HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-06-21 TranscriptionPage I
Council Present: Botchway, Cole, Dickens, Mims (electronically), Taylor, Thomas,
Throgmorton
Staff Present: Fruin, Dilkes, Karr, Andrew, Havel, O'Brien, Bockenstedt, Rackis,
Ralston, Yapp, Boothroy, Bowers, Kelsay, Hightshoe, Howard
Others Present: Simpson (UISG)
Questions from Council re Agenda Items:
Throgmorton/ So let's get this show on the road, uh, Council.... Iowa City City Council work
session for Tuesday, June the 21". First thing I'd like to do is note that there are two
other elected officials present. I think there are only two — Brian Kirschling from the
School Board and Rod Sullivan from the County Board of Supervisors — and thanks to
both of you for coming. Okay, so the first item we have to do is, uh, deal with questions
from Council about agenda items, and I'd like to encourage us to be .... as brief as we can
with regard to this, uh, particular item so that we can move into the .... the two major
items for tonight. So, any questions about the formal meeting agenda?
ITEM 3f(4) Feather Lacy (x2): "Complete Streets" in Iowa City [Staff responses
included]
ITEM 3f(5) Christine Boyer: Horace Mann School Traffic [Staff response included]
ITEM 3f(6) Jen Knights (x2); Jacqueline Briggs; Susan Shullaw; Thomas Agran
(x2); John and Nancy McKinstry; Cornelia Lang: Traffic Circle for Ronalds and
Gilbert Streets [Staff response included]
Thomas/ Well I'd .... I'd like to comment on the, um (clears throat) there were several, under
Correspondence, 3f(4), (5), and (6) relating to traffic issues. (clears throat) (garbled)
cause I looked at some of the give and take on the cor... correspondence between the
residents and staff, and I wanted to clarify my understanding, uh, with regard to one of
those exchanges. (clears throat) There was some question as to how traffic calming can
be implemented, uh, other than through the traffic calming program, which is I think
conventionally how we tend to view that process working. And it was through a project
that I was ... as a citizen involved with about five years ago on Brown Street where the,
um .... through that process, where ... where Brown Street was denied a traffic calming, uh,
any traffic calming enhancements based on the criteria that are applied to the program,
that, uh, Jeff Davidson, who was the Planning Director at that time indicated that if a
project such as Brown Street were to be reconstructed, Council can approve any redesign
that would calm traffic and part of the reason for that is that it would be funded through
the CIP program rather than the traffic calming program. So I think .... I wanted to bring
that up in part because I think that's an important... strategy that I think ... I feel we can
employ moving forward, uh, you know, we have the Miller -Orchard projects where we're
going in and replacing a water line and while in ... in the neighborhood we're folding in
some proposed, uh, complete streets' elements. I think the same could be done with our
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re ... repaving program. We could fold in traffic calming that may or may not qualify by
the letter of our traffic calming program, but would be improvements to the
neighborhood. Um ... because of the si... time sensitivity on the Ronald Street project,
which is part of our repaving program for this year, uh, you know, the staff's comments
were that let's do it through the traffic calming program. So I have some concerns about
that in that what would that mean for that proposal, what standards would be applied,
urn ... what would it potentially fail as a stand-alone traffic calming project, and um, in
looking at the data from a few years ago, it looks to me like it would not. There's, uh,
over a thousand cars traveling on ... Gilbert Street, uh, which.... correct me if I'm wrong,
uh, would trigger, or allow for, traffic calming to be considered. So, um, assuming we
can get the neighborhood support, I would .... I would be supportive of deferring the work
if that seemed to be the best way to go and doing it at a later date. However, I would be,
um, would really like to see support from staff that, yes, based on that traffic study, which
was three years ago, um, and my understanding of how the ... the program is applied, that,
urn .... the .... the traffic calming would, assuming we get the neighborhood support, can
move forward.
Fruin/ A couple of comments, uh, in response to that. I ... I think, um, you make a good point as
we're going in and doing resurfacing projects, one of the questions we can ask
beforehand is ... is there, you know, any traffic calming measures that should be tied into
these projects. We haven't done that in the past, but I know that's something that, uh, our
Public Works Department and Engineering Department are discussing, and ... and how we
keep moving at a good pace on those projects, but also stop to ... to think about, urn ... what
types of improvements to the street we can add, in addition just to a fresh coat of...of
pavement. Um, regarding the traffic calming, we do recommend that, you know, this...
that .... that the proposed circles would go through the traffic calming process. I think
that's a...a, it's a good process. We vet not only the effectiveness of those solutions, but
other solutions that ... that may be appropriate and supported by the neighborhood. Um, at
the end of the day, if the traffic calming program does not recommend that you
move .... we move forward, um, certainly through the capital improvement process you
can, um, still carry on with that ... that project, um, so .... you know, unless there were, uh,
safety concerns with the implementation, which I don't think would be the case with this
particular situation, we could move forward. In this case with the resurfacing, uh, it's...
my understanding in talking with staff that we actually feel that may be a little bit more
expensive to tack it on to the resurfacing project because it'll be a last-minute change
order carried out by the contractor, um, as opposed to, uh, a number of the traffic calming
projects that we do, which we can do in-house, and so ... I don't think we're missing a
window of opportunity here. I think we can come back and ... and add traffic circles in at
some point, but we do recommend that you go through the evaluation process, or the
neighborhood goes through the evaluation process. That's what every neighborhood, you
know, prior to has gone through, and I think it's a ... it's, you know, it builds an
understanding and ... and helps identify the most effective solution.
Cole/ Jim, I'm wondering since we have two really meaty topics tonight whether we could take
up correspondence at the end, after our formal meeting. Or how do people feel about
that?
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Throgmorton/ I ... I'd much rather that we focus on the two major (both talking)
Cole/ Yeah, so I think let's ... let's go ahead and do that. That's my preference.
Throgmorton/ We do have one topic here that's been raised, so we might as well complete the
discussion of it. I .... I would agree with Geoff, uh, and with regard to that particular
intersection, which I know very, very well, uh, I ... I see that there's a solution being
presented, but I know there are other possible solutions, and .... the way to deal with that
is to go through a process to identify, you know, discuss which might be better, like stop
signs — would they be better than a traffic circle — I don't know. But the other traffic, uh,
calming measures, uh, should be considered. I ... I don't think we should leap to a solution
on the spur of the moment right here.
Thomas/ (garbled) more on the qualif...that ... that the work, whatever the ... is, with the assumption
we would get neighborhood support, that the .... the, um, the .... the criteria that are
typically applied to the traffic calming program, urn .... it appears to me we already have
met that ... that threshold. So I would like, as soon as possible, confirmation that, yeah, we
can go through the process, but it appears based on the data we have, um, we can move
forward with traffic calming.
Fruin/ Sure, and just as a quick reminder, the .... the, uh, based on the last traffic calming project
we brought to you, I think there was an interest in Council in revisiting the traffic
calming program and some of the solutions we presented. So, we still intend to do that
with you here shortly and that'll be another chance to evaluate the criteria.
Throgmorton/ Okay, are there any other major, uh, agenda items that need to be brought
up ... right now?
Taylor/ Will we come back to that cause I ... I just had some comments on some of (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ...come back to it (both talking)
Taylor/ ....cause I do have some comments on some of (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Yeah, yeah, all right. So we'll do that. Given that, let's turn to the staff s
presentation about the affordable housing, um, action plan.
Staff presentation of a preliminary affordable housing action plan lIP # 3 Info Packet of
6/161;
Fruin/ Okay, I'm going to walk you through this plan, but, um, make no mistake, there is a lot of
people, um, sitting behind me and ... and not in this room that contributed to this, and
instead of bringing up five or six different people to present different sections, I just
decided I'd walk you through it. Once we get down into the details, I'll likely have to ... tc
call for help, uh, on particular issues. Uh, so what we wanted to do with you .... uh, this
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evening is walk you through real briefly what our existing programs are, what some of
the recent progress has been, and .... and the current efforts in front of you right now. And
then we'll get into, uh, the new strategies and ultimately present you with a set of
recommendations. Um, one thing I want to make clear though is that we hope that
tonight really just advances the conversation. We expect that there will be a lot of
people, um, in the community that want to comment on the recommendations contained
in this report, and I think that's good and healthy. A lot of the ideas presented in here did
not originate from staff, came from, uh, different, uh, community stakeholders that ... that
have expressed opinions on the topic before. So I think it's important that .... when we
start to go through this we just recognize that, again, this is advancing the conversation.
It's not necessarily, uh, intended to be, um ... a take -it or leave -it type of proposition.
Okay, we're going to real briefly go through some of our existing programs. We all
know that, uh, we have, uh, 81 public housing units and 10 publicly owned housing units
in the Peninsula neighborhood, and we also have our voucher system, which I think most
folks are familiar with, with just under 1,300 vouchers. Through our federal CDBG and
Home, uh, programs, we're able to, uh.... uh, support a number of...of units every year.
You see the three-year averages listed there. Through the CDBG program, we've
averaged 137 units supported in the last three years, and through Home, uh, a smaller
number— 93 units supported. We have a general, uh, rehabilitation improvement
program, which we call GRIP. Um, this, uh, I would argue, uh, is effective, um, at....at a
smaller scale in ensuring that people can stay in their homes longer and maintaining that
affordable housing stock in some of our older neighborhoods. Uh, I mentioned the
UniverCity program here. That's certainly not, uh, the primary intention for the
UniverCity program to be affordable housing. Uh, but it is a ... a secondary objective, and
you see that a number of the houses have sold at or below, uh, 80% of the area median
income. If we were to bump that number up to 110% or 120 you'd see, uh, a .... a good
majority of those 54 houses have been placed in the hands of people in that, uh, income
category. We also have our Riverfront Crossings density bonus option, which was
introduced a couple years ago. Um, we have not had anybody utilize that option, but it is
on the table for, uh, developers to take advantage of. We have a number of good
programs, but ... um .... as the demand grows, we don't have the resources to support the
growth in those programs, and this is a chart showing you the decline in CDBG and
Home funding since 2002. You can see it's a pretty steady drop. We don't expect this
trend to reverse itself. Uh, so those traditional resources that we've relied on as a
community are ... are slowly dwindling away and uh, that's going to be a big part of, I
think, tonight's discussion. If ..if you want to get serious about affordable housing, you
need to have resources, and we need a revenue source. I don't want to harp on the ... on
the property tax reform. You've heard it from us a number of times. Probably every
meeting we find a reason to mention the property tax reform, but it's a reality and when
we're talking about.... potentially creating new revenue sources or prioritizing affordable
housing over existing programs, services, and projects, we all just have to realize that,
uh... uh, that competition for dollars is going to be, um, more intense in the .... in the
coming years. Some recent progress, I think we should be proud of the recent progress.
It's not to say that, uh... um, there's not more to be done, but certainly the City, in the last
couple years, has taken some steps, uh, in the right direction and ... and a few of those are
outlined here. We've ... uh, effectively utilized tax increment financing to fold, uh,
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affordable housing into, uh, various projects, particularly in the Riverfront Crossings
District. You see mentioned there the Sabin townhomes project, which will, um, follow
the parking deck that's currently under construction in Riverfront Crossings. The
Riverside West Apartments and the Chauncey building, CA Ventures, uh, all have, uh,
some type of affordable or public housing component to them. You're also familiar with
the Towncrest low-income housing tax credit, uh, project that will, uh, commence this
year. The City contributed $600,000 in general obligation bonds to that project to help,
uh... uh, bring that to fruition. We've completed the single-family new construction
program, which was effective in providing 140 new homes with an average sales price
around $180,000, and then, uh, even more recently, uh, with, urn .... uh, the seven of you,
uh, up there, we've revised the tax increment financing policy, uh, to require 15%
affordable housing, uh, for projects with 10 or more units. Um, so unlike the past years
and the projects listed above with Sabin and .... and Riverside, where that was a
negotiated, uh, deal with them, uh, it's now a firm requirement in our TIF policy. And
then of course the human rights ordinance amendment, uh, ad ... advancing, uh, fair
housing in the community. I think you all should be very proud of that and... and... and
again, proud of the steps that we've taken over the last couple of years. Current efforts,
um. .... we thought this may be the case when we scheduled this work session, but there
are a couple of very significant items on your formal agenda tonight that I think would,
uh.... uh, really advance, uh, our progress as well. First is the, uh, first reading of the
inclusionary housing ordinance in Riverfront Crossings, and you're going to hear a
presentation, uh, about that ordinance from our, uh, Neighborhood Development Services
staff, uh, this ... uh, this evening. And second is the Housing First, uh, project. There's
some code amendments that are needed to facilitate that, and you'll have the chance to
consider the first reading of that amendment. Uh, both of those projects as .... as I
understand it, uh, one the inclusionary housing ordinance and .... and two the housing
first, uh, project would be the first in the state of Iowa. So, again, um, something that, uh,
Iowa City should be very proud of. And then earlier this, uh, month, on the first of the
month, we did close on the Court and Linn property. So we do now have $1 million in
our affordable housing fund, per that development agreement. And we have some
resources, uh, to do some .... some good work in the short-term until we can establish a...
a revenue source, uh, to support, uh, more long-term strategies for affordable housing.
