have put different windows in there for display
space.
Atkins: Culture and Recreation. Once, twice...
Champion: I do think the plan of the music and jazz fest and Friday Night Concert series all
merging together is going to help with financing.
Atkins: It will help with financing but also likely make a bigger demand upon us.
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Bailey: Are we going to talk about that now because I can tell you...
Champion: We already give to all of those, right? I think the City is actually quite generous.
I think they're going to have to approach the people who don't contribute
money...like the bars, who make more money off that stuff. I think the City is
quite generous for those kinds of things down town. I would like to see more
money from the City towards Human Services - I don't know if we have it -
rather than giving more money to that kind of thing...I think it could be raised
privately.
Bailey: I'd like to see Arts Fest and the Summer of the Arts. We invest $18,000, I'd like
to double it for the first year for next year to get it off the ground. I'd like to go
up to $35,000...actually, the Committee would like the City to come in at
$50,000.
Elliott: Do we have control over liquor licenses at all? If there is a liquor license in the
downtown area.., can there be an additional add-on for that?
Atkins: Do you mean an additional fee?
Bailey: No, it's illegal.
Atkins: Marian is nodding her head.
Dilkes: Actually, that issue is before the Supreme Court right now. Des Moines imposed
some additional fees and it was challenged. The State lost in the district court and
it's up at the Supreme Court.
Elliott: I just thought there was a point well made...I like to encourage things more than
require them...but find some way...the people who benefit most from those kinds
of things. You would think if we can't encourage them with a carrot, perhaps
they can be encouraged with a stick, I don't know.
Bailey: Also, I think we should prepare a list for the Summer of Arts committee for the
in-kind support that we provide for that. I know the library is very active in the
Children's Day Arts Fest and ! think getting a sense of what our contribution is
would also help that discussion of their expectations. I think the first couple of
years are going to be the big challenge and then we can back off of support...but I
think it's a real important economic development...to get people downtown and if
we can get other businesses downtown to see it as a benefit, rather than people
just using their restrooms.
Champion: Have we ever talked about public restrooms downtown?
Vanderhoef: Yes, we have.
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Bailey: And what was the discussion?
Atkins: They're generally thought of as a bad idea.
Vanderhoef: Vandalism.
Atkins: Vandalism, cleanliness, they have to be heated...
Elliott: The worst possible crimes often take place in their.
Bailey: For example, if the library could stay open later on Friday nights and you brought
your family down for Friday night concerts, they could use those restrooms...and
those are well suited for family use.
Wilbum: This comes to mind because of some comments that Regenia made and some
comments that Bob made related to the tourism and attracting people through
recreation and culture...but it's related to economic development...but would
th~.re be interest in the Council directing staff to put a certain emphasis on our
growing the tax base besides just growing the tax base (can't hear)
...uhh... Coralville, obviously, in the recent past has emphasized retail
development. Would there be interest in not exclusively excluding other types of
using our tools to develop or recruit certain businesses or emphasize two or three?
Bailey: I figure if we did a strategic plan or priority goal setting for economic
development.., like we have an economic development plan that needs updating
that we would do that.
Vanderhoef: I guess along the economic development, I still am interested in tossing around
ideas on doing a spec building and how it might be used.
Bailey: I talked to people about that and I think it's nixed...the economic development
possibility -
Elliott: Before we get away from what Ross said...were you talking about more than
simply prioritizing?
Wilbum: Yes, I'm talking about picking two or three...like for example...it seems to me
that Coralville made a pretty conscious effort of 'let's develop our retail'. Are
there two or three areas, whether it's microenterprise or arts or those type of...
Champion: I think it's a really good idea.
Bailey: I do, too.
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Wilburn: If there's some piece or some component or some area of business or business
growth that we would like to recruit to the area.
Vanderhoef: One of the earlier things that I recall that was on the business plan around 1997 or
1998 was the pharmaceutical industry. It's been a target of a sort, but whether it
comes out as an incubator thing through the University or whether we should be
out really marketing ourselves with a space to do that. I would like to do that.
Bailey: I think we could speak with Dr. Meredith Hay -
Elliott: I was going to say...this is an appropriate time for that because Dr. Hay is
certainly energetic and enthusiastic about just that sort of thing.
Lehman: But that's just such an incredible resource right here in our back yard. I'm not
sure if it will be pharmaceutical or medically related or whatever...there's just a
tremendous opportunity that we should be ready for.
Wilburn: Not that creating a strategic plan or setting priorities isn't an important thing to
do, but really if you're interested in establishing that type of business... Iowa City
is the place for you to go.
