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Home My WebLink About2010-11-15 TranscriptionNovember 15, 2010 Council Present: Staff Present: Others Present: Appointments: City Council Work Session Bailey, Champion, Dickens, Hayek, Mims, Wilburn, Wright Helling, Dilkes, Rackis, Karr, Fosse, Boothroy, Davidson, Ford, Ackerman, Dulek, Hightshoe, Long, Moran Higgins, UISG Page 1 Hayek/ Okay, let's get started, uh, welcome to the work session. The first item is Council appointments. First commission appointment is under the Airport Commission. Champion/ Have to advertise again. Mims/ Do we have to wait on that cause of gender balance? Hayek/ Yeah. (several commenting) Should we wait on that one, see (noise on mic) and then proceed? Wright/ 90 days, is that right? Hayek/ All right. Next one is...Police Citizens Review Board. Two applicants, but uh...same situation. Champion/ No! Wright/ No, we had one (several talking) one female. Champion/ ...she sounds really qualified. Hayek/ Well...in terms of the requirement, and I agree with you. She's very qualified. Bailey/ (mumbled) is qualified. Hayek/ So...(several talking) consensus on that? (several responding) All right. And then Telecommunications. Wright/ Gender balance problem again. Agenda Items: Hayek/ Yep! So same, uh, outcome there - we wait the 90 days and then take this up again. All right. That's it for Council appointments. Next is agenda items (noise on mic). Anybody have anything on agenda items? To fill the, uh, space, let me just bring up legislative priorities, um, which is at item, uh, 13. Did you get a chance to look at that? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 2 ITEM 13. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING CITY OF IOWA CITY 2011 LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES. Karr/ Mr. Mayor, I'm sorry, could you move up your microphone a little bit. We're just not .picking you up; I'm sorry! Hayek/ Okay! Karr/ Thank you! Hayek/ Can you hear me now? Uh, legislative priorities at agenda item 13. Have you had a chance to look at that? My only thought, and I don't think it's a big deal is whether we wouldn't want to put, uh, the local regulatory authority on alcohol at the bottom, as opposed to the top of that list, but it may just be more stylistic. Wright/ (mumbled) alphabetical order, so... Hayek/ Yeah. Okay. Well, if there aren't any further, uh, changes to that, we'll adopt it tomorrow night. Helling/ Did you say you do want to make the change? Hayek/ I don't think so. Helling/ Okay. Hayek/ We'll just leave it as is. Other agenda items? All right. Let's move on to economic development projects update. It's Jeff and Wendy. Economic Development Proiects Update (IP2 of 11/10 & agenda item #7): Davidson/ Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And good evening. Uh, we appreciate, Wendy and I, having the opportunity I guess just for introductions for anybody in the audience, I'm the Director of Planning, Jeff Davidson, and with me is Wendy Ford, the Economic Development Coordinator, and we're here this evening to, um, give an update on the City's efforts, and some of the specific projects we have...excuse me, regarding economic development, and we're happy to have the opportunity to do that. There is...there are a lot of things going on, and uh, what Wendy and I would like to do is just take, uh, take you through several items and take...and keep this very conversational, if we can, um, you know, the purpose...I see you are cross-referenced with agenda item #7 for tomorrow night, which is the Towncrest urban renewal plan, and when we get to the Towncrest item we'll talk a little bit about that, but basically the purpose here is just to provide an update on what's going on. The Economic Development Committee, of course, Susan, uh, Matt, and Regenia are up to speed on a lot of this stuff because we've reviewed it with them, but I...I think it's great for the whole Council to have the opportunity to...to hear about the items more specifically. Uh, we do have a few slides, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 3 although not too many. Just a couple of things to illustrate. I think we can keep the lights up most of the time, uh, unless there's something you'd like to discuss that's on the...that's on the board. Um, as you've heard us say before, uh, with the economy still fairly stagnant, uh, I would say that's probably not an overstatement, uh, what we are focused on is getting ready for when it prove, uh, improves, and...uh, you know, we...we believe that when...the banks do loosen up and begin loaning money a little more easily than they...they are now, that Iowa City, uh, is going to be one of the focuses of economic development in the state. I mean, we really genuinely believe that, and we are certainly starting to see signs that the economy is turning around, but, uh, it is still very difficult right now for developers to get money for projects, uh, compared to, uh, prior to 2008 when the economic malaise began. Um, for the discussion this evening, and for the outline of what we're going through, we are defining, Wendy and I are defining economic development as the growing of the commercial and industrial tax base. Or, creating jobs. Uh, every project we're going to talk to you about tonight is one that the City is involved in, and what we are trying to do is grow the commercial or eco... commercial or industrial tax base, and create jobs. Uh, there's one exception to that, which we'll highlight, uh, but...but for the most part, every other project you see, uh, tonight that's...that's the focus, and that's why some things may be included, other things not included -for example, the...the Trueblood Recreational Area...park, you know, you could certainly find a tangent to economic development for that, if you're looking at the big picture, uh, but it does not directly create jobs or increase the tax base, so we haven't included, uh, it here this evening. Uh, one of the first things we wanted to talk to you about, because it is by far and away our major tool, really the tool that we have to provide incentives for economic development, and that's a lot of what we're going to be talking about this evening, is tax increment financing. Um, TIF is what the state gives us to provide incentives, uh, for projects, and it is certainly fair to say that we are, um, very deliberate in the projects that we have funded, uh, certainly compared to, uh, other communities around the state, some of which have, uh, been involved in some fairly high-profile controversies. We are very deliberate in terms of what we do. I think we have had very defensible, easy to understand for the public, uh, projects, uh, that we have used TIF for. Uh, in the past year we have had three, uh, TIF projects closed out, uh, and that is one of the things we do that, again, is different from some of the communities, is that when a project is closed out, we close the project out and begin generating the taxes for the three taxing entities -the City, the County, and the School District - uh, when the project is closed out. And we don't have a better example of that than the Plaza Towers project. Uh, the Plaza...the Plaza Towers project, typically when we do TIF projects, it is in the form of a tax rebate, where the...the developer (noise on mic) excuse me! The developer, uh, pays their property taxes and then gets them rebated for some specific purpose. Um, you're all familiar with the Moss Green project, which we're going to talk about in a second, that's one where the developer's going to be repaid for the infrastructure that's necessary to get that project going, through a property tax rebate. Now, for the...the Plaza Towers project was slightly different in that in order to finance the construction of the project, the City had to provide up-front money to assist with the construction loan. It was a very controversial project. It was a project we had not done previously, but we did do it. That project has been very successful. What was a 20-year scheduled TIF came off in eight years. That project generates approximately $1 million a This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 4 year. That project, in property taxes, split 40/40/20 between City, School District, and County, and so there's basically 12 years now, 12 years that were not scheduled for that $1 million a year to be generated and distributed to those taxing entities, that will occur, uh, because of that project being so successful and the City basically repaying the $6 million construction loan off initially. Uh, we've had three projects come off, uh, this year. We will have two more projects come off, uh, the upcoming year, TIF projects, and that will leave us with three active projects, Plamor, Pepperwood Plaza, and Alpha #2. Uh, we do anticipate, and some of what you're going to hear about this evening is some new projects. Obviously we've had the Moss Green project already. We do have a couple of more scheduled and we'll talk about those, uh, in just, uh, a little bit. Uh, any questions about our use of TIF, um...okay. Uh, the first project then we wanted to highlight was the expansion of the Southeast Industrial Park, uh, this has recently been platted, which means we can begin, uh, actively selling lots, and there's nothing more that we would like to do, uh, than to begin selling some lots. Uh, we continue to get expressions of interest, uh, from people, certainly including the wind power industry. Uh, we are doing targeting...targeted marketing with ICAD to the wind power industry. We are trying to attract a particular, uh, supplier to either in West Branch or Clipper in Cedar Rapids that if we were able to land, uh, this type of a business, this type of a supplier, it would then create spinoffs for other suppliers, uh, that we think would also locate here. So we have put together, uh, a... an incentive package and we have a couple of interested companies, they're both European companies. Actually one's European company and one's an American company that are considering those, but...but the...last year really tore the guts out of the wind power industry and it has really, really slowed down and we're waiting for that to rebound. We're also, um, we are also extend...certainly extending, uh, information to other prospects that we feel would be appropriate for the area. Uh, the infrastructure is just about completed. The road is wrapping up. If you go out there you can see very clearly where the sanitary sewer is going in. The road included the water, uh, lines as well. Uh, we will eventually, hopefully, be able to pay ourselves back for some of the infrastructure expense and the expense to purchase the property, uh, through...through TIF. Again, that will be a project that would come before you for, um, approval. Uh, so again, this is all part of being set up and ready to go, and hopefully we will be able to bring a specific project to you, uh, shortly. Any questions about the Southeast Industrial Park? Uh, Moss Green Urban Village, we've had a lot of discussion over the last, uh, several months and so I don't know how much more you want to talk about this. Uh, the...the project has been preliminary platted, uh, which allows the developer to begin grading and installing infrastructure. Uh, they cannot sell lots until it's final platted. We are awaiting some, uh, some signoffs from the Corps of Engineers on the wetland issues before that happens. That's between the developer and the Corps of Engineers. Uh, the City has done everything we can to facilitate this getting going, uh, and again, uh, the developer's indicated expressions of interest but uh, you know, things are slow and...and we're, again, hoping to be set up and ready to go beginning next year. Any questions about Moss Green? Uh, the third one is actually, uh, the third project we wanted to highlight is basically under the umbrella of downtown, uh, and downtown is extremely...extremely important to us in terms of our, uh, economic development efforts. Uh, downtown has by far the highest property tax collection in the community, on a per acre basis. It's our This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 5 most valuable property, uh, in that respect, and so, um, in... in terms of the amount of...the amount of expense that we have to put into a development project downtown, typically it's much, much less because the infrastructure is largely in place. We may have to, uh, do some tweaks with the...the street system, in terms of turn lanes or something like that, but by and large the infrastructure's in place downtown, uh, we just have to upgrade it occasionally when we do a project. So they're...they're very lucrative projects. We talked about the Plaza Towers project. That's a perfect example. Uh, we have another one that will be similar to the, uh, the Plaza Towers project, and that's the Music School/Hieronymus Square project. A large scale project, uh, multi-story project. This'll bean 11 or 12-story building, uh, when it's built. You see from the aerial here, uh, the Court Street Transportation Center, which the City put in a few years ago, was supposed to be a catalyst for additional development on block 102, this block, and it is providing exactly that. Uh, what you're looking at is the Hieronymus Square property, along with a property... if I can bring the arrow up right here that the City owns, right there. That was alay-down area for when we constructed the Court Street Transportation Center, and there's also an alley property right...uh (mumbled) right there, uh, that half of the alley would also be vacated under what's proposed for Hieronymus Square. The Hieronymus Square project was a project that we attempted to work with the developer and get launched as a completely private sector effort. The...the developer was not able to do that. Uh, considered some scaled-back options that really, quite frankly, weren't...uh, that appealing, uh, by the time they got scaled back a little bit further than we would have liked to have seen. What's happened now of course is that the University has, uh, worked out a partnership with the Hieronymus Square developers, also including the Three Bulls developer that owns, oops, can you get that back, Wendy, the...the Mod Pod building right there. Uh, that's the consortium that's been put together, the University, Hieronymi Partners, uh, made up of... of the, uh, the Hieronymus family, the Hodge Development Group, and the Three Bulls Development Group, that's the...the partnership there. Um, so it's kind of an 1-shaped...that you can see here. Across the street then where the two banks are located will be the site of the new Clapp Recital Hall complex. Will be not just recital halls, but actually a full theatrical, uh, venue, as opposed to what was...the...the current Clapp Recital Hall that was flooded out, which was pretty much just a recital hall. It'll be a fabulous addition for downtown. Uh, as I said, the City...the City will be a partnership in this project...partner in this project, on a number of levels. We will have...I'm not exaggerating, I believe six, uh, six specific agreements with the developer in terms of parking, uh, they have indicated that they intend to use TIF, they will need to use TIF for the project, uh, we have parking access, the property sale, a number of things that will have to be worked out, and we are definitely a partner in this. The way the concept works, I think most of you are aware is that the first floor of Hieronymus Square project will be privately owned commercial space, then floors 2, 3, and 4 will be a condominium unit owned by the University that will be basically the Voxman School of Music, and then 5 and...5 and possibly 6 will be office levels, and then beyond that will be residential levels, up to level 12. There will be a physical connection then across...there will