Okay, we're gonna, uh, share some ... some new strategies with you. Again we're going to
kind of walk through things. Um, our recommendations may not be, uh, a .... apparent.
Uh, as we get through it we're going to drive those home at the end, but I think you'll get
a sense of. ... of where we're going, and we've broken this up into two categories — the
first being City -driven affordable unit productions. This is when we're directly involved
in the creation of the affordable units, and the second would be more market-driven
strategies, so that's where you're going to see more of the regulatory changes to .... that
we're suggesting we look into. So we're gonna cover a couple of different areas here.
One would be, uh... uh, I think additional opportunities to create affordable units through
annexation and development projects, gettin' in at ground level of these developments
and really influencing the types of, uh, housing stock and projects that, um .... uh, a....
occur in those areas. Uh, second would be probably the most significant one for you to
be considering as we enter into the budget season this coming year, and that would be
development of a funding source that can be sustained, hopefully, over time and provide
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a ... a steady stream of revenue. The $1 million from Court and Linn, that's a one-time...
it's great but it's a one-time fund. Once we use it, it's gone, and we're going to need to
replenish that fund, so we're gonna talk through that, and then how do you use these
dollars, and that's.... perhaps probably the, urn .... question that I think most people will be
interested in weighing in on, you know, how to effectively use these funds and how to
divvy `em up, and we're gonna give you, um .... a, uh, a recommendation to start with
there and .... and allow you to, uh, consider that, as well as the other .... the other feedback
that you get from the community. So ... there are some opportunities with annexations,
um, and I think, uh... uh, we feel comfortable enough that we could draft a, uh, an
annexation policy that would, uh, require some type of contribution to affordable
housing, uh.....we didn't go so far as to think about what that contribution may be, but if
that's something of interest to you, we can certainly present you with some options on
that. Um .... you know, the one thing we want to consider here, there's a .... there's a
balance that needs to be struck. Uh, we don't want to make annexations so onerous that
people choose to build elsewhere in the community. Ultimately, and you're going to hear
me say this a couple times, supply matters, whether it's affordable housing or not, all the
supply matters. It impacts the market, and so we want to make sure that we're giving
us ... giving ourselves as a community ample room to grow and to expand the housing
stock. Um, but I also think that there is a balance that can be struck to .... to inject some
affordable housing. The second, uh, there on the right-hand of the slide is annexation or
development, it doesn't have ... it could be in -fill property as well. But utilizing TIF, and
we haven't, um, utilized TIF for affordable housing, except for those specific projects
examples, but there's a provision in State law that, uh, I'll briefly walk you through that
requires that whenever you create, uh, the City creates, uh, infrastructure to support
residential development, that there's a low- to moderate -income mandatory set-aside, uh,
that has to be, uh, contributed. So I'm going to walk you through an example and this is
the south, uh, part of town, with, uh, little bit of a dated photo here, but this is Alexander
Elementary School here, with Sycamore Street, uh, here, and ... this street segment right
here is McCollister Boulevard. In 2019, we currently project, uh, in our capital
improvement's budget extending McCollister, somewhere along this alignment, over to
Sycamore Street. It's about a $3.5 million project, rounded up a little bit. But if we used
TIF in this area, uh, for .... to support... specifically to support residential development, uh,
we would be required to set aside, uh, 45% of the increment for affordable housing.
What's particularly attractive about this in ... in this particular.... in this, uh, particular case
is that .... that low- to moderate -income set-aside, you can think of it .... that ... that
contribution just goes into a bank, um, and we are not bound to use that within this urban
renewal area. So, if we stay true to a location model, and our location model says that
this isn't the place for subsidized units, we can actually take the set-aside created from
this tax increment district and put it in other parts of the community, and so we can stay
true to that scattered site principle in this particular, uh, location. Certainly if the
Council's will is to spend those dollars within the ... the housing development, uh, that's,
uh....uh, within the urban renewal area. We can do that too. Uh, but that flexibility is...
is pretty unique, uh, in terms of the ... the State statute. Um, so .... uh, staff particularly, uh,
is intrigued by that particular option. Again, this doesn't need to take place with
annexation. Um, it could be any in -fill property and so as we look through our CIP there
could be other opportunities. One would be, uh, Foster Road extended. Uh, right now
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we have, uh, in the CIP, um, a plan, uh, towards the end of the Gateway project to, um,
for the City to construct Foster Road from Dubuque Street up to Prairie du Chien. Um,
we could similarly take that action there, and uh, have a similar type of arrangement.
This is a .... a.....limited to a 10 -year period and it's all going to be driven by the taxable
value created, um, on the .... you know, within that district. So it may not be the case that
we can recoup all of our expenses on the road, or achieve that $1.5 million target, uh, for
the low- to moderate -income set-aside. Um, it's just going to depend on what ... what kind
of growth is produced there, uh, after 10 years, uh.... uh, of development.
Throgmorton/ Geoff, uh, could I inter... interrupt very briefly?
Fruin/ Sure!
Throgmorton/ Uh, just acknowledge that some of these things get pretty complex, so I can just
say this is pretty exciting kind of stuff but, uh, but there are details that I .... I don't quite
grasp and I'd really need to know more, and I'm sure that's true for a whole bunch of
other people.
Frain/ Yeah. Our hope is to kind of. ... gauge your interest in .... in these particular strategies, and
we can follow up with more specifics, and I ... I expect that there's, um, folks in this room
that'll also have questions and .... as time allows we can .... we can go through and get into
those. Um, I also think it's important that, um, we realize that we don't have to capture
all of the increment here. So, you know, there is a concern if...if we get really aggressive
with TIF, we're really just choking ourselves through restricting funds going to our
general fund. So we may not want to capture 100% of the TIF. We have the flexibility
to say, okay, we're only going to capture 25% of the TIF. We're going to release the rest
to the other taxing bodies — County, School District, City, urn .... and .... and only work
with that smaller amount. So there's a great deal of flexibility that goes into a .... a project
like this. Obviously there's.... there's pros and cons with each, and I think
we'd .... we .... we probably need to get the thoughts of the County, of the School District,
uh, how they feel, uh, a .... about an approach like this, but .... again, those are
conversations for down the road. Development of a funding source — what we've listed
here, I've got two pages of potential funding sources here and .... I'll briefly kind of walk
through, um, at least my feelings on .... on the viability of each of them. Uh, first is .... is
local option sales tax. Probably the toughest one to implement, but the one with
the .... the greatest amount of promise in terms of the ... the funds, uh, that it produces. We
estimate, uh, that it would be $9 to $14 million a year for the City of Iowa City, and the
other communities in ... in Johnson County would also receive a sizable amount from a
local option sales tax. I think all of you know that it does require a metro vote. So that's
not a .... a vote of the residents of Iowa City, but, uh, of the residents of, um, the metro
communities — Coralville and North Liberty, and ... and certainly, uh, local option sales tax
would, um, produce, uh.... would give you ample flexibility to address other needs too.
So if you wanted to set aside a couple million for affordable housing, you could .... you
could look towards streets, parks, CIT, anything else that, uh, you all felt was appropriate.
Utility franchise fee — we do have a 1 % utility franchise fee right now that ... that develop,
uh ...that produces $900,000 a year. Um .... we can go up to 5%. So there's 4% to move
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on that. Um, most communities in ... in the state of Iowa, I think, are 1, 2, or 3%,
um .... um, there's a few that are higher than that, um, but this is one we've .... we've been
reluctant to tap into, and I'm frankly still reluctant to tap into. Um, this is one that I see
as being a critical source is when we need.....as our community grows, when we need to
exten... extend our public safety services, um, this type of funding source is really
critical. This 1 % as some of you know was critical in .... in allowing the City to open Fire
Station #4, and when we get down the road to Fire Station #5 or 6 or expanded police
districts, um, this is also probably going to be the logical choice, um, if additional
funding is needed. GO bonding —I mentioned we did, uh, bond $600,000 for the
Towncrest, uh, project. We can certainly continue to do that. Um, I don't think it's our
preferred option, just because of the interest costs that we pay on that and if we can
avoid, uh, paying extra, then ... then we should but .... know that that's an option and ... and
that we have used that option in the recent past. I have the emergency pro ... property tax
levy here, um, and I think I'd also just talk about property tax funds in general,
um. .... if. ... if the Council's sentiment was we don't to really raise any new fees or
revenues; we just want to work within the existing framework, um, we can do that. It's
about priorities. And so .... we don't necessarily need to tap into the emergency tax levy,
which is an additional 27 -cents that we don't utilize right now. We could certainly work
within our, um ... what we call the 8/10 levy and prioritize affordable housing, um, but that
would probably be at the sacrifice of other City services.... right now. The emergency
prop.... property tax levy, I should just say, is available. It can be adjusted year to year.
So if we wanted to tack 5 -cents onto that, um, we could certainly do that, and then if
financial pressures arose in the coming years, that's an annual decision you can peel back
that tax rate, and that's.... that's the nice thing about the property tax. You can adjust
that, uh, on a year to year basis. It does conflict with our goals of diversifying our
revenue sources, um, and lowering the tax rate. Last three revenue sources I'll point out,
um, tax increment financing. Of course I've talked about that. How we've used that in
the past. Um, we've.....we've really focused on using that when projects present
themselves. So as a developer comes to us with a project, we've said, okay, we're
willing to support you with tax increment financing, however, you are going to be
required to provide X number of affordable units in your development. We have not
gone so far as to capture district -wide, uh, increment. Everything we've done has ... has
primarily been project -by -project base. But we can capture district -wide increment for
affordable housing purposes. Unlike the Alexander School area that I talked about
before. Under this circumstance, those dollars have to remain in the urban renewal area
in which they're captured. So if we take the Riverfront Crossings District, and we want
to capture $500,000 of district -wide increment, we can do that, but those dollars have to
be spent in that area. They're geographically restricted. And we think that there's some
opportunity, uh, to do this, particularly in the downtown and the Riverfront Crossings'
area, urn .... and uh, you'll see that as one of our recommended funding sources is that
we ... we start to look at the district -wide TIF. We have a couple of funds that are
managed by the, urn .... uh, Housing Authority. These are one-time funds. These aren't,
um, dollars that are able to be replenished. Uh, the first one are ... uh, the proceeds from
the sale of the Broadway Condos several years ago. We have $1.3 million, and while we
need to get HUD approval on the use of those, uh, we feel like those would be suitable
for, uh, for us to purchase or develop low-income housing. We also have tenant -to -
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ownership program funds in the amount of $600,000. We do have HUD approval to use
those for the listed purposes on the str... on the screen, but essentially it's again to provide
affordable housing. So those dollars were generated by, uh, affordable housing, public
housing projects. That's their .... we .... we need to, um, invest those, we're required to
invest those back into those purposes. We doin' okay? All right! Okay, this one, uh, I
imagine.....may be of most interest, uh, to folks. This is the affordable housing fund,
okay, so this is where we ... we placed the $1 million from the Court, Linn sale, and this is
small text, I apologize for that. But we need to decide how to ... how to use that. So the
middle bullet points there list ... what are some possibilities, certainly there are endless
number of possibilities, and I'm sure there are ideas out there that ... that maybe we didn't
consider that ... that are worth, uh, considering in the future, but ... um, the Johnson County
Hou ... Housing Trust Fund is ... is a ... is an option, and that's one that, uh, I feel, um, that
we should strongly consider a .... a sizable portion going to the Johnson County Housing
Trust Fund. We talk about regional efforts in affordable housing. Um, obviously I think
with tonight's discussion, we are not, urn .... waiting on ... on regional efforts to ... to move
forward, but we still need to be thinking in a regional framework, and .... and that may
mean partnering with an organization that has a regional outlook. Uh, this would be
following the County's lead. The County, as you know, is ... is contributing a sizable
amount to the Johnson County.... Johnson County Housing Trust Fund, and I think, uh,
again, I think it's worth our consideration to do the same. We have the HCDC, uh,
Committee, which, um .... you all know is involved in the, uh, review of how we spend
CDBG and Home dollars. Um, we can certainly.... provide funding to them and
supplement the CDBG, Home program allocation or create a separate program with
the ... the funds that we have. Land banking is one, uh, I ... I can tell you frankly we think,
uh, probably holds the .... it probably provides the biggest bang for your buck, on a long-
term strategy. Um, but again, it is a long-term strategy and, uh, my feeling is ... is such
that, um, at least.....uh, the feeling I get from others is ... is that, you know, we want to
start to make some progress now. We don't necessarily want to hold the dollars for two
or three years, and then strategically purchase a property, but I do think we need to be
thinking, um, about a land banking strategy and ... and committing to that over time. The
low-income housing tax credit program is a ... again, a ... a program that can leverage
significant outside investment and can provide, uh, a lot of leverage for your public
dollar. Um, to date we haven't been very strategic in our pursuit of those, and I think
there's an opportunity to, uh, use funds to .... to support private projects, to maybe, um...
uh, incent people to .... to bring us private projects if we have, uh, a.....a sizable amount
of money that we can contribute. So the Towncrest project for example ..... we worked
with them to provide $600,000. That helped put them over the edge and deliver that
project to Iowa City. Um, that was .... one-on-one discussion with that developer, um, we
could, um .... do an RFP -type of process to say, okay, developers out there — private, non-
profit — tell us what your low-income housing tax credit would be, project would be, and
then we support the application that we feel's best suited, uh, at that time. I think there's
a lot of merit to, um, to that. If we do land bank, we can also use the ... the land that we
bank, um, to support low-income housing tax credit projects in the long-term. I think
that's a .... a very viable solution. I'll skip down to our recommendation. Uh, we would
recommend that the Council signal clearly on how you intend to spend the dollars, and
you can do so by, uh, an annual resolution. So it's not something that you're necessarily
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locked into year to year. Uh, you could change it, um .... if a ... particular project or a
unique circumstance in the community came up, you could change how these funds are
distributed, but ... you'll see we're recommending that 50% of all contributions to go the
Housing Trust Fund. Followed by 30 to be reserved for land banking, and I think that
reserve could also be used to address emergent housing situations, and uh, you know, this
is directly related to the Rose Oaks' conversation. If we had an affordable housing fund
with a fund balance in it, and the Council felt a, um .... a compelling need to support, um,
residents who are being displaced, you would have a source of funds to go through that.