Vanderhoef: An example that I think we have for ourselves is that all at once we had a long-
term business called P&G and the plastic bottle thing.., and I'm not sure how that
came about the first one...actually the first one who came in thought they were
going to have a certain contract and didn't, got a second company who did receive
that contract and (can't hear) has already expanded so if it's time to do some
visioning on the economic development issue...then what spin-off companies,
recognizing that our transportation system and our dollars for moving goods
around...the freight issue...then what target industry can we help -
Bailey: Vertical integration of the current industry in our community.
Elliott: I think targeting things like this even, Steve, now having only quarter time...or if
we went to someone with much more time...then it provides them as least with an
idea of some areas to do some research, to do some looking, to do some
collaboration, to do some communicating, to do any number of proactive things
than you are now when we just say 'do it all'.
Vanderhoefi What I think perhaps, or maybe a little cart ahead of the horse, because if we get a
report from ICAD...let's find out where they are in target industries and then I
would ask ICAD and Steve to vision with us a little bit on what can we as a
Council do to get out and recruit.
Bailey: But there are economic development gaps if we rely solely on ICAD...nobody is
doing microenterprise. I don't know what answer is...if I knew...
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Vanderhoefi Rather than reinvent...let's find out what ICAD and...
Atkins: This isn't as much a budget issue as it is a policy manner...but I think you're
already engaging in that discussion and clearly this needs to come back to you.
Bailey: Should we have a session where we can talk about this?
Elliott: None of these things would be done unilaterally by the City... I think we realize
thgt -
Bailey: But there are gaps that we need to fill. We can not expect that ICAD is going to
take of our economic development.
Atkins: Anything else? My arrow means that I need to assign this economic
development.., it really isn't culture and recreation.
O'Donnell: How closely do you work with ICAD?
Atkins: Very.
Wilbum: Ross and I are both on the board. I'm on the executive committee as well.
O'Donnell: So we have good representation.
Bailey: But they're Iowa City area.
Atkins: They're putting together a new fundraising campaign...it's time again and that
will be will be coming out in the next few months.
O'Donnell: I know the technology corridor is going after is going after all types.
Atkins: Yeah, we do real well. In fact, I...I think we're a (scoash) ahead of the guys up
north.
Lehman: My suspicion is that (can't hear) some time in the next couple of months -
Atkins: Oh we'll set that up...because we did an ROI report similar to what Steve had
done. I don't know, though, to answer Regenia's questiOn the specifics because it
is a regional approach. For example, you mentioned P&G, you got to remember
the.t they just put in a 500,000 square foot warehouse...they've invested hugely.
Do' we get credit for that? No. We competed for it, they chose another piece of
land...the important thing was that it helped preserve P&G as a long-term market.
Bailey: But we need multiple strategies if we're going to do good proactive economic
development.
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Atkins: Culture and Recreation. Anyone want to try to get back to that? If there's no
more do you want to go on to the next one? You've got about fifteen more
minutes and two more areas to cover.., and they are... General Government... City
Council... I won't make any comments about that.
Elliott: No qualitative comments.
Atkins: Council Manager, Clerk, Personnel, Finance, City Attorney, Human Rights,
Government Buildings... any of our operational things...
Elliott: I think one of the things that I've thought of is we already put in a lot of time and
I understand those people that have work to do...they don't have the luxury that I
have of lying around thinking of things...but I think our Council needs to hold
more meetings to talk about more things. It seems like we spend all of our time
reacting instead of being proactive and coming up with fresh ideas...taking fresh
looks at existing situations.., so I would like for our Council to be more active and
to look more active and to look at being more proactive and leading as opposed to
being just reactive.
Bailey: I'll build on that...in proactivity I think we should be more engaged in
lobbying...I think we've seen that work for other communities and be more aware
of what's happening at the state and federal level so to make sure that that budget
is sufficient to have people going on...maybe even more than one person going
on the chamber trip and making sure that people are going to National League to
do that lobbying. I think that's really important.
Elliott: Yeah, I think it's important not to be overrepresented but to be represented.
Champion: I have trouble with what you're saying. Are you trying to micromanage the City?
Elliott: No, no...but I think we're overdue...let's say mass transit.
Lehman: But that's going to be on the agenda.
Elliott: Bui it hasn't been done for a long time. I think we're overdue at looking at so
many of these things that are on here. We've got at least a dozen different
subjects that I think need virtually an all-day meeting to talk about it.