be a physical connection to the Court Street Transportation Center for the parking and then a physical connection across the street to the new recital halls. Um, we did interview architects. The University asked me to assist with that last week. Uh, so they intend to get underway very quickly, uh, the architect of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 6 record for the University for the recital halls is the same architect that will be the architect for Hieronymus Square project. So they'll be coordinated in that respect too. So a lot more to come on this, but this'll be a really great addition, both sides of the street, uh, we will have then some improvements to the intersection of Clinton and Burlington that we will do in the last year of that project. Any questions about this project? Bailey/ Yeah, what's the timeframe? I mean, you said that they were moving quickly, but... Davidson/ As envisioned right now, Regenia, the two sides of the street, because one will be a private development project and the other one will be aUniversity-development project, they anticipate the Hieronymus Square side moving about one year in advance of the Clapp Recital Hall side of the project. So, uh, Hieronymus Square wants to get going in earnest next construction season. Uh, they're...they're of course tweaking their design now, based on the University being...having a piece of the project. Uh, Clapp Recital Hall's just kind of starting from square one and in fact I think they're still working out some of the agreements to get the banks relocated, at least one of the banks, relocated off the site, uh, and we are hoping that both of those banks are going to stay in the area, either downtown or in Riverfront Crossings, uh, we've had discussions with each of them and they seem both very interested in remaining in the area, with slightly modified drive- through facilities. Obviously there won't be any drive-through facilities in the CB-10 zone downtown, but hopefully in the CB-5 area adjacent, or in Riverfront Crossings where we hope to develop amixed-use zoning classification. Any questions? Wright/ So the Hieronymus...Hieronymus building, is the University going to be leasing that section? Davidson/ No, they will own it as a condominium unit, and it will be non-taxable space, and undoubtedly in... in the agreements, either the Conditional Zoning Agreement or the TIF agreement that we work out with the University, we will have a stipulation that no more than "X" percent of that building can be non-taxable, in particular if there's going to be a TIF agreement. We're going to have to make sure that we maintain the taxable portion at a certain percentage, and maybe we can work out something such that if it ever exceeded that, uh, percentage there would be a payment in lieu of taxes or something like that. That all would have to be worked out, but they will own their condominium unit. The remainder of the building will then be taxable, and by our calculations, approximately the same taxable value that we were going to end up with, with the scaled back project that they were hoping to build, uh, so...so really, you know, the University money jumpstarts the project, gets it going, and we end up with about the same taxable value. Bailey/ Is the vision for the residential similar to what it was years ago when they came in, or is it more student residential? Davidson/ Or...for this project here? Bailey/ Yeah. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 7 Davidson/ Um...as...as you might imagine, you know, the top floors are going to be the really nice, expensive units. The...the floors between the office floors and that floor are certainly intended to be more modest units. Now whether they're...they're certainly not intended to be the student market in terms of four, five bedroom units, uh, with stuff draped on the balcony kind of a...kind of a thing, I mean, they're very, very concerned about the image this building's going to have, and the University is very concerned about the image this building is going to have, so my guess, although I...I think they're still working out the details, my guess...be they do not intend to target the student market. Champion/ It might be like Plaza Towers, with some really nice units that... Bailey/ Right. I was just thinking if I was a music student, I mean, you couldn't pick a better place, I mean, that would be just great! Davidson/ Yeah. Maybe...maybe more faculty than students, I'm not sure (several talking) and there are, in Plaza Towers, there are students that live in Plaza Towers, but they're grad students, they're married students, non-traditional type students. Any other questions about the Hieronymus Square project? Lot more to come on that, but we're very excited. Uh, also wanted to talk then about, I think this was the only slide...yeah, the only slide we had for downtown, um, just a couple of other things quickly downtown. The multi- use parking facility on the St. Patrick School site, uh, is another project that is finally, uh, getting going in earnest. In the next month or two hopefully we will bring you the development agreement with our private sector partner that's going to be working with us on that project to develop the residential and commercial portions of the building. And...and very exciting stuff! The workforce housing that we've talked with you about, uh, this developer is very committed to that, has been successful with those types of projects, uh, in other communities, and...and we're very excited about working with them. Uh, our interest of course is 500 to 600 parking spaces, and we need to get going. I can't emphasize that enough. We can see what's coming down the pike in terms of downtown development, and we're the parking. We're the parking part of it. We don't want to get into a situation where we cannot allow a development project to go ahead because we can't get parking for it. About every five or six years we add 400 to 600 parking spaces to our inventory. We've done that for the last 25 years, going back to the original parking ramps in the last 70s, uh, and this is just a continuation of that to allow, uh, downtown to grow. It'll be on of course the St. Patrick School site, uh, that you're familiar with and, uh, chances are we are...we're going to expand the urban renewal area...urban renewal district, into that area, expand the one that exists currently in this area, so that we have the opportunity to use TIF if needed, uh, on that project as well. Any questions about that project? The final project downtown that we're going to talk to you about briefly was the downtown business incubator. Uh, we did a study that was funded through the Economic Development Administration of the, excuse me, the federal government. Uh, and it kind of gave us a road map for how to proceed. Uh, the way that we have decided to proceed is with ICAD as a partner, and we're very excited about that. ICAD is able to do some of the due diligence for the project, uh, that, uh, Wendy and I simply don't have the...the time to do, and so they will be actively doing that for the next three to six months. Uh, and after that we anticipate partnering with them on a co-work This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 8 type; um, a business incubator. It's a slightly different model than the traditional business incubator model that at least I was familiar with. You too? (several responding) Um, and... and so we will be bringing you, what we're going to do during the capital improvement discussion this year is identify kind of a...a...an amount of money that we think is what we're going to need to go forward in our partnership with...with ICAD...ICAD. Hopefully we can refine that so that by the time you adopt a municipal budget for 2012 we have, uh, an item in there if, of course, you want to proceed and go ahead with the project. We're also working with a, uh, existing downtown business on a, uh, another proposal that's very exciting, which would combine some very small-scale production type facilities and a fine art's area, and have a relationship with the, uh, School of Art and Art History at the University of Iowa, take advantage of some existing resources at this business that are being, uh, underutilized, quite frankly, right now, and that's a very exciting proposal, and again, we're just kind of in the infant stages with that, but, uh, hopeful...hopefully we'll have that with you, as well. So, as you've heard us say, we...we've determined that it's easier to try and grow a small business from within the community than to attract a business from outside the community that we have to sell Iowa City on. Why not take somebody who's already sold on Iowa City, uh, and try and incubate their...their idea, their dream, uh, and provide some...some mentoring and...and uh, a road map for doing that, and that's...that's the idea behind the downtown business incubator strategy. Hayek/ You...your memo mentions a possibility of a downtown business manager. Can you elaborate on that a little bit as it relates to this? Davidson/ Yeah, that's something that Wendy and I wanted to kind of...end the discussion of downtown with, and that is, you know, we did a downtown market study in 2007 and it had a lot of great ideas and...and we have sort of, you know, we've tried to address them, kind of as much as we can, uh, and...and they...they really are things that...that require the idea of a downtown business manager, and...and this is...this is something that's as exotic as, I mean, a million places have downtown business...Cedar Rapids has a downtown business manager (both talking) some of you might know, and it's...it's a really, really valuable...for doing all of the things that the downtown market study says are great ideas, you need to have this...this person coordinating it. Um, Birmingham, Michigan, where our city...new city manager's coming from has a very, very successful downtown business organization, and Tom and I had the opportunity to discuss some of the things they do, and it's like he was reading out of our downtown market analysis. I mean, it was...you know, doing...trying to market to specific retail clusters that we're trying to attract downtown. For example, we've ended up with a great, uh, sort of higher- end women's clothing cluster retail cluster downtown that's just sort of, I mean, the City hasn't been actively involved in it, but the City can be involved in trying to attract specific downtown retail clusters, like that. There are a number of businesses that when all of us go to Ann Arbor or Madison we see these national franchise-type businesses, oriented to university towns, and we wonder, `Why isn't that business in Iowa City?' Well, we don't know because we don't take the time to go to retail trade shows and basically advertise Iowa City and market Iowa City, and that's the kind of things...it's really being much more proactive than the more reactive, uh, approach we take right This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 9 now, and so undoubtedly we're going to have discussions with Tom about this. He's a big proponent of it. I think he...he, better than myself, he can tell you all the great things it's done for Birmingham, and I'm sure we're going to have that discussion. Dickens/ Is that going to be privately funded or... combination? Davidson/ Hopefully it's a combination, Terry. That's...that's at least the way you'd like to see it, and in fact you'd like to see it as a stand-alone organization, not one that's the City, because if it's the City immediately you have to deal with people who react one way or another to it being the City, and so the City can be a partner in it. That's really the better model! Dickens/ In conjunction with possible (mumbled) Davidson/ Exactly! SMID's a very common way to fund a downtown business manager position, and the way it's proposed to be done, uh, in our, uh, market study. Hayek/ When was the last time the SMID was taken up? How many years ago was that? (several talking) Bailey/ How many years? I think it was 04...yeah, cause it hasn't been taken up again (several talking) Davidson/ And...and for everybody that...the SMID is aself-supporting municipal improvement district, which is a special taxing district that basically businesses downtown have to decide they want imposed upon them, and then it creates a special tax for things that are oriented just...in the case of downtown, it would be just for downtown initiatives. Bailey/ And I know that, you know, (mumbled) we have somebody who's experienced with this, but at this juncture what do you see that we need to do to move in that direction, because that downtown study did have a lot of good ideas and it's unfortunate that we're not taking up some of them. Davidson/ Well, my understanding is that Tom was present when the organization was either formed or at least became what it is today, and so, you know, hopefully he's going to have a lot of insight of having actually been there and done that, uh, that we don't have. You know, the SMID came very close to being approved last time, um, it...there are, municipal improvement districts in many towns in Iowa. Cedar Rapids has a very successful in Cedar Rapids. They use it for streetscape improvements, public art, and the downtown business manager's office. Uh, and so, you know, there's a perfect case study right there of...of what you can get done, and it's been...it's been very good for Cedar Rapids. Any other questions about anything downtown? Those were the three projects we wanted to highlight for you. Uh, the next project then is Towncrest, and we actually have a...a couple of slides to click through. Maybe we can...well, actually why doesn't Wendy tell you about the urban renewal plan that's on your agenda tomorrow night real quickly. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 10 Ford/ Yeah, actually I just, um, came from the informal meeting of Planning and Zoning Commission. They have done their first review of the Towncrest Urban Renewal Plan, and will be considering recommending that to the full Council in the next month, at least if not sooner than that, um, the...the plan actually, as you know, sets in.. into play, um the City's ability to be a partner with the private, uh, sector in, uh, reinvestment in an area, and the plan, uh, this particular plan is interesting in that, um, as a result of working, uh, for over two years with the neighborhood businesses and residents, um, who desired among other things, um, a better neighborhood identity, better circulation, and traffic for, um, both vehicles and pedestrians, more green space, uh, and a number of other things, um, we've also, uh, created a design plan, which when coupled with our urban renewal plan, uh, provides a really nice set of guidelines by which, um, the neighborhood or the...the residents in the area who live and work there, um, would like to see things develop out. Um, along with design standards for architectural and landscape amenities, um, we have...we're also working on, um, a...a rather unusual, or a full complement of, um, financial assistance tools that we hope will really start, uh, investment in the area. Um, the area has seen flat, uh, in the residential, flat in the property valuations over the last four or five years, and declining property valuations in the commercial property, and what we'd really like to do is, uh, allow those businesses or those property owners to take the first steps in, um, reinvesting in those properties by helping them with, uh, matching funds for some of the design assistance needed in coming up with, um, property improvement plans. Um, one step beyond that would be providing a, uh, facade improvement program which would allow, again, property owners who, uh, don't necessarily want to take their building down and start over, but would like to participate in the revitalization to do just that, um, this would be a matching program, again. Um, thirdly, there would be a, uh, gap funding program for businesses who might want to spend just a little bit more than a facade improvement might, uh, cost, and we would then have a program to provide the gap financing, uh, for a project that said, boy, I can get to 85 or 90% of the cost of this out of my own sources of revenue, and...and budget, but I just can't do it without that last little, uh, that last little gap filled. Um, so we're designing a program with our financial consultant, uh, who's actually in the room, uh, tonight to be able to serve some of those needs, as well, and then there's that, uh, the one...the one we always talk about when we talk about urban renewal plans, and that is tax increment financing. So we'll have four different programs for this area. Davidson/ Yeah, and the...the urban renewal plan that you'll consider tomorrow...tomorrow evening will...will allow TIF to be used, and we did want to introduce Tom Jackson. I was looking around to see if he was in the back of the room. Tom, if you could just stand up. Tom is, uh, from the, uh...National Development Council, thank you, Wendy (laughter) acronym freeze there, um, and...and Tom's been a great help. We have a month-to-month contract with him, and he's been a great help developing the financial incentive programs, not just for Towncrest, but for a lot of the things we're talking about, uh, this evening. You know, one of the things that we've been delighted to find as we, uh, have engaged the public in the development of the design plan, and we're going to click through a couple of slides here, is that there is really a great deal of dedicated interest in Towncrest. People who are in the area that want it to become what it was, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 11 even more than it was, but basically get back on its feet in terms of the proper amount of investment in the properties in that area, and people elsewhere in the community that seem to understand that this area has so much potential. It's got the schools; it's got the parks; it's got transit; it's got a successful commercial area; it's got trails; it's got a nice residential area around it; that it really has a lot going for it, and it just needs some re...some reinvestment in the core area to get it back to where it needs to be, and we...we've been delighted to...to find all the interest in the area. We do want to emphasize to you that in terms of the design review overlay that we'll be asking you to, uh, approve at some time, which means basically that development projects would have to go through a layer of design, special design review, to ensure that they were consistent with the, uh, redevelopment, uh, design that we have come up with here, that that's been a very public process. That hasn't been atop-down process with the City saying this is a great idea, do you agree? It's been very much, uh, grown out of the public meetings that we've had with the, uh, businesses and residences of the area. Here you can see an example of how the streetscape might be improved in Towncrest. You can see in the background there some facade improvements, uh, to buildings. Next slide...here's an example of, I think this is supposed to represent the intersection with Muscatine and, uh, well, one of the intersections with one of the arterials. Do you know which one.. . Ford/ Yeah, this is actually Wade, looking eastward along Towncrest Drive. So this would be the gateway into the core of the Towncrest area. Davidson/ Right, and you can see, and...and don't...don't read too much into the portal there. I mean, it's...it's a nice idea; maybe we'll do it, maybe we won't, but the bottom line is, you can see the streetscape enhancements. You can see the enhancements to the public realm, and you can see the enhancements to the private realm, as well. And I think... Wendy (mumbled). Okay, here's an example of an existing building with the facade improvement. This...this is an existing building that exists and if you take the time to actually look through the design plan, I think there's a before and after photos of several existing buildings out there that could have these types of improvements done. They're not terribly, terribly expensive. We would assist with the financial incentives for it, both in the pre-planning, the, uh, facade improvement program, and if somebody wants to do a new building, with gap financing for potentially a new building. Anymore? Oh, here's an example of the scale of what a new building might be, where we'd have on the first floor perhaps an office use. It's not out of the question that we might even have some first-floor residential, um, you know, the degree to which a building had a presence to either Muscatine Avenue or First Avenue will determine how viable retail is for this area. Um, for the... for more internal buildings, we might have office uses, and... and again, I will tell you that a lot of the existing office uses want to stay in the area with upgraded facilities, and so this is an example where you could then put a residential on site. You could also have offices on the second floor, but...but perhaps residential use on the second or third floor. Are there any others? Ford/ No, that was it. (mumbled) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 12 Davidson/ Okay. So any questions about Towncrest? Uh, more to come in terms of what you'll be seeing, in terms of the, you know, we don't have any official approvals, other than the urban renewal plan, tomorrow night, but the...the financial incentive programs will be coming your was...your way shortly. Hayek/ At what point do we develop, uh...thematic issues, you know, the mix or the particular sector, that kind of thing, or do we allow those things to grow more organically? Davidson/ Our intention is to have mixed use zoning, uh, in this. We...we want to encourage higher density and a mix of uses. Um, and...and that's something that...it's not altogether unusual anymore in zoning ordinances. It used to be very unusual. Separation of uses was what zoning ordinances were largely about. We're trying to encourage the mix of uses, and you...you do it the right way with proper design. Yeah, we...we do have a theme out here as you can see from the drawings, but we...we also want to give enough thought to how those uses are mixed so that it's...it's a great place for people. It's a great place for people to work, and they can co-exist, um, they can co-exist, you know, well together. Um, you know, the one thing I didn't mention that I meant to mention and so I will just briefly here is, you know, we do have the Town and Campus Apartments situation that we are trying to deal with, and we have made a lot of progress. We have made a lot of progress with the existing property owner in terms of the amount of crime that was occurring, uh, at that facility. The crime rate is way down. The police are...are very much helping us, uh, by having a presence out there. The property owner to...to his credit, has...has really been helpful in terms of getting some provisions in the leases that should have been in there, uh, to begin with, and making it a more higher- quality place to live. Now, is that...the long-term strategy for that property? We're not sure. Uh, we're still working on that. We're working with the property owner in trying to determine if maybe a more significant, uh, change, uh, not necessarily taking out everybody that lives there, uh, and... and doing something radically different, but maybe just a significant upgrade, kind of a rebranding of it, uh, so that it really had a different image, uh, that's I think what we're working towards, and we're not there yet, but we are working towards that. It was clear in our public meetings that the influence that property has over the rest of the Towncrest area, particularly the...the east end of the area where it's located, uh, is a factor in reinvestment decisions that people are going to be making. So we know we have to deal with it, uh, and we're trying to deal with it, but it's a, you know, there's a...there's a hundred residential dwelling units, uh, on that property. There's people living, uh, in most of those units, and we need to handle it very, very delicately, uh, in terms old how we proceed. Okay, let's move on then to Riverfront Crossings. Uh, I...I think, uh, the Amtrak decis...the Amtrak announcement a week ago has, uh, really captivated, uh, people lately. Uh, and...and then of course the election last week, uh, threw...threw a lot of things into question, but I...I do want everybody to understand that, you know, with the new administration coming in, we understand perfectly that there's going to be a lot of questions, a lot of things that have to be re- evaluated about this project, and that should happen, you know, that should happen. We~ don't have any problems doing that, uh, we are very much looking forward to working with Governor Branstad and uh, his transition team in terms of getting them up to speed with what we think is a great project. We also think it's critical to get the service to Des This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 13 Moines. I mean, critical on a number of levels. But certainly critical to get it to Des Moines, and we'll work...we're working very hard. A meeting I attended with Amtrak, uh, in Chicago this summer, I sat right with the Des Moines people. They told me all about their station, uh, about station location evaluations and... and they're very excited about getting it. I think they've had at least one rally in Des Moines already to try and get the service to Des Moines. So we're very much working on that. This is of course only one aspect of the Riverfront Crossings initiative. Um, the...the major thing that we're trying to do right now, um, is get the waste water treatment plant relocated. A huge project; a very, very significant project; one that has impacts for the entire community in terms of the next time we have a flood event. Uh, most of that property will be returned, uh, to flood plain, and will be a riverfront park feature that we think is going to be a great feature for the area. You want to kind of click through the...uh, we just had a...a PowerPoint thing here. If you can see, arterial streets, uh, you can see the mixed use parking facility up at the top there. Roughly where we envision the park going over the...a portion of the City Carton site, and the waste water treatment plant site, and I do want to assure everybody, I met with the CEO of City Carton last week. Sat down and had a great, great discussion with them. You know, they're making decisions...they have a very significant plant down there. Employs 43 people, I think they said, and they have several ...seven other locations in Iowa. I emphasized to them that keeping City Carton a viable, successful Iowa City business is our first priority. I mean, we want to help them try and find another location in Iowa City, and we were prepared to do that. They know that; they know we're not kicking them out down here, but we want their planning to proceed with our planning, and it is exactly. Andy, uh, Ockenfels, as many of you know, said that they replaced the, uh, a significant...had a significant roof replacement down there on one of their buildings, and he said we put in a 10- or 15-yeax roof, rather than a 30-year roof, which they formerly would have done. So, uh,-we're very, very excited about working with them. Clearly City Carton and our north waste water plant is...are really key properties in terms of getting this area turned around. Uh, because of the timeline with the north waste water plant that's under design right now, getting the new plant built, and then getting things cleaned up down here, that's going to be at least three to five years. So it does give us a little bit of a timeline for, uh, working with the other people down here. We're also doing a...a sub-area study down here to try to get a more specific plan in place for the type of redevelopment that we would seek, maybe some reconfiguration of the arterial street system where you have the loop around the County Administration Building. We'd like to get rid of that. Have a more seamless arterial system through here between Benton and Kirkwood. We want to emphasize the walk- ability, the bike-ability of this area. We intend to eventually get trolley car service down here. So a lot of component parts to this, but at the same time, we're starting to get people calling us, people coming in the office and saying, hey, I have this particular piece of property and I'm interested in doing something with it. So we're also trying to work with those people, to get...to get, even though the vision's not fully in place, we're trying to get some projects put together, uh, that...that are consistent with what we want to see happen down here, consistent with the Amtrak service, the new riverfront park, uh, so a lot going on down here. This is probably of all of our economic initiatives that we're going through with you, the one that has a little bit longer timeline. It's a big area, but in the next 10 to 15 years, this is going to be the principal redevelopment area in Iowa City. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 14 And if... if somebody left today and came back in 15 years, it's going to look completely different down here, uh, and we hope it's going to be a great urban adjacent to downtown, uh, neighborhood for Iowa City. Any questions about sort of the direction we're heading here? Okay, a couple of other smaller, I guess slightly smaller scale projects we want to run through very quickly before we wrap up. One is the single- family new construction program. Uh, this was the one project I said is a bit of an outlier, it doesn't actually, uh, bolster the commercial and industrial tax base, but it...it does bolster what otherwise would have been a significant hit to the residential property tax base. Uh, approximately $22 million in residential property tax value that we are taking down to the flood buyout program. Uh, I certainly take every opportunity to, uh, make sure you guys get the credit that you are due for the decision to pursue the significant buyout program. The only flood mitigation program that has assurance of zero risk in the future, uh, because basically the residence, and the people who live in the residence, are completely removed from the flood haz...hazard area. Uh, fortunately the state established the single-family, uh, program, oh, and I do have a handout...what did I do with it? I apologize. Dale, if you could hand these out. Uh, just shows rounds 1, 2, and 3, uh, that are highlighted in your material. Uh, those...those three will total...uh, is it 108 new homes, uh, 40 of them have already been constructed and have people living in them. Another 37 under construction right now, and then we've received approval for a total up to 108. We are told that, and we were told by the previous Governor's administration that there would be two more rounds of this program. Uh, we have replaced, and in fact gone past by probably 25 homes, the number that we think we will be at for, uh, buyouts and demolitions. So we're already 25 homes to the good, uh, it could be potentially another 60, uh, added to that if they do fund, and then of course the funds come from the federal government, not the state government, so we do have some assurance that rounds 4 and 5 will proceed. Any questions about this? It's just been an excellent program, and the thing I want you to note is, even though these are, I mean, I hate to use the term, but this is affordable housing that's being constructed, because the price points are either... $150,000 or below, or $180,000 and below, every house that you see on that map, and you can see the great job that we've