Um, you know, with this particular, with the Rose Oaks' case, uh, reminder that we used
Home funds for that. We may not always have federal dollars that are unallocated, um,
to contribute to a project like that. So there's ... uh, I think .... I .... I think needs to be
consideration given to holding a reserve, to ... to respond to those emergent situations.
And then 20% of the projects, or I'm sorry, 20% of all the contributions, uh, we
recommend, uh, would go towards a low-income housing tax credit process, and we'll
talk more about, uh, how we see that, uh, working in the future. So, again, 50 to the Trust
Fund, 30 for land banking and emergency purposes, and 20 for a LIHTC process there. I
do have a note on there that some funds that are deposited into this, urn .... uh, some
dollars that are deposited into this fund in the future will be geographically restricted, and
that may, uh, cause us to have to deviate from that or ... or put some strings on some of
the .... on the dollars we're distributing. Okay, so that's kind of the switch from City -
driven. Okay, so we covered how can the City fund more affordable housing, how can
we directly contribute to producing more. Now it's getting to how we can help the
market provide more, and so we're going to talk about some regulatory changes, tax
abatement, and then, uh, we'll .... we'll get into the, uh low-income housing tax credit
process that we're suggesting. Regulatory changes — you'll see `em listed up here. I'll
walk through these real quick and we do have certainly staff here that can... can provide
more details. Uh, but, um, the inclusionary housing ordinance in front of you tonight for
the Riverfront Crossings does exempt affordable units from the parking requirement. We
suggest that this be extended to, uh, the downtown area. We'd like to review the multi-
family design standards, uh, to see if there are some changes there that, uh, can be made
to .... to lower the cost of construction and expedite building approvals. I can tell you this
isn't something that ... we're necessarily committed to as a staff right now. We've had
some healthy debate on that. The design standards were put in place because of
concerns, uh, several years ago about the, uh, the aesthetics of the buildings and the
quality of the buildings that were being constructed in the community. Um, but we're
willing to take a look at it. We know that's a concern of the development community,
private and non-profit, and I think it's worth a .... a review. One thing we don't want to
get into is where we create a separate design standard for affordable units. Or ... or
complexes with affordable units. We ... we feel it's really important that the same
standards apply to all units. We have a minimum size in our plan unit development
process right now. The plan unit development process provides a lot of flexibility in the
types of housing and the clustering of. ... of housing types that you can have on a
particular site. But sometimes when we get into the smaller in -fill sites, uh, that option is
off the table for developers and so one fairly simple thing we can do is just eliminate that
minimum size and provide some more flexibility in those smaller in -fill projects. A few
years ago we restricted, uh, we eliminated the ability to construct four, uh, and five, uh,
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bedroom units in the community. Uh, so the max is three right now. And we think
outside of the University- impact area, uh, we can bump that back up to four. Uh, we
would keep the maximum occupancy at three unrelated, but allow four bedrooms, um,
which we think would have a positive effect on the ... in the periphery of the community. I
want to make sure, you know, obviously what we're trying to do here is, uh, kind of draw
a line, uh, between student housing, uh, projects and .... and non -student housing projects,
and uh, by allowing four outside of the University -impact area. Again I think.....I think
staff feels comfortable with that. The next set of bullets .... um, talk about what can be
built as right versus what's going to require, uh, a .... a special, uh, a process. A process
that comes before the Council, and this is a ... this is, I think, a unique policy decision and
one that, um, we're interested to hear your thoughts on. But obviously, uh, a ... a lot of,
um, developers, if they can produce .... if they could produce something and get the ... the
profit that they want out of it or get the product they want out of it, without having to get
City Council approval, they go that way. And so they don't take advantage of the PUD,
which may provide a .... a better product at the end of the day, and again, more housing
types, and potentially more units that are affordable by design, but they just don't want to
go through that process, and so they chose to go to the path of least resistance and given
our market, they produce something that ... that turns a good profit. So we've ... we've
talked about, uh.... uh, providing developers more options by right. And, uh, I think .... I
think that's the right way to go, but we also have to understand that there's a trade-off
with neighborhood engagement and transparency. So the PUD process is there, in ... in
large part to allow the neighbors an opportunity to weigh in on what's happening, uh, in
their neighborhood or, you know, adjacent to them, and so there's a balance there. And
you have to decide what we're comfortable allowing by right versus, urn .... what we feel
really needs the....the vetting of the neighborhood. So an example there is, you know,
duplexes, triplexes, can we just permit those in a standard single-family zone in all
locations, not just corner locations, but .... by right you can build duplexes and .... and
triplexes. Um .... that's not something we allow now; through a PUD process that may be
possible, but not by right. So .... we can ... we can talk to you more about that. And then,
uh, at your next Council meeting we'll be talking about, uh, a form -based code, and uh,
you saw the missing middle logo there on a previous slide. I think there's some .... some
real opportunities, uh, for form -based code, not only around the Alexander, uh,
Elementary School area, but also in the downtown transition area neighborhoods, and....
uh, a well -crafted form -based code can produce more affordable units by design. And,
uh, that's something that we'd like to explore. I think you're all interested in that too,
based on your strategic plan. We just need to figure out the path to go forward. Tax
abatement is the next one. Uh, tax abatement, um.....I think .... I think can be likened to
TIF, um, you know, you're .... uh, in a lot of ways. I think the biggest difference is that...
it's a ... it's an automatic. We create a program, we say these are the requirements. If you
meet X, Y, and Z of our requirements, then you get a tax abatement program. So there's
not going to necessarily be developer after developer here in front of you to say I ... I'd
like that tax abatement. If you meet the standards, you get it. Tax abatement programs
are permitted in the state of Iowa and have been used by a number of cities throughout
the state of Iowa. However, they .... to our knowledge, have not been used for the
purposes of providing affordable housing. Typically what you see is tax abatement
projects, uh, or tax abatement, um, districts are created just to incent any housing. So you
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see `em in a lot of smaller towns that, uh.... uh, that need that housing growth. Uh,
you've seen some larger cities, like Des Moines, use tax abatement for residential
projects simply to compete with suburbs that are growing, uh, outside of them and have
lower cost housing. But ... we feel that there is a way to craft a tax abatement strategy to
where you can only qualify for the tax abatement if you have affordable housing in your
unit or in your development, and it could be new housing, and it could be the
rehabilitation of housing with a .... with a commitment to maintaining affordable, um....
uh... an affordable unit for a period of ..of time. So obviously this needs a lot more
vetting. Um, I think it needs considerable input, uh, not only from City staff, Council,
but from the development community. Um, if ..if something like this were to work, we'd
need to really figure out exactly what that incentive needs to be to rip that the scale.
Obviously we don't want to just pick a number and .... find out a year or two down the
road that it's not enough to .... to really incent the developers to....to.....to do anything.
We also don't want to set it so high that.... urn.... again, we're choking ourselves, uh,
from a .... from our own revenue standpoint. So, um, those are important considerations.
I think this one's going to take some considerable time to vet, and frankly we like how
the inclusionary, uh, housing ordinance was developed and the process that the Council
employed to develop that, and for this particular item, uh, this particular
recommendation. We would suggest that we get a group of, um .... interested parties
together and .... and really dig deep into the, uh, potential for .... for tax abatement. You
can add other strings to this. I noted, you know, if, um, additional accessibility features
were, uh, of interest, if, uh, green components to the housing were of interest, all those
things can be layered on. Certainly the more things you layer on the more complicated it
becomes and probably the less appealing it becomes. So, uh, that would be one of those
discussion topics. Low-income housing tax credit, uh, program — I talked a little bit
about that. What we would suggest is that we ask the, uh, HCDC Committee to, uh, run
a .... a, uh, RFP process. Obviously our staff would assist with that, but this would be
done outside of the CDBG, Home process. It would be more aligned with the tax credit
allocation program schedule. Uh, but where we would have a certain amount of money
that we would, uh... uh, advertise and ask for, uh, again developers, private and non-profit
developers, to come to us with their .... with their project and .... if.....if we found one
that's viable, and we felt that our match could tip the scale, we would provide that and
support their application with that funding commitment. And it's not realistic to think
that we could, uh, obtain a low-income housing tax credit project every year. Um, the
funds are just too competitive and, uh, there's even some, uh, scoring criteria that
encouraged geographic disbursement throughout the state. However, if those funds, uh,
aren't awarded in a particular year, if we don't have anybody respond to the RFP or if the
State doesn't award the .... the project dollars, you know, those funds could easily be
carried over to the next year, or they could, um, be, uh, passed along to the CDBG, Home
process and, uh.... uh, supplement those dollars. So, there's some different options there
that we can consider. Again, this would be a great opportunity for ... for land banking too,
using any City -owned property that we acquire over the course of time, urn .... uh, for this.
Few other topics that have come up, urn .... that .... that we wanted to address. One is the
affordable housing location model, and you see the .... the dark green spots right there.
That's essentially the prohibited areas where, uh, that you cannot have any further, uh,
subsidized housing, uh, in ... in those areas. Uh, again, this is, uh, this was born out of
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several years of discussions on scattered site principles, uh, it ... relates directly to, um,
some of the challenges that the ... the School District has, uh, with their attendance zones.
Um, and what we're suggesting here are ... are potential for two changes. One would be
exempting the Riverfront Crossings downtown and University impact areas from, uh, the
model altogether. Uh, those areas are closest to, uh, our major employment center, are
closest to services, they're well -served by public transit, uh, they tend to be more dense in
development, and ... and I think, uh, we feel very comfortable, um, suggesting that we
exempt those areas altogether from the model. We are open to considering, uh, reducing
the distance. So, um, there's a number of criteria that go into, uh, the model and then, uh,
what happens is the computer generates, uh, you know, a big circle, and that ... that circle
is your blackout area and you can see those there and they eventually overlap and create
larger areas. Um, we do think that the size .... of that, um, restricted area, if you will,
could be reduced. Uh, we don't suggest that we .... we go in and .... and uh, change the
criteria, remove the criteria at all. We feel very good about the factors that contribute to
the model. Um, however, that distance could be shrunk, uh, a little bit. We did have
discussions, I know there's some in the community that feel that, uh, we should remove
the, uh, location model, uh, altogether, and uh, I tell ya, I .... I don't support that position.
I think we need to stay true to the scattered site principles. I think in the long-term it
creates, uh, healthier neighborhoods and um .... uh, you know, ultimately we are talking
about a .... a ..... a smaller sub -set of houses. These aren't.... these are, again, just the City
subsidized housing units, and there's even exemptions within that .... that category there.
So, that's where we stand on the affordable housing location model. Again, I know
others have varying opinions on that, that .... uh, they'll want to share with you. There's
also been discussion about collecting.... rent data on City permits. Uh.... I think .... I think
we agree with the principle that the .... the, it's really important to have good rental data,
um, however, we don't think that this particular suggestion would produce good rental
data. You know, our permits are on a two-year cycle. Um, and .... we don't really have
the ability to follow up with landlords as they change their rents. We really don't have
the ability to verify the rents that they're producing. So they could come in August I"
and say we're going to charge $500 and come August 15th, they could bump that up to
$700 and .... and, you know, they don't have to come in and renew their .... their permit
right now. You wouldn't see `em again for another two years. So I'm not sure that this
is the correct mechanism to collect good rent data, but we do concur with the need and,
uh, we think that there are some ways to do some point -in -time analyses, whether that's
based on rental, uh, advertisements or ... or other, uh, mechanisms where we can get some
more meaningful results for the community. Tenant displacement — uh, you all received
a .... a memo from the City Attorney that, uh, talked about some of the legal constraints
we have with, um .... uh.....the tenant displacement issue. There has been a lot of
conversation about our site plan process, uh, and.... and... after the Rose Oaks' situation
came up. Um, the major site plan, uh, process kicks in when there's 12 or more
households, uh, residential units. Um .... one option that we can do, uh (mumbled)
certainly you ... you can ... you can do, is you can have Council approve major site plans.