Bailey: I like you all but not that much.
Elliott: I just think that we spend too much reacting and not enough time leading...
Bailey: Maybe we could be more effective and efficient, too. The longest meetings aren't
always the most productive.
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Wilburn: I think where Reginia is going is that there is a budget-related expense to this. It's
not a large budget item, but when we had to make the budget cuts that the Council
would have less travel. We may need to relax that a bit and spend a little more in
order to accomplish those objectives.
Bailey: I have a question about this area...thanks for clarifying what I said. This comes
because I got a parking ticket in Ames, Iowa and they are very serious about their
parking tickets and collection. How many dollars do we have in uncollected
parking fines and other kinds of uncollected...
Atkins: Do you know that, Kevin, off the top of your head?
Bailey: I know we don't go to collection. I know that when you're talking about a ten
do!lar parking ticket there is a cost benefit...but I tell you...even a sterner letter
might...ours is so dog-gone friendly and theirs is scary.
Schrieber: They're so friendly that my dad threatens to kill me every time he gets one of
those letters.
Bailey: I'm just saying that our letters are friendly where as Ames is serious...collection,
coming and getting you and going to court...
Atkins: I'm not sure -
Elliott: I'm not sure we want to get into anything like that.
Bailey: I'm just saying we could move into a little more of a direction if our collection
numbers aren't very high.
Vanderhoefi I tf~ought we did send some collection-
Atkins: Oh, we do. We do okay. Let me just kind of...
Bailey: If we're going to have to look for more revenue streams I think cost -
Atkins: We increased the fines a few years ago and that made a big difference.
O'Donnell: One of my complaints is that people say that they're there two minutes longer and
they've got a ticket. I don't see us having trouble enforcing.
Bailey: It's not enforcement, it's collecting.
Elliott: However, I think there are times when we have events when we need to take into
consideration.., somebody comes here for an event, sees a lot of cars parked along
a s.treet, and then they get a ticket and we have the event and we're happy to see
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them but they go away with a negative attitude...I think we need to make some
exceptions.
Atkins: But the problem you have with that is 'I don't know that'.
Schrieber: How about no out of town tickets. (Laughter)
Lehman: That's half the cars in Johnson County.
Elliott: I think Sunday morning you make exceptions. There are exceptions on the one-
way streets...but how about exceptions for ball games?
Lehman: What you're asking us to do is not ticket people who are parked illegally.
Elliott: For special events.
Champion: Then none of my customers should have parking tickets, either.
Atkins: There's a parking sign message that we have to discuss.
Lehman: I bet you end up exactly where you are right now.
Bailey: I just wanted the information on how much we don't collect.
Atkins: In all the years I've been here... I've had letters waived, 'you're not nice to me',
and more...and we really do have a pleasant-
Champion: If we had my way we'd raise the fines to $10.
Bailey: I have another question.
Champion: Speaking of fines... I'm sorry, Reginia.
Bailey: No, speak about fines.
Champion: The parking thing that irritates me...I don't know if this is the place to discuss
it...is the every other...
Bailey: Nc, I think that's perfect.
Champion: I think that's bad.
Bailey: No, it works beautifully...because there would be street storage in my
neighborhood...I'd never be able to park within five blocks.
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Atkins: It's better for snow removal and you won't have street storage.., and people will
take their tickets.
Champion: It does work?
Bailey: Your neighborhood doesn't have it, right? Our neighborhood has it and it works.
Champion: What amazes me is that the street gets cleaned and the snow gets removed but we
don't have to move our cars.
Elliott: You don't have much parking on your street.
Atkins: You're also on an arterial street.
Lehman: It's only one side, though, isn't it?
Champion: Yes.
Atkins: I'r,~ sure it's arterial for transportation which means that it gets it earlier than
anybody else.
Dilkes: I've tried to restrain myself but I think this agenda item is called budget review.
If we could just get back on task?
Atkins: Anyone else on general government?
Bailey: I have a question and it's not to say that I want it any other way, but human
rights...we have human rights which is fundamentally an attorney function and
we have the attorney's office. Has it ever been discussed that those would be
under the same? I don't know the history of that and why is it separate?
Atkins: Not really...I can't really give you the history.
Dilkes: Actually there's a lot of reasons. The investigative function really needs to be
sei~arate from the attorney review.., so.
Bailey: Okay, that's fine...that's all I wanted to know.
Dilkes: It's helpful to have attorneys serving as investigators because they know the law.
Elliott: Ask and you shall be informed.
Atkins: General govermnent. Anything else?