been able to do with scattering them around the community. Um, and we hope to continue that, uh, as...as we go forward with the...the subsequent rounds. I think I had...several extras if people in the audience would like them. Any questions about this? Wright/ As you were looking to site some of these houses, were there any opportunities closer in? (mumbled) kind of all on the fringes. Davidson/ Yeah...I don't, I mean, certainly we would consider that, Mike. I mean, we...we, the developers make proposals to us, and...and then we...we evaluate the proposals that we've received, and certainly if we received any, but you know, when you're doing a lot of these are attached units. For example, if you go out to the Peninsula, there's...you know, either duplexes or...well, on the Peninsula I think there are attached units, townhouses. We also have a lot of locations that are duplexes, and those are harder to do in the built-up part of town. We certainly would consider them if, uh...if a proposal was made. Any other questions about what's being done with this program? Uh, Aviation Commerce Park, uh, Wendy, was there a slide for that? Um...excuse me, this is...if I This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 15 can...uh, Aviation Commerce Park is this area right here. Uh, Ruppert Road was constructed by the City as part of the infrastructure that was installed, uh, in order to establish this. When the north-south runway went out of...of commission, this...this area became buildable for us, and what we have tried to do is establish, uh, intensive commercial type uses in this area. This whole side here was...was, uh, developed into four lots. Three of the lots are the ITC, uh, Company, which is in this area and maintains the utility infrastructure for MidAmerican Energy. I think also for Alliant Energy, and then lot four down here... is that right? Ford/ Yeah...yep! Up just a little bit. Davidson/ Up here? Ford/ Yeah, right in there. Davidson/ Okay, is where the, uh, the new heliport for the Air Care helicopter is located. They moved it from Oakdale to this location. So basically the southside of Ruppert Road is completely built out now, or...or will be with the helipad project. Uh, on this side of the street then...uh, two lots have been sold, Van Meter Electric was sold this year. They don't have their building up yet. The IWI Company does have their building up, and we really hope, uh, you know, the new Wal-Mart is going in here, uh, one correction I wanted to make, was pointed out to me by the senior planner, is that for a while we had both CC-2 and CI-1 zoning. Now it's all CI-1 again. L..I knew that had flip-flopped back and forth, uh, the Comprehensive Plan, however, does say that we would consider CC-2, which are more the retail-type uses, uh, in this area, as well. Uh, and we do hope that the new Wal-Mart does maybe provide a catalyst for that, but so it's...it's proceeded slowly. We have sold out enough property that we have paid off the infrastructure bonds that the City sold, uh, for this and hopefully we can continue to generate some, uh, revenue for the City with the remaining lots. Any questions about Aviation Commerce Park? Uh, we did also want to highlight the CDBG Economic Development Fund, uh, those of you on the Economic Development Committee, uh, are familiar with this program, but uh, you know, I asked Tracy to put together a short summary, and, um, we have assisted 17 businesses involving the creation or retention of 346 jobs, so I think that's great. Uh, there's always aloes-mod income angle because of the use of the CDBG funds for this. Uh, we have done, you know, we did one fairly substantial project with IAC, uh, out in the southeast industrial park, but otherwise typically in the $5,000 to $50,000 range. Uh, and a lot of this has been working with small business owners, and it's been a very successful program for us. Any questions? Uh, let's see I believe...is it (several talking) yeah, Baroncini's on the agenda (mumbled) latest project that we assisted. Um, just to wrap up then, um, I...any questions about anything we've talked about so far? Um...you know, it is apparent that with the new city manager coming in, perfect opportunity to...to reevaluate our economic development efforts. In terms of the City's dedicated resources towards economic development, you're looking at it. (laughter) Uh, Wendy is obviously full time person and I'm a part-time person in that effort. Uh, and it...and it's certainly fair to say, and I think a lot of people are aware, that Iowa City has traditionally put less direct financial effort towards economic development This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 16 than other similar sized, uh, communities. When you had your candidate, your city manager candidate from Sioux City, uh, he and I discussed economic development, and he was very surprised, uh, you know, similar sized community, they're slightly larger, uh, and they have five or six people on the city staff dedicated to economic development. City of Dubuque will brag up, you know, their efforts, uh, they...they have a very, very significant, um, amount of resources that go into economic development in Dubuque, and it's paid off! Well, it's paid off, uh, you know, whether or not the investment has exactly paid off of what they've gained, uh, they certainly have been able to accomplish a lot, uh, and now's a perfect time with Tom coming in for that discussion to occur, as to whether or not we want to go one way or another, stay where we are, uh, there's certainly a lot of other organizational, uh, arrangements that...that we could do. I do want to emphasize that I feel like we have a really good program of being able to react, not so much be proactive, but to react. Wendy and I draw on the other resources of the City, and I certainly would want to highlight the Public Works Department, Rick and Ron and his folks. Uh, the City Attorney's office, and the City Manager's office, they're great to work with. When they ask for our help, we get their help, and we really, really appreciate it. But it is largely reactive, rather than proactive, and I think that's a question for the City Council at budget time to consider, if you want to become more proactive, certainly with downtown, and then economic development, uh, in general. Uh, I also just wanted to really quickly highlight, you know, we...we've had a lot of really interesting discussions with ICAD. ICAD's a very significant partner for us, because they're doing a lot of things that Wendy and I just don't have the time to do, uh, in terms of the marketing efforts that they do, uh, certainly for the wind power industry, but...but also in general, they're the ones that are at some of the trade shows, that are making materials available. They keep their web site...web site updated, uh, and they're a great partner for us. They're starting to think about their mission, uh, you k now, getting into some of the creative economy type stuff that you hear about, uh, and they're starting to think about more of that as part of their core mission and uh, you know, certainly, Dale's on the board and Tom'll be on the board and...and be part of those discussions, uh, as well. Anything that you would like us to...anything further you would like? Bailey/ Well, I mean, I have a comment about the, sort of the (mumbled) that you just talked about, going back to what you said about, um...projects that are coming off, and I think of those as, you know in relationship to some of the projects we have coming on, for example, I think the Towncrest will be enhanced by the things that we've done with Plamor and Sycamore Mall, which were projects that came off TIF. How are they doing? What attention might we need in those projects to ensure that that entire area, as we bring on Towncrest, in that entire...big neighborhood works together, because that's what I've seen we're doing. We're being very, you know, strategic in that. So how are they...how are they doing? What's happening over there? Davidson/ That's...and excellent point, Regenia, and...certainly since I've been in this position, working with retailers in that area, and in other areas, I've learned a lot, and one of the things that I've learned is the cyclical nature of retail. Um, you know, we all can remember when Sycamore Mall was redone and what a great project that was. We were actively involved in terms of TIF funding for that project. Since that time, the property This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 17 has been sold. Uh, it's owned by an out of town investor, California investor. Uh, we have...we have met with those people as much as we can. When we hear they're going to be in town, the management firm is good about letting us know and we...we've sat down with them. Um...the...the reinvestment in that area, as well as Plamor, as well as Eastdale Mall, is something that certainly is...is going to be necessary at some point in the future. We have tried to keep the lanes of communication open, uh, with those people. Certainly with the Sycamore, uh, Mall developer and management team, um, and...and we are prepared to assist, uh, but you know we can only do so much in terms of...of going forward, and we need to have that be in a partnership with them, and right now I can just tell you that the...the lines of communication are open. Bailey/ Okay. So as we (coughing, unable to hear) other areas of the east side, we know that we can make it all work instead of, you know, here now and then we have to go back. Okay. Davidson/ Yeah, the other...the other player that's important in that area is Kirkwood Community College. Bailey/ Sure. Davidson/ Um, and they've...they've grown far beyond what they ever envisioned they would be, and they' d even like to grow a little bit farther, and... and... and making sure that we can accommodate their facilities and we know the Lower Muscatine project will be a big assist. It's not going to make it perfect, but it's going to be a big assist in terms of getting people in and out of their parking facilities. So... Bailey/ Okay. Thanks. Davidson/ Anything else? Hayek/ A question... Bailey/ Well, and I just wanted to say, too, I mean, I think ICAD has been a great partner to us, but we've got to remember that they focus on the region and we specifically have to focus on our community, because that's what we're here for. So I hope we will have a broader discussion when Tom comes in about do we have a good balance mix approach to our retail or industrial, and then I hope we have some good discussions, I mean, Economic Development Committee we talked about this having some discussions around, um, budget time, and our continuing commitment to things that support economic development. And I think we're all on the same page but I think it's going to be a really exciting year, with Tom's...with Tom's expertise and maybe we can finally get to a place where we're more proactive, cause when I first came on Council we had a quarter-time person in economic development? Could that have possibly been possible? So, I think...I think we need to be much more proactive. Wilburn/ ...keeping that pattern, um, with the Towncrest area, keeping the public engaged in the process, and I...it's critical because, um, whether it's, uh...helping to battle cyclical This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November I5, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 18 nature in retail, when we make an investment the public should...we need the public to continue to support those areas and then just the...the ties with, um, a little more industrial and heavier commercial type stuff, those connections with other entities and business in other areas will be critical in keeping those areas strong. Bailey/ Well, and I think all of us have seen in our conversations, either campaigning or out in the community, that people are interested in economic development in a thriving economic base in Iowa City, and so that engagement has been great, but it hasn't surprised me that people are really interested in Towncrest. So...it's going to be...it's going to be an exciting year. Helling/ Couple of things I...just might add. Uh, number one, certainly in putting your budget together for next year and CIP, those projects that we talked about, those major projects that...that came up from the CIP last year and some changes you made, what we'll be putting it together with those remaining as priorities, uh, and the second thing is that you'll see on your pending list that, uh, there's a, uh, schedule for January, hopefully early January presentation from Joe Rasa, the Director of ICAD, just the annual update, so at that time you' 11 have an opportunity to talk about some of the things maybe you've been talking about here in the last few minutes. Davidson/ The...the incentive programs for Towncrest and Riverfront Crossings that you heard tonight, all come out of those funds that you provided through the CIP. They don't require new money. But, they will...require you to continue funding them, if you feel they're enough of a priority to...to continue forward. Hayek/ Great. Very comprehensive. Thank you (several talking) a refresher on this! Okay. Let's move on. Uh, next item is affordable housing. Location of Affordable Housing (IP3 of 11/10): Davidson/ Uh, Steve here? We want to, uh...I think we actually had this item scheduled for all your work sessions through the first meeting in December, just because we want to keep it in front of you and...and be very deliberate about it. Uh, but...but just to reiterate, we are working towards a...um, sort of comprehensive and...and, careful, Wendy! Whoa... (laughter and several talking) ...like a cartoon where all your clothes (laughter) um...we are working towards adoption of a, uh, or...or Council agreeing on a policy or set of policies that will, you know, basically put the community on the same sheet of music in terms of how we make decisions about where affordable housing, that is funded through the CDBG and Home programs, is located. That's the task that we...we have in front of us, and we had a very good initial discussion at your October 25t" work session. Can you get that back? (mumbled) Yeah, it's on the same one at the very end. Um...and...and we want to just get to a couple of specific questions tonight, based on, uh, the work that has been done since the, uh, October 25t" meeting, not only by Steve and myself, but Tracy and the City Attorney's office. Um...in...in our overview with you on the 25`", you identified for us...no, just click through `em! (mumbled) Um...we don't even need it up yet, actually though, um...one of the things we...we did...in fact This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 19 the focus of our meeting with you last time was to have you identify the concerns that for a majority of you were the concerns about where these affordable housing projects are located, and you were able to identify for us the first three bullets in the memo that you have from Steve and I that you did not want to further burden neighborhoods and elementary schools that have issues related to a concentration of poverty, that you...that there was a desire to have diverse neighborhoods in terms of a range of income levels, and that our affordable housing policy should reflect that, and that we needed to have better information from the Iowa City Community School District as to its views on the affordable housing, uh, issue. There had been a lot of sort of incidental information from various staff persons or members of the Board of Education, uh, but...but Steve and I, you asked us to meet with the new superintendent of schools, Steve Murley, and we were able to do that. We'll get to that in a...in a bit. We also were able to identify the, um...the data basically that you indicated you would like to have in order