That ... we would suggest limiting that to just those residential, urn .... cases where you
have 12 or more households that are ... that would be displaced, and there is no
re .... accompanying rezoning. If there's an accompanying rezoning, that provides you a
whole other avenue to address this ... the displacement issue. Rose Oaks didn't need a
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rezoning, so that was the uniqueness of that situation. We could require as part of....
the .... that major site plan process a transition plan. Um .... we cannot necessarily be the
judge of that plan, uh, if they're within their legal framework, then they're within their
legal framework, but by having them put a transition plan in writing, I think it would
provide some greater clarity to the community and to the residents out there. Uh, that
would require a Comprehensive Plan amendment, uh, prior to making that site plan
change, uh, but that's something that we could facilitate. We could also
require... mailings to residents so that they, you know, received that relocation plan, so
that they know what the opportunity is to come speak before Council. Um, we could
encourage a good neighbor meeting like we .... like we do with rezonings. All those
things are possible. Um, as Eleanor cautioned you in the memo, um, I'd similarly like to
tell ya.... you can approve the site plan, but you don't have a whole lot of decision-
making authority on the site plan. The site plan .... by code, is a very technical process. If
you do X, Y, and Z, your site plan is approved. So one of my concerns with this option is
that you may be creating some expectations in the community that you can't.... fulfill.
Uh, you may get a room full of people that are angry and want you to deny that site plan,
but you may not have the ability to do that. And that's why it's always been an
administrative function to date, because it's... it's.... it's more of a checklist type of
process. However, we think in this case, that the added transparency is probably worth it.
The added notice that the residents get, the requirement to put it in writing, um, as long as
you all realize that you might be in that situation where you can't ... provide something
that's being requested of you, um, that's the trade-off. Rent abatement for emergency
orders — um, we do have the ability to issue emergency orders, and that, uh, sometimes
does not require the vacation of the premise. We can add to that that, urn .... that the
tenant no longer has to pay rent, uh, during the time in which the emergency order is, uh,
in effect, and so that would be a .... a, certainly an additional incentive for the landlord to
correct whatever that deficiency is, and again, urn .... can't go back definitively with Rose
Oaks and say, you know, we .... we could have used this but.... certainly there were some
living standards that, uh.... uh, should not be, um ... uh, wouldn't be considered decent, uh,
in ... in the ... in the community, and if there was a case where we could issue an emergency
order, perhaps we could have gotten some better corrective measures taken from the
previous owners of. ... of that complex. I don't foresee this would be something that we
utilize often, but it would be a nice tool for us to have. Okay. We're gettin' close! This
is the summary. There's 15 items here, uh, some more significant than others. The,
uh... uh, first one is just stay the status quo with what we're doin'. I think what we're
doin', the programs we have are good and we should continue to .... to be committed to
funding them. Uh, obviously staff's recommendations on 2 and 3 are before you tonight,
and you'll be considering those. You see, uh, that heading into the budget process, we
would like, uh, for you to give us a .... a sense of, um, your appetite for either new
revenues or just working within our budget framework. Uh, we think that aiming for
$500,000 to a million dollars, depending on the budget conditions that we face, uh, is a
good target, and again, this would ideally be annual funding and .... and not necessarily
the use of one-time funds. Fee in lieu of dollars, etc., that come to us, on a case-by-case
basis. We think that, uh, the, uh, appropriate funding sources, uh, right now would be the
district -wide TIF and then property tax framework, whether that's working within our
current levy or, um .... uh, using the emergency levy. Uh, I certainly wouldn't want to use
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the elergent..emergency levy if we ... we have a chance. You know over the last five years
we've been.... actually been able to reduce our property tax levy, and if we can continue
that trend, which I ... I hope to do, we could actually, um, use some of the off -set drop in
our ... in our levy and add a .... add a few, um, cents back to contribute to affordable
housing. Uh, so that would be .... that would be our first choice there. I talked about
number 5. I don't need to go through that again, but that's the, uh, recommendation on
the dispersement of dollars that .... that come to the affordable housing fund. I mentioned
the two pots of money that the Housing Authority has, and it's tempting to ... to want to go
out and ... and utilize those dollars now and .... and maybe there's a good project out there
that it could support. But those are funds that could, um, really.... leverage a .... a lot of
private dollars, as well, and so we think that, uh... uh, it's .... it's prudent right now to hold
those and wait for an appropriate project to present itself, uh, to us ... where we can maybe,
uh, contribute in the way of upfront capital in exchange for a few units within a complex
or a .... or a building. Um, these could come in particular handy, um ... you know,
with ... with some of the larger complexes that we have. You know, had we known that
the Rose .... Rose Oaks' transition was occurring, uh, six months, a year .... a year in ... in
advance, which often times we do, we could have had that conversation upfront with
them perhaps and said, hey, we do have some resources to bring to the table. Will you
work with us on ... on, uh, a ... a plan that includes long-term, uh.... uh, housing for .... for,
uh, low-income populations. So that's why we want to hold that. We just think that
those are funds that we can really be opportunistic with. I don't know what that's going
to be, but um, it could ... it could happen any time. Consider an annexation policy — um,
we talked about the TIF scenario with McCollister Boulevard, potentially Foster Road
and others. I walked you through the potential regulatory changes to the City code, and
the form -based code around Alexander and the transitional, uh, downtown
neighborhoods. We talked about the low-income housing tax credit projects, and a
potential RFP. That would get us a ... a, hopefully, um, a leg up and we could be a little bit
more strategic. We talked about tax abatement and getting a group of people together to
really study that issue. I think there's good potential there. Um, it needs some study and
it certainly needs input from the development community... and the other taxing bodies.
Location model — we talked about some changes there — exempting a couple of key areas
and... and reducing the ... the, um, the restricted areas. And then the tenant displacement —
we recommend that you go forward with the major site plan, uh, change, which would
require then to ... to come, uh... uh, to you, through the Planning and Zoning Commission,
and I ... I didn't mention that, but that is one more trade-off with the major site plan
coming to Council is that you're... you're now requiring a process that was
administrative to go through P&Z and Council, and thus potentially a month or more
delay. And then the rent abatement. Final thoughts — we should have high expectations.
The need is high in this community, and the need is only growing, and as I pointed out
earlier, our revenue.... traditional revenue sources are shrinking, but we need to be
realistic in our expectation. Progress is going to take years, um, and it's going to span
political terms. So whatever we need to do, needs to be a strategy that can be sustained,
no matter who's sitting up here or standing here, um, it needs to be a sustainable strategy.
I, you know, we put a lot of affordable housing pa ... in, uh, articles in your Info Packet,
and .... I know you all read... publications and see those as well. We could ... we could put
in dozen... dozens of those each week. Cities across the country are struggling with this,
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and there is no .... right answer. Uh, we think that the right answer is a (laughs) probably
the collection of about a dozen or 15 strategies here in this case. Um, so ... don't feel alone
on this. We also have different legal environments in which we can operate. So .... we
can't.... pursue rent control. That's just .... plain and simple. Restricted by Iowa code.
Other cities can use that as part of their strategy. Market -rate housing is not the enemy,
and a lot of those articles focus on this. All supply matters. One thing I wanted to drive
home ... is that first bullet. From 2010 to 2014, Iowa City averaged 197 single-family,
duplex, and townhome housing permits per year, and I put that in context with the other
communities, uh, particularly North Liberty, which... which we all know is experiencing
really explosive growth, particularly in the single-family market. We're right there with
them, um, if you look at this four-year period. The difference is it's ... it's a bit of a drop
in the bucket when, you know, you're looking at a population of 75,000 versus a growing
community like North Liberty. So we're growing at an incredible clip. You see the
multi -family permits and granted a lot of that's student housing for ... for Iowa City
but .... if you focus on that single-family, um ... type of housing, we are growing at an
incredible clip, and yet we're still fallin' behind in the affordable housing, uh, fight here.
So .... um .... I don't know that we can keep up this type of growth. My ... my sense is
we .... we can't probably keep up this type of growth, but we have to be careful to not
restrict growth so much that it impacts the supply. So, um.... it...it impacts the prices, uh,
by cutting off the supply. So, that's.... that's, uh, that's my thought on that, uh... uh,
on ... on the supply and... and, um .... being open to projects that.... that don't have an
affordable housing component. And then last is ... something I think, uh, I know you all
recognize because of the strategic plan discussions that we had, but we can't just grow for
growth's sake. We need to be smart about it, um, if we .... if we grow and we just start
sprawling off into ... into the .... the far reaches of...of the county, we're not gonna make
any progress because we're not gonna be able to afford those services, and so when we
talk about competing dollars for affordable housing, and... and the services that we
provide, if we keep just pushing and pushing and pushing our borders without thought,
we're not gonna be able to fund the expansion to the Police Department or the Fire
Department or the snow plows or the ... or the trash, you know, pick up. So, we have to be
smart with that because if we grow irresponsibly, we're gonna .... we're gonna strangle
ourselves and not have money for affordable housing, and ... and lots of other things.
So .... you heard Tom used to say it quite a bit. I'm a firm believe — look for those in -fill
sites, look to build up when you can, um, because that ... those are the types of projects
that don't require the ... the additional service costs. Last slide here, this is our.... our next
step, but again, um, we didn't want this to be the .... the end of the discussion. We hoped
it was the beginning of the dis... the discussion, and so .... we welcome comments from
anybody, um, and we're available to come talk to groups, um, about these
recommendations. I ... I would suggest you all take some time to digest them. I suggest
you talk to your constituents and people that have your ear and get your thoughts on `em.
Um, we do recommend that you, uh, seek formal comments from the HCDC, um ... uh,
Commission, and um, allow them to .... to come back to you in writing or at a presentation
at a future meeting and give you their thoughts. I think they'll have a unique, um,
perspective, but again, there's going to be a lot of people that want to weigh in and um,
we suggest you give' em ample time to do so. That's it!
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Throgmorton/ Well, brilliantly done, Geoff! Seems to me that you've put together a ... a real tour
de force, if you will, to .... not to throw out too much French (laughs) uh, it's a really
impressive, uh, presentation. Feels like a real breath of fresh air, I would say. Uh, so
thank you for doing that. Uh, and I'm sure other people have particular responses, uh, if
you would like to .... respond at the moment or ask particular questions, please take that
opportunity now.
Botchway/ I would like to say thank you, as well, and I think, Geoff, as you alluded to, um, prior
to starting the presentation, there was a lot of folks in the audience and obviously folks
that couldn't make it today that, you know, I express my gratitude for putting this
together. This is something that, I think, is, you know, one of the most important things
that we have to address, um, as expeditiously as possible. Um, I think that, you know, I
see the next step here that you kind of left up, um, I ... I, and Jim, I don't know whether or
not we have the time today to kind of dig deep and have some ... some more discussion,
um, about particular proposals because, you know, as I was going through the summary
recommendations, I was checking off things that I feel like are no-brainers, um, and then
I was, you know, puttin' question marks by things where it's something that I wanna kind
of spend some time about it, and I don't necessarily know if it's conducive for this time,
at this moment, um, but again, I just want to express my thanks. Um, I think this is
important and I appreciate the fact that, you know, it's a wealth of different things that
we're tryin' to ... well, the strategies that we're tryin' to use, to combat this and not just
one type of thing.
rI'TTiml �
Mims/ Jim?
Throgmorton/ Yeah, go ahead, Susan (both talking)
Mims/ ...here. I guess in response to both you and Kingsley, you know, I would echo what I'm
sure everybody else is thinking, um, a great presentation, an awful lot of good
information. Um, I guess I would respectfully request that we not go into deeper
discussion tonight. If people have questions, I think that's great, but I think there is such
a wealth of. ... information and ideas here that I think we really need to get that public
input and all seven of us additionally need to have more time to process this before we
start checking anything off as no-brainers. Um, I think that's really important that we
give a lot of very thoughtful consideration to these, uh, ourselves, along with public input
that we need.
Botchway/ Susan, to that end, um, I agree with you, and I think my comment towards no-
brainers was just my own personal thoughts, not necessarily thoughts I was going to
share right now, but um .... should we put that ... this is not just addressing you but the
entire Council. Should we put some type of timeline for coming back? I just .... (both
talking)
Mims/ .....recommendation for a work session in August or September (both talking)
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Botchway/ Yeah, basically along those line, yeah.
Cole/ That's what I was wondering, was when are we looking at this becoming an operational.
I ... I agree with Susan and Kingsley, it is a lot to digest. They're incredibly complicated
policy questions, but one, uh.... operationally and when will we make.... substantive
serious decisions on this, because we obviously don't want to kick this can down the
road. We want to address this as soon as we possibly can. Um, what are you looking at
in terms of timeframe?
Fruin/ Well, I think ... I think each recommendation has its own timeframe associated with it. So
we talk about a form -based code, developing that. That could take a year or two, to .... to
develop from start to finish. Um, on the flipside, we have a million dollars in our
affordable housing fund, so if. ... if you all wanted to get a month's worth of..of
community feedback and then make a decision on how to use those million dollars, we
can get to work right away, this fall, and .... and put those dollars to use. So, each one's
gonna come, uh, with a little bit of...of timeframe, little bit of difference. Code changes,
some of those code changes are straight forward. Others are a little bit more complex.