Bailey: Then of course I want to see the support for the CVB moved to the amount of the
percentage that I proposed last year which was 30%. I'm just going to bring it up
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September 19, 2005 City Council Work Session Page 39 of 53
as a heads up...because they're taking on this sports marketing and I think the
opportunity to actually do some economic development in that way... I think in
the long run we'll see more hotel/motel tax in the City.
O'Donnell: You know what we need on that? We need very similar to the TIF thing.
Atkins: Josh has a very good program for that. I've seen that.
O'Donnell: It's phenomenal rates that we get returned on that money.
Bailey: Should Josh come in this fall? Steve, do you want to give him a call?
O'Donnell: I think it's worth trying.
Atkins: I'll take care of it.
Bailey: I think it's a good idea, especially with the sports marketing.
Champion: Can I just ask a question about the TIF's? I don't have any problem with the
TIF's we have, don't misunderstand me, I just want to ask a simple tax question.
· As the property increases in value, is there any tax on the increased value?
Bailey: Yeah, when they roll off their contract.
Nasby: Like on the Sycamore Mall case, we have a 7-year 100% rebate. We capture that
increment.., in Sycamore Mall's case was about $8 million dollars...that
increment is captured for the seven years of the contract. Once that contract is
done the rebate's quit going to the developer and all that money goes back into
the general taxing jurisdictions... City, county, and school district.
Champion: But they also do pay taxes on bonds.., school bonds, county bonds...
Nasby: Yes, all the protected levy's.., our consolidated tax levy for last year was about
$35 per $1,000. The TIF rebate portion was $28 per $1,000. The protected levy
gets taken out. They don't get that back.
Champion: For example, the hotel is supposed to be valued at $27 million. That was part of
the TIF contract. What if it's valued at $29?
Nasby: Once we get to minimum, we get the whole value. It just means we'd pay the
bonds off faster.
Lehman: There was a guaranteed minimum on the hotel. They agreed to that whether it
reaches that amount they will have to pay on that amount. If it's more then
ob¥iously it's more.
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Champion: Thank you.
Atkins: Anything else, folks? We've got about five or six more minutes if we're going to
stick to an hour.
Elliott: I think part of the culture in Culture and Recreation...the ponds that we talked
about earlier. Where do those fit in down on Sand Road?
Atkins: T[~tt's capital project. Sand Lake or whatever we're going to call it? We'll have
a proposal for you on that.
Elliott: Okay, I'm assuming we're talking about is a capital investment. Any investment
into it would be...
Atkins: That would be a budget item.
Elliott: Later, okay.
Vanderhoef: Just as a reminder to everybody...when I look at this employee benefits...this is
the year that this comes up with state legislature...so 411 and police and fire
fighter benefits are up for changing or review or whatever the legislature chooses
to do... so we need to at least be thinking about what our position is.
Atkins: W~: need to be very diligent on that one. It's grown.
Vanderhoef: The police and fire benefits are probably going to be at 30% and they started out
at 13% in 1996 or 1997 and they have just gone up and up.
Atkins: This is where the state passes it and hands us the bill.
Vanderhoef: Yes, because they did not plan their return...they didn't adjust it afterwards.
Atkins: I just wrote a category called Enterprise Funds. Water, sewer, waste water, storm
water, airport.., is there anything you have in mind about our enterprise fund?
Bailey: So how much will our general obligation to the airport decrease as a result of the
sale of that land?
Atkins: We'll get you a calculation on that but it will.
Lehman: Interest portion primarilywise.
Atkins: There should be enough money for them to fully pay off all the capital
improvements with the one sale. Then there should be other monies sufficient to
create an income that should reduce the subsidy in a pretty healthy fashion.
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Lehman: Just paying offthe improvements will reduce a fair amount because the interest
will be gone.
Atkins: W~'re working on another idea called Aviation Commerce Park South, which is
down...and Karin and staffare still working on that. We'll have that for you in
the next couple of months or so. She's ready to bring this to yOU now...it's my
error... I've waited entirely too long.
Vanderhoef: When we had this economic development thing...why...throw that in the
hopper...that's a good one and that might be nice for...
Lehman: Steve, when the discussion takes place relative to public transit and the routes and
our philosophy and whatever...is that conversation also going to look at the
impact of increase fuel and the cost of the operating costs?
Atkins: Yes.
Lehman: At some point in time I think the City is going to have to come to grips with the
transit rates. We've been $.75 for quite a while. You hate to do more but on the
other hand -
Atkins: We also run routes that we have very few people on them.
