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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2001-03-05 Transcription March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 1 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session 4:00 PM Council: Lehman, Champion, O'Donnell, Vanderhoef, Wilburn, Pfab, Kanner Staff: Atkins, Helling, Karr, Dilkes, Franklin, Fowler, Logsden, Nasby, Furman, O'Malley, Kopping, Schoon, Winkelhake, Craig, Davidson, Shaffer TAPES: 01-28, BOTH SIDES; 01-29, SIDE ONE Plannin~ & Zonin~ (Problem Tape) A. CONSIDER A MOTION SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING FOR MARCH 20 ON AN ORDINANCE CHANGING THE ZONING DESIGNATION BY ESTABLISHING A CONSERVATION OVERLAY ZONE FOR PROPERTIES GENERALLY LOCATED SOUTH OF BURLINGTON STREET ALONG GOVERNOR AND LUCAS STREETS. B. CONSIDER A MOTION SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING FOR MARCH 20 ON AN ORDINANCE CHANGING THE ZONING DESIGNATION FROM HIGH DENSITY MULTI-FAMILY RESIDENTIAL, RM-44, TO SENSITIVE AREAS OVERLAY, O SA-44, FOR APPROXIMATELY 4.01 ACRE S OF PROPERTY TO ALLOW 39 DWELLINGS IN THREE BUILDINGS LOCATED ON THE EAST SIDE OF HARLOCKE STREET. C. PUBLIC HEARING ON AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE ZONING CODE, SECTION 14-61-1Q, TO ALLOW ADULT DAY CARE IN COMMERCIAL ZONES ON STREETS LESS THAN 28 FEET IN WIDTH. Karin Franklin/... traffic in the width of the street as we would in residential areas because that traffic will be there anyway because of the commercial uses. D. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING A FINAL PLAT OF WESTCOTT HEIGHTS PART THREE-A, A 78.96 ACRE, 47-LOT RESIDENTIAL SUBDIVISION LOCATED IN JOHNSON COUNTY ON THE WEST SIDE OF PRAIRIE DU CHIEN ROAD, SOUTH OF NEWPORT ROAD. (SUB00-00027) Franklin/And Item D is a resolution approving the final plat of Westcott Heights, the subdivision that we've been talking about a bit in the county on Prairie Du Chien noah, and that' s ready to go, no issues, and I'm done thank you. Kanner/I have questions on the agenda from setting public hearings and the minutes. Franklin/I'll be here Steven. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 2 Kanner/And do you want to wait for that or should we do it now? Franklin/I'll be here through the 64-1a so whenever you want. Al~enda Items Lehman/Well we're at agenda items so what do you have? Kanner/The development regulations report by Duncan and Associations. Lehman/And this is on what item? Kanner/Okay, I'm sorry, this is under consent calendar #4b(4), 4b. Franklin/Minutes. Kanner/I'm sorry 4, 5, it's under 4, 5 Planning and Zoning, two one meeting minutes, presentation of development regulations by Duncan and Associations on page 50 in our package. Franklin/Okay give me a minute here. Kanner/Well while you're looking the main gist is it looked pretty exciting in the initial report and the discussion that was going on there between Planning & Zoning and it's overview of our regulations and I'd like us to Council to get a look at that report as soon as possible, can we have a copy of that? Franklin/It's scheduled for the 19th, do you want it before then? Kanner/I personally would like to have it as soon as possible. Franklin/It is long so that would be fine (can't hear). Lehman/How long is it? Franklin/About that long. Lehman/Could we get a synopsis of it? I mean that' s fine if everybody wants to read the whole thing but is there. Champion/I'd like a condensed version. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 3 Lehman/Thumbnail sketch of, that' s not possible. Atkins/That' s a hard document, there' s so many specifics areas. Franklin/There is an executive summary in the very beginning of it. Lehman/Oh good. Champion/Oh that's good. Lehman/That's fine. Franklin/Yea I'm pretty sure that' s (can't hear). Kanner/ You' re planning to get it to us for the 19th, the whole thing? Atkins/We can get it sooner than that. Franklin/Yea I can get it to you sooner than that. Kanner/Yea I would appreciate getting it sooner personally, it looks like some major things that were brought up there and it's going to be a one to two year process to review those and so. Franklin/To actually, what this is about at this point in time, just briefly is suggestions for changes and then we have to go through the whole process of deliberation over those changes which will be asked on the 19th is to think about whether there' s anything in that report that you don't even want to go near and then we'll just take it off the list. Lehman/Okay. Vanderhoef/Or additions? Franklin/Or additions, yep. Lehman/Okay, go ahead. Item 4b(1). Iowa City Public Art Advisory Committee - February 14 Kanner/Karin I've got a couple things, also on the consent calendar item #4b(1) Public Art, what' s going on with the Literary Walk and the repouring of the concrete in This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 4 that discussion, I was a little confused I had not seen anything about that previously. Franklin/Do you remember when we started this project we wanted to actually put some of it in place last year to coincide with the streetscape project that was happening last fall. We couldn't because we didn't get the permissions from the authors in time to get it to the artists to do the design to get the bronze plaque forged in time before the sidewalk was poured. We made a decision to go ahead and pour that sidewalk because we needed, that's a high pedestrian area, we needed that space particularly with what was going on with Tower Place and the other side of the street being closed. The decision at this point was to look at how to then handle the completion of the Literary Walk and there were a number of options that were given to the Public Art Advisory committee, we looked at the relative costs of completing the whole project or not and then determination of the committee was to go forward with completing the project. And what this will mean is that when we start the streetscape project in the 300 block which is between Linn and Gilbert next month in April, probably be about mid April, one of the first things we will do is remove that sidewalk band on the noah side, do a repour, install the plaques, do the stamping, and also do the south side at the same time and complete the project. Kanner/ That' s, and I think I saw it was an extra couple thousand dollars extra cost? Franklin/No it's more than that, it's $14,000 more which will come out of the Public Art fund. Kanner/And the other options. Franklin/The other options were not to do it, to have five block phases, not six, to have four block phases, instead of six. Remember we already have a contract with the artist for six, so there was the issue of what would happen in terms of our renigging on that contract. Another option was to just carve out where the bronze plaques would go and have one block that had not, was not complete, did not have the stamp concrete but just had the bronze plaques and then there' s the complete option which is to remove that band of sidewalk to repour it and place the bronze plaques and the stamped concrete, do the complete project in other words. Vanderhoef/What is this stamped concrete? Franklin/The stamped concrete is the element which it's part of the original proposal, and it's the element which connects the bronze plaques visually to each other that creates the walk and they are quotations not from Iowa authors but they're quotations about literature, about books, and they are in the art form and they This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 5 basically create a line connecting the bronze plaques. Do you understand that concept? Vanderhoef/I understand but I'm trying to figure out ifthat's worth another $14,000 to do since that Public Art budget is very tiny anyway and as you know I don't necessarily support bonding for it. Franklin/It is not increasing the allocation for the Public Art program, but I understand what your saying Dee. Vanderhoef/While we're talking public art refresh my memory please on the RFP for the art project, I noticed in the packet that the artist now is saying they didn't understand that they were suppose to transport and install and all of that for the Jazz art and they're wanting another $1,200 or something like that to do their travel time. Franklin/Transportation. Vanderhoef/And so forth. Was it in the RFP? Franklin/It was not, we agreed that it was not clearly stated that the installation and transportation costs would be part of their proposal. Vanderhoef/Because it was my understanding that it was, that it was. Franklin/What I'm saying is that they have an arguably point. Vanderhoef/Can I take a look at that again please? Franklin/We can't, do you mean to reject the sculpture? Vanderhoef/No I'm just saying look at how that was stated. Franklin/Oh. Vanderhoef/The RFP. Franklin/For the future, definitely. Vanderhoef/I know I read it and I know my intent on that was that we had no outside costs when we were looking at the $2,000 for that project that was a bit. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 6 Franklin/What we had in the RFP was that the costs of each of these sculptures was between $5,000 and $50,000. What is happening then with the Jazz sculpture is that it is $51,250 or something like that. The Ties that Bind is coming in at about $38,000 so. Vanderhoef/That wasn't my question, it was how it was stated in the RFP and their responsibility for that price of $50,000. Franklin/I'd be glad to send you a copy of it, I think that they do have a point however that it was not stated such that they would understand that that was part of it and we need to make sure that that's stated correctly in the future or as we intend it. Kanner/The issue of the repouring of the concrete I'd like to see that happen as it's being envisioned but I'd like a little more discussion perhaps, the idea of tearing up new concrete again when we're going to be tearing up playground and some other things is something that a little troubling and I was wondering if we could talk about it at the next work session. Vanderhoef/I'd be happy to. Pfab/I would say. Franklin/Ifthere's going to be a change it does need to be decided rather very quickly since we are anticipating the April, I mean the contractor is ready to go in April with this project. Champion/Well isn't this one of those cases where that really is unavoidable because we had to complete the sidewalk there for other people to walk on since the other half of the street is gone isn't it. Franklin/It's gone. Champion/Gone so we are talking a safety issue for the citizens and there' s a lot of pedestrian traffic there. And it is, it seems like it is an unnecessary expense but I think it was a necessary expense and so I don't mind spending that money now. Pfab/What was the cost of that, (can't hear) to make that change? Franklin/$14,000. Lehman/Karin. Pfab/What does that include? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 7 Franklin/It's per, that includes, that $14,000 includes removing the existing sidewalk and repouring it in it's calculated based on a number per lineal foot that for pouring concrete. Pfab/Well I thought they were just little pieces that they were going to put it. Franklin/No, that' s, I'm just trying to figure how to make this thing, wording. Pfab/I was thinking that they were just little pads that you walk over but your saying it' s a lot longer and bigger. Franklin/No to put those in there imbedded in the concrete, and so you have to have soft concrete to put them in. Pfab/Right. Franklin/And the sidewalk that is there then needs to be removed and so the price that I am quoting to you is for the removal of that sidewalk and the repouring of that sidewalk. Pfab/What is the total size of the items that your putting in there? Franklin/They vary from size, they're anywhere from and they're not necessarily square, so they're about four square feet or five. Pfab/And how many of them? Franklin/In the entire project? Pfab/Yea for the $14,000 we have to pay to tear up the concrete. Franklin/No that $14,000 is not about the number that go in, it's about taking out the sidewalk and repouring the whole thing. Pfab/Is that something that we bid on, somebody bid on that? Franklin/Yea it's All American Concrete, it would be a change order to the Phase I contract that we have with them and that amount is based upon the bid from their Phase I contract. Pfab/So the amount is already calculated in the bid, that seems exorbitantly high, $14,000 to cut a whole in the concrete and. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 8 Franklin/No, no, no, $14,000 is to take a whole block from Gilbert Street to Linn Street, to take a band of sidewalk out and to repour. Pfab/Okay so it's a (can't hear), I was thinking they were little tablets, okay. Franklin/No, no, no. Pfab/Okay, because I just, I thought I must be reading wrong, somebody put the comments in the wrong place. Franklin/No, just to cut it out is less and I don't have those numbers with me, I wasn't expecting this. Pfab/Okay it's starting to make sense then. Kanner/I'd like to do this very much I just think I need a little more time to ideally to mull it over and to see if there are any solutions. I know you've obviously talked about it in the Public Art Advisory and with staff but on a Council level I'd like to be able to hear some more of that and do it in a work session. I think there' s a good chance we can come up with the same solution but I think it' s just to all of our benefits to see if at the work session that there are any other possibilities that might work or if we feel strongly enough about tearing up the sidewalk again that's, we might not want to not do it. Pfab/I, because of the my concept of what was being done I was totally opposed to it for that kind of money but knowing the facts that went into it during the construction safety issue and everything, I have no problem with it now and I look at the other alternatives, don't put it in or don't put any in that sidewalk, I think that' s a mistake. I, as much as I would hate to spend that kind of money, I think it's probably the best, I don't think we have any alternatives and I would whole heartidly support it. Lehman/Okay. Kanner/So what' s the answer there regarding the work shop, work session? Lehman/I think regarding the project that your referring to it is on the agenda tonight and unless I hear four people who do not want to move forward on it. Dilkes/It's not on the agenda tonight. Karr/It's just minutes, accepting minutes. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 9 Lehman/Accepting minutes, I don't, I mean I'm not so sure, see we don't know there may have been a possibility of putting in a temporary or whatever I have no idea, but I'm willing to accept the minutes the way they've done it and obviously they want the project done (can't hear). Kanner/No it's not accepting the minutes necessarily, if we're going to accept the minutes Ernie, the idea is whether we want to tear up a sidewalk that was just put in last year. Lehman/The question is do you want to tear up the sidewalk and put in the art or do you want to leave it the way it is without the art. Kanner/And think about possible other ways to deal with it, other places that it might fit. Champion/This is a long term plan, I would hate to start moving things around down, people have worked hard on this, I think we should just go ahead and stay out of it. Lehman/Are there four people who would like to discuss this, bring it up and look at the alternatives to tearing out the block of sidewalk? Okay next agenda item. Item Consent Calendar 4g(2). Jay Honohan - Senior Center 28E Agreement Committee. Kanner/In the consent calendar under 4g correspondence, we have the letter from the Senior Center recommending that we work on 28E agreement, again reopen that and that' s something that perhaps could be in a future work session. We have a request from our Commission to look into that. Lehman/That we should put on a work session so we can appoint a couple Council people to work on that. Champion/Right. Item Consent Calendar 4g(5). Mike Lehman (JC Board of Supervisors) - Donovan's Green Acres Subdivision Lehman/There' s also a letter from Mike Lehman from the Board of Supervisors someplace in here relative to that property on Lower West Branch Road. Vanderhoef/No Hoover Highway. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 10 Lehman/Hoover Highway, all right, g(5), that' s another one we also need to address. Atkins/Ernie. Vanderhoef/I need a map on that one because I'm. Lehman/It's the Donovan property. Vanderhoef/But it sounds like they're just taking a piece of it. Lehman/Part of it that' s right. Vanderhoef/They're subdividing it again and is that including what fronts Hoover Highway? Lehman/Well we'll discuss that when we set the committee up but we need to set that up for a work session I believe. Atkins/Just so you know in order to move that along I took the liberty of responding to Mike on your behalf. Lehman/Okay. Atkins/By saying we're ready to do business with you. Lehman/All right, fine. ITEM NO. 16. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE FINANCIAL PLAN FOR THE CITY OF IOWA CITY, IOWA, FOR FISCAL YEARS 2002 THROUGH 2004 AND THE MULTI-YEAR CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS PROGRAM THROUGH FISCAL YEAR CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS PROGRAM THROUGH FISCAL YEAR 2005. Atkins/I have two items sir. Lehman/Okay. Atkins/Item 16 is the resolution adopting the capital plan, in order to keep your policy on track, I believe you'll need to have an amendment, move second for the discussion on the amendment. The amendment would be to add $500,000 in GO debt to the 2002 CIP for First Avenue. And accordingly reduce the Captain Irish project by a similar amount for 2002, and we can't go outside of that expense category. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 11 Champion/So we're adding $500,000 to First Avenue. Atkins/Adding to the end. Champion/Deducting the $500,000 okay. Atkins/Because we split the Captain Irish project so we will need an amendment to do that (can't hear). And I excuse me. Kanner/Could you repeat that again please? Atkins/Add $500,000 in GO debt for 2002 CIP for First Avenue and reduce the Captain Irish project estimate by $500,000 also in 2002. Kanner/And our budget stays the same? Lehman/Right. Atkins/The budget stays the same, right. O'Donnell/And Captain Irish stays in 2002 also. Atkins/Yes a portion of it is right. ITEM 10. CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 14, CHAPTER 3 (CITY UTILITIES) OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF IOWA CITY BY AMENDING PARAGRAPH 6B-l, REMOVING THE RESOLUTION AND PUBLIC HEARiNG REQUIREMENTS FOR CERTIFICATION OF UNPAID DELINQUENT UTILITY CHARGES TO THE COUNTY TREASURER FOR COLLECTION IN THE SAME MANNER AS PROPERTY TAXES. (FIRST CONSIDERATION) Atkins/And the other item I have is Item 10. on the unpaid delinquent utility charges, Dianna Furman is here if you have any questions about Item 10 to help you out. Kanner/I had some questions about that. Atkins/We'll do that one now then Ernie. Lehman/Yea that's fine. Atkins/Okay Item 10 Dianna. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 12 Kanne~HiDianna. Dianna Furman/Hello. Kanner/Is there any of (can't hear) process that' s set up to replace the Council hearings that could result in people coming to the Council, I don't like the idea of doing away with the City Council hearings. I can understand the need for doing it on a more frequent basis quarterly as opposed to yearly to impose the (can't hear). But I like the idea that people can come here and talk directly to Council in regards to these proposed liens on their property for delinquent payments. Furman/Any utility billing that is sent out, if a customer has objections to the bills they're very welcome to contact the Treasury Division and request a hearing, as to the merits of that billing. But they're currently isn't any provision that allows a hearing prior to a Council meeting other than that that you talk to the merits of the billing. Does that answer your question? Kanner/Well so currently we have a process where it's done on a yearly basis, there's a hearing. Furman/Public hearing. Kanner/A public hearing where people could appear, which we had people up here and then the Council can say yea or nay to their appeal and then the Council votes on the overall liens that are being place. Furman/Correct. Kanner/And you want to move that to a quarterly basis of putting those liens on property owners and not allow the hearing for the City Council. What I'd like to do is keep that opportunity for the hearing for the City Council, even if we get just one or two people I think that' s worthwhile and I don't think it takes that much of our time and it gives people the opportunity for redress???? if they think that their, if they have something that is not quite proper. Lehman/Don't those people always have the right to come to a Council meeting and just bring that to, I mean that could bring that to any Council meeting during public discussion is that not correct? Furman/If they have any objections to city policies or procedures yes they can come to Council. Lehman/Anybody can come to a Council meeting. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 13 Furman/Yes. Lehman/And this would eliminate that list of all of those folks being given to Council for the public hearing which in the seven years I've been on the Council I don't think we've ever changed any of those ever. Furman/That' s correct. What this would do is provide an efficient system of collection allowing the tenant and the property owner regardless of the kind of property with which there might be an unpaid bill all known parties or interested parties for that bill we would give them the appropriate notification and follow the state code which is if it's not paid within the specified period of time. Lehman/And they can always come to us if they're not happy. Furman/Yes they can. Pfab/But why was there a, why are we taking away a right of the citizens because previously there was a public hearing right? Furman/Currently, there still is, in city code for a citizen to go forth to Council at a public hearing, that is within the city code. The state code does not require that provision. What I'm trying to do is equal the city codes to the state codes, to provide the customer the due process that they should have. Pfab/Well what happen if we, half the city code is instead of having it once a year everybody that way if there are people who want to come forward have their, once a quarter? I mean I'm for moving the thing along but I'm really against taking away a citizens right that was put in the code for a reason and it probably very few will ever show up but I think the process should be still kept available. Furman/In the annual process right now it takes four months to review and prepare for City Council so you might be able to do it three times a year but it would be an ongoing process if we continue a public hearing with the way that we've got this set up right now. It takes four months by the time review the accounts, get the literature or information we need about that property, notify all parties concerned and it's a special letter that we are creating. What I'm trying to do is make it a little more efficient and set it up through a computer process so when we are sending out our standard collection letters we will bring forth the information about lien collection and what the state law allows the city to do and give them still the process that they need the time period that they can review their accounts and pay it so wish if they don't it's a lien against the property. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 14 Champion/I think the landlords would prefer this because it does gives them much more notice. Furman/Correct, the landlord. Champion/Who owns the money even before they've returned the deposit to the renter because a lot of that public hearing stuff was renters who did not pay the utilities. Furman/That's correct. Champion/But then the landlord is ultimately responsible for them. Furman/Yes, excluding the water, there is a state law provision that we are now complying with, we do not lien the water portion of a residential water account if it's in the tenants name. But yes landlords have contacted us and said why does it take you so long to go through this process. If we had the information ahead of time we might be able to do a little more to assist you in collecting therefore they wouldn't be held responsible but they'd go after their tenant. Lehman/Okay. Pfab/Well before we take that away I would think that' s something we ought to bring up as a public hearing, I mean I'm not saying we should or shouldn't but I think everyone is on notice that we are changing city code and make it more restrictive and we're taking away basic (can't hear) rights. Champion/We're not making it more restrictive, they can always come to the City Council. Lehman/We'll this discussion. Pfab/Well no, no, your taking away the rights that was still put into the city code, I didn't put it in right. Lehman/No but they still have the right to come, any person can come to the Council and discuss their bill, if they get a lien and they don't like it they can come and talk to us, it just removes the formal process of putting all of these liens together once a year and going through them. Is that not correct Dianna? Furman/That's correct. Pfab/But I'm not saying it has to be once a year but. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 15 Lehman/Or however many times it. Pfab/Well that' s what I'm saying I think this is something we ought to discuss with the public and maybe it's fine, I'm not, I know we're taking a right away from some of those people and to do that without a public hearing I think is a mistake. Lehman/Well you're not taking any rights but we'll discuss that tonight, I mean we know what the proposal is, this discussion should take place tonight when Item 10 comes up. Pfab/Okay that' s fine. Furman/I can share that there is, I've contacted three communities that do the lien provisions without going through their City Council and we have Coralville that does this and Grinnell and Des Moines. Kanner/Do they have appeal processes? Did you get us a copy of their appeal processes? Furman/Quite honestly I didn't reference that to them but I could follow up in that. Kanner/Yea because that' s an important part in my mind is that I like the idea of a quarterly process but I think if we have some sort of formal appeal process I think that' s one thing that we want to do for good government is to make things very clear, no one gets special favors, we look upon everyone equally and when you spell out what a formal appeal process is I think it's much better for the community and I can see something where we have a simple administrative appeal that you go to perhaps the finance director or a panel of two or three staff and if they don't reach satisfaction there they can then appeal it to the City Council but I don't think it has to be in the same format that we have here where it automatically goes to the City Council but I think if we set up a formal appeal process I think we're repaying some of those rights that Irvin's talking about and make it very clear that there is a process for appeal. I don't like either to take away something that' s there as far as a right for citizen. Dilkes/Dianna don't you have a process that people can appeal a bill? Furman/Every billing. Dilkes/Utility bill, I mean there' s a process in place for that isn't there. Furman/Right and I reference that that every customer is given that right and that's referenced in our collection letters that they have a hearing, that they're welcome This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 16 to if they contact us but that's within the Treasury Division, that's the administrative hearing. Dilkes/I think one thing. Kanner/And people that are placing liens as opposed. Dilkes/I think one thing, the reason for my question was at this stage in the process we are way along in the collection process, we are not, we're not talking about whether the bill is owed, we're talking about whether there' s going to be a lien placed on the property for collection purposes. But if somebody has an objection to the lien, then they must have an objection to the bill itself and we have a process in place for appeal of a bill. Kanner/Well we've heard other things in testimony last year from people who were appealing it and so I think, this is a separate situation of liens versus just paying utility bills and if it's clearly stated that there's a formal process in the bill's for the, in the lien process I would feel much better if we're going to do away with this whole public hearing process. I think we need to maintain something spelled out without what appeal process and what your rights are leading perhaps ultimately to City Council hearing if you wanted to appeal a staff decision. I think we. Vanderhoef/Steven I think some of the confusion here we addressed a year ago when we had a couple people come and there is, as I remember at the, during that process that when we have renters, tenants who are not paying their bills then, what the property owners wanted was for us to get to them sooner and that they were getting notified and as I understand it they get a letter now after the first letter to the tenant. Furman/Any notification sent to a tenant. Vanderhoef/So the people who were objecting to all of this were the property owners that hadn't heard about it earlier. Wilburn/That's right. Vanderhoef/And the tenants weren't paying the bill and of course the lien goes on the property owner even if the tenant walks and doesn't pay. So what they're really asking is get me the letter and get me the information and I think we have that. Furman/That is being done. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 17 Vanderhoef/And have you had any complaints now from the property owners other than to say we would rather it happen sooner rather than later so that they can get in touch with those tenants as they leave and when they can still find them. Furman/That is the only information or contact we usually have from owners of properties and we notify. Vanderhoef/And I think we're well protected in the way we go through the notification of the tenant and then notifying the property owner and in the letter as Dianna says we're notifying them if they have an objection or if they have a problem to come in now right when they get the letter so we're way beyond it as Eleanor said, we're into the lien process because we haven't gotten payment but they've had all this notice ahead of time. So I think we're okay with what you have designed here Dianna. Furman/Steven at the time we process the final bill that was in the tenant' s name we send a letter to the owner whoever that might be of record that we have closed out this account and at this time this is the balance that's due on that account after the account's been closed. That letter references ifit's not paid there's going to be a lien against the property so that goes out at the time the final bill is prepared. Pfab/Which is not different that it had always been? Furman/That is fairly new within I think it's been the last couple years that we've done that. Pfab/Well my point is, if it's a change to the rights and obligations of the public I would suggest have a public hearing, it maybe, maybe we can come up with more favorable, I don't know, but I just think it should be something that the public has some input on. Furman/I understand that, what we're dealing with a lot is the efficiency of the collection and setting up the public hearing does require a lot of time and effort. Pfab/No, no, no, I mean a public hearing on the public hearing on the process. I'm not saying that you have to do it but I think you want to take a look at the process. Vanderhoef/We've looked at the process is what I'm saying, we've already done that in previous years and we are now trying to even make it a more efficient process so we're not changing (can't hear). Pfab/But we are changing if we want to make it more efficient. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 18 Lehman/Hey folks we need to have this discussion later because we have a Conference Board meeting at 6:30 tonight and a formal at 7:00 and we're going, I mean this discussion really belongs at the formal meeting. Vanderhoef/Okay. Lehman/Other agenda items. Thank you Dianna very much. Dilkes/Do you need Dianna there tonight? Lehman/Do we need Dianna tonight? Dilkes/I think she' s available but. Lehman/I don't. Vanderhoef/I'm done in discussing it I think we are in understanding. Pfab/I think we should put it up as a public. Lehman/That' s going to be discussed when we discuss it tonight. Pfab/My point is do we need her for that? Lehman/I don't think we do but. O'Donnell/We know what the deal is and I'm not for a public hearing. Item 4g(9). Jan Capaccioli - alcohol Vanderhoef/In correspondence, I'm probably going to murder this name, Jan Capaccioli something like that, she actually put an invitation in there to the Council to come visit the Health Iowa at Student Health Services either individually or if the Council is interested I could possibly arrange for all of you to meet with my current University Short Term Outpatient Program groups members and talk with them about their offenses and beliefs surrounding alcohol and other drug. And so I think we need to answer her one way or the other whether we would like to accept or reject the invitation. Kanner/I saw it as an informal invitation that we get and not, but it's pointed. Lehman/I can be nice to acknowledge the receipt of the letter. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 19 Vanderhoef/I do to. Lehman/I don't know that. Vanderhoef/And leave it open for individuals to contact if they want to. Lehman/Yea I would think that's fine. Pfab/Yea, I would go along with that. ITEM 18 CONSIDER RESOLUTION AWARDING CONTRACT AND AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST A CONTRACT FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE IOWA CITY TRANSIT INTERCHANGE PROJECT PHASE II (REBID). Atkins/Ernie the item I had was Item 18 Joe and Ron are here, it's the bid for transit in case you had any questions about it, it seems like it's been bid for the 471h time. Lehman/Okay do we have the amount of the bid? Karr/Yea you've got it in your handout. Lehman/It's here someplace fine. Karr/Revised resolution. Atkins/The estimate $140, low bid 6 bidders $155, Lehman/Okay. Kanner/And staff recommends. Atkins/Staff recommended, yes. Karr/There is a revised resolution and attached to it is a revised item and comment. Champion/What was the last bid on that the one we rejected? Atkins/200 and some. Champion/Oh right. Logsden/$173,5. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 20 O'Donnell/So it's a lot more in line. Pfab/Is there many changes? Logsden/A couple minor changes, we went from 60 working days to 78 working days because the contractors indicated they needed a little more time and we took out two windows and changed the tile floor a little bit but just minor changes basically. Pfab/The windows that you've taken out are going to be a detriment to the project? Logsden/It's (can't hear) area it really wasn't much of a visibility and the mall had indicated there' s a possibility that a walk up ice cream shop will be right there so we'd probably end up with them dirty all the time anyway so it was seen as more of maybe a good idea to eliminate those anyway. Pfab/All right good. Vanderhoef/So what we saved was $16,500 and we decreased the cost of the project so it isn't all that much better of a bid other than we are taking less for our dollars. Lehman/Which probably means the last bid probably wasn't far off either. Vanderhoef/Yea, that' s what I'm thinking. Logsden/Correct, that was the impression we got from the contractors. Kanner/It's 18,000 lower than the last one. Pfab/It pays for the concrete on the sidewalk. Lehman/Okay thank you Ron. ITEM NO. 6. PLANNING AND ZONING. CONSIDER A MOTION SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING FOR MARCH 20 ON AN ORDINANCE CHANGING THE ZONING DESIGNATION BY ESTABLISHING A CONSERVATION OVERLAY ZONE FOR PROPERTIES GENERALLY LOCATED SOUTH OF BURLINGTON STREET ALONG GOVERNOR AND LUCAS STREETS. Kanner/I've got a question for Karin, number 6a, could you explain a bit about the conservation overlay zone that we're going to be setting a public hearing for. My understanding is we just voted to make a conservation zone in that area. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 21 Franklin/No, you down zoned that area. Lehman/Right. Franklin/You down zoned the area to a zoning classification that is residential neighborhood conservation. A conservation district is an overlay district which addresses the actual architecture of any buildings that are built there. The residential neighborhood conservation zone just deals with density and that terminology the residential neighborhood conservation zoning predates the whole concept of conservation district by about 5 to 10 years, I can't remember, I think we did the first RNC zone in the mid 80' s so 10 years, but it is confusing. Kanner/So this is a new thing that. Franklin/Yes it will be the first conservation district that we have, we adopted the legislation to enable it some time ago but have not actually applied a conservation district until this one. Kanner/And the main thing that will be looked at in the new overlay zone are architectural items? Franklin/It's designed guidelines yes so. Lehman/And we'll get that information, it will be discussed at the public hearing. Franklin/Right you'll get that for the public hearing right. And I'll explain then in more detail the whole concept of the conservation district. Dilkes/It's part of our Historical Preservation ordinance. Kanner/Okay thank you. ITEM NO. 6g(15). LISA AND RONALD SWEETING - PURCHASE OF LAND Vanderhoef/Are we following up on the letter of request from the Sweeting's to close an alley in there? Atkins/I think that was assigned, Sarah has that. Dilkes/Was that the 628 Lucas? Yea it's been vacated so we'll follow up with that. Vanderhoef/Okay thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 22 Lehman/Other agenda items. All right Council appointments. ADDointments Vanderhoef/Well we have. Lehman/Civil Service Commission, we didn't get any applications for. Vanderhoef/No applications for that one and we have one application for Summit Street, Michael Gunn who has been on the commission prior to this time and from reading the meetings I'd say he has done a very good job and continues to offer a lot. And Richard Carlson has been on the commission also for part of an unexpired term and he's an at large and he's the only applicant and I think both of these men have done a fine job and would be happy to reappoint them. Champion/Yea and I would support that too, I think it's important especially with this commission to have as much continuity as possible, it takes a lot to learn the processing, so I'm really glad to see both of these people reapply. Vanderhoef/I am too, I'm delighted that they reapplied. Lehman/Are there four folks who would wish to reappoint them? Okay. Kanner/I had a question. I second those comments and think that with the guidelines that they're setting up they're doing some good work there. I was just curious Marian did anyone to apply after the deadline, this was our first deadline? Karr/No, no, they did not. Lehman/Okay Project Green we have a recommendation to reappoint Janet Moss for a three year term. Does that meets with the Council? Pfab/That's fine. O'Donnell/That's fine. Lehman/Okay. Parcel 64-1 a RFP, Karin. Parcel 64-1a RFP (1P1 of 3/1 packet) Karin Franklin/Okay I thought I'd just go through the points in my memorandum in the RFP so we can get a sense of Council's direction on this. I want to preface this by This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 23 saying that my discussion of the land uses and raising some of the issues that I raised was not to suggest that you not market this at this time but just to make sure that everything was out there in front of you. Vanderhoef/Contrary to what the paper said. Franklin/Pardon me. Vanderhoef/Contrary to what the paper said. Franklin/Yea, sometimes things get confused. The first item and I'm going to go right to page 3 of the RFP deals with maximizing the density on the property, what we have done is indicate that we do want to maximize that density and as I pointed out in my memorandum is what that would mean to me is I was looking at this in terms of reviewing proposals is that we would not be enthused about a 3 to 4 story building that didn't really add much to that site and I just want to make sure your all on board with that. Okay. Lehman/It doesn't rule it out but just says a larger building would probably be looked at more favorable. Franklin/More favorably, right. Steven did you have something? Vanderhoef/You're talking the RFP or the re. Lehman/Redevelopment project, you've got it right there, page 2. Franklin/This page. Vanderhoef/Got it. Kanner/I've got a question. Franklin/Yea. Kanner/How do you in your opinion does a 20 story building fit in architecturally with downtown, what's the tallest building we have, what's the Sheraton or Ecumenical Towers or any University building? Franklin/Well the tallest building right now is probably Ecumenical Towers and I should know the number of stories, I don't just off the top of my head, I would say it's probably 12 around in there. What we would be looking at if there were a 20 story proposal would be how that fits into the skyline of the city. This piece is at the top This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 24 of the hill basically that the city is on, I think the Courthouse elevation is a little bit higher but basically what this would do is when you looked at the skyline of Iowa City then a 20 story building on this site would be the peak, the top, the center. Your attention would be drawn to that building so it would need to be an outstanding building architecturally to do that successfully. But basically you could see the skyline of the city rising to that point with this being the spire so to speak, I'm not saying that that would necessarily work but I can see how one could conceive of it. To do a 20 story building on the site you would have to at least have half of the site open so I don't know how conceivable that is. Lehman/Because of zoning. Kanner/Zoning wise. Franklin/Because, yes because of the floor area ratio which says that in the simplest terms basically if you use the whole site you can go 10 stories, if you use half the site you can go 20. Lehman/Okay. Franklin/A third of the site you could go 30. Lehman/You use 5 stories you could get ped mall right. Franklin/No. Now one thing that would have to, any project that goes here that goes higher than the Sheraton will need to go to the FAA for their approval because there' s an overlay zone that covers the entire zone. Pfab/And what's that, what height? Franklin/Pardon me. Pfab/What height would have to go there? Franklin/If it goes higher than the Sheraton. Pfab/Okay. Lehman/Realistically 10 stories is probably maxing out and then some probably. Okay. Champion/What is Marc Moen's new building, the Whiteway building, how tall is that? Marc Moen/6 ~A stories. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 25 Champion/Oh it looks taller than that to me. Franklin/Because ofit's context, and Ecumenical doesn't look as tall as it is because of it's context it's down hill a little bit. Champion/It's amazing yea. Franklin/So in terms of, Steven. Kanner/Well do you want to comment on each one you bring up or wait? Franklin/Yea because what I'm trying to get here and it will be a sense of the group is how to proceed with these parts of this RFP so we can get it out, so yes I do. Kanner/Well I was just going to ask the Council I, it's hard to get a sense of 10 stories or 20 stories how that fits in, and we're asking for someone to try to go that high, do people feel comfortable with that? Lehman/I don't think we're asking for anybody to go 20 stories. Kanner/But what we're saying go as high as you can, we want to maximize density and that's a real possibility. Champion/I don't think so. Vanderhoef/The square footage could be different Steven so if you go higher but you can only use half of it, but it would take two if you go 20 stories high, it would take two floors to equal the square footage of using the full block parcel. Lehman/The density wouldn't increase with a 20 story building over 10 stories. Vanderhoef/That' s, that' s. Kanner/No but I'm thinking of the look how it fits in, this big, possibly big tall structure. Franklin/Maximizing the density does not mean you have to go 20 stories or maybe even that 20 stories is even desirable. But what the RFP is intended to do is to give an impression as clear as possible as to what the Council wants on this piece of ground and also to provide some latitude for creativity for people. (END OF 01-28 SIDE ONE) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 26 Franklin/It's going to be markable on the piece, but give them a clue as to what your going to find acceptable, and so I think what maximizing the density says to someone is that we want you to fully use this space as much as you possibly can, we don't want a dinky project on here. I mean I've had people call on past years to put a 12,000 square foot building on that lot and basically I've told them don't bother because it's too small. Kanner/For our purposes could explain from urban planning perspective why is that not good, if they're paying, I guess we don't get the property tax is that the only reason? Franklin/It is because it is the downtown and is the most intensely used part of the city and in the downtown you want those properties to be intensely used, that' s why I will argue against surface parking, it's because it's not good use of that very valuable land that' s in the downtown. So it's where you have that compact urban feel and what you want to do is maximize use of that space and not waste it. It is in some respects a tax issue in that by maximizing that space you get the most tax revenue off of it for the benefit of the entire community but it's also one of mass and appearance and what you find in an urban setting. Lehman/Karin I would have to believe that the height of any building that would be built on 64-1a probably would not be taller than the Sheraton or Plaza Center One and whatever and still fit in with the downtown. Franklin/You know I'm not an architect and they can come up with the some pretty outstanding things. We try to in the design section indicate is that by saying a signature building design complementary to downtown Iowa City that we want a building that is outstanding but not bizarre. Lehman/That' s a matter of opinion. Franklin/And I don't know what that means. Vanderhoef/Bizarre in your mind. Franklin/Yes bizarre in who' s mind. I mean signature building what does that mean? And complementary to downtown all of us will have a different view as to what that is and that' s why we make these decisions collectively and not one single person does. O'Donnell/Did you say the FAA would have to approve the height of this building (can't hear)? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 27 Franklin/Ifit's taller than the Sheraton I'm sure that they will, it will have to, approve it, what you have to do is send your plans to FAA and they bless them. Champion/Well I agree that we should maximize the space. Franklin/And it may mean that you have to put a light on the top. Champion/And that if somebody comes to you with a 20 story building I'll be glad to look at it, I just don't think it will happen but I'd be glad to look at it. Lehman/Okay so we agree that we should maximize the density, that' s what your asking Franklin/That's what I'm asking for. Lehman/All right. Franklin/Okay the proposed uses and this is the hardest one because this is where your giving the potential developers the biggest clues about what you want to have happen there. Obviously the language as drafted is trying to move away from an apartment complex being built on that site. That the ideal is something that is more of downtown that you would find downtown in almost any city not just a University city, a college town. That you would find a variety of uses in this building, now the things that we need specific Council yea-nea on is that concept of if you want that or not. If you are happy with having an apartment complex there basically a building that is primarily an apartment complex with no particular restrictions on it, commercial the ground floor which is both visually and functionally secondary to the fact that it is an apartment building that's your choice, that' s not what is being suggested here is not what I would recommend to you but you certainly can choose that if you wish. Champion/What were your other thoughts? Franklin/In terms of other things? Champion/Yes. Vanderhoef/Hotels, theaters. Franklin/I can imagine that in the market over time and this is always the difficult thing of what' s going to go right now versus what might go with the long run, I mean we've had that piece of property there for a long time. But that you could have a combination of commercial type of uses, not necessarily the downtown retail but This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 28 maybe some specialty shops. Specialty shops have done well in downtown, I think we have a couple of examples here and you have that with offices, and you also have some residential in the building but it's not dominated by residential. The other possibilities I think are still theaters, we don't have any theaters downtown now except the Campus Theaters and that may be changing. Another hotel, we could use another hotel, the Sheraton I'm sure would not like to have me say that but nevertheless the Sheraton right now is the only downtown hotel say the Iowa Union and I don't think people really consider that to be downtown per say. Kanner/Is there occupancy rate pretty high? Franklin/At the Sheraton? Kanner/Yea. Franklin/It has been historically one of the better occupancy rates, I don't know exactly what it is now Steven. Lehman/Well Karin I agree with your thoughts that this should not be an apartment house downtown and I certainly agree that it doesn't need to be a dormitory with 4 and 5 bedroom apartments. I'm not saying that I would disagree with housing because I'm not at all sure that housing in the downtown is not an appropriate use, how your able to accomplish that without making a dormitory out of it I'm sure. One of the things you have in here that I find interesting and I'm not sure that I agree with it. Why would we require that 10 percent of the residential units be for lower moderate income? Franklin/That was suggested by one of you at the last meeting so that' s why we included that in there. Lehman/Oh okay. Franklin/That' s one question that we need to have answered, I'm just trying to. That 10 percent from low to moderate income, also that's the project containing residential units with no more than 2 bedrooms are preferred. Now when we say preferred it means we could have a few with more but if we're looking at an ideal that we're looking at the smaller number of bedrooms. So I need something on whether you want to do the 10 percent of low to moderate income. I also was approached by another staff member in terms of whether we wanted to have some accessibility requirements with this too. Lehman/What accessibility requirements are there now for multiunit buildings? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 29 Franklin/There' s, I believe there' s a certain percent. Lehman/We require a certain percent now I believe. Franklin/Yea. Lehman/Why would we change that? Franklin/Within the whole structure but it's not very, I mean if you had a, I don't know exactly what that percentage is Ernie so I'm not sure how significant that is in terms of providing units. The input that I got was that we have very few units that are built one and two bedroom units particularly. So the one and two bedroom alone would be advantageous, I think what is being suggested is that we insure that there' s some accessibility with these units. Now there' s one possibility is that we have that in the back of our minds, we don't include it in the RFP but we try to negotiate that with the preferred developer at the time seeing exactly what' s being proposed. Wilburn/That would be consistent with some of the problem issues pointed out in the first steps wouldn't it, that that number that size one or two bedroom accessible units? Franklin/Yes. Wilburn/Is that moderate to high? Franklin/Pardon me. Wilburn/Is it moderate to high (can't hear)? Franklin/Yes. Champion/Karin you had another thing in there, I don't have my thing open but you said in your memo that you wanted to have a multi use and that you couldn't support just a hotel, what did you mean by that? Lehman/No, you said that. Franklin/No. Champion/Did I. Lehman/Yea, in fact she kind of prefers a hotel. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 30 Vanderhoef/Yes. Franklin/No. Champion/No she said something about not just a hotel. Franklin/No, it says single uses such as hotels, theaters, or other types of commercial uses are also welcomed. That is held out as a possibility of a single use with the sentence before that alluding to mixed uses but single uses if it's these other things. Champion/Okay. Vanderhoef/I don't think we need to put the statement in about the 10 percent of residential units must be for low and moderate income. If it does turn into a high percent of living units then I think negotiation with the developer would be something we would see depending on what kind of a project came in but to put it in the RFP as a requirement I'm not interested in that at this point. Franklin/Right now that statement is very prescriptive, it's a must. Lehman/Right. Franklin/There' s some options here that we can put in some more preference type of language or leave it out or leave it as it is. Pfab/I would object to taking it out. Lehman/How many want to leave it in? Wilburn/This is a, I really wasn't supportive of having anything here in the first place so this is a, just discussing it is difficult for me so. Lehman/I don't think it needs to be part of the, from reading the Council it appears that that is not necessary and probably should not be a part of the RFP although it certainly can be something that can be discussed with the potential developers. Pfab/I would say, I would certainly put them in notice that we are interested in that, I don't say you have to say must. Champion/Right. Pfab/But maybe strongly it would certainly be more favorably. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 31 Lehman/I don't know that that' s true, there may be developments that may not having any way of incorporating that. Vanderhoef/Be compatible. Lehman/That might be preferred to one that does so I don't think it should be part of it either. Kanner/One of the things that the I saw in the discussion about the new, possible new codes, zoning codes was that there was a possible discussion about how do you include things like this, I saw that in there and so there are tools that are out there that include some of it and I think you can be specific and it can work and if we're going to consider TIF money which is down the list here we might say this might be an appropriate use of the TIF money if we're going to use that. Vanderhoef/But TIF, we're not TIFing residential, we're TIFing only commercial so this doesn't apply. Franklin/As it stands right now, it's tax abatement on non residential. Vanderhoef/And it's not cause effective ever to in my mind to TIF residential. Franklin/Well let' s talk about those financial incentives a little bit later but what I'm hearing in terms of the majority of the Council is that there' s not a desire to have the low to moderate income as a requirement certainly. Lehman/Not that it won't work and it may turn out to be the best plan there is but making that a requirement limits who may look at that or how they want to put it together. Franklin/Okay, okay, do you want us to put any language in there about it being something we're interested in, I mean it wouldn't be that language but. Pfab/I would say at the very minimum of that. Vanderhoef/I'm not interested. Wilburn/I would be. Franklin/Ross I'm sorry what. Wilburn/I would be. Franklin/You would be okay. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 32 O'Donnell/I'm not. Franklin/Not, Ernie. Lehman/I would like to leave this open for a developer, for example he may come in with a plan that certainly could incorporate some low to moderate income housing, we might be tickled pink to see it but I'd like to leave as much leeway with the developer as we can. Franklin/Okay I'm getting the majority there. Lehman/Obviously a little later on in our discussion there may be incentives that we could offer for that but I would not like to see it as part of the RFP. Franklin/Okay, parking then is the next issue, as written, there' s a suggestion that some private parking is possible, as I've indicated in my memo with extremely parking sensitive uses, there are some uses in which they will not succeed unless they have private exclusive, that's my elevator parking and this is not to preclude those types of uses. Vanderhoef/And that is all underground? Franklin/Yes. Now there also is language about providing some public parking that would be accessible to the Public Library. Champion/I think that's very desirable. Lehman/I like the way it's said though, we will look favorably. Champion/Right, I agree. Lehman/It wouldn't have to have that element but if it did it could make a difference. Franklin/Okay. Vanderhoef/I'm not in favor of that and the reason I'm not in favor of putting any new public parking in there is because I think we're maxed out on our parking revenue' s. Underground parking is the most expensive parking that is out there and certainly the maintenance then of that parking is an ongoing cost that never goes away. Franklin/If the public parking were not underground? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 33 Vanderhoef/Then that defeats the purpose of (can't hear) intense project. Champion/Well I'm not so sure, I think, I would look very favorably on some amount of public street level parking for library use only or whatever. Lehman/Well I think that only is going to be impossible to enforce. Franklin/Yea. Champion/Right it is. Vanderhoef/But what I would like to see offered to the library and I'm not sure how we can manage it, but what I see that the public really appreciates is the fact that there' s fast turnover in that lot and when they head to the library or they head to a meeting or have one errand to do downtown that they have a place that they know that they're pretty apt to be able to get a parking place and get to their destination within 5 minutes or there about. What I'd like to see if we could work out either in Chauncey or in the Burlington Street ramp is either a separate section of either one of those garages that would have this fast turnover, have two hour parking as max, or three hour if you come with a receipt and I'm not sure if we can use the receipts but make it two hour kind of thing and then make sure that it turns over. Chauncey' s to me just seems like it would be real easy to change the pay boxes to two hour max (can't hear). Champion/But I don't think that meets (can't hear). Vanderhoef/Well Chauncey for some reason Chauncey is not as convenient to the library. Champion/Right, right. Vanderhoef/But if we could do something that gave this fast turnover in the low down spaces, you know like the College Street entrance to Chauncey is as convenient as to get in and get out of as any surface parking. Franklin/In terms of the RFP what I'm hearing then Dee is that you disagree with the second paragraph which basically provides some public parking on the site that would be accessible to the library, is that correct? Vanderhoef/Yes. Franklin/Okay is there anybody else on that track or not? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 34 Vanderhoef/We can't afford it, very simple. Pfab/I would say and following up with what Dee is saying, if we want a fast turn around, why don't we look at the street parking right around the library. Franklin/We'll be looking at angled parking on Linn Street from College to Washington Street, we'll probably have something for you in April to look at. Pfab/I mean all that' s close to the entrance there just maybe 15 minutes and just keep watching it, after 15 minutes give them a ticket, 20 minutes whatever, I don't know what your talking time is. Franklin/Well that doesn't. Pfab/Just drop in. Lehman/That doesn't address the. Franklin/That doesn't address the issue that I think the Library Board would be very concerned about and that' s for a longer time than 15 minutes when they're taking the kids to story hour and all that kind of thing. Pfab/Well whatever, I just used that as an example, I mean ifthat's what you want to do. Franklin/And we can only get for total from College Street to Washington we can only get four more spaces than are there right now if we angle park. So the angled parking from the library' s perspective is not going to resolve all of their wishes and I guess the decision here is whether you want in the RFP something which clearly gives a que to the developer that there' s an expectation that there will be some public parking on this 64-1 a site that will be accessible to the library and Dee is saying no she does not want that on there. Champion/I'm saying yes. O'Donnell/I would like some parking, I think that' s an incredibly convenient area down there, not only does it address the library but it addresses disabled person needing to park there and get out so I. Vanderhoef/How are we going to pay for it? O 'Donnell/What' s that? Vanderhoef/How are we going to pay for it? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 35 Pfab/Raise the parking rates. O'Donnell/Good idea Irvin. Pfab/Well we were talking about, it's one of the things we were thinking about. Vanderhoef/You know I'd like to hear from parking folks. Champion/No we're not thinking about it. Vanderhoef/And their recommendation if we start putting some more underground parking in there. Champion/We're not talking about underground parking, we can't afford that. Lehman/Well we might be. Vanderhoef/We might be. Kanner/I think your next sentence down here, is a well defined pedestrian connection from Dubuque Street parking ramp to public library is also desirable. I think if you have a well designed path like that, a connection, whether inside or outside I think the excitement to get there is more valuable than the parking the few spaces you might gain. I think the whole synergy ofwhat's going to happen there is going to be real exciting especially if we're talking mixed use area, who knows what' s going to happen, people are going to want to go in there after going to the library, coming from the Senior Center, going to apartments down South Dubuque, I think there' s a lot of good things that could happen and the parking we have is plenty right next door. Franklin/Okay that's two to two so far. Lehman/I would, whether or not we have parking would not determine whether I would choose a particular plan, I mean if they can work it in beautiful, but I agree with Steven I believe that a really attractive inviting sort of entry way to that parking facility could do every bit as much and I'd really hate to see parking tying up especially first floor space and basement space. The University told us a long time ago that the cost of operation of an underground parking ramp is so prohibitive, it's expensive to build but it's incredibly expensive to maintain. Franklin/So. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 36 Lehman/I wouldn't say they couldn't do it but it certainly wouldn't make the difference between me selecting or not selecting. Franklin/Okay well right now the statement that is in here is fairly strong in favor of public parking spaces on the site. Pfab/Well maybe we could address, look at what Mike brought up here, what about handicapped parking, is that the right term? Franklin/Yes. Pfab/So being close to the library some place, I don't know how we're going to address that, if we're going to make the library accessible. Franklin/Well and the angled parking there will be one space that is designated for people with disabilities that will be right there by the entrance. Pfab/Is that adequate for that? Franklin/I don't know ifthat's adequate. Lehman/How many parking spaces in the ramp which is a half a block away are handicapped? O'Donnell/Well Ernie the point is that if you get out of the car in the ramp and you've got three kids with you it's difficult to traverse down the parking, I'm just saying this would be much more convenient if we could do it this way. Vanderhoef/If we can afford it, convenience is wonderful. Lehman/Okay what do we, is this something we want to leave as an intricate part of the project, do we want to put it in as kind of a variable in there, or do we want to take it out entirely? Vanderhoef/I certainly want it to be required. Pfab/I don't, I think we want to be aware that parking is part of the mix. Champion/Would you read your statement to me Karin. Franklin/The city will look favorably on any project that includes public parking spaces on the site, these parking spaces must be easily accessible to the public library. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 37 Champion/Right, I like that statemere. Wilburn/I support that statement. O'Donnell/I don't think that's too strong. Champion/I don't either. Pfab/I'm for that. Franklin/Okay that' s four. Lehman/The city will consider any project. Franklin/Ross did you say yes to that? Vanderhoef/Look pretty favorable is pretty darn strong. Champion/Well I like that. Lehman/I would rather use the word consider than look favorably, but then I may be a little (can't hear). Vanderhoef/I would consider. O'Donnell/Let' s just use either one of them. Champion/We have four people who warn it the way it is. Franklin/There' s four that said will look favorably. O'Donnell/It would be really nice to have some parking. Lehman/Are there four favorables here? One, two. Pfab/No now what are you talking favorable? Lehman/Look favorably. Pfab/Is that what turned out (can't hear)? Franklin/What I just read, yes. The city will look favorably. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 38 Lehman/One, two, three, four, done, next item. Franklin/Okay that was the easy one, the next item is public space. Lehman/Karin you said on your cover letter first page that public space if I am not mistaken and I think I underlined it. Public space envisioned here is external to any building and is on the site, I can't imagine why we would want public space in a building that is, got aped mall right outside the door, why would require public space in that property? There' s more public space within walking distance from that building that any building downtown, public space is expensive space. Franklin/Are you saying you don't want public space? Champion/Right. Lehman/I'm saying that, I don't think the public space. Franklin/Is that the message getting? Champion/We don't have that demand on anything else. Lehman/I don't think it adds anything to the project because there is so much public space right outside the door right now. Franklin/Okay, it's entirely up to you guys. Champion/I don't think it's necessary. Lehman/And it's expensive. Vanderhoef/Oh for the developer absolutely it is and it takes away from the density and so the minute you start talking public space your decreasing density. Franklin/That public space is out of there. Lehman/It's gone, all right. Franklin/Design. Well this is the thing about the signature building complimenting the architecture and who the heck knows what that means. Lehman/I think that' s sufficiently vague, I like that. Champion/Yea keep it vague. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 39 Franklin/And there will be design review. Pfab/(can't hear). Franklin/The staff committee will go over it. Construction staging. Lehman/Well there' s a sentence here shall be sensitive to allowing sunlight to illuminate city plaza, isn't that basically a function of the size of the building? Franklin/Not necessarily you can step a building back by the configuration of the building and looking at when the sun is in what part of the sky and coming down that you can. Champion/You know I can't. Franklin/That's what architects do, they love it. Pfab/What paragraph are you on? Lehman/What' s that? It's under Design on page 4. Pfab/Page 4 okay. O'Donnell/I agree. Champion/We don't need that. Franklin/You don't think we need that. Pfab/No, I think it's something to think about, I'd leave it in there. Lehman/I don't think sunlight's going to be a biggy, the library would love to have a big building to shade their building so they don't have to worry about sunlight ruining their books. Franklin/I need an opinion from one more person. Lehman/How many people don't care about sunlight? Franklin/Okay sunlight's out. (Can't hear in the audience). This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 40 Franklin/Staging. Champion/You know that's a staff decision don't you think? Lehman/I believe you stated that really well that obviously if we were to put out or accept a proposal for 64-1a and that builder was able to work with the people constructing the library and do it simultaneously fine, if you can't basically this project could not start until 2003. And I think that' s kind of what we felt with the other night with Library Board. Is that accurate? Champion/Yes, right. O'Donnell/Exactly right. Vanderhoef/It is, the only thing that I would say about the way it is stated here is sometime, is not likely to be available for construction until after January 1, I'd rather be more definitive that it will be available January 1. Franklin/Well what I was thinking there Dee was if there was a proposal that came in in which there was staging proposed that the two could coexist and start before January 2003 and it was copaectic to everybody that we go with that, I don't really think that' s going to happen but I also don't want to preclude things to this. Vanderhoef/Well what I'm reading, the way I'm reading it Karin is the opposite is that it might not happen until March, April, or May. Franklin/Oh, so I need a no later than, I got it, I got your point. Vanderhoef/That' s what I was. Franklin/I'll see how to put it in there. Vanderhoef/No I'm happy if people can work together and start sooner than that that's fine but I think we need to let a developer know. Franklin/Right, okay. Vanderhoef/Of when they can get in there. Kanner/It's not likely to be available no later than January 2003. Franklin/I'll work up some language that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 41 (All talking). Champion/It's unlikely. Lehman/But I think, you know, and you stated it really well in there that there may be a possibility for those to work concurrently but if not I think that says it pretty clearly. Champion/That' s not very far away, I can't believe we'd get that property sold, and designed and constructed started in that short amount of time anyway. (Can't hear). Franklin/Yea you never know. Vanderhoef/Maybe it's already been drawn. Franklin/Financing, on page 6. Right now because of the central business district urban revitalization area there is tax exemption for any non residential properties. And this is tax exemption not tax increment financing. Lehman/Right. Franklin/Tax increment financing is something that would, I mean you wouldn't do both, although conceivably you could depending upon the magnitude of the different components of the project. Tax increment financing is advantageous to a developer in terms of having those up front costs diminished because usually it is money at the beginning which the taxes then pay back. So the question is do you want to consider that? We would need to adopt, no, it's in an urban renewal area already and so we would just have to enable the tax increment financing. Champion/I'd be willing to (can't hear). Pfab/That' s, I would too. Vanderhoef/Tax increment financing but not TIF. Pfab/No, that's the same. Franklin/What was that? Pfab/That's the same thing. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 42 Franklin/That is the same thing. Lehman/That is the same thing. Franklin/TIF is. Vanderhoef/No. Lehman/Tax abatement. Vanderhoef/Tax abatement is what I'm. Franklin/Yea tax abatement is in place already for non residential. Vanderhoef/Right. Franklin/Tax increment financing would be an additional thing and we would have to then consider whether you wanted to have it for the entire project including residential and commercial. Lehman/But then couldn't that be project specific if we were excited about a project? Franklin/It could be yep. Pfab/So in other words we're saying that we'll look at anything, is that it? Everybody' s open. Champion/Right, not everything. Pfab/No I mean, in other words we're looking at all options. Franklin/Yes. The purchase price. We have an appraisal on this property of $1.2 or something, which is old, we would have to have it. Champion/How much? Vanderhoef/$1.2. Franklin/$1.2 million. Champion/Oh I thought you said $122, I thought cripes you got, called lot my house sits on is worth more than that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 43 Franklin/The question is, is the purchase price of the land negotiable and obviously that usually means that you go down in what you charge the developer for the land to get the project that you want. Champion/Anything (can't hear). Lehman/I view this a great deal like the Peninsula project, if we get a project that we like. Franklin/So it is negotiable. Lehman/I believe we should have that, I'm not sure that we're going to exercise that flexibility but we should leave that option open if there's something that dynamic and that exciting. Vanderhoef/However as I understand it because this is urban renewal property that if we negotiate we have to negotiate the dollars that go into this project then have to meet HUD and CDBG. Franklin/No. Lehman/I don't, no. Franklin/Any revenues that are generated by the property. Lehman/Goes to CDBG. Franklin/If it' s zero, it' s zero. Vanderhoef/But if you negotiate away then what happens? Lehman/Nothing. Champion/Nothing. Lehman/There' s no money to put in there. Vanderhoef/And you don't have to put CDBG type projects in there? Champion/No. Franklin/No, no, no, sorry Dee. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 44 Vanderhoef/However if it all comes back in cash it has to go back to. Franklin/Yes. Lehman/CDBG. Vanderhoef/CDBG. Franklin/Any revenue that is generated must go as program income for the CDBG program but ifthere's no revenue that' s generated. It's the close out agreement for our urban renewal project that that is in so. Pfab/Okay, I'm getting very uneasy about this if were taking away the 10, or the percentage of low to moderate income housing. Champion/No it might not even be housing. Pfab/No, no, I'm saying, if this is, in other words we can put this to zero, when this is urban renewal money, it can just disappear into smoke. Is that right? Lehman/I don't think it's going to. Franklin/Well, it's for, you make. Kanner/I like the idea of saying we ought to keep it at the appraised (can't hear) in other words. Pfab/Get the appraised value and then go from there. Kanner/Because we are taking away the 10 percent and this is another way to (can't hear) money that would go into helping low and moderate income if we're going to take. Pfab/If we're taking it at both ends. Kanner/$300,000 to develop something to the developer to develop something then that means there's $300,000 less for CDBG I'm uncomfortable with that. I think it's important that we maintain a strict price. Lehman/Is there anything from the result of that discussion that we should know? Franklin/I'm having too much stimulation. Lehman/Heaven for bid. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 45 Pfab/Turn off the lights. Franklin/What did you say Ernie? Lehman/I said heaven for bid. Franklin/No I mean the question before. Lehman/Is there anything from the results of that conversation that we should know? Franklin/No, I think the answer still is that any revenue generated has to go back into CDBG program income and ifthere's no revenue generated it doesn't go back in there. Champion/Okay. Franklin/Which was the point right? Lehman/If we negotiate the price of that ground it has to be for a really, I mean it's got to be a worth while reason. Franklin/Oh yea and you guys are all going to discuss that again and that' s where you get down to the only way you'll negotiate the land price Irvin is if there are low to moderate income units there. Champion/Right. Lehman/Right, and that' s a decision that can be made when it's closer. Pfab/So what are we going to put in it, so that? Franklin/That's negotiable. Lehman/Right. Franklin/The purchase price of the land is negotiable which leaves it wide open. Lehman/It doesn't promise anything. Franklin/It doesn't promise anything. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 46 Pfab/Well what are we saying? Let' s go back to where we, what' s the final statement we're going to say about (can't hear). Franklin/It's out. Pfab/Well then I don't want to put that in that' s it negotiable, if you'll put the other' s that are negotiable, then we could do this. Franklin/Talk to your colleagues, there was not a majority for low to moderate income being there. Pfab/So if your going to take the low to moderate income housing of it. Champion/We don't even know that it's going to be housing. Lehman/No we're taking the requirement out, it doesn't mean that it won't be there, but the requirement that it be there will not be in the proposal. Kanner/But we're setting the tone and we're setting what' s negotiable Ernie and I think in the same sense we can set the tone what we're willing to accept and what our goal is for the purchase price of the land. Champion/That' s what negotiations are about, if you can negotiate. Pfab/Then why both with a? Champion/Well because your saying it's negotiable so that means that we. Pfab/But an RFP is a statement of principle, policy. Champion/Leave the handicapped housing, or low income housing or what, if we have housing to the negotiations, that's what negotiations are about, we'll give you this if you give us that. Pfab/Well so then why are we bothering with all this RFP then if everything' s negotiable. Champion/That's life. Pfab/Okay so. O'Donnell/I think your getting over stimulated. Champion/I am over stimulated. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 47 Kanner/Are you going to do another appraisal in the next couple weeks to get what the price is? Franklin/It probably won't be in the next couple weeks. Kanner/Or before the RFP goes it? Franklin/It would be before they are due back which is July 6 as the schedule is now. We've got that base price of the appraisal which I think that information is in here somewhere from 96. Vanderhoef/The $1.2. Franklin/Right, but we won't need, I mean you can figure if your looking at it from 96 and you do inflation from 96 it's some rate your going to get up a little higher than that but it's not going to have skyrocketed to double that in that period of time, I'd be very surprised. Pfab/Are we going to get an appraisal? Lehman/Yes. Franklin/I think we should, definitely. Champion/What was the next thing? Franklin/Okay the last thing is then about developer selection. Lehman/Yes. Franklin/What we have provided for is a quasi public process in which we have, there' s a staff selection committee that would be reviewing the proposals that would come in, and the thinking is and this is where your input is important. The thinking is that if there are proposals that come in that clearly do not meet the RFP we don't even look at them. But we put out all of those at a for a public presentation of those that are contenders, you then will be making the final decision as to the preferred developer. The next step after the preferred developer and that was, that would be with input from the public and a recommendation from the staff selection committee. You would then make the decision on the preferred developer, after the preferred developer is selected that' s when we do the negotiations. By selecting the preferred developer, that' s not a lock on the project, we still have to go through the negotiations and put together a developer agreement. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 48 Pfab/I believe that that should all be public, no private negotiations I think this is public property and I think the negotiations should be in a public. Lehman/That' s impossible to do, once we, the developer should be a public discussion and the selection process. When it comes to the finite details those are not things that are made public just like most business deals are not totally public there are things. Pfab/But this is, this is a. Franklin/Approval of the final development agreement is an action that the City Council has to take in public and so the public would have an opportunity to comment on that development agreement at that time but that would be after you went through a period of give and take you then put that out as a development agreement to be approved and that' s the opportunity when the public has to speak to it. Lehman/That would be the final product after we've selected it and negotiations have taken place we get it back. Franklin/Right but to address Irvin's concern it is at that point that you could get comments from the public about the development agreement and whether the public felt the negotiations and what resulted in the development agreement was prudent or not and you can take that and do with what you wish. Lehman/Same thing as the Peninsula project. Franklin/Yes, exactly. Champion/I have one more question because I don't think, well I can only speak for myself. I do not want to see like storm style apartments down there, I wouldn't mind like something like a luxury adult apartment but if that's the only proposals we get do we have the right of refusal? Franklin/Oh absolutely you don't have to accept anything. Champion/Okay thanks. Kanner/I think the intent of what Irvin's saying I agree to a certain point that we want to see how far we can make it public, I think we should always be pushing the boundaries on how much is public and is there any room for more public and sunshine on this whole procedure. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 49 Champion/I think Eleanor keeps us pretty much in line. Kanner/Well I know. Pfab/But I think the public will help keep us in line. Kanner/But within the legal, we're within the sunshine in general, but I'm talking more general terms, are there ways that it can be made more public? Lehman/Well if I'm not mistaken the selection of the preferred developer is a public selection so that is. Franklin/There will be a public presentation before it comes to the Council for selection. Lehman/Right. Franklin/So that' s an opportunity that the public has to see the development proposals and provide input in whichever way they wish to the City Council. Then there is an item on your agenda selecting the preferred developer another opportunity that anyone has to comment. Then there is the development agreement which is the document that is the agreement between the city and the developer and the public has the opportunity to comment then. Lehman/When that' s voted on by the Council. The process of developing that agreement is done between the developer and our staff. Franklin/Yes. Lehman/Which is appropriate. Franklin/Yes. Lehman/But the public is involved in selection of the preferred developer and the approval of a final agreement. Franklin/That's right. Lehman/And every step in between except for the negotiations for the final agreement which necessarily would have to be. Franklin/Which manifest itself in the development agreement. Lehman/Okay. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 50 Pfab/Okay since this is not a competitive bid, I think the public should be involved in every step of the way. Champion/(Can't hear). Pfab/No other way. Lehman/Okay but I think. Pfab/I feel very strongly about that. Lehman/Are we all, are the rest of us all in agreement the proposal goes out the way we've talked about, we get the proposals back, we select the preferred developer if there is one, that then goes to the negotiations for the contract that will be made and then the final contract then will come back to the Council for approval and all of those things are public exception of the negotiations of the contract which are seldom public. Wilburn/And initial screening. Champion/Right. Vanderhoef/Right. Lehman/Are we in agreement? Thank you Karin. Franklin/Okay we'll have something on your agenda on the 20th a resolution approving this final. Kanner/I have just a question on, it says June 30th no new proposal will be accepted but then there' s a deadline of July 6. Franklin/Yea, draft, July 6 is the date. Kanner/So that June 30th is wrong. Franklin/Right. Champion/That's coming up, I don't know ifthat's enough time. O'Donnell/Let's take a break. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 51 Lehman/All right we are going to take a quick break. BREAK (PFAB LEFT MEETING AT 5:30) Low Power Radio License Lehman/Okay guys, there' s only a couple things and then we'll grab a sandwich and get ready for the conference board. Champion/Okay let' s roll. Lehman/Low Power Radio License, who' s going to speak to that, is there any, Drew. Drew Shaffer/With the Low Power Radio station we're essentially attempting to enhance what the city is already doing. And with the channel we're looking at our public information programs such as the school bus safety, how to conserve water, the helping to make the government accessible by producing and showing programs. Like the City Council meetings and we also produce and show programs that help the community learn about itself like community programming like the Human Rights Awards breakfast. Each of these things that we do with our channel now we'll try to do with low power radio station. The low power radio station will give us the ability to reach many more people than we do with Channel 4 the city channels we call it now. The city channel reaches about 72-73 percent of the population in Iowa City, the radio station would reach something like 90 percent of the people in Iowa City. In that way we hope to do each of the things I mentioned before that would enable us to expand and enhance each of those things a little bit such as the public information programs would reach more people, we would be able to enhance the government accessibility and be able to expand our community program. The institutions and other access channels that we approached, the library, the schools, the senior center have all been in support of the concept, that would enable us to expand the programming base, it would be on the lower power radio station so that we could have more programming to be able to show or be able to play back on the radio station so in addition to the programming that we show on the city channel now which would serve as a base for the radio station and we have about close to 120 hours programming that we play back on the city channel now. That much additional programming we would be able to add with those other institutions. Now I don't know how much programming they have but they all provided some support in terms of their letters that I hope you got in your packets. Lehman/We did. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 52 Champion/We did. Shaffer/But they all have programming that they show on their channels except for the Senior Center which shows them on all the channels. And their programming they said they would be willing to have shown or have played back on the low power radio station so the programming that we show on the city channel we would play back on the radio station, the programming that is shown on the other access channels we would like to play some of that back on the radio station in addition to the Senior Center' s programming. We're applying for 97.5 FM as the frequency if we're lucky enough to get the radio station, we're still researching the available call letters, we're not sure what we'll be able to get there. The Iowa City Telecommunications Commission has been informed of the project, they're supportive of the project, they give us the go ahead to move on that and said to keep them informed as we move along with the project. (END OF 01-28 SIDE TWO) Shaffer/Low powered radio station up and running from whenever we get the license, assuming we do get it, so the institutions in the city would not be committed at this point in time. Lehman/Where does the come from? Shaffer/It would come from the cable funds. Lehman/Is that going to impact the quality or the ability of the cable to do what they do? Shafteft No. Lehman/In other words they have more money now than they need? No, I'm serious because I turn on channel 4 a lot of times and there' s nothing on it. Are we going to have a radio station that, how many hours a day? Shaffer/Well we'll start out small and we're not talking about doing anything additional in terms of programming, that' s the programming that we make now is the programming that would be played back. Lehman/Okay so the same thing that has channel 4 now except it would be available on the radio. Shaffer/Right. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 53 Champion/I think it' s, you really have strong endorsements in the groups you've contacted and I personally would really be in favor of this because a lot of times I can listen to the radio but I can't really watch a television so I think there' s some real pluses for the community with this project and I think it's a great idea. Shafteft Thank you. O'Donnell/Are you comfortable Drew that this low power will reach into our community? Shaffer/Well we did a engineering kind of design map on Iowa City frequency and the 100 watts that we would get and we reached everybody except the very far corners, maybe the west, very far west end, and very far east end so over 90 percent. O'Donnell/Good quality. Shaffer/Good quality yea. O'Donnell/I think it's a great idea. Champion/I do too. Kanner/Drew we heard before that the Fed' s we're going to give out a large number of these low power licenses and then the latest I heard is that it's going to be reduced significantly. So instead of maybe having possibility of 8 or 9 in Iowa City we're down to maybe one, is that what the case is now or is it still at the higher number? Shaffer/I hadn't heard that it was cut down from the larger number, that' s news to me, I had heard that several are being given out in each community. Kanner/What was the talk that I heard from either Congress or the FCC that they weren't going to go with the high number that were being distributed, that it was going to cut down from I don't know like a 1,000 to maybe just 100 throughout the country? Shaffer/The talk that I heard was that the larger radio broadcast stations were attempting to get something passed to completely eliminate the ability to get any of these licenses issued at all, that' s what I had heard just because they didn't want the. Vanderhoef/And they want the funding? Shafteft Probably. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 54 Kanner/So far, your knowledge there' s still a chance there will be 5 to 10 licenses in Iowa City? Shaffer/Yes to my knowledge. Kanner/And will PATV be able to give things like the other stations that your talking about or will people in general in the community be able to submit things for the radio station? Shaffer/That' s something we would have to take on a case by case basis because it would still be considered a government channel just like the government channel, the city channel, it wouldn't become a public access radio station. O'Donnell/I think it's a good idea. Kanner/Well I kind of like the idea, if there a number of ideas that are going to be formed I like the idea of the city one and along with a community channel and perhaps another library or whatever station but ifthere's only going to be one I have some concerns that we're going to be the only ones that are going to have it if it excludes others from getting stations. Shaffer/Like I said I haven't heard that there was only one application possible for any community, that' s news to me. Kanner/Can you approach PATV and see if they want to endorse in the same way that the other ones endorsed you and maybe take a show or two that might be appropriate? Shaffer/I can certainly discuss that with them? Vanderhoef/Why do you need anymore if the Council is (can't hear)? Kanner/Anymore what? Champion/Anymore endorsements. Vanderhoef/Endorsements. Kanner/Well it's not necessarily for us the endorsements per se but also the FCC and also I think to say that we've got all the cable channels except one and I think we should be inclusive of all of them, I think our community is a much better radio station to have input from all the cable stations it just makes sense to me that you'd perhaps want to consider some programming from PATV, from the library, from the other ones that we have. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 55 Vanderhoef/I don't see that it's necessary. Lehman/I don't have a problem as long as we're not intinging on the ability to do what we do now well, I mean as we can do this and continue what we're doing well I don't have any problem with it. Champion/I don't either. O'Donnell/Good let's go. Vanderhoef/Go for it. Wilburn/It's a good idea. Lehman/Go, thank you. Wilburn/The school district is on board, (can't hear) I'll be encouraged to see what they as what their programming will incorporate. Lehman/Thank you Drew. Shaffer/Thank you. Senior Center Parkin~ ProDosal Lehman/Senior Center Parking Proposal, I want you to know Jay your time is coming out of our lunch time so. Jay Honohan/Well I'll make it very brief then Mr. Mayor. I would point out I was pleased to see faces of Iowa City represent four different scenes from the Senior Center. My first thing is I'd like to thank Joe Fowler and the City Manager for their cooperation working with the Strategic Planning Committee and Linda and I on this parking proposal. This plan was developed with Joe and the Strategic Planning Committee presented at public hearings at the center and received from the Counsel of Elders and Agencies and then was modified after all these hearings and basically here' s our plan, it's in two parts. The first part is we have hope to provide 1,200 hours of discounted non-designated parking available for registered participants of the center in Tower Parking Place facility for a permit cost of $50.00 a year. This amounts to about 220 hours of free parking or permit parking, Monday through Friday and 100 hours on Saturday. We also propose in the parking proposal that there be special permits for low income seniors using city guidelines at a cost of $10.00. Permit holders will have their parking stubs This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 56 validated just like the park and shop arrangement that you presently have. It will be done by the staff in the center and they'll present the stubs as they go out. They will be good for six hours per visit plus some travel time back and forth. There will be six and our proposal six handicapped spaces in the ramp specifically designated for Senior Center participants, four on the third level next to the skywalk and two on the fourth level next to the elevator. We are providing a loading area for dropping off passengers on the third level next to the skywalk. To provide for peak use problem, Joe came up with a very unique solution and that will be provided by regulating the number of spaces that are available in the ramp and when there's, it comes down to only 50 spaces left the lot in the morning will bring up the sign and says full and until 11:00 and that' s our real peak time then after 11:00 anybody can go in but until 11:00 they're effectively reserving 50 spaces. We are going to provide for monitoring of this program for the full year and then a real review at the end of the year and the cost of this program is in this coming year' s proposed budget which we hope you will approve. There will be another parking opportunity, we're proposing that there be 10 designated spaces in the Chauncey Swan lot you can get a permit for that lot for $10.00 a year but you have to pay $.20 cents an hour if your parking in the Chauncey Swan ramp. You could also use the $50.00 permit to park down there too but you still have to pay that $.20 cents. Champion/How do you regulate that, I mean from that little box that you put the money in? Honohan/Joe assured me that mechanically he can do it. Joe Fowler/Set up a different rate structure for a certain number of spaces and it would just be one through 10 would be at a different rate than the rest. Kanner/Joe while we're on the Chauncey Swan I saw on Saturday it's going to be available from 8-1 also how will that interact with the Farmer' s Market? Fowler/I think we'll have the same difficulty that we've had for years down there with both trying to use the same space. In the past we've had the Senior Center spaces reserved but the Farmer' s Market has gone ahead and used them up until noon and they've been available after noon hour. Kanner/It might be better just since we can assume that the Iowa Parking Ramp is not going to be as full on Saturday to just do away with the Saturday Chauncey Swan option and just say Monday through Friday because there should be plenty of spots in Iowa and then you don't even have to mess with the Farmer' s Market on Saturday. Because you get a lot of people complain, not only the farmers who have (can't hear) but you also get people who want to come and shop there and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 57 then the spaces get taken and it's a real pain having worked there I know what it's like trying to keep them out of spaces. And I don't think it's really needed there on a Saturday. Fowler/I'm open to whatever suggestions whatever works. Honohan/We can look into that. Kanner/Does that make sense to you? Honohan/If it will work, the only use we have presently the is the senior dining on Saturday and yea we can look at that as letting them in on Saturday in the Tower Place parking facility. Kanner/And speaking of senior dining and other staff and other agencies that are there I know that there' s a lot of people that have agencies, especially senior dining that' s concerned about volunteers and their staff being able to get parking also. Will you offer their volunteers the same kind of opportunities for parking passes and opportunities to park and other agencies in the building? Honohan/Our policy for senior dining is the same as for every agency in the building and that we feel is their responsibility to provide parking for their people. Just like it's the responsibility of the Senior Center staff to provide their own parking which they do through the city, we discuss this with all, or we made available this proposal to all the agencies, senior dining did appear and discussed this with us, and we feel it is not the responsibility of the Senior Center to provide free parking or special parking for agencies in the center. Yes. Linda Kopping/Everything Jay said is exactly correct however if a senior dining or elderly services has a volunteer who is a registered Senior Center participant they can purchase a parking permit and participate in the parking program just like anybody else. Lehman/Questions from Council. Honohan/I always bring Joe and Linda for back up. Lehman/I can understand that. O'Donnell/Very wise. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 58 Champion/I like the idea of holding 50 spaces, just clarify a couple things for me. If I have a permit for that lot and I go to park and it's full can I use my permit at any other ramp just by showing it to them? Honohan/No. Champion/So if I have a permit for that ramp and I go to work at 10:00 and there' s 50 spaces left and you've close the ramp, what is my option as a permit holder? Not a Senior Center permit holder but a downtown business owner. Fowler/Yes as a downtown business person holding a permit or anybody held a permit we would get you parking somewhere else. Champion/Okay. Fowler/Right now we have overflow like if your in the lots down here you can go to any other lots so. Champion/Right I just wanted to clarify that. And the other problem I have can we afford 50 spaces that aren't paying a full fare? Fowler/Our revenue projections were based on a 85 percent occupancy throughout the day, this 50 spaces we should be able to. Champion/Okay, okay. Lehman/Thank you Joe. O'Donnell/It's a great idea. Lehman/Other questions? Champion/Sounds good. Lehman/Thank you Jay. Okay in view of the hour I think we're going to save Council time for after the meeting. Vanderhoef/Sounds like a winner. Lehman/So grab something to eat, 28 minutes. Adjourned 6:00 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501 March 5, 2001 Special Work Session Page 59 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of March 5, 2001. WST030501