Um, we could bring `em to ya as they come, we could bundle `em up. There's all .... all
sorts of different ways we could handle it.
Cole/ I .... I guess I agree with Susan. I would like to come back and do a work session in
September, uh, so we could get feedback from people and then.... then... for us to have
time to just sort of wade through this, cause these are incredibly complicated, um, but my
expectation that hopefully when we'd come back we'd be able to then direct you and
staff in terms of which direction we would like to see, because there are some ... I agree
with Kingsley, no-brainers. There's others that I have concerns about. So, um .... how do
people feel about that?
Dickens/ I'm kinda on the same line, I think, uh, if you could bring the code things as they pop
up, because.... otherwise if you bundle `em, we could have .... you know, a midnight, 1:00
in the morning meeting. As they come .... as they come I'd really like to see those so,
one, we have a little more time to look at each individual one, instead of just bunchin'
`em together and have .... little time to look at each.
Fruin/ Sure.
Taylor/ I agree, in September I think would be good. That would give adequate time for us to
di ... digest all of it as ... and public input.
Fruin/ September would be nice from our standpoint, because that's when we're really gettin'
into the budget and .... the money's going to drive everything, you know, the results here.
So, knowing where you're at with .... with some of those feelings... with your feelings on
that issue would... would be helpful.
Throgmorton/ John, did you want to (both talking)
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Thomas/ ...summarize by saying it's ... it's a great first step, very comprehensive, um, I feel like
I've eaten a 12 -course meal here (laughter) and want to take a nap (laughs) urn ... but I
want .... only one comment I would make is ... is remembering the connection between
housing and transportation... because I think that link is a critical, especially when you're
talking about affordable housing.
Botchway/ Good point!
Throgmorton/ I ... I'm gonna add one other point, but in ... before I do that, in general I think what
you're hearing from us is basically full speed ahead in general, but there are all the
particulars that need to be worked out. So we need you to be coming to us about those
particulars, you know, seeking approval, can we do this, can we do that, you know, that
kind of thing, but uh, there's a great enthusiasm, I think up here, for the overall strategy.
In general!
Fruin/ Okay. Well we will .... we will, um, clip this presentation and put it online, um, we'll try
to get the word out that it's available, we'll formally ask the HCDC to .... to give us some
feedback, and then again, a number of the folks in the audience are probably going to
want to weigh in and .... we'll try to work with them on an individual basis as they need it,
to ... to better understand where we're comin' from and encourage them to submit
somethin' to you in writing on their feelings.
Botchway/ (several talking) the other thing I was thinking about was, urn ... one, I guess it's more
of a question/statement. It seemed like we were lacking some type of discussion as far as
how we could leverage federal dollars or other grants for this particular program, and that
might be in the details, and so if that's the case, whatever. Then other other piece is as
we talk about how we're going to get this out to the community, and I know you kind of
mentioned at the last slide, as far as going to different groups. Um, and, you know, as
they request, is there any way we can set up, um, you know, in the span of now three
months, just some, um, I wouldn't say an open house, but some type of Q&A session
where folks can come in and ask questions and submit it, somewhat in a formal way. I
just ... I don't want to leave the door open and to say, you know, hey there's three months,
you know (mumbled) City Council, there's obviously a lot of different things that come
up and, you know, things get moved around and I just don't want to kind of miss the ball
on this at all, especially from a community perspective. I mean is that something we can
do? Or if...if the Council's interested as well?
Fruin/ Yeah, certainly we could do that. That....
Cole/ I guess I have one more comment. When we come back in Febru... or I'm sorry, in
September, what I would really like to see is sort of prioritize one of the things that we
can sort of get working on this year. I mean, so .... you even ... I mentioned when we, um,
did the ped mall redesign, you had some sort of action plans for environmental things,
tings that we can get moving on, um, because it is complicated, but I don't want to be in a
situation where it becomes too complicated and we don't do anything, and then
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the.... identify the intermediate and then identify the long-term, like for example the land
bank issue.
Fruin/ Right.
Cole/ Cause I want to make measurable progress this year, and so if we could sort of use those
three frameworks, um, I think that would help us, um, focus on that, and I think these are
great recommendations, but .... as you talk with staff, I guess I'd like to see `em funneled
down into more.... simpler recommendations for us to consider would be my thought
process, but urn .... that's just my preliminary thought.
Throgmorton/ (both talking) I agree with you in general, uh, Rockne, but ... but to be clear, there
are actions we have taken this year...
Cole/ Yes. Yep!
Throgmorton/ ...and ones we will be taking tonight. I don't know how the vote'll go, we'll see
how the votes go, but .... but uh, there are steps already underway (both talking)
Cole/ That's good to .... to remind people.
Frain/ If I could circle back to, Kingsley, your comment, um, sorry I glossed over it, um, the... it
terms of leveraging dollars, you're right. I didn't get a whole lot into that. Um, but
clearly I think that's... that's our, one of our priorities is .... is getting the most out of each
dollar. So whether it's land banking, the low income housing tax credits, um, the CDBG,
Home process, the ... the Johnson County Housing Trust Fund and the process they use, all
of those, uh, processes seek to leverage those dollars. So we didn't spell it out, but I
think it's embedded in almost every recommendation we have.
Throgmorton/ I ... I'd like to bring up one other point, uh, most of the discussion is focused on
increasing the supply of affordable housing. Rightly so, uh, but there's also the challenge
of improving the distribution of affordable housing, and that connects to the challenges
facing our School Board, which they are dealing with right now with regard to attendance
zones and so on. So I just want to make sure everybody knows that in the late handouts,
the late, late handout, uh, I've provided some information about, uh.... uh, about the, uh,
low SES rates at the various elementary schools throughout the District, and junior high
and City, uh, and high schools. Uh, also the ... the overall low SES rate, which, Brian, I
think is like 36, 37%, something like that, uh, for students in the District. And also, uh,
a ... a snapshot about the relationship between reading and math proficiency and ... and,uh,
low SES rates at the individual schools. So if ..if we don't do our job within Iowa City
government in terms of ensuring that... the... the population of lower income residents isn't
reasonably distributed throughout the city, then we place an impossible burden on the
School District, and that's something I think we need to avoid. Thanks for coming,
Brian. All right, uh, any other... discussion about this particular point right at the
moment? Uh, I ... I want to say, cause we'll probably not really focus directly on it. I
notice, Eleanor, that, uh, that Geoff referred directly to the recommendations that come
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out of your memo, and I thought your memo was tremendously helpful also, and I really
want to thank you for putting it together. Yeah. Okay! So we can move .... uh, we can
move to reviewing Rockne's proposal concerning, uh, providing assistance to Rose Oaks.
Yeah. Rose Oaks' residents.
Review Council Member Cole proposal for Rose Oaks assistance:
Cole/ Yes!
Throgmorton/ So do you want to ... talk?
Cole/ Well, yeah, sure, I mean, I ... I think basically what I wanted to try to do is articulate why I
felt that it was necessary. Um, we obviously have the Shelter House in place, um, but in
talking with a lot of the residents, as well as people that have had a lot of continuous
close contact, that while the Shelter House has provided an important remedy for people,
it's clear that I think that there are certain people that are still falling through the cracks.
And I think the larger question for us is is that I think it's normative when we talk about
development projects. We routinely hand out incentives to developers, as we should to
do the right thing. Uh, we hand out money for facade improvements. We hand out
money for various development projects. But I think it's time that we recognize that the
residents themselves are part of the development projects, and I think one of the most
troubling things about this is that the people that have been asked to bear the greatest cost
are in the least position to weather what they've had to endure. I mean we had two weeks
ago a family that was literally within an hours of being homeless, and it seems like to me
that we need to listen to those signals, and I think as I talked to my fellow Councilors,
what ... what I hope we can do is ... is that even if we can't agree upon a mechanism of
funding, I hope that that's not the end of the conversation on this particular topic. Um,
just as affordable housing is incredibly important issue, I think it's important for this
particular funding that we, um, that we .... uh, make sure that we're funding at adequate
levels. Now I've reviewed the staff report, which indicates that Shelter House has not
spent all of the money. Um, however, there are funding restrictions on Shelter House,
um, that I think has made it very difficult. I've heard that there continue to be language
barriers, uh, for whatever reason the residents haven't been able to access the services,
and some don't qualify, and I don't think that the fact that they qualify... don't qualify for
Shelter House should mean that they shouldn't get any assistance. So it seems like, to
me, there's really two issues. One, before we get into how we distribute funds, it is do
we have a commitment for additional funding for the residents. Um, you know, I think it
was perfect that this discussion comes after affordable housing, um, discussion tonight. I
think we need to demonstrate an action that this is an emergency, and it still continues to
be an emergency for a lot of people. And the fact that we don't always see people
coming up, sharing their concerns doesn't mean that there hasn't been a number of
continual problems with this. So that's why I proposed the 50,000. I think that we do
have the resources to do it. And what I would like to see is a simple. Uh, I've talked
to .... a simple process, where that if the person has essentially a Rose Oaks' lease, um,
that they would be eligible for transition grant of up to $500. Um, or ... or essentially the
50,000 divided by the number of units, which I think ends up being about $500. Uh, so
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that's my proposal, and I would hope I could get support on that. If we don't agree on
the mechanism, I still want us to ask the first question is do we have support for the
funding for these residents. So that's my first question tonight. Um, if so, then I think
we need to get into a discussion of how we would make that happen. So that .... that's my
thought process in terms of the Rose Oaks' matter.
Botchway/ So, uh, I appreciate you bringing this up, Rockne. I think this is something that I, you
know, talked about maybe a month and a half ago, as we were talking about the gap, um,
that we were seeing, um (mumbled) residents that were getting, possibly getting funding
from Shelter House, but also, you know, just as people were coming to the Council
meeting and just asking Councilors, you know, whether or not we were going to step up
when we kind of perceived that gap, and so I think Geoff has provided us information
where we can see some of the, um .... the households or units that haven't necessarily
been able to access, um, Shelter House or, you know, whatever else for whatever reason.
I would be supportive of additional dollars, um, again, that's something that I was, you
know, interested in doing, urn ... um, about a month and a half ago. Uh, one of the things I
will say that has me concerned, and just thinking about this process over and over again,
it's just, you know, singling out Rose Oaks. Obviously I feel like it's a situation that, um,
has gotten a lot of media attention, um, and it has gotten a lot of backing and support
from a variety of different community groups. However, that being said, there are
numerous individuals throughout our community that, um, have, um, you know, don't
have the extra resources and other things, um, that we would be, you know, overlooking
in order to provide additional funding towards, um, a specific situation, and so I mean,
I ... that is weighed heavily on my decision. I still feel, you know, personally comfortable
because of the nature of the situation, because of the, um ... uh, expediency with which the
residents are being moved, that we have to, you know, put that funding forward, um, but I
guess I have a ... a deeper question as well. I don't know whether or not that's weighed
heavily on other Council Member's minds as well.
Cole/ I just want to quick address this. Of course there's a lot of people with needs in the
community and there's a lot of people on the verge of homelessness. Um, that's true.
Uh, but I think what makes Rose Oaks unique in my view is that it's really equivalent to
a .... a natural disaster. It was a sudden, unexpected surprising event that
disproportionately affected that group. Um, so I ... I totally share your concerns, because I
think from a funding, as ... as Geoff recognizes, funds are extremely limited and we are
careful stewards of a budget, um, but I think if we just have someone who wasn't affected
by this process, I think we have existing channels in place that we can say, well, um, you
know, that won't come before us, but I think this is unique, um, and hopefully with the ... I
agree with Jim, um, recommendation 14 in terms of our tenant relocation plan. I think
was spot on. Commend our legal staff for that. I think it was a fabulous
recommendation. And I think if we hardwire, um, this particular concern about
relocation into our Comp Plan, hopefully this'll be the last type of funding we'd have to
make requests like this.
Taylor/ I agree with Rockne, and although I appreciate what you're saying, uh, Kingsley, about
other folks, uh, we heard time and again that Rose Oaks was a different situation, as
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Rockne termed it — unique — that these were unique individuals or unique, uh, situation,
and .... a lot of these folks really suffered through this, suffered unnecessarily, I believe,
and still continue to ... to be stressed and... and I think they, uh... uh, we should help them
out.
Botchway/ (several talking) ...quick comment. I think I just said, and just to make sure I'm clear,
I am supportive of the funding. I think I just wanted to be clear that from, you know, and
I thought I tried to make sure that I clarified this situation as far as being somewhat more
immediate than other situations but I ... I don't want us to, you know, get into a level of
discussion of kind of -again, parsing out or talking about some situations being more
immediate than others because there are families that are affected (both talking)
Cole/ ...absolutely!
Botchway/ ...um, you know, within a couple of days, whatever the case may be, that didn't
necessarily have the times of some of the Rose Oaks' residents, so I just want to make
sure that we're clear on that.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I want to introduce a ... a couple related, uh, items, uh, I ... I fully agree that
this is analogous, the Rose Oaks' situation, is analogous to a flood or some other natural
disaster. So we need to have better advance notice, and that's one of the things that
Eleanor wrote about in her memo, uh, which would be very helpful. So a distant, early
warning, if you will. Uh, but also when ... when somebody's confronting, uh, an
emergency situation kinda like a flood, you kinda hope the community's going to rally
around and help prevent damage to ... li... to lives or property. And then beyond that, if...if
people have to be moved for whatever reason, the community's going to help moving.