Elliott: Not only rates but routes.
Lehman: Right, but I think that discussion will look at that whole thing.
Atkins: I want to give you a summary of where we are and then give you some options.
One of the options is to start over...redo all the routes and everything. We could
do that.
Elliott: I certainly want to know at some point why a north, south, east, west grid would
not work.
Champion: What about...is there any possibility of working with Coralville and their transit
system as well?
Atkins: That's a possibility.
O'Donnell: We've been talking regional for so long.
Lehman: I think every year is a year closer to it happening.
Atkins: Coralville and their council... I can't speak for them...but they have a little
different attitude about that...it's either use it or lose it. If they don't have routes
that are busy - we don't...it's a policy.
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Vanderhoef: And if Iowa City had the same policy, we'd have a lot -
Bailey: Well, we wouldn't have to have the same policy. Maybe some kind of agreement.
If that's the way it is in the west, that's how it happens...I don't know.
Elliott: I think all of us need to realize that either we're going to do this ourselves or it's
going to be done for us one of these days.
Atkins: That will come back to you. You'll have that one early in the budget process.
Vanderhoefi With airport...ahhh... I just want an update on how that all fits together no.w that
the FAA says they don't have enough money to fund our runway this year.
Champion: How long will that hold up our road?
Vanderhoef: Well, then there's a policy issue there of whether we close the other runway so we
can go sooner rather than later.
Lehman: I don't think the FAA will allow us to close that north/south until the other one is
extended.
O'Donnell: They will not.
Atkins: Might.
O'Donnell: I can't believe they'd do that.
Atkins: One of the things we thought about doing was building the road and close it...but
haYe it finished so at least it's out of the way.
Lehman: Isn't the elevation of the road the problem?
Atkins: You're allowed to have cars but you can't have peOple in them.
Lehman: Oh, the actual road itself is not in the protected zone?
Atkins: No, here's the runway, the road is above the runway.., so this glide...whatever
they call it.
Lehman: So the glide pattern doesn't hit the road. The road is low enough. Cars would be
but the road isn't.
Atkins: That's it, I think.
Lehman: OKay.
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Vanderhoef: It's a very expensive trail.
Atkins: Water fund is sound, sewer fund is okay...no? Water is uncomfortable. That's
what I was going to say. The water fund appears to be generally okay...the sewer
fund is really tight. We don't have a lot of room whatsoever.
Lehman: Is that largely a result of Proctor & Gamble not using the increased capacity that
we~ built for them?
Atkins: It's a lot of things, Emie.
Lehman: But isn't that the big 'if'?
Atkins: That's not the biggest one. I mean, they're down -
Helling: Ernie, I don't think that's the largest thing...we're just not seeing the growth that
we need from the sewer fund.
Atkins: It's nothing to get panicky about but it's just that we don't have the capacity.
Champion: People aren't flushing enough?
Atkins: Not enough flushing. If we had a big bond issue and we were going to do it by
se;,cer revenue, I'm not sure we'd recommend it. You'd probably have to do a
GL. Airport, you know what the issues are. Storm water is okay. Landfill is
sound. Rufuse collection, we made a modest adjustment, we should be okay on
that for a while.
Helling: I'm still looking at that...on refuse.
Atkins: Okay.
O'Donnell: On water retention...is that building -
Atkins: Yes, it's doing fine. It's not a huge amount of money...but it will finance a
project or two each year.
Vanderhoef: That's what Brian is going to bring back to us in the next memo or something. He
pu* it in his letter to us that he was going to bring one back to us. Parking
fufld...now that we're open and parking permits...
Atkins: Remember, we brought you a summary...we're going to have to plan for rate
increases in the future...that's being work on now. You'll have that at budget
time.
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Lehman: I just have a question...the sewer fund.., as we're paying off debt on the water
plant...we had a 5% reduction in rate two years ago and apparently that's a pretty
healthy fund, aren't we also paying off the debt on the sewer.plant?
Helling: We're paying off the debt but we're just not getting enough revenue to take
advantage of some other market opportunities.
Lehman: Now, what exactly does that mean? What's a market opportunity for a sewer
plant?
Helling: There's an interest rate...an arbitrage opportunity that I've been sitting on for a
year and a half and I haven't been able to get to that.
Atkins: Refinance.
Helling: I could refinance it at a lower rate...
Lehman: Well, then say refinance...I can understand that.
Atkins: That's arbitrage.
Lehman: It's what?
Vanderhoefi Arbitrage.