to evaluate these decisions, and... and the ones that you highlighted for us were income distribution data, housing values, uh, inventory of vacant platted land, that being places that ostensibly that have a...housing added to it, uh, the elementary school district data to be determined after we...we met with the School District, and crime statistics, and I think crime statistics focus primarily on violent crime, uh...data for, uh, making decisions and so, um, the...the next thing we got into then was, okay, we've identified these issues, these problems. You've identified the data that you would like to have in order to evaluate those decisions, um...how do we organize and categorize that data best, and we discussed using neighborhood zones, we discussed using elementary school district boundaries. Um...and...touched on, and now have fully developed for you what we think is actually a better model, uh, and that is using a geographic information based system, GIS based system. Uh, we have...is Kris here? Kris Ackerson? I can't remember...okay, Kris Ackerson is here and Kris from JCCOG has been assisting us, and if you have specific technical questions, he's probably better able than Steve and I to answer them. Uh, but we...we've got, and I'm going to have Steve run through here, uh, basically...how aGIS would help us present data to you that is really representative of a site. Any time you have a zoned based system, whether it's elementary school districts or neighborhoods, okay, you have a district that's part of a grid of districts. If... if a proposed site for a project is located where two districts come together, right on the edge, we're generating data then for a district that's...that's way out here that includes data that probably is far enough away that it doesn't influence the proposed location, and then not including data from...from all these adjacent districts that are very close, and so what a GIS based system does...as sort of a general concept is it identifies a point on the map that we can then provide data for, go out a half mile, a mile, whatever...whatever we eventually agree on. That's...that's the concept, but you would be getting information from us that we feel would be really representative of that location and all of these data inputs that...that you...you've asked us for. Long/ Basically you look at it as, these are different layers and so you asked us to, um, get different, um...we're going to give you some examples here, um, some different stats since we first downloaded all the stats, um, for instance crime, there were 75,000 police calls last year. So, we're sorting through some of those details, um, this is the existing map...or the, or a layer of the existing subsidized, or the assisted units. So what we can This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 20 do is, uh...take these different layers, and these are just examples again. This is, uh, the actual density, uh, actually it shows all the rental permits in Iowa City. You can also do another layer that shows all the units in Iowa City, household units, um... and this is one, another example of the layer we could use, uh, we just downloaded from the Iowa City Assessor's office all the assessed values for each parcel in Iowa City. The darker the shade, the higher the value in this case. I think that was the three that we had...yeah. Davidson/ Yeah, and we just are providing these to you (mumbled) examples of how the data set would be organized under a GIS based system, uh, we'll need to buy a piece of software that costs about $2,500, uh, can also be used by the Fire Department for their, um, time analysis that they do from...from stations, and JCCOG would also have some applications for it. So, we can even split the cost, uh, a number of ways if that's the means that you, uh, would like to go forward with in terms of organizing the data. Before we get to that specific question though, Steve and I would also like to highlight for you the discussion that we were able to have, uh, we were able to meet with Steve, uh, Steve Murley, the new superintendent of schools, and Joan Vandenberg, who is the School District's Youth and Family Development Coordinator, and we had a really good meeting, uh, with Steve and Joan. They very much appreciated the Council's attention to this issue. You know, Steve... Steve has some very clearly defined, uh, opinions, and we tried to highlight those in terms of how children from low-income households can...reach their greatest potential, uh, in...in terms of our affordable housing policies, and Steve indicated that it's the School District's preference that we not cluster affordable housing in specific areas of the community, but rather try and have a broader, uh, array of...of housing types in all elementary school districts, and this really seems to be, uh, something that..:that, I mean, he said the research shows that the lower-incomed kids learn better in those environments than they do in an environment where there's a...a focus of... of lower, uh, incomed kids. Long/ I think an important distinction there, as well, is affordable not just meaning assisted, but a...the cost of housing, whether it's a...you know, all the same condominium, ranch-style homes, or if it's half a million dollar homes, but the idea is just to have a broad array of housing styles and costs. Davidson/ And...and they...and Steve indicated that the School District is committed to try and adjust district boundaries, I mean, they went through the big study last year, of course, but to try and make those adjustments, and in fact, he used that as a good example of why not to use elementary school districts for our...our data organization because he said they're going to change! Uh, in their effort to try and bring more uniformity to them. You know...he's not...he...he acknowledged the great diversity in free and reduced lunch percentages between the elementary schools. My impression is that's something that they want to address. He did suggest using free and reduced lunch percentage in each elementary school, um... as one of the factors that we look at as being representative, but...but not the sole factor. With the GIS based system, it'll be nice for us because we may have a data point that's proposed for affordable housing that's impact...that impacts three or four elementary school districts, hypothetically, or at least a couple, and we'll be able to bring data from...from each district into the...the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 21 distribution using the GIS based system that we wouldn't be able to with the zone based system. So, we really feel like that would be beneficial for, um... evaluating the proposed location for these projects. I also wanted Steve to take a second and...and one of the things that Steve and Joan highlighted, uh, that they're concerned about, relates to, um, student mobility in...in some of the elementary schools and the trans...and the impact of transitional housing on that. Long/ I think that was...may have been their most significant concern was actually the mobility issues, and that comes primarily from transitional and shelter. They're primarily transitional housing that...they're important to distinguish that it doesn't necessarily mean assisted transitional housing, for instance, like HACAP, but also, um...housing that by nature is affordable and tends to maybe attract, um, short-term residents or families, um, an example, I mean, not to...an example may be like Dolphin Lake Pointe Enclave. There's over 400 units. There are a number of two and three-bedroom units, and um, just tend to be affordable by design. Um, so...um, but that...I think they just wanted to make a point that, um, that the transitional and shelters seem to be the most significant concern because of the mobility issues, and also, um...families in assisted rental housing, um, often stay much longer than transitional housing for... for various reasons. Transitional housing, I think the average stay of a HACAP, uh, person living in HACAP housing is about one and a half years. And the average stay, for instance at the Housing Fellowship, is well over three years. Um, and they have tenants that stay, 10, 12, 15 years, um... so I think that's, wanted to get that out there. Davidson/ Yeah, we...Steve and Joan liked the idea of the GIS based system and...and the School District is willing to provide us three data inputs that they think would be very valuable, uh, in terms of. , . if you call decide to go ... go ahead with GIS based system. They would provide us, uh, elementary school academic performance data as indicated by the Iowa Test of Basic Skills scores. Obviously something that's updated every year. So we would have good, current data for that. Uh, get... getting to the mobility, uh, issue that Steve just highlighted for you, they would provide mobility data, and it's just basically turn-over data in each elementary school, again, updated...I don't...is it annually or...they update it regularly at least, and they would, uh, provide us with the most, uh, current data, uh, so that again we would not be trying to create concentrations of certainly, um...the, uh, you know, that that type of housing would, that Steve was just highlighting, that we wouldn't be focusing that in single area, but trying to make sure that we had that spread throughout the community and spread throughout the elementary schools. Uh, and then the free and reduced lunch percentage. They, even though they didn't think that should be the exclusive, uh, data set that we used, they did think that that was, uh, one. So those...those three are the three data inputs that they would provide, in addition to the ones we went through earlier that you developed last time, uh, that would basically provide the layers that...that you had demonstrated here, uh, that...that we would then hone in on, uh, for a... a particular site evaluation decision, and... and bring that data to you. Now, we will...in, we're not going to do it tonight, but in subsequent discussion, we'll have to establish some thresholds, you know, within this data. We've got to have points at which things are deemed to be acceptable or unacceptable, and we'll work through that with you, uh, at a subsequent meeting, once you've agreed, uh, on... on This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 22 exactly how you want to go forward. So...are there any, before we get to the five specific questions...uh, for you to give us input on here, are there any discussions, or any questions about anything that Steve or I mentioned tonight? Bailey/ Yes, except I'm not exactly sure how to ask it, and it might be just a little bit too far afield of what we're trying to address. How do we address mobility issues? Champion/ We can't! Bailey/ I mean...are there...are there policy decisions that this body can make that could improve that situation for families in our community? Long/ One way... if there are... schools that are concerned with high mobility, if they're concerned about high mobility...and we do have a, and we know that transitional housing may add to that mobility, I mean, there may be certain areas where... it. may not want the (mumbled) (noise on mic) um... Champion/ That problem's already been created in some areas, and there's really not much we can do about it (mumbled) (both talking) Long/ Privately owned (several talking) Bailey/ Yeah, as Steve said, the nature of some buildings or some arrangements, I mean, people are doubling up and those sorts of things, but think there are things that we can... Long/ There are ways... Davidson/ I mean, a...a...if we have knowledge of a large private housing complex that has a high amount of defacto transitional residence, you know, like Dolphin Pointe Enclave, that may influence your decision to locate a publicly subsidized project, in the same area. Bailey/ So what you're generally saying, if I'm understanding correctly, is...is larger, um, privately owned tend to be the transitional just because of the economies of scale, they're more affordable. Is that... or is it just... okay. Too big to wrestle with tonight. Long/ Yeah! That's...(both talking) Dilkes/ Well, L..I think that, I mean...the way I'd answer that question is that, our understanding is that the direction from the City Council is, although you certainly don't control many of the factors that play here, you don't want to exacerbate problems that exist in... in the community, and so that...the mobility data is, that's a concern to the School District, so if you're looking at a project for transitional housing, for instance... Bailey/ I get that aspect of it. It's just I'm wondering if there are any other types of things that we interface with, I mean, I get the transitional part of it. So, I'll just think about it and I'm sure this will come up again. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 23 Dilkes/ How each one of these factors relates to housing may differ, depending on what type of housing you're talking about, whether it's transitional or it's...so. Bailey/ Yeah. Dilkes/ That's all kind of... still in the.. . Bailey/ Yeah, and I think it'll...it might become more clear as we discuss further things. Wilburn/ Well, in a...in a more global sense too, global in terms of community-wide as the Council addresses, and as Steve pointed out there are a variety of reasons that contribute to, um, mobility, but the more, um, the more stable the housing is, the more stable job opportunities, the safer the community, all of those things help...build around issues that provide opportunities for people to, you know, that are in, um...a, um, a regular Iowa City Housing Fellowship type of location to have a more stable foundation to build upon. So, in a more global sense, that...that's...those are ways that the Council impacts, um...you know, I mean, the fact that, uh...um, earlier discussion related to TIF and our economic development policy in terms of jobs that we have gone after have been the higher paying jobs, as opposed to, um, using and incenting tax dollars for higher paying jobs, as opposed to a lower paying wage. That's...that's more, that's one example in a more global sense. Bailey/ Thanks. Champion/ I'd like to make sure that when we talk about affordable housing that we all agree on the definition, and Jeff, you gave one at the beginning that I thought was, um...was...and I'm wondering if we can all agree on that. It's...I think, you said affordable housing is what we're talking about, that's funded through... Bailey/ That's from the previous memo. Champion/ Oh, no, that's not the one I...tonight he said that he was considering affordable...you didn't say considering, but you made a statement that affordable housing was housing that was CDBG/Home assisted. Home fund assisted. Davidson/ Right. Champion/ So, I want to make sure we can all agree to that definition, so we don't get into this argument of $150,000, $160,000 house when you're talking about assisted affordable housing (both talking) Long/ ...I think what he was referring to earlier was this single-family new homes program. That was CDBG assisted. Owner-occupied. Champion/ But that was from the flood, that was the... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 24 Long/ Well, it's still...the same funding. We can fund houses up to $180,000 for owner- occupied, but there's a difference here. We also have owner-occupied, first rental, transitional, shelter, I mean, there's a multitude of... Davidson/ Yeah, and you know, we're talking a lot about transitional housing and rental because that's...those seem to be the projects that...that stir up the controversy, I mean, you know, Steve and I have talked to the owner-occupied, and seems to be less of a concern for everybody. Champion/ Right. Davidson/ So we haven't spent a lot of time talking about that, but yeah, the single-family new homes program, if you remember that chart Steve and I handed out on the 25t", showing the income levels and the family size, I mean, that's $150,000 houses for...for some of those folks. Champion/ But they're owner-occupied? Davidson/ Yeah. Bailey/ Well, I mean, and to go back to that memo from the...the 20t" or the 25t" or whatever, we defined affordable housing as, um, in which the occupant is paying no more than 30% of their gross income. And that's...that's the general, and then the, we used income chart to determine what that would be. Champion/ (mumbled) dollars a year. Bailey/ Affordable is what will be no more than 30% of your income. (several talking) Dilkes/ I think when...I think when you're talking about, um, the location of, um, CDBG and Home assisted, um, projects or homes, you're going to have to break...you're going to have to look at it as those different classes of assistance that were broken down in that first memo. Um, there are different income levels assisted, and we're going to have to look at that and I think that's one of the things that staff is going to be doing as we're working through these datas and... and looking at those different types of assistance, to try and figure out what types of data hooks up with what types of assistance. Hayek/ I think, um, we should try tonight to assist staff in answering the questions they've posed to us. Thus far we've done a good job of taking steps at each meeting to move toward the ultimate goal. So... Davidson/ Right. We have five questions, uh, the first one was...the first one is, have we accurately summarized your concerns regarding the location of affordable housing projects funded by the City? That's the first three bullets there. Is there anything left out? Is there anything not represented accurately? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 25 Hayek/ They're pretty broad bullet points. They encompass a lot. Wright/ I think those reflect what we were talking about. Bailey/ (mumbled) from our conversation. Mims/ Yeah, I think...I think as we...get into this, we're going to have to certainly refine those a lot more as we try and figure out, I mean, if we end up with this GIS system or whatever, um...what do those things really mean, because we're going to have to come up with very specific targets, in terms of what kind of data...what kind of levels of data tell us that this is an okay location or not an okay location for this particular type of housing. So while I agree that these are what we I think talked about, I think we have to also realize we've got a whole lot more work to do, because these are going to have to be really, really refined as we go forward. Bailey/ Right, but for me, if we confirm that these are what we're talking about, so when we begin to have those discussions about criteria, then we're not pulling in yet another sort of broad category. Davidson/ And obviously where we're going with this is the data that we're going to use in this system is going to be oriented to answering these, addressing these concerns. And so if there's something we've left out...now's the time! All right, hearing none... Hayek/ Well, I mean, again though, the devil's in the details because you know what...what you define a neighborhood as or what a neighborhood consists of, uh, residential versus commercial/retail, or a mix thereof, those are hard things for us to answer tonight as a group, given where we are in the process. Dilkes/ But that's not what the question is asking, I don't think. We're not asking you to do that at this point. We're simply asking you to identify what your concerns are. Hayek/ Right, and...and I, what I'm saying is that, for me, the...the breadth, the...the broadness of these topics or these bullet points encompasses I think what my concerns are, um...but they're not...we haven't drilled down. I mean, these bullet points could mean different things to different people. You know, for example, neighborhood, defining a neighborhood, we haven't yet defined neighborhood. It's the bullet point, and I'm comfortable with that given where we are in the process. Do you see what I'm saying? Bailey/ But to go back to our discussion, I would suggest that we did talk about neighborhoods as the neighborhoods that we've identified that are represented by neighborhood associations, recognizing that not all `neighborhoods' in Iowa City are, but we do have some basis for that, and we did talk a little bit about that because we moved away from that in this discussion. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 26 Hayek/ Well, we certainly have that, uh, that...as a definition, our neighborhood groups, for example. Bailey/ To a degree. Hayek/ To a degree. I mean, what I'm saying is I'm okay with...with where we are on this. Davidson/ Yeah, and...and Matt's point is a good one in terms of that definition of neighborhood, and... and you know we don't, at this meeting tonight, need to further define it, but they are defined, you know, you... for example, you had correspondence, uh, from the Olde Towne Village subdivision, um, you know, within that subdivision there are some people that are going to consider the subdivision their neighborhood. Some their...the cul-de-sac they live on, their neighborhood, and others the broader city defined neighborhoods. So you know that's...that's certainly a point well taken in...in terms of... as we get further along with this, we may have to provide more (mumbled) Dilkes/ Right, but that's not what this question is asking. You don't...in order to say that your concern is about... certain neighborhoods or elementary schools being burdened by concentrations of poverty does not require you to identify neighborhood, specifically identify neighborhoods, specifically identify elementary schools. It's just a concern about concentrations of poverties in...in...in places, and so what we're asking is if there's a bigger concern that is not identified here. You know, mobility or...whatever it is, wherever it is. That's what we need to have you tell us. Because we're going to be taking these concerns and we're going to be looking at those as we're trying to...to look at this data and see how we're going to address these concerns. Hayek/ All right. It sounds like these three bullets are... Champion/ Oh, I thought we were going over the summary questions here. (several responding) Okay, all right. All right. Davidson/ The second question... is sort of a... influenced by the first one, and that is that... does the information that we provided about our discussions with the School District affect or further...I mean, is there anything that based on the information from the School District that...that impacts your concerns? Um, what it is that we're trying to...to get to with...with the policy that we're developing. Champion/ I think my concerns are the same, and of course that can be based on student achievement, um, it doesn't have to all be based on free and reduced lunch. It can simply be based on student achievement and mobility, and free and reduced lunch, but I think the statistics are pretty much defined what we have out there. So does it change...does it change, does it further change my...does it change my concerns? No, but it might want to wrap it up into a different package. That's all. Wright/ I think the information on mobility was a nice refinement to get in there. (several responding) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 27 Davidson/ Yeah. One that certainly I didn't see come up. Bailey/ Well we've talked about that before, so I'm glad that was underscored by the School District. Champion/ Yeah, cause they have some (mumbled) is over 50%. Bailey/ Uh-huh. Davidson/ This system is going to give you much better information about the elementary schools than maybe some of the more perception based... information that we were dealing with...previously. Mims/ Well, when they're talking...when the School District is talking about giving us...this information, okay? This is on, this is simply based on the elementary school level, I mean, it's not going to be...it's not going to be on address level of where free and reduced lunch kids live or... Long/ We can get that by address. Mims/ Okay. Bailey/ So they're comfortable; I think that there were some discussions... Dilkes/ I...I don't think we can answer that question right now. I mean, these are just very broad categories of information that they expressed a willingness to provide to us and we're going to have to look at that in more detail. Bailey/ Moving on! Hayek/ Okay. Davidson/ Okay. So anything else regarding identification of concerns...okay. Are there any other School District related issues which you feel were not addressed? That...(noise on mic) delve a little further'? Champion/ Can we, um...well, I'll wait till question five. Davidson/ Any other School District issues? Dickens/ Is it all going to be based on elementary? Is there any other data that we can get from the high schools and junior highs? Long/ Well, the...preferably this system, addresses are the best way. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 28 Dickens/ So it'll be address based more than just elementary based. Long/ I think with the new software, and Kris maybe can speak on this at the next question. He may be able to do it on a broader basis. Is that correct? Davidson/ Kris, can you come up and just grab the microphone here? Ackerson/ So what's...what exactly is your question? Long/ Say we get the information by high school or by dis...elementary school district, rather than address, will this new software...it's more of a visual-based software, right? Ackerson/ Yeah, I mean, if we got just the addresses, we could map them, but I believe the School District already has all of the student residences mapped, uh, and overlaid (both talking) different school boundaries, be it junior high, elementary, or high school. (both talking) Long/ ...their information, they would just download...we'ddnwnload it? Okay. Is this the time to explain the new software? Do you want further explanation of that? What capabilities...or do you want us just to show it to you when we get it? Mims/ I guess one of my questions is, I mean, if we're to number four, do we approve of this, I mean, a couple of my questions is...beyond the cost of software, which is pretty minimal it sounds like to add to what we've got, is the labor time and cost and ability to keep this really updated, because it's not going to be much good to us if it isn't pretty up to date, I mean, if every time somebody is coming forward with a project and saying, I'm looking at this piece of property, and if we have data that's really outdated, then we don't have a process that's going to work. Davidson/ Yeah, L ..I think it's fair to say that we've been a little bit behind the curve... curve in terms of developing a GIS system. It's something that we've intended to do, and we have all kinds of data inputs that eventually, in terms of a city-wide system, we want to do, and you're absolutely right. It requires a commitment to the expense of keeping it current. And we just haven't been quite there yet. We'll probably have some discussion during CIP about that. Um, there's clearly a, uh... a cost to doing that. We think it certainly can be handled by existing staff, at least for this particular project, um...but it does mean we're doing that and not something else so...so, uh, you know, I don't...I don't know that we've quantified it any further than that, at least right now, Susan. Unless, Kris, you can... Ackerson/ Well, I...I would add that, you know, some of the information that we've mapped, that I've put together like, uh, if you go back to show the rental permit information, and that we haven't mapped before and...and could prove to be useful for, you know, other projects in the future. Similarly with...with the police calls, you know, analyzing...there's an infinite number of ways to look at that information and identify patterns that we may not be aware of, uh, because they haven't been, uh, spatially This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 29 referenced like this, so...um, you know, it will be more time-consuming, I think, initially to set all this up, but you know, once the criteria's been established and we have the data sets, it'll be a lot easier to update it with, you know, the new information... Davidson/ And we're still having the discussions on exactly, you know, we're going to organize this, in terms of who's responsible for...for the system. Is that appropriately the Document Services Department, or is that JCCOG...we're still working that out, but...but you know, we do think it's manageable. (mumbled) Hightshoe/ ...just a number of variables, I mean, as we go...are we looking at 15 variables? Are we looking at three variables? What...what is important? What we chose to keep on a timely basis, and what information we can get every year to update. Hayek/ Terry, your point's well taken. Uh, if we determine that concerns about the schools go beyond the elementary schools, for example, do we have the flexibility to adapt the program to look at junior high data or something like... Mims/ Well, that's...I mean, the whole question which Eleanor didn't want us to get into right now, but the whole issue of are we getting this...whatever we get from the School District, is it coming by individual address? If it is, then theoretically you could do it by elementary or by junior high or by high school. If they're giving it to us as aggregate data by school... it...I would see it as being very limited usefulness. Ackerson/ From what I understand, I worked on a project last year and uh, the School District had all of the junior high students mapped, just, um (mumbled) by address, um, not aggregated. Davidson/ Yeah, I mean, certainly by the time you have high school data, I mean, it can't just be by district. It's really no good at all. Bailey/ Right. Davidson/ It'd have to be at the address level. Champion/ And my question's going to be, we'll be able to map police calls? Ackerson/ Yeah, that's correct. Yep. Davidson/ Yeah, and...and again, we'll have to have a subsequent meeting, work with you to determine exactly what calls, I mean, somebody locking their keys in their car and having...I mean, that's probably not something we need to have in our data set, but...but the violent-type crimes that are of concern in certain neighborhood, we'll...we'll hopefully be able to synthesize it down to that. Dilkes/ Yeah, I...I really don't think...these are...these are...we've given you examples of input, and you've...you've told us what kind of information you'd be interested in, but I think This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 30 staff has a lot of work to do on... on looking at the exact data that would be inputted, and how it would be used. So I really...I'm not sure it's helpful to get into a lot of...questions about the specifics right now. Cause we... Wright/ But in terms of being able to collect data, I think this seems like the best way to go about it. It's going to give us... Davidson/ Well, and organize it, yeah. Wright/ ... a lot more flexibility in organizing the data. And it's probably going to have applications that nobody in the City's even thought of right now. (both talking) Davidson/ We feel like the data we...we generate for a specific location decision that...that you need to make, will be more representative. It'll be better information for you to make your decision with. So... Wilburn/ It will also be, um, again, because of address, it'll be more factual information that someone because of, uh, a perception of bias will over look. For example, uh, even though I, um...I believe more than free and reduced lunch ability numbers should be considered, but even in the information that's been provided in the past, people have overlooked some areas that have high...higher free and reduced lunch, because it wasn't a certain school or it didn't fit their im...you know, their impression of the bias, so I think that will help, um... Davidson/ I mean, I mean...that's one of the main things (both talking) accomplish with this, is to get past perception and biases to actual factual (mumbled) So, GIS system? GIS based system? Hayek/ I guess my answer would be probably, but we need to see, you know, we need to take it for a test drive, so to speak, and um, I mean, I think this is the route we'll likely take, um...but, again, we...we need to come up with the parameters and...and... Davidson/ Well, is there at least a majority, Mr. Mayor, to allow us to go ahead to purchase this software. It's going to have other applications in the City, besides just this (several talking) wouldn't be a throw-away cost for us. Fire Department's going to use it; JCCOG's going to use it. We'll go ahead and do that, and be able to get more specific...hopefully give you more detailed demonstration on what we might be able to do. We'll at least take that step? Hayek/ (several responding) Agreed! Wright/ There's a great deal of expertise at the University in applying GIS systems. Champion/ Oh, right! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 31 Davidson/ Right. And... and as I mentioned, we can't hide it any longer. We're behind the curve here, and... and we (mumbled) do better and we're going to do better! Um, the final question then was is there any other addition... any additional information you would like us to consider as we develop the GIS based evaluation system. I guess that kind of gets back to your, the concerns question, but is there any other data that you would like to have presented to you when we put this system together? Hayek/ I was looking at the, these bullet points, and...and let me preface that by saying if there's data, there are criteria you think we ought to be considering that aren't on here, please...please let us know. Davidson/ Well, we want the data to address your concerns, okay? And we don't, yeah, we could give you a hundred data inputs, but we really want to try and focus on what your concerns are in making decisions about affordable housing. Dilkes/ Matt, I think...I think that we'll do that. If there's data that we have not discussed, and as we're working through this, we identify as being important in analyzing this, we will (mumbled) Hayek/ Okay. Um, and then as...as to those first two points, income distribution, I mean, I...I'm not an expert on this, but would...would wealth and income distribution be something we'd look at? I don't even know if that information is available. You read about that... Dickens/ ...through the census, are we going to find any... Hayek/ ...I have no idea. Ackerson/ We'll be getting new information from the census, uh, but it won't be available until this spring, so if we use that data it'll be from the previous census. Hayek/ I just throw that out there. It's not a request or a recommendation, and then second as to...as to housing values, um, I mean, I personally would be interested to know, uh, information regarding the values themselves, as well as how they have changed over time, relative to the balance of the community or other parts of the community. If... if.. . Davidson/ (mumbled) trend information like that? (several talking) Ackerson/ ...something we could look at, but um, you know, it'd be an additional time, but...yeah, we can certainly add that to the list. Dickens/ ...discussed Towncrest levels, leveling off or dropping a little bit, so it'll be interesting to see what other areas are doing. Mims/ Yeah, I mean, if we're looking at an area and say housing levels are staying flat there, but they're going up in other parts of the city, we may have a problem there that...that maybe isn't being picked up with other data. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 32 Davidson/ That's actually a very good point, that... Mims/ And, sort of look at how that trend is compared to the rest of the community, I think's important. I agree. Davidson/ Not sure there's been any declines in Iowa City. There have been in other parts of the community, but there's certainly been areas where it's been flat, and others where there's been more appreciations. That's...that's avery good point. Anything else in terms of this evening's discussion, and we'll try and take it the next step? Champion/ When will, um...cause this is going to take us some time. I understand that, but when will awards of those funds be going out? Long/ For the current round? That we're...Thursday night the Commission make a decision, or recommendation to you, so then we'll start a 30-day public comment period. So...(mumbled) it'll probably be the first meeting in January. Champion/ So we won't have the criteria we need by then. Obviously not. Long/ We might not...we're going to try. Dilkes/ ...that's the goal. Long/ Yeah, that's our goal. Champion/ I mean, cause I have grave concerns about certain areas of the east side of Iowa City and I'll have a hard time approving anything else going in those areas. Mims/ Well, but I think if we're setting up the system we've got to...we've got to look at how that process and system is going to work, and...and we've got to determine...and that's where I think it's really going to take us some time is looking at even with this GIS system... you know, what are the triggers, you know. If you've got income levels, if you've got housing values, if you've got trends in housing values, um...you've got a lot of different data. What kind of triggers are going to say, no, we don't want to do a certain project in this area, and is it...how many of those triggers we have to reach, or is there one that would be so critical that automatically would indicate a no. I mean, we've got a lot of pieces to put together, and so I think we have to look at it from that standpoint, uh, and I think that's where Matt's comment earlier kind of taking us on a test run and seeing what it really looks like once we start getting some data and picking some points. I mean, how far out do we take our circle? You know, is it two blocks? Is it two miles? I mean... obviously not two miles but.. . Davidson/ ... go beyond the corporate limits of the city, if we feel that there's a reason to do that. For example, the trailer, all the manufactured housing parks, uh, many of them are outside of the corporate limits. We want to make sure they're able to influence the data. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 33 Hayek/ But our goal is to enact something...basically in the next 30 days? I mean, that...that's probably a tall order, but...but we're going to proceed toward that. Champion/ But even, I think, uh, when you look at some of the trailer parks, they're probably low income, but there's certain...there's clot of them with stability, which might not...which might be a different problem. I mean, and there might not be a problem is what I'm saying. That you can't just say because it's a trailer park, because some of them are very stable, with people living there. (several talking) ...and uh, they're a neighborhood, actually. Davidson/ Yeah, even some of the...the relatively low-income ones have very stable populations. Hayek/ Okay, do you need any... Davidson/ ...anything else for this evening? Thank you (noise on mic) Hayek/ We need to take a break (noise on mic) Wright/ I wouldn't mind five minutes. Hayek/ Okay, let's (mumbled) (BREAD Information Packets: Hayek/ Okay, back on and uh, next up is info packet discussion. I believe there are three. Anything from the October 28t" info packet? Uh, thanks to staff for the, uh, the, uh, memo on phosphorus issues. Wright/ Oh, yeah! Hayek/ Disappointing that, uh, (mumbled) does not allow us to do that, but... (mumbled) Mims/ At least we know. Hayek/ (noise on mic) Um, November 4t" packet? And November l Ot" packet? Helling/ If there's...nothing there. I do have a...it's packet-related. It was a handout, um, I think was in one of the packets or handed out at one of the work sessions. It never got in the, uh, the information packet per se, but then was referenced in the, uh, agenda. Anyway, it's a letter from Amber Miller who has the Hideaway Tavern. I don't know if you'll recall. She has an outdoor service area. Karr/ It was on the Consent Calendar. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 34 Helling/ Okay. Um, she has an outdoor service area, uh, and...she's in a CB zone. In the CB zone, a sidewalk cafe, which is on public property, uh, there's no 100-foot restriction... from a... a residential area. Uh, but for the outdoor service area, there is, and I think she was trying to point that out as an inequity. The only resolution of that would be an ordinance amendment, and...um, we feel like it's a reasonable adjustment in the ordinance to make because they're both the same thing. They're just...one's on private property, one's on public property. Um, and this would apply in the CB zone only, uh, where if you have an outdoor service area on private property, we feel the same, uh, shouldn't have that restriction if right next door there can be an outdoor service area if there's room on the public right-of--way, and then that wouldn't apply (several talking) Dickens/ ...outdoor service area's...the creek's right next to it and there's no... Helling/ Yeah, outdoor service areas on private property, uh, a...um, sidewalk cafe would be on public property, and that's the only difference, but this would apply only to the CB zone. So it wouldn't affect things in the outlying areas that are in other commercial zones. Champion/ Okay. Hayek/ Does this open us up to anything... any outcome or scenario we don't want? Helling/ Not that staff is aware of, no, huh-uh. Wright/ If it's only in the CB zone, it's going to be pretty...limited in scope. Helling/ Yeah. Hayek/ Yeah. Helling/ So, we...we...I had told staff to go ahead and prepare that, and it'll be on an upcoming agenda. Hayek/ Okay. Thanks, Doug. (laughter and several talking) Champion/ Marian has the radio programs on here. (mumbled) Hayek/ Yeah, that's IP7. Mims/ I could do the 17tH Hayek/ I could do, uh...December 22"d Karr/ December 22"d? Dickens/ I'll do November 24tH. That would be Mr. Dickens. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Karr/ 24`n. Thank you. Dickens/ In case you didn't recognize the voice! Wright/ (mumbled) lot of questions! I could do December the 8`n Champion/ And I'm flexible. So what's left? Karr/ I believe we have the ls`, 15`n, and 29`n. And 5`n. First, 15`n, 29 and 5, I believe. Champion/ I'm sorry, Marian, what'd you say? Page 35 Karr/ I believe we have December ls`, December 15`n, December 29`n, and January 5`n open. Champion/ I can do December 1 S`. And...I don't want to do all three of `em, but.. . Mims/ I could do December 15`n Karr/ The 15`n, Susan. Thank you. Champion/ And then what other one's left? January 5`n~ Karr/ Fifth and the 29`n of December. Champion/ Twenty-ninth of December, is that New Year's Eve? Karr/ No, usually that's the 30`" (several talking and laughing) Champion/ I can do the 29`n! Hayek/ I can do the 5`n again, I think. Karr/ Okay, so...I'll mock this up, but so far we've got the 17`n Susan, the 24`n Terry, the ls` Connie, the 8`n Mike, the 15`n Champion/ Wait a minute. Do I have the 1 S` or the 8`n~ Karr/ First, Connie, 8`n Mike...15`n Susan, 22na Matt, 29 Connie, and 5 Matt. Wilburn/ Are you going to skip our, uh, budget session on the 5`n~ Bailey/ Yeah, we have a (several talking) Hayek/ I just won't be able to show up all day long, cause I'll be engaged in KXIC for 15 minutes. That's a good point. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 36 Karr/ The Stn may be a problem for everybody. Staff included, but do you want me to just... Higgins/ I can do the Stn Karr/ Elliott? Hayek/ Wait, that's during the break, my friend. You'll be down in Aruba or something (laughter) Wilburn/ I did a remote once. (several talking) Higgins/ I don't see it being a problem. Actually I'll be sleeping in pretty late during that time, but I think I' 11... (several talking) Karr/ Why don't we...why don't we keep, let's keep the Stn and we can always come back to that, especially after we look at the calendar for January. Wright/ ...talking about the calendar, I will be out of town the l Otn and 1 ltn of January. Bailey/ Are we ... wait, are we going to calendar yet? Karr/ Yeah, we've got...you want to do that or you want to go through the rest of your agenda and.. . Wright/ I guess it is a separate item, isn't it? Karr/ Yes. Wright/ I was just looking at the calendar (mumbled) Hayek/ Okay, so you're holding the Stn open. Karr/ Yes, I' 11 hold the Stn open. Hayek/ Okay. Well, should we talk about meeting schedule? Or... Karr/ Okay. IPS. Hayek/ It's part of the same info packet so... Karr/ IPS, January, February, March... Bailey/ Can we just go through it in order? Karr/ Okay. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Bailey/ January. Page 37 Karr/ January, um... there are some difficulties with the 10`n and 11 d'. There are equally difficulties with the 3rd and 4`n, um, January is a...a tough month because it is budget and you've got like nine to twelve meetings to balance, in addition to your regular business. Typically staff does try to keep those regular business, non-controversial, realizing it is budget time, but we do have to conduct business, so...uh... Bailey/ I can't do the 11`n Karr/ And, Mike's out of town the 10`n and... Wright/ Actually I just...I, United Airlines willing, I should be able to make the meeting on the 11th Champion/ I wouldn't count on it. Wright/ But I won't be here for the work session on the 10`", however. Karr/ Well, but we already have one gone the 11`n (several talking) Bailey/ I can't do second Tuesdays. Especially in the winter. I can't do (mumbled) Hayek/ Well, um...should we...should we consider a consolidated meeting? It doesn't help you, but (several talking) Karr/ A combined meeting on the 10`"? We do have the means to...to participate electronically, on the 10`n. If that is an option. Again, a special meeting...let me just rephrase...you have a resolution that your formal meetings are the first and third...Tuesdays. When you deviate from the first and third, anything's a special meeting. You don't have to stay to a Monday-Tuesday. So I mean that does open it up, but what we do need to do is decide it in case we need to set any public hearings. Just...to get proper notice out to adjust your schedule. Champion/ Why don't we combine 10`n and 11`n on the 10`n? Bailey/ Mike's out. Karr/ Mike's not going to be here. Champion/ Oh, Mike's not here. And you can't be here that... Bailey/ Eleventh. Mims/ But you know, we may not be able to hit everybody. I mean... it's going to happen, especially in January when we've got so many we've got to get in. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Dickens/ Can you move it to the Wednesday the 12tn~ Champion/ No! (laughter) Wright/ I think it's okay to have a meeting without me! I could try to call in. Dickens/ I' 11 be gone there the 24tH (both talking) 21st through the (both talking) Bailey/ ...probably won't be able to call in. I mean... Karr/ Yeah. I knew on the 24tH and 25tH we also don't have Terry, and I knew that, but we couldn't...we already have some where we don't even have seven. Page 38 Champion/ As long as everybody can be at the work sessions, that's...for those budgets, that's, I think, essential. Wright/ Yeah, budget sessions are fine. Bailey/ Okay, I'm going to suggest something outlandish. We could combine on the 6tH Wright/ I won't be here then either. Champion/ But...what...combine what on the 6tn~ Bailey/ Special meeting. Dickens/ Third and fourth? Karr/ I think 3`d and 4tH, um, we had some, Susan and Ross, I think were the issues on the 3`d and 4tH Mims/ If they keep losing it won't be an issue! (laughter) Bailey/ Don't say that! Karr/ But I think Ross is gone either way so... Wilburn/ I'm gone either way. Bailey/ His fortunes are not linked to our poor team! (laughter) Karr/ Would it... Wilburn/ I hope not! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 39 Karr/ No, Mike's gone that whole first week. Right? Mike, you leave.. . Wright/ I' m gone the 6tH through the 11 tn. I' 11 be back... afternoon on the 11 to Karr/ That's why I stuck the Stn in, that all day before you left. Just trying to (several talking) Champion/ So... Wright/ Send me out happy! Champion/ He might be here for the formal meeting, it's possible. Karr/ For which one, Connie? Champion/ The formal meeting. Wright/ On the l ltn Mims/ Why not just combine on the l Otn and then...then you'd be here, Regenia, right? Wright/ You'll be here on the 10tH Champion/ Let's combine on the 10tH and the 1 ltn. Karr/ So cancel the 11 tn? Champion/ Cause we have a lot of extra meetings with staff that we have to go to, and it'd be nice to... Karr/ So we combine a work session and a formal on the l 0`n; cancel the 11 tn. Okay. What about the rest of January? The 24tH and 25t", I know we're going to be short Terry. But he's here for the budget sessions. Champion/ Okay. Dickens/ I hope! The 27tH? Is that... Karr/ Twenty-seventh, if needed. That's correct. That's the last one if needed. (several talking) Any other changes to January? Okay, so we just had the one change, combining the l Otn and cancelling the 11 tn. February? Bailey/ What's the special work session on the 23rd Karr/ That's the joint meeting with entities. It's Johnson County's time to host. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November I5, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 40 Bailey/ Oh, that's...that's all it is. I mean, not all. I meant...I thought it was a budget session. I thought it was a special... Karr/ No, it is not a budget. Bailey/ Cause I might not be here. Karr/ No, it's our quarterly meeting with... Bailey/ I thought those were two lines. I'm sorry. I thought there was joint meeting plus a special work session. Wright/ New Year's is December 29t". Connie, you're having trouble. Champion/ Well, it has been a long weekend! Karr/ February okay then? Hayek/ Uh, Ross, are you...are you locked, are you around the third, basically the second, third, fourth week of February? Do you have any plans? The reason I ask is that our baby is due, uh, in...Mary Kate's been calling it Valentine's Day, and then she said it was the 20t", and she said she's just calling it Valentine's Day because it sounded better. (laughter) So I think sometime between the 15t" and 20t", I'll be, uh... Dickens/ Just tell her she can't have it then! Bailey/ Cause that works! (laughter and several talking) Hayek/ So I may have to miss a meeting (several talking) Wilburn/ You don't have a remote in the delivery room? Hayek/ Well, we have electronic participation (laughter and several talking) Karr/ That would be true of any time during those, yeah. Hayek/ Yeah, I don't suggest any change, I just, uh... Wilburn/ Yes. Hayek/ ...know in advance. Champion/ This time of year you can actually predict. Dickens/ When is the thing where you go to Washington? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November I5, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 41 Hayek/ March. Dickens/ Is that in March? That's in March. Hayek/ Probably March, right? Dickens/ Cause it got cancelled last year, didn't it? Karr/ Oh, you mean, the Chamber lobbying trip? I don't have that date; I' 11 certainly check on it though. Do you have it, Dale? I don't. Helling/ I can get it. Bailey/ It's typically that second week, right? Wilburn /There were two or three options they were looking at. Bailey/ Cause March is (both talking) Wilburn/ ...slight change in format. Karr/ We probably should do that before we firm it up, because I had avoided spring break, just because of, uh, I didn't know if it affected any of you, but certainly it affects a number of people in the community, as far as...uh, so I had moved that meeting, but if it's going to hit the lobby, the Chamber lobbying trip, then we probably would want to move it back. Helling/ I think it was going to be either in February, or very early March. The times they talked about so I think we're okay for spring break, but... it.. . Karr/ Well, it might affect though when we approve the budget though, depending if it were late February. Because right now we're approving the budget on the 1St. If that were the lobbying trip, we'd have to move the meeting to the 7tn/gtn Helling/ The 1St of February would probably be too early, given the dates that...given the tentative dates we saw before. Bailey/ First of March. Helling/ They were somewhere... Karr/ I'm talking about the 1St of March. Helling/ Oh, okay, I'm sorry. No, again, I believe it's a February date. But I'll find out. Hayek/ Yeah, we...Rebecca needs (mumbled) some dates a while ago and I thought it was late February, early March (both talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 42 Karr/ Dale, why don't you check that and let me know so we can maybe firm it up tomorrow if we need to, cause it might affect... Helling/ Yeah, I'll check. (laughter) Hayek/ Okay. Dickens/ I just remembered it was about that time period. Pending Work Session Issues: Hayek/ Work session, uh... issues. Do we need to go over that? It's pretty locked in here. Okay. Um... Helling/ Just briefly... you have a special meeting set for December 1 S`. Um... and. depending on whether you, uh, how the housing discussions go from here on, um, and also how, uh... serious you are about getting some of these things off the agenda before the first of the year, you may or may not want to have that special meeting. Uh, it's possible that if you're...you'll need the 6`n to talk about housing, that we might want to get some of those other things done on the 15`. That would be like the alley inventory, the brick streets issue, um...uh, single-stream recycling. I think that will be ready to go, and these are all things that...that...well, particularly the brick streets and the recycling, may have some influence on your...on budget decisions, not that we can't touch on them at the same time we talk about the budget, but...um, you may want to stay with the schedule so it gets done sooner rather than later, so...right now we still have the December 15` date open. I...the reason I say it is simply because if we don't have a meeting on December ls`, and you get...you need more time to talk about the housing between the 29`n and the 6`n...um, then there...some of the things will get pushed back. I think...I don't think there's any question about that. Mims/ I would say keep it and let's try and get some stuff off the table. If we need to. Champion/ December ls`. November 29`n, November 30`" Mims/ Three nights in a row, Connie! Champion/ Yeah, well, I don't like that! Hayek/ Well, let's...let's, I suggest we just keep it and uh, we can always ditch it, when it gets closer. Helling/ Yeah, depending on what happens, and as late as it is...the 29`n when you have your discussion, you can, you can cancel it and it'll go to the 6`n. The other thing we can do is, um, we can, if there's a few things you want to try to get done, we can load up those This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 43 meetings and... and just plan on being here a little bit later. Just something to think about now and the next time. Hayek/ Okay. Champion/ (mumbled) Karr/ The...the packet will go out next week for the...the 29`", 30`h, and the ls`. Hayek/ Okay. Karr/ It'll go out before Thanksgiving, so...we'd have to have that nailed by then. Dickens/ Will that be on Wednesday then? Or... Karr/ Yes! It'll be the... Mims/ You don't think Marian's going to come in Thanksgiving Day and do it? Bailey/ Are you going to go pick it up? Dickens/ I thought she'd deliver it to my house again! Karr/ Sure! Helling/ What we'll do then is...i£..(several talking) what I'll do for the ls` is schedule the meeting and I'll put all those items on, including the affordable housing, and then as you get through...to, uh, the 29`h, when you're talking about that, we can firm up the agenda, simply by just... simply not discussing some of the things that are on there, if you want to push them back to the 6`h. I don't think that's a problem. Maybe it is. Dilkes/ (unable to hear, away from mic) Helling/ We'll over-schedule for the, essentially for the ls`. We'll put everything on there ,and then on the 29`h you can decide whether you want to talk about housing on the 1 S` or whether you want to talk about the other things. Wilburn/ Well, the tighter the agenda is, also, our work session will help dictate to members of the public whether or not they decide to show up or not. So if we have something on the work session item, with the expectation that some folks might show up... Bailey/ That's just (mumbled) Wilburn/ ...just a convenience for the public. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session A, Page 44 Helling/ Well, the other thing...possibility Ican think of, just thinking out loud is, we go ahead and schedule those things on the 1St. Schedule the housing for the 6t", and if you finish your housing discussion and don't need the 6th, you'll just, um...you'll be finished early! Hayek/ I guess I'm okay with...with proceeding, sort of loaded up, so that we have the option...depending on how much progress we make on...on the housing, we get to the others. Um, I...I... it is sort of being a little less, you know, we're not committing to a particular, uh, item, uh, except for the housing, which we're committed to working on. I don't know. We can't...we just can't control everything, and I'm... Helling/ No, it's...really the housing is what's going to dictate. Hayek/ Okay, since we (both talking) do you need more...direction from us than the scant direction you just received? (laughter and several talking) Helling/ No, I...I think, if...if majority of you are comfortable, that we can load that up and then... and then defer some of it until the 6th, if... it was needed. Champion/ Are you loading up the 29th or the lst~ Helling/ The 1St Bailey/ And that will determine the length on the 6th Wright/ The 29th is already...booked all by itself with that legislative (several talking) Dickens/ The farther it gets into December, the more I think it'll be busy with... Champion/ Right! Bailey/ (several talking) very far into December. At all! I mean, we're done... Dickens/ Yeah, but we start opening nights though every night. Shortly thereafter! Hayek/ Let's make a decision. What are we doing? Dickens/ That sounds good. Load it up! Wright/ Load it up on the 1St! Hayek/ Okay. Champion/ Yeah, and...I think we can load up on the, never mind. That's fine! Load it up. I don't care. I'm over it! (laughter) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Helling/ First will be the best opportunity because you won't have any other agenda things (several talking) Champion/ And at least we won't have a New Year's Eve then! (laughter) Page 45 Hayek/ On the 16t"? Right. Okay. Anything else in that info packet? We've hit just about every... item there. Uh, Council time. Council Time: Bailey/ Well, I mentioned it to you, but I encourage you to call West High, volleyball. Hayek/ Yep. Bailey/ Alma mater! Hayek/ West High volleyball, bring `em down to a Council meeting. Bailey/ If they're interested. If they're not, don't make `em do it. They're winners. They're champions. They can do what they want! Hayek/ Can you... Karr/ ...you mean the volleyball...we have a procedure that the schools notify us if they (several talking) We've notified all the athletic directors. Bailey/ Okay. Karr/ And so hopefully... Bailey/ I didn't know what the procedure was, so...but... Karr/ We initiated that because... Bailey/ ...be good to see some of~the young women teams. We tend to see a lot of men's teams. Karr/ Yeah, we've extended it... an invitation to, um, to the AD's so hopefully they' 11... and we also wanted to expand it past athletics, and we really encourage the schools to think about, if you have a debate team that won. Bailey/ We have a lot of all-state... Karr/ ...music...um, and to not just concert and state champions in athletics, but state champions in...across the board. Hayek/ I think that's a very wise (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 46 Bailey/ I know we have a lot ofall-state.. . Champion/ A lot! Dickens/ I just have a short, on Roosevelt repurposing. I will send, uh, I almost got these final group minutes from the last meeting, the 8t". I'll send `em to Marian. You'll all get those, so you can at least just go over it. One of the points they did bring up, and I talked to Jeff already about getting the north, or the southwest, uh...district plan and then also they brought up would the City be interested in buying Roosevelt for a dollar, and I just would throw that out, cause I'm supposed to bring something back at our next meeting on the 13t". So we can discuss it a little bit, but right now after talking to Dale, there's...we'll see if there's any interest. It looks like it's not a great deal for us. But, it was thrown out at the meeting, but I'll send (mumbled) I'm supposed to get the final minutes in the next couple days here, and then I'll send `em on to Marian and they'll be in the packet, so you can go over all the fun stuff we've discussed all the uh, the brainstorming ideas for the property. Helling/ If you're going to make a decision on that, we'll probably need to put it on your work session...next time. Champion/ A dollar! Bailey/ We should, I mean, Terry's doing a good job representing us. We should have that discussion, cause (several talking) Karr/ You need it for the 13t" of December, or the 13t" of November? Dickens/ Thirteenth of December (both talking) Karr/ December. Dickens/ So we've got plenty of time. It'll be after all these meetings, but I'll send you this first packet once it's finalized (mumbled) Hayek/ So staff 11 look at that internally and we'll take it up. Helling/ Maybe not next time. Dickens/ No hurry! Helling/ You don't have anything on the 1St, so (laughter and several talking) Mims/ Um, I don't know if anybody else has this, has gotten this on their calendar, um...ECICOG is sponsoring a legislative open house at the Coralville Chamber on Tuesday, November 16t". (several talking) That's tomorrow all right, uh... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010. November 15, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 47 Bailey/ Usually they send out invitations! Mims/ Well, I don't know, um... it's 4:00 to 6:00, formal program, 4:30 to 6:00. This month has just flown by! I just barely saw this, and I'm out of town all day tomorrow so I can't make it. Bailey/ What time is it? I'm sorry. Mims/ 4:00 to 6:00. Formal program starts at 4:30. Dickens/ We meet at 7:00 tomorrow night. (several talking) Hayek/ I can't. Bailey/ You know, strangely enough I'm in town tomorrow! At least part of the day! I will, um, double check my emails when I get home, and perhaps I can attend. Is staff going to attend though? Helling/ I was planning to go. Bailey/ Okay. So we're covered either way. Okay. Hayek/ Thank you, Dale. Other Council time? Uh, budget? Work session issues, we've gone over. Community events, Council invitations. Um, the CVB annual luncheon is tomorrow, uh, I' 11 be there. You're going. (several talking) Helling/ We have several staff and... Hayek/ Great! It's at the Sheraton so... Karr/ I think Ross, you're... Wilburn/ Yeah, I'll be there. Hayek/ Any other invitations? Okay. Meeting schedule, we've talked about. I think that's it. Okay, see you all tomorrow. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2010.