And sometimes it's done on a voluntary basis, at least if we look at the 2008 flood, that's
a pretty good, uh, analogy. Uh, but it's also appropriate for city government to provide
some financial assistance. I'm completely on board with that. But right now we have a
situation where there's something like 27 or $28,000 that have been contributed by the
owners of Rose Oaks and by the City, that have not yet been expended. So .... I ... I
don't ... I wouldn't agree to the idea of saying, yes, let's provide $50,000 in addition to
that. I wonder if there's some way that, uh....those existing funds can be brought to bear
more directly, I mean, I ... I (both talking)
Cole/ ...the concern (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ....idea (both talking) simplicity with regard to (both talking)
Cole/ ...if we could get the commitment for funding, then we could bring it back to staff for
consideration two weeks from today, and that they could reach out to the residents and
coordinate, because I think there's a gap here that those funding mechanisms aren't
addressing (both talking)
Throgmorton/ There are two other things I want to say on this point.
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Cole/ Okay!
Throgmorton/ Uh, just a few weeks ago we decided not to provide additional funds to Elder
Services, part of the Aid to Agencies process.
Cole/ Uh huh.
Throgmorton/ Uh, and that ... dis.... dismayed, uh, people affiliated with Elder Services, and
there're a whole bunch of other service providers out there who go through a process
and ... and now we would be providing special assistance in this particular instance. So,
that's a complexity that, um, we should be fully aware of..
Cole/ Uh huh.
Throgmorton/ ... and ... and also, by ... by doing, providing assistance in this particular instance, we
would be setting a precedent that would apply to future situations, but actually I mean I
came up with a ... a phrase for this. It was emergency displacement relief fund (laughs)
Cole/ Uh huh.
Throgmorton/ ...but, sorry, it's like I work for the federal government or somethin' (laughter) uh,
but actually Geoff touched on precisely that idea.
Cole/ Yeah.
Throgmorton/ So for future, for the future, we can certainly, uh.... create such a fund. And
therefore the worry about setting the precedent kinds goes away. All right? So...
Mims/ Jim, if I might.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, Susan! Sorry! Go ahead!
Mims/ Um, I think you've brought up a couple of really good points, and I agree with totally,
Jim, and one is it's money that has been put in the pot that Shelter House is ... is kind of
using and... and taking care of right now from the owners of Rose Oaks and the City has
not yet been expended. Um, Shelter House has been around this community for decades
and has done, you know, an incredible job, and .... I .... I think they have a very good
system in place. I think they have very good credibility. I think they are very, um,
ethical in following various principles, and um, I'm concerned that the, you know, the
criticism that they're getting in the handling of this, um, we need to be careful because
they area very, very good organization and they're doing the best job they can. So I'm
concerned about that money. I'm concerned also, as you mentioned, Jim, setting some
sort of a precedent, uh, in doing something that hasn't been done in this manner, and
again, as you said .... the competing needs out there and how do we justify this versus, you
know, long -tern, chronically, uh, homeless people who need assistance and who need
money and we're not giving it to `em, or Elder Services, as you just mentioned. So one,
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I'm not supportive, uh, of the additional money because of the ... very similar to the
reasons you've given, Jim, and certainly the ... the methodology of just handing people
cash simply because they had a lease, um, is totally.... urn.... antithetical to me of the way
taxpayer money should be given out to people who, um, have a specific need. We should
make sure that it is indeed going to that need, um, and that ... the way this was proposed
does not do that. Everything I've heard from you, Rockne, is exactly the same as in
Charlie Eastham's, uh, email, so I'm assuming that you guys worked together on this, and
so .... um, while I certainly sympathize with the need, and I think we can look at
possibilities for going forward, I'm not in favor, um, of the additional money .... the
additional proposal in particular because there's still money available.
Thomas/ One of my thoughts on this is (clears throat) excuse me, the new ... in looking at the City
Attorney's, uh....advice with respect to the relationship we can have with the, um, the
Rose Oaks' situation was that ... in that ... in that document there was mention of the tenant
relocation assistance ordinances in Seattle and San Francisco and ... that because of State
law, those kinds of programs or ordinances would not be permissible in Iowa City. But
what it suggested to me was that it didn't seem to preclude the idea that Iowa City itself
could adopt such a program, such an ordinance. And.... what.... where that led my
thinking was that I would be interested to know if you looked at say the tenant relocation
assistance ordinance of Seattle. Uh, what ... what would that provide that our assistance to
the Rose Oaks' residents, um, has ... have not received. And are ... are there gaps in fact. If
we had that ordinance in place, what additional assistance might they have received. Um,
and I'd be interested in that kind of analysis, because that is .... that or San Francisco's is
a ... is a, has been tested and tried and is in place, and might give us a ... a reference in terns
of where to spend that additional 27,000 that we still have unexpended. What ... what
makes sense in terms of. ... expending that? I ... I'm not convinced at this point that we
need any additional more fund .... you know, additional funding. It may be that we have
the funding. We just don't have.... haven't been able to articulate how to .... distribute it
effectively, to cover the needs as they .... as those other ordinances might define.
Botchway/ Well let me .... were you going to talk, Terry? Go ahead!
Dickens/ I was just going to say that I'm not for another 50,000 until we spend, you know, if the
money that's already there, it hasn't been used, and this has gone on for ... several months.
I realize that the new owners of Rose Oaks didn't have to give any money, but they did
give that money to ... to help try to loc... relocate these people. They've extended leases,
they've done a lot of things they didn't have to do, and we still have this money to help
those other people that are moving, you know, I don't have all the facts but there's been
facts ... or there's been things out there that people aren't paying their rent, even though
their leases have been ex ... extended, and that ... that's a little worrisome that ... that this is
happening. That, uh, I think we're on the right track with having something put together
that we can, if another incident like this, we're kind of trying to play catchup again, and
that's what we've talked about in the past, that we're ... we seem to be playing catchup a
lot on things, but this is a very unusual setup. I guess .... with the money we still have, or
if we do decide somewhere if that money gets used up, if we do, it should be for the
people who had long-term leases with those. The people that leases are up, that are ... that
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are over, they've had time. They knew they were going to have to move, once they got
their letter, that it should be prioritized that people that were gonna have ... that had
planned the longest to live there, shouldn't... should get some help. Not that everybody
doesn't deserve the help, but I think it should have some priorities, if we do get to that
point.
Botchway/ So let me respond quickly to a couple of comments. One, I know that Shelter House
is in the house, and so regardless of whether or not you're here or not I was going to say
this. I ... I don't necessarily think my discussion on this gap has been anything about
Shelter House. I think it's been, uh, more from the standpoint of understanding kind of
exactly what they're doing in talking about the fact that there were going to be folks that
didn't need Shelter House services but were put in a really problematic situation, and so
because of that need I felt like we needed to step up, um, and do something. Um, I do
think there's a time piece here, and I think that, you know, I appreciate your, um,
comments John about an analysis, but frankly, um, we're coming up around August 1 st,
and so you know, there's going to be .... I .... I think that after we pass that date, and I think
we're still kinda late in the game, or we ... or I don't think we're going to have time to talk
about any more, but I do think that an analysis would have been great, if we would have
thought about that, um ... uh, ahead of time. Uh, there's been a couple of comments as far
as, you know, one-time funding, and the example given, I know, Jim, by Elder Services,
and if I remember correctly cause I was on Council at the time, we did do a one-time
funding gift to Elder Services...
Throgmorton/ A year ago.
Botchway/ ...a year ago, because we felt there was, um, a need, even though there was a pre -laid
out process in place, um, that each organization had to go through, um, and you know,
had to be vetted and so forth. And ... and so I ... I see that in the same way of using that
example as a similar situation where we do have processes in place, but we see this — or I
see this and I think Rockne sees it as well — as an immediate need, um, that we have to
address. The last comment I will ... I will give is, you know, again, in support of doing
this is .... I'm not as, um ... and I'll be ... I guess I'll be really frank. I'm not as worried
about, you know, the fact that we would be giving, um, dollars in an emergency situation
to families, um, of need. Uh, you know, frankly .... um, in an emergency situation, um,
from a natural disaster standpoint, you know, families could do whatever they wanted to
do with the money they may have gotten, I don't necessarily think that we, um, if...and
again, in an emergency situation, need to be, you know, overseers of how that money is
used, especially if our thought or our charge is putting those individuals into a better
place, period, um, and so .... I'm not necessarily as, um, moved by the argument that, you
know, we should be worried about whether or not the money is being used in a particular
way. I think that frankly, me — I feel like I messed up. I feel like, you know, we could
of ...maybe I should have paid more attention to, um, something like this happening,
um ... uh, previously. Uh, I feel like we have a situation here where we are displacing a
large number of residents that has, you know, reverberations not only in our community
but also in the School District as well, and this is somewhat of a .... a unique situation, um,
that can be addressed with funding in some type of reasonable way. I'm not sure about
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mechanism, and so I ... I again I agree with Rockne in that standpoint, but .... I think it's
necessary.
Cole/ What I'm wondering, I'm sensing that I'm not having four votes here. What I'm
wondering whether the Council would consider though is that, um, you know, my day job
as a lawyer and that we want something that's not a burden to show why something's
necessary. So I'm wondering whether you would give me an opportunity and other
interested.... frankly the whole Council, I encourage the whole Council give us two weeks
to further explore this gap. I want to make clear that this is not a critique of Shelter
House. They're administering the funds pursuant ... the Home funds, there's... there's
limitations in terms of what they can dispense, how they can dispense it, so they're doing
a great job within those frameworks, but I think there is a gap, and so I would like the
opportunity, if we could.... hopefully we won't need to take this long for the next hearing,
but how would Councilors feel like, uh, me to come back in two weeks to further explore
this gap. Um, cause I think this is an extremely important issue. I think there's a lot of
silent suffering out there. This is not an ordinary budget process. Um, and I think we can
easily identify this as a unique, non -reoccurring situation that's sort of a, um, event that
we just didn't anticipate.
Dickens/ I'd be fine with that.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I'd be okay with doing that.
Cole/ Okay.
Throgmorton/ I'd like to know if Geoff has any particular thoughts that would directly bear on
this conversation that we've just been having.
Fuxin/ Lot of thoughts I have have been articulated, um, but I want to point out a .... a couple of
things. Um, Rose Oaks' management, when they acquired the property in ... in February
there were 209 occupied units. Divide that into 50,000, it's about $239 per unit if you
were just to cut blank checks, or cut checks. Um, now of course we don't know those
checks wouldn't be based on need, and.... the..... the real problem I have with that type of
mechanism is that there's.... there's no demonstration of need, and then there's.... there's
no accountability, and .... um, you know, if you look at how the Shelter House has assisted
folks, and yes, the Home funds are restricted, but the Rose Oaks' management funds that
they received are not restricted, and they have used those for a variety of ..of reasons,
when you look at them and how they've used them, they're all based on need. Okay?
And so some folks may have only received a couple hundred bucks, others may have
received.... four, five, six, seven — it all depends on what that unique circumstances
was ... uh, were. And that's what we preached to .... to the agencies that we fund all the
time, and not just social service agencies, but if they're developers, if they're, you know,
facade grants or whatever it is, there's strict performance expectations because we need
to ensure that .... the City's dollars are being spent to address the ... the most, uh, critical
needs that we identify. So .... I, that's where I have the biggest, uh, the .... the biggest
challenge. There are discretionary funds left. Strip our Home side ... or our Home funds
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aside, there's roughly $13,000 as I understand it in just discretionary dollars that they
have. Now they're not just handing out .... dollar bills to people that come through.
There's a one-page application that you have to fill out. They have staff there that
are... are... are there to help you fill it out if you need help. They've hired interpretors, um,
to come in and assist. You know, the .... the gaps as I see it when I look at the .... the
reports, there are... there are units, there are households out there that have not engaged
in that process. So there's people that have not come in to inquire. There's people that
have not come in to fill out the form, and so those folks, um, you know, I hope are aware
of the situation. I know there's been an incredible effort to let people know that this
resource is there, but for whatever reasons, you know .... and people have their own
reasons, people haven't engaged in that process. So, urn .... if...if Shelter House came to
me and said, you know, we're out of funds and there's additional, uh, households that are
in need of support, I... I'd do everything within my power, even before comin' to you, to
get them the money to take care of whatever the needs are. Uh, but that's just not the
case in this situation. That's where I ... I have the biggest trouble because every
time.... Shelter House or DVIP or Elder Services, you name it, you come ... you know, you
come through and we award them funding, there are strict accountability measures
and ... and again, I think that's really healthy for the community because it makes sure
those dollars are used. It makes sure that there's a coordinated strategy in the
community. And so .... if there's 54 occupied units now, which I think is the ... the latest
number .... I .... I just, I struggle to .... to see how writing a $239 check to everybody
advances the needs in this community. If you want to spend $50,000 to address
homelessness or near -homelessness, whatever it may be, I think you're better off going
through our established channels and .... and .... and saying, okay, we ... we'll ... how can we
do this. I mean, those... those folks are the experts. I ... I just don't know that we're going
to do good by mailing checks here out of City Hall.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, we're .... we're gonna have to bring our discussion to a close. I ... I think,
Rockne, what I heard .... what I've heard anyhow and maybe I'm sensing is support for
the idea of you coming back with a revised proposal two weeks from now.