Lehman: I can't even say arbitrage.
Helling: It's because we have a covenant in the sewer bonds that they say that we need to
have at least 125% revenue.
Vanderhoef: What's that again...tell us all again.
Helling: There's a covenant in our sewer bonds that require us to have at least 125% of net
reyenues and unfortunately we're about 121 and I need to move that up a little bit
more.
O'Donnell: But that's really going to change in the near future...With the potential growth
about to come on line.
Lehman: What potential growth?
O'Donnell: Well, Ernie, we've got the towers down town, we've got Old Capitol Mall...I
understand the Old Capitol Mall...the second floor has been taken -
Lehman: But once they fill that there still won't be any greater sewer usage than when it
was full five years ago.
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Atkins: What you need is a brewery.
O'Donnell: We need a brewery.
Bailey: That's economic development.
Atkins: None of our enterprise funds are in dire straits.., some are just tighter than
others...there's market conditions and a whole variety of things. It's been an hour
and I said an hour.
Bailey: Can I just give one other idea? It's not for expenses...
Atkins: Can she give one more idea?
Lehman: Absolutely.
Bailey: You guys are really generous. There was an old idea floating around that I heard
about getting employees and management in direct line staffing...to look for
savings...I think this happened and maybe we could also look at this in the budget
process.
Atkins: You raised the issue a couple of months ago.
Bailey: Look at a ten percent savings per department and incentivize those committees
and maybe across the board we could see some savings...because in order to do
some of the things we talked about, we're going to have to reduce expenses.
Lehman: But that really becomes a management tool for you, Steve.
Atkins: We were thinking about doing a survey...we've done some work internally on our
own. We were trying to get somebody to come in sort of independent but they
want $20,000 to do it and I just wasn't ready to do that.., so I'm looking for some
other options.
Bailey: Have staff people-
Vanderhoef: Let's get some of the University project to do phone surveys. Let's see if it's
possible.
Atkins: We do some phone work now, don't we, Kevin? Particularly in treasury, how fast
we respond and -
O'Malley: Right, we do some analysis on customer service response time.
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Bailey: But if we would just ask departments to get an informal committee together, give
them some time to meet, look for a ten percent savings with out any service
reduction or staff reduction.
Lehman: Basically what you did two years ago when we got the mandate from the State.
Atkins: When we got the mandate from the State, I rounded everybody up and did pretty
much just that.
Bailey: So, why not do it when we're not under...
Atkins: Well, we still are...we lost a million bucks from them.
Bailey: Well, it's not the same level of panic...we just learned to live with the stress.
Vanderhoef: Is it going to go up this year?
Atkins: Anything else? Okay, we'll kind of summarize all this for you and be back at
you. Thanks, there were some good ideas.
Lehman: Okay, there were no applications for appointments, is that correct?
Karr: No, there were not.
Lehman: Agenda items?
Item #7 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION REJECTING BIDS RECEIVED ON SEPTEMBER
8, 2005 FOR THE JC DogPAC DOG PARK PROJECT.
O'Donnell: I would like to bring up one. I don't know where I saw it...but it was on the Dog
Park...which one is that? Item #7. Did I miss something? I thought were talking
about $70,000 to develop and possibly $70,000 to do a pond.
Lehman: The pond was supposed to be an alternate.
Atkins: The pond was bid as an alternate and it came in too high and we're proposing to
reject everything and put everything in a time out.
O'Donnell: But I'm seeing now...had we gotten a bid of $140,000 we'd be doing a dog park
wi h a pond.
Atkins: No, you have authorized me to negotiate a $70,000 loan agreement. That's it.
Nothing else, not a nickel more. That's all you've told me to do. So, we're going
to reject it and in effect start over.
Dilkes: Mike, I think the engineer -
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Lehman: Steve, do you know what portion of the bid was Dog Park and what portion was
pond?
Karr: $95,000 was the base bid, the alternate was $201,000. $95,000 was your base.
Vanderhoef: Versus the separate that we had expected.
Karr: Correct.
Lehman: Any other agenda items?
Item #6 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE CALL TO ARTISTS FOR TWO
PUBLIC ART PROJECTS; ONE EACH IN THE KICKER'S SOCCER PARK
AND THE SYCAMORE GREENWAY TRAIL.
Elliott: Yes, Item #6. The Public Art Committee. I looked at this item and then I also
read the minutes...no where does it say anything about funding. How much is the
cost?
Atkins: W,; have an annual budget set aside for public art.
Elliott: But it's asking us to approve something and I have no idea what the cost will be.
Atkins: We don't know what it will be until -
Vanderhoef: Oh, well in the proposal they made recommendations in the contract.
Elliott: I didn't see it in the minutes.
Lehman: No, it's in the contracts.
Elliott: Oh, I didn't see that.
Vanderhoef: The call to artists gives you the -
Elliott: Ar:l what is it?
Franklin: $35,000.
Elliott: $35,000.
Vanderhoef: I started thinking about parks and art in the parks. I think Mercer Park is going to
take a very large sculpture or something in there to do it justice for all the multi-
uses there and I'd just like the art committee to consider in another year doing one
big art project rather than several small ones.
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Lehman: We have to be careful what we consider because the City Attorney is looking at
us like this is not Item #6.
Elliott: Tonight, I will say that we are talking about wanting to have money to pay for
staff for the north side fire station. We spend $30,000 for an artistic entrance to a
neighborhood park, we're talking about two more $30,000 pieces...I- will vote
against any of this stuff until we get the nitty gritty of how are we going to pay for
firemen... I think the art is important but not as important as police and fire
protection.
Lehman:' Bob, you do understand that the money that is spent for art are capital funds and
not general funds money that could not be used -
Elliott: BUt it's all funds in the budget.
Lehman: No, there not. One of them are general fund moneys...they have to be used for
salaries.
Elliott: It's all tax payer money.
Lehman: Yeah, but those are two totally different funds...by not putting art in the park,
which I'm not saying I like or don't like, does not give one nickel for a fireman or
a policeman.
Elliott: All I'm saying is that this is all tax payers money and George down the street,
whether it comes out of his left pocket or his right pocket, it's coming out of his
pockets...and I'm not going to vote for this until we get to the place where we
know we have funding for fire and police.
Bailey: Bc;b, I just want to clarify that that fire station is your priority and when you use
that word 'we' - why don't you use 'I'? I hear what you're saying and I
understand it's a priority and I've understood it since we ran for office together,
but I've got to tell you that there are other priorities that I have for this community
and I would rather not be lumped in that 'we'.
O'Donnell: I would love to be lumped in that 'we' because your number one priority on this
Council is public safety and I believe that and I believe that we need that fire
station.
Elliott: During the campaign, whenever anyone was asked what their top priorities were,
it was police and fire protection. Period.
Bailey: Not mine.
Elliott: I understand.
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Lehman: Other agenda items?
Item 2e(15). Peter Lagios: PATV
Vanderhoef: Just one. In the correspondence, number 15. The letter that made suggestions on
PATV and the contract -
Bailey: Can somebody frame that?
Vanderhoef: Dale, I think that's your baleywack...I would like to get that framed. . . if you're
not prepared tonight...
Helling: No, I'm prepared because I've talked to this gentleman and there's some
confusion there. He was thinking...first he was thinking about the franchise
agreement which has already been signed. The contract with PATV will be
coming up. The current one expires. It was negotiated to expire with the
termination of the franchise, which would have been February 26, 2006, I believe.
But, since the new franchise was extended and was effective ahead of that date,
we still need to go back and start that process with PATV to see if we can
negotiate an agreement with them to continue to fund the Public Access channel.
That's the agreement that is coming up. Now, what he has proposed is something
else. Something (TAPE ENDS) ...and he has listed those things in there.
Certainly we would take that document, along with anything else, when we go to
negotiate the new contract with PATV, but I think he's asking you to do
so:nething now.
Vanderhoef: To change the length of the directorship?
Helling: Well, there's a whole list of things in there.
Vanderhoef: Yeah, and the voting situation versus appointments by-
Helling: Some of which you would have the authority to do, some of which you would not.
Vanderhoefi Maybe we just need a response memo to the questions and at least tell us which
things we have authority on and which things we don't have authority on.
Helling: We can do that.
Lehman: Okay, tomorrow night.
Bailey: Council Time.
COUNCIL TIME
Lehman: Yes, Reginia, go.
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September 19, 2005 City Council Work Session Page 50 of 53
Bailey: Steve, I wanted to follow up on the First Avenue Club item. What happened
exactly?
Atkins: They had a permit and they followed all of the rules that were in their permit.
Simply spoken, I don't know how to describe this other than...
Lehman: They abused the privilege.
Atkins: No, I'm not so sure they did, Emie.
Bailey: Given the decibel levels.., it would seem that they did.
Atkins: The point...what were the decibel levels and who measured them?
Lehman: If you could hear it over at City High it was pretty loud.