Cole/ I will do that.
Throgmorton/ By taking, I would assume, taking into account things that Geoff has said,
and ... and I would say on .... from my own point of view, it seems to me that some of the...
the people who are .... face the greatest challenges are.... residents of Rose Oaks who are
low-income, which I assume all or most are, but also don't, speak English. Uh, they
speak French or they speak Arabic or whatever, and ... and therefore.... have a lot more
difficulty processing all this information and figuring out how to proceed and all that, and
don't know who to trust and whether, you know, why they should trust any particular
entity, even if that entity's like Shelter House and has been around forever. Uh, so I think
some attention (both talking)
Cole/ ...one final comment. Um, you know, I wouldn't have made this proposal unless it didn't
arise from various conversation I've had from community members that I've had routine,
regular, and ... and contact with the residents, and that is why this proposal, um, was
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generated. Uh, not because obviously we have concerns ... I think we all have a concern
about the well-being of the Rose Oaks' residents, but that's what generated this, and I
think gap seems to be the word de jour tonight, but there has been a gap, at least in terms
of the credible reports that I have heard from people that I have an enormous amount of
respect for, and the information we're getting. There is a gap. I think that's a gap that I
would like to address and I appreciate the Council, uh, allowing us to revisit the proposal
in two weeks.
Throgmorton/ Okay, so we're gonna adjourn our work session...
Frain/ Can I make one more suggestion... just on this topic?
Cole/ No! (laughs)
Frain/ I'm sorry, but um, you've been receiving written reports from the Shelter House through
staff, uh.... I don't know if Crissy and ... and Mark, who have been our points of contact
there would be willing, but it might be healthy for you to engage in a ... in a dialogue with
them. I mean they're ... the Shelter House staff is out there. I can't represent... you know, I
can only represent a little bit. Certainly they bring a perspective that I think would be
really important to you, before you make a decision. So perhaps at that next meeting
(both talking)
Cole/ ...the residents....
Frain/ Yeah, however you want to do it, but I would get ... I would get the input, um, before
makin' a decision.
Throgmorton/ Good idea! All right, we're going to adjourn our work session and reconvene at
7:00 with our formal meeting.
(BREAK FOR FORMAL MEETING)
(RECONVENE WORK SESSION; short break taken and recording starts inid-sentence)
Questions from Council re Agenda Items:
Cole/ ....does that include correspondence? Um, does that include being able to review the
correspondence?
Throgmorton/ Any item on the agenda, I think. (several talking)
Cole/ Okay.
Taylor/ Are we back in session then?
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Throgmorton/ Oh, I'm sorry! I should be more formal about this. So yeah, we're reconvening
our work session of June the 21 sc
Cole/ Okay, I have two.
Throgmorton/ Yep!
ITEM 3f(3) Mark McCallum, Pam Micheau, Helen and Kevin Burford: Parking
Improvement District for College Green Park area
Cole/ Um, 3f(3), um, the note from Mark McCallum. Um, obviously we're not going to be able
to figure out parking policy tonight, but I'm, uh, where are we are evaluating, uh, parking
policy for inner -core neighborhoods? I think this .... uh, what we're experiencing is a lot
of, uh, parking that's not really consistent with what those neighborhoods designed to do.
Is a parking study on the horizon, um, certainly the proposal that Mark proposed sounds
very good to me, but where are we in terms of that particular issue?
Fruin/ The City Council budgeted $50,000 if memory serves me correct for a parking study.
And I think it's on your pending work session list to kind of articulate to us what you
want in that study, and so there's .... I think there's a couple of different ways we can go
forward. Um, at the July 5a' work session we're going to talk about form -based code.
Um .... we could .... we can talk whether it'd be appropriate to roll the parking study into
that form -based code analysis and tackle those two issues at the same time. Um,
certainly staff is familiar with, and we have access to information in other communities
about permit systems. I ... I feel comfortable that we could review those and ... and give
you a recommendation on whether a permit system would be appropriate here, or we can
wait for the study and see what an outside consultant (both talking)
Cole/ We hear that proposal a lot in terms of parking districts that then are replowed into the
neighborhood. Is that something we have the authority to do, or maybe I should direct
that to Eleanor, or is that a problem of a tax or something like .... and we get that proposal
quite a bit. Let's do a parking district and then replow the neighborhood and everyone'll
be happy. Is that something we can do?
Dilkes/ I think it's a possibility.
Cole/ Okay.
Dickens/ It came up with the Linn Street thing (mumbled)
ITEM 3f(5) Christine Boyer: Horace Mann School Traffic [Staff response included]
Cole/ Yeah, it's a huge issue. So .... (several talking) So that addresses 3f(3), and I don't know if
others want other correspondence, um .... 3f(5), um, from Christine Boyer. The speed
question of Governor and Dodge. Um .... I know that those are State highways and those
are sort of complicated in terms of changing speeds, but I gotta tell ya, I'm really
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concerned about this particular, um, email that she drafted. I know Christine really well.
She's a very quiet person and when she speaks, you really gotta listen. Um .... what's the
mechanism to ... to begin the conversation with DOT on speeding issues, cause it's ... I
would like a lighter something, how ... how do we address that?
Fruin/ We've had those conversations with DOT in the past and they haven't gone anywhere.
I ... I haven't personally been a part of those, but I know that ... that our staff has. Um, we
can always keep bringing it up, but, urn ... in the past the DOT hasn't been willing to, um,
alter the speed limit in that area.
Cole/ What about rights?
Throgmorton/ On ... on that point, somewhere in one of our packets is the ... the neighborhood
transportation study that was done, what? Four years ago.
Cole/ Yeah.
Throgmorton/ And I noticed that it indicates that ... that this... average speed, uh, on Dodge ... on
Dodge Street north of Church is (several talking) 85th percentile, is 36 ... is that right? 36
miles per hour. Easily the highest in the, at least the northside neighborhood. There's a
problem there!
Cole/ Yeah.
Dickens/ There's.... there's an officer there on a regular basis, but maybe not enough, especially
during the school year, but I know there's.... living up there and corning down there on a
regular basis, I always check my speed, but there's people that just blow by me around
(several talking)
Throgmorton/ Well, we all know what it's like coming down that hillside. There's (several
talking)
Dickens/ .....tough to slow down...
Throgmorton/ ...gravity's pulling ya....
Cole/ I'm wondering, I know we have a lot of work session topics in the next 60 days, but what
would people think about having a work session on this particular issue, 90 days out, um,
cause I would at least like to submit a letter to .... to DOT and say, this is what we'd like
and get the formal response back. Maybe they'd reconsider. I think it's a major issue
that we should address. How do people feel about that, in a work session?
Throgmorton/ What ... you want the DOT to lower the speed limit there? What are you asking
(both talking)
Cole/ No, I mean ... what I understand is that we don't have (several talking)
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Throgmorton/ ...but they don't enforce the speeds.
Cole/ But I understand we need waiver from DOT in order to be able to do anything, don't we?
Fruin/ I think if you're .... if you're talking a school zone, that's... that's where the discussion was.
Why don't you let .... why don't you let us come back to you with a memo that
summarizes it. I don't have the full history (several talking)
Dickens/ ...for several years, speed cameras. (several talking) Red light cameras, speed
cameras.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I ... I think that's better than scheduling a work session.
Cole/ Okay!
Throgmorton/ (both talking) ...work session discussion (both talking)
Cole/ I think at some point we should think about (both talking)
Fruin/ We'll try to summarize the issue and (both talking) there's a past letter from the DOT or
anything, uh, from them (both talking) we'll include that.
Cole/ ...so we know where we're at. Okay. Nothing more from me!
Throgmorton/ Other agenda items?
ITEM 3b(2) Community Police Review Board — May 23 &
ITEM 3d(8) COMMUNITY POLICE REVIEW BOARD BY-LAWS -
RESOLUTION APPROVING THE BY-LAWS OF THE IOWA
CITY COMMUNITY POLICE REVIEW BOARD.
Taylor/ I had just an editorial comment on 3b(2), the Community Police Review Board, um,
where they, uh, changed their, uh, by-laws. And they changed the wording from
September to July, but in a separate article, uh, they were talking about election of the
officers, and it still read to be in October, and when that changed to August then if their,
uh, appointments are in July then the officers would be elected in August rather than
September and October.
Karr/ That ... that was their option. They thought it might be better, rather than back-to-back to
have somebody with experience (both talking)
Taylor/ So leave it ... so they (both talking)
Karr/ ...I'll double check it.
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Taylor/ Okay.
ITEM 3f(8) Missie Forbes: Domestic Violence Intervention Program Lunch and
Learn
Throgmorton/ I wanted to mention one item. Item 3f(8), an invitation from Missie Fischer for
some Council Members to attend a luncheon/leam event at DVIP. Domestic Violence
Intervention Program on July the 13a', and they want an RSVP by the .... 8s' of July. I
wonder if anybody would like to attend that event?
Botchway/ I probably will.
Karr/ She just contacted me this afternoon and I said we'd bring it up tonight so....
Throgmorton/ Yeah, okay (both talking)
Karr/ I'd be happy to respond.
Throgmorton/ Kingsley's volunteering.
Karr/ Okay!
Information Packet Discussion [June 9, 161:
Throgmorton/ All right, good deal! Uh, anything else on agenda items? All right, uh, moving on
I guess we should tum to Information Packet discussion, June 9a'.
Botchway/ Um .... IP2, um, just really like the fact that there was, um, oops! Well, that was the
communication that was sent out ... I was actually trying to highlight the fact that there
was a joint communication sent out, um, between, um, the, uh.... North Dubuque LLC,
um, Center for Worker Justice, and just wanted to highlight if you have an opportunity to
talk to Mr. Cole, um, he is a very reasonable person so I would take that opportunity. If
you can.
Fruin/ Yeah, and that one's in this subsequent work session.
Botchway/ Yeah, I .... urn ... the other one is IP6. Um, I think I alluded to this at our last meeting,
possibly or another time, I can't remember now. Um, I will say I'm a little, uh, worked
up about ... I did ... I did at our last meeting cause we had meetings last week, yeah. Little
worked up about us moving past, um, this, uh.... My Brother's Keeper. (mumbled) I
know Susan's not on the phone anymore, but this is something that Susan put forth. Um,
we've, you know, really pushed for on a lot of different initiatives, urn ... uh, and I ... I feel
like I don't want us to miss on one that, you know, involves, um, race and ethnicity
because, again, I think that's frequently one that gets, you know, glossed over as we ... we
work on other things. Um (mumbled) frequently — I just think it gets glossed over as we
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work on other things. And so .... I understand that, you know, we actually kicked it back
to the, um .... I'm losing my mind right now. (several talking) The roundtable, and um,
they came back supportive and so .... I know that Stefanie feels like there's a lot of other
initiatives that need to be addressed, but I feel like this is, you know, an important one
that we may need to get back on the table, and in conjunction with the School District and
other, you know, entities make a concerted effort to move forward. I don't like to
address it now, the fact she's not here, but maybe .... we can (both talking)
Fruin/ ...real quick, cause Stefanie and I have talked about this quite a bit. Um, you know, we
have a Human Rights staff too, and we just have to look at what our capacity is, and... and
this particular initiative is a very involved initiative that requires a ... a huge time
commitment. Um, and as we looked at it, frankly, we didn't .... I don't really feel that,
um, the City is necessarily the ... the best lead. I mean, perhaps we can be, but .... frankly
the ... the majority of the data that you need to collect is related to the schools, and um... it
just wasn't somethin' that we were prepared to take on. We felt comfortable with your
strategic plan, um, really actions that you out... outlined, that that was going to advance
the issue far enough, but ... we can take a look at it. I ... I think we need to have a .... good
conversation about, you know, expectations for timeline and ... and work on the other
initiatives you've laid out though.
Cole/ Do we have anything similar to, I mean, it's one thing if we're duplicating an existing
program, but do we have anything now that's similar to this?
Fruin/ We don't have a structured kind of national program that we're following, um, right now,
and all of the, or most of the strategic plan initiatives are very specific actions. This is
about ... data collection first and kind of gettin' your arms around the issue and then
developing actions based on ... that data. And, urn ... again, it's a pretty time -intensive
process. I ... I think everybody felt that it was a good program, and ... and certainly the
roundtable expressed that, but, urn .... the timing's not right in our opinion.
Throgmorton/ On Item 8, IP #8, the racial and socioeconomic, uh, equity toolkit. Uh, you're
pretty happy with that, aren't ya?
Botchway/ I'm very happy with that. I think it's a huge step. Um, you know, frankly, uh, you're
taking a step, um, you know, um .... I think being the first in Johnson County, if I'm
correct, um, I was saying .... we are working on the School District, but not to the level
that the City is working on it right now. So I'm very excited. The only piece .... I think
we talked about it before and I think we ... it was mentioned at the Ukraine, um ... uh,
delegation discussion. Um, just as we are working on this particular piece, because it
talked about the racial and socioeconomic, um, equity toolkit. Just understand the inter-
sectionality between, you know, different, um, marginalized groups, and so that particular
group was talking about people with disabilities, and so as those questions are being, um,
kind of had, or discussions are being had and questions being asked, I just want to ... I
don't want us to lose track of the different kind of marginalized things that people have to
go through when we're having this discussion. But I think it's a huge deal because I
think instead of, you know, some of the protests that happened, you know, um, protests
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that happened at times at the Council meeting, this tries to address the questions before
we even get to that point ahead of time, and I think that's gonna really help us and put us
in a better position later on.
Taylor/ I had a question on ... on that item when it was talking about the, uh, 14 that will review
the kit, Chief Hargadine was listed as being on that. Will he ... will you have a
replacement? I think it's important that someone from the law enforcement be included
(both talking)
Fruin/ Yeah, Police will still be represented. The .... the memo has been complete for a while.
We just weren't ready to release it. Um, so we'll... someone from Police will be
represented, uh, and .... when we look at the participants, Transportation, Planning,
Housing Authority, Police, Human Resources, Finance — particularly the ... the, uh,
revenue side, utility payments and what not arm of finance — and the, uh, purchasing side
of finance, you know, those are ... those are the areas where we felt were most appropriate
for an initial run at this and ... we're lookin' at an evaluation of 15 to 20 policies within
those departments. I think that's gonna be a pretty good start.
Throgmorton/ Pretty big deal!
Botchway/ It really is a big deal. Again, I'm losing my excitement as the night wanes (laughter)
It's a ... it's a huge deal that a lot of communities (several talking and laughing) I should
have done that! (laughter)
Dickens/ Learn from us old guys! (laughter)
Throgmorton/ All right, anything else from that .... uh, what... we're still on June 8h, or June 9,
right?
Botchway/ Uh huh.
Throgmorton/ Anything else on that? Let's go to July .... June the 16t', I'm getting tired,
obviously! June 16th, any questions about ... or comments?
Botchway/ My only comment is, um, towards, uh, Eleanor's memo. Fabulous job! I think you
detailed a lot of the questions that I have. I .... I think I still have .... some questions, but I
think they're going to come up as you come back in September with affordable housing
piece and .... I can ... I can address `em then. It's more just kind of substantive questions as
far as what we as a city council, um, will ultimately decide. But ... I think it was laid out
perfectly and I think it really addressed some of the core issues.
Cole/ I agree!
Thomas/ Since we've been (clears throat) talking about affordable housing tonight, the, uh, IP5,
achieving scale in affordable housing, you know, that ... that is .... that is a mountain
(laughs) It's so challenging, um .... and so many of the things that we do have to utilize,
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you know, the ... the question of scale is a real difficult issue and, you know, I didn't bring
it up tonight. I didn't want to, you know, rain on the party, but the, you know, the
inclusionary zoning sunsets, and so you have this constant issue of needing to replenish
that ... that percentage, and uh, so .... at least with that particular aspect of the program. So,
it ... it's just a cautionary piece there and I ... I think it's something that, you know, the
community's really going to have to dedicate itself to in a profound way.
Throgmorton/ Yep. On IP #7, uh, the email ... the email we received from the Center for Worker
Justice, Blackbird LLC and North Dubu... no! Blackbird and North Dubuque LLC about
Forest View. It was great to seethe joint statement and it was really terrific to know that
Ed Cole and ... and the developers and ... had arranged the meeting with residents of Forest
View and I gather there was a pretty large crowd, uh, you ... you were there, right? What,
uh, more than a hundred? I don't know, pretty large number of people anyhow. Uh,
so... and then to see this joint statement come out, ub, is really great to see.
Cole/ I ... I was going to say the same thing, Jim. I mean, so often with these develop
controversies, you know, how often do people sit down and actually talk to one another,
and I think, Kingsley, you really played a significant role in facilitating that, and I also
want to give a shout -out to Pauline, um, you know, a variety of people, but got people in
the room, face-to-face, and I think that's where this really changed, and I think that it was
one of those kind of competing press releases, and I liked this that's a joint press release,
and I think hopefully this'll really be a foundation for other tough development issues
that we have going forward. So, I'm really hopeful, um, that we can, you know, work
closely with this and it sounds like those lines of communication are open, and the best
projects, I think, are ones that don't come to us that we have to solve, uh, that the
community members out there being very proactive, and I ... I was just really glad to see
that. (clears throat)
Taylor/ I'm also .... I've been very pleased with how positive the developers and the owners have
been, and the investors, in, uh, their, uh, thoughts and concerns about the residents, and,
uh, looking at the issues of, uh, and there's so many questions to be answered yet, but
they ... they are willing to sit down, uh, with the residents and have them part of the
decision making and I'm ... I'm very happy to see that.
Cole/ Yep!
Thomas/ I mean my ... I ... I agree with what's been said. I .... my question was how can we...
apply lessons learned, uh, from this experience to our policies and procedures.
What... what, how can we build on that success that we just experienced and try to
integrate it, uh, you know, into our policies and procedures so we don't have what ... what
happened prior to this event, again?
Botchway/ I think we're going to have that discussion as we come back to affordable housing
about, you know, good neighbor meetings and some other things that could occur,
because I think a lot of that could have happened (several talking)
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Fruin/ Yeah, this one's tough because the... there.... there was no formal application for action.
There was no site plan, there was no rezoning, there was no Comprehensive Plan, so...
this one's a little bit more tricky. Um, because we ... we can't really force action. We can
encourage it, um, which we had done, urn .... and I think would have happened, um, if not
for the.... the.... the timeliness of the, uh.... the unfortunate timing of the eviction notice
that was sent out, but .... urn, this one's a little tougher. I think there are some definite
lessons and adjustments we can make based on Rose Oaks because there was a filing
there but .... this one's a bit more challenging.
Throgmorton/ Yep. Anything else on June 16? All right, let's move to Council Time. Anybody
want to .... elaborate (both talking)
Council Time:
Cole/ Can I say one thing? I really like this format of doing the packet review at this time. I
don't know if...cause this then allows ... more time to dig into the meaty issues during the
work session. So just a thought, cause don't typically we do this at the beginning, as
opposed to now? What ... what do people think of that?
Dickens/ Depends on what we have in the work session.
Cole/ Yeah!
Dickens/ Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Cole/ Okay. Well that's just my two -cents. I like the packet review after the (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ...basically I think we ought to condense.... the topics that we discuss in our work
session, and ... and give ourselves more time to deal with the -the bigger, more
complicated topics.
Cole/ Yep!
Throgmorton/ So, uh.... we .... maybe you and I can talk about that a little big, Geoff, about how
to condense things and come back to the Council with a recommendation.
Botchway/ I will say during this Council time we have one piece, just from the conversation that
happened, more directed to you, Eleanor, um, or City staff in general. So are we really to
the point, and I understand and I've read the memo from, um, from, um, John, we cannot
do anything about the Lusk Avenue, um, property? Wow, that's.... that's tough!
Dilkes/ I mean there's... there's a bigger conversation to be had there about the implications of
being able to do something.
Botchway/ Right.
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Dilkes/ Um, but .... but the way our code stands now is .... there's ... there's no code violation. We
took an extra step with the affidavit, simply because it was the only thing we had
available to us to do.
Botchway/ Right.
Dickens/ They didn't really have to sign it, did they?
Dilkes/ No. I mean .... it was really just a `this is the understanding,' to reinforce that
understanding of what the code provisions require. (both talking)
Botchway/ My fear is also that (both talking)
Dilkes/ ...single-family zones, etc.
Botchway/ But the potential lawsuit is that ....so that's where the affidavit really kind of
strengthens our position, if there's a pending lawsuit from....
Dilkes/ I don't think we have any liability.
Botchway/ Okay.
Dilkes/ I ... I .... that was a, I mean, anybody can sue, but I don't think there's any liability here.
Botchway/ Right. Okay.
Throgmorton/ There's a lot that could be said about that, but maybe we (several talking)
Botchway/ I just wanted to ask, yeah.
Throgmorton/ All right, uh.... uh.....Council time, we just turned to that. Sol...I'd like to
mention a couple things. I had a great meeting with the, uh, principal of Alexander
Elementary back on the 10th of June. Chris Gibson. I felt like I learned a lot from her
about .... what a great job they've been doin' down there and .... other things. The other
thing I wanted to mention is I'm going to be doing my next Mayor's Walk on June 29,
which is the same date as the Forest View listening post, because what I'm going to do is
go somewhere up on the north end, knock on doors, and then end up at Forest View. All
right, uh.... we could move to Meeting Schedule.
Meeting Schedule:
Throgmorton/ I don't know if there's anything to mention there. Not hearing anything. Pending
Work Session Topics.
Pending Work Session Topics lIP # 4 Info Packet of 6/161:
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Throgmorton/ I have one suggestion. We've already chopped into this thing a whole bunch, so
that a lot of those topics that are on the list right now, I think can be removed. So....
Fruin/ We'll take a look at that.
Throgmorton/ And .... then people wouldn't be tellin' me what a long (several talking and
laughing) All right, uh, anything else about pending work session topics?
Thomas/ Well I...I have some notes here. You know there ... I'm .... I'm seeing in the, um, you
know, correspondence, you know, the ... lot of traffic -related issues, and I know
we're ... and I couldn't quite remember the status, Geoff, on the Miller -Orchard. Are we
going to have a work session on that? What was the.... outcome?
Fruin/ Staff is going to come back to the Council with a memo that summarizes the project
and ... and roughly, you know, what the issues are with the complete streets policy. And
then we'll present a .... a few different options for you on different paths we can take. Full
sidewalks, no sidewalks, and a point or two in between. We'll try to get some guidance
from you on ... on where you're at, and those'll be the, uh, we'll proceed with developing
plans and specs in accordance with whatever guidance you have. And that was plans and
specs will ultimately come back to you, uh, before approval. This is a spring construction
project, so .... we've .... we've got some time here. And then, uh, based on your
discussion, we may need to revisit the complete streets policy, and we'll ... we'll make
sure you have a copy of that policy and talk you through it. This is the first .... test case of
that policy (mumbled) recently, uh, amended in 2015. So this is the first test and it's
been ... and a tough one, so ... we may learn some things from it and need to make some
adjustments.
Throgmorton/ Geoff, I think it'd be helpful to have someone on staff write a ... a very short letter
to .... some people out there in the Miller -Orchard neighborhood, Paula Swygart in
particular I think, so that they have a sense of what we're actually going to do, instead of
being anxious about what they (several talking) believe we're going to do.
Taylor/ They're very anxious about it. (several talking)
Throgmorton/ Yeah, of course they are! Yeah. Okay.
Thomas/ (both talking) ...follow up again, you know, I ... I mentioned earlier on tonight the, you
know, the traffic calming program and how, uh.... I .... I'd really strongly like to
advocate ... I strongly advocate for take .... doing more with that program. I feel it ... it's
kind of isolated from our work in the public right-of-way. I think there are a number of
other aspects to traffic calming in terms of, you know, all the (laughs) the niceties of, you
know reducing curb radii and so on and so forth, that I think could be folded into a more
comprehensive program of traffic calming, if it weren't structured in the way that it is
now. Um .... so that we could get the roadway design, even on existing roads, more like
Dodge and others, Governor, more in alignment with the speed limits. I mean that ... that's
fundamentally the issue that I see here is that our existing roadway conditions are badly
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aligned with what we want the speeds to be, drivers are more than happy and comfortable
to drive 10, 15 miles per hour over the speed limit. That's a failure of the roadway
design. How can we address that?
Fruin/ Yeah, we'll run through traffic calming and then, uh, two through ... our complete streets
funding stream, which we created this year, um, we could tackle projects, and we're doin'
that with some of the road diets, and then of course, you know, we have complete
discretion when it comes to GO bonding and... and our, uh, use of road use tax, you know,
for those types of improvements. So, uh, we are revisiting and .... the traffic calming
program criteria right now, based on the Council's previous work session. That'll come
back to you shortly. I think staff's about done with that. And then, uh, you know,
ultimately you prioritize that through the budget process.
Upcoming Community Events/Council Invitations:
Throgmorton/ Okay, Upcoming Community Events, Council Invitations.
Taylor/ Just wanted to, uh, reiterate what, uh, Terry had said earlier about the Friday Night
Concert Series. Last Friday night the weather was absolutely beautiful. Ped mall was
jammed packed, wall-to-wall with people, uh, watching the Fez, which is my favorite
group, but this Friday night, uh, at 6:30 is Winterland, which for you Dead Heads out
there (laughter) it's allegedly a Grateful Dead tribute band. So that should be really fun,
and the weather's supposed to be good!
Throgmorton/ Are you a Dead Head?
Cole/ I was going to say, yeah! (laughs)
Taylor/ Yes, I was (laughter) I'll be there! (laughter)
Throgmorton/ Okay. I think (both talking)
Botchway/ Make sure that's recorded and sent to me! (laughter)
Throgmorton/ All right, before these people talk any more, we're done for the night! (several
talking)
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 21, 2016.