Bailey: In the permit there is a decibel range of 60-100.
Atkins: My point is that we were not equipped to measure that. What we need to do...and
Marian and I need to bring you something to talk about this because if we're
going to tighten the policy up...if it's in a commercial zone...the guy that runs the
First Avenue Club...the guy spent a lot of money to bring in a professional
entertainer, the guy was cooking, and everybody heard it...but we also have
something similar...we have a person who complains because a church wants to
sing outside on Sunday mornings. That's just as disturbing to that person. So, if
we're going to get into decibel readings...first of all we need to get a
decimeter... I'd like to bring it back to you and identify the issues for you in some
fashion.
Lehman: Could I suggest that perhaps one of the things that you might look at is if the
decibel levels are relative to the time of day?
Atkins: Ernie, the decibel...I want to caution you.., at any given point the officer could be
th(re, arrive for a complaint, point the decibel reading meter and the guy hits A
over B or some sort...and you're done...because it reads contrary to the policy.
You also have a number of organizations that have these...what do you do about
Regina? What do you do about the City High dance after Homecoming? Football
games? I mean, you're going to exempt people.
Bailey: We know when those are going to end. There's a difference.
Atkins: No, this ended at 9:30.
Karr: This ended within the proper time.
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Atkins: He played by the rules.
Bailey: I'm not saying that he didn't... I'm saying the problem is that if I was near City
High, I know how long the football game goes, so I know what the drill is. If they
didn't know what it was...
Atkins: No, the First Avenue guy played by the rules.
Lehman: I think that's right.
O'Donnell: Isn't there an ordinance that if you hear it across your yard then it's your yard?
Karr: In a residential area, yes, this isn't a residential area.
Elliott: St~ve, the thing with the church, I got an earful on that on a couple of occasions.
O'Donnell: I've got one quick thing. I got contacted from somebody at Cedar Valley Area
Development... is the Mayor Youth's Program still repairing bicycles and selling
them, do you know? They have forty to fifty bicycles that they would like to
donate...
Bailey: How about the bike library?
O'Donnell: I'd be glad to get those bicycles if we want them. We'd have to pick them up.
Atkins: We can arrange that. Dale, will make the phone call. Who was it again?
O'Donnell: I've got it written down.
Atkins: We'll follow up.
Bailey: I know there is a Meet the Chief on Wednesday night, but when I spoke with you
about the police chief hiring we talked about doing some kind of reception...
Atkins: Yep, we're working on that right now.
Bailey: Okay.
Karr: Jeremy, I can't hear you.
Schreiber: UISG is co-sponsoring the Meet the Chief so if you could come out that would be
great.
Elliott: I thought that was especially nice because you're doing it in conjunction with
AARP. I thought that was really a neat combo.
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Schreiber: We tried to get the middle-aged folks of America to come but they - (Laughter)
Champion: I have two things. The bikes on the sidewalks downtown are terrible. They're
actually getting more and more dangerous. My second thing, and I don't want
anyone to laugh at me, alright? (Laughter)
Atkins: We're already laughing.
Champion: When we design the new bridge -
Atkins: Which new bridge.
Champion: The one that is going to go over the river...
Atkins: They usually do. (Laughter)
Bailey: We always have our bridges go over some body of water.
Atkins: You mean McCollister Bridge?
Champion: I think we should seriously consider making it bat friendly.
O'Donnell: I'll see you guys tomorrow night, okay?
Bailey: W2~at does that mean?
Champion: Well, you make the bridge so that bats like to live under it?
Elliott: Why?
Champion: Oh my gosh, environmentally they eat a ton and ton of mosquitoes.
Elliott: I'll take mosquitoes over bats any day.
Bailey: Oh, no...
Atkins: I will ask that question for you.
Bailey: Is there a bridge design that -
Champion: O1- yeah, all over the country. Austin is the most famous one.
Lehman: Does anybody have anything else for the good of the cause?
Bailey: I think that was good for the cause of the bats.
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Karr: I just wanted to remind you that those who have volunteered to help serve at West
Branch on Friday...do you want me to put a note in your packet, call and remind
you, how do you want me -
Champion: What time do we need to be there?
Karr: The bus will leave with our guests at 5:30 from downtown.., so they're out there
around a quarter to six...so if you could arrive between 5:30 and no later than a
quarter to six. You should be done serving within an hour but I know that some
of you are staying for dinner...but by about 6:30 or 6:45 will be done.
Lehman: Is this black tie?
Karr: No, it isn't.
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