HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-09-06 TranscriptionPage 1
Council Present: Botchway, Cole (5:30), Dickens, Mims, Taylor, Thomas, Throgmorton
Staff Present: Fruin, Seydell-Johnson, Hall, Knoche, Ralston, Boothroy, Dulek, Andrew,
Karr, O'Brien, Kelsay, Dyson, Howard, Haval, Hightshoe, Bockenstedt,
Ford, Yapp, Rackis
Parks and Recreation Comm.: Elliott, Bentler, Fett, Brown, Younker, Hamann, Claussen,
Laurian
Others Present: Simpson (UISG)
Joint Meeting with Parks and Recreation Commission :
Throgmorton/ Okay, well we should get started, um, what we're gonna have now is the, uh, joint,
uh, meeting with Parks and Recreation Commission on September the 6a', 2016. Uh, first
of all I'd like to welcome the Parks and Recreation Commissioners and thank all of you
for the superb work you're doing on behalf of the .... the people of Iowa City. And
beyond that, I think it probably would be good for us to introduce ourselves to one
another, cause I don't know if everybody really knows everybody, you know, uh.... uh, in
any kind of direct way. So maybe we can start over there with you at the far corner.
Elliott/ Maggie Elliott.
Bentler/ Susan Bentler.
Fett/ Wayne Fett.
Brown/ Larry Brown.
Simpson/ Jacob Simpson. I'm the Student Liaison from the University.
Dickens/ Terry Dickens.
Botchway/ Kingsley Botchway.
Throgmorton/ Jim Throgmorton.
Mims/ Susan Mims.
Thomas/ John Thomas.
Taylor/ Pauline Taylor.
Younker/ Joe Younker.
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Laurian/ Lucie Laurian.
Claussen/ Clay Claussen.
Throgmorton/ All right, fabulous! So Julie, are you going to start us off with, uh, neighborhood
parks project update. Is that right?
Seydell-Johnson/ Right. I'm going to take you through a number of our projects. Uh, it's been
eight months since I started back .... started here back, um, a cold day in January
(laughter) quite a while ago. Actually the Commission is one of the first groups I met
with, so it's been a fun group to work with, very committed to our parks and our
neighborhoods out in the community, so I thank them all for the work they've been
doing. It's a real privilege to be here tonight to do this presentation and talk through all
these projects and updates that we have. We joke that you waited eight months so I got
rid of my Minnesota accent before I had to stand up here (laughter) but I'm so glad to be
home and so glad to be talking to you about things happening out in our parks.
Throgmorton/ So you don't speak Minnesotan anymore!
Seydell-Johnson/ I can if you really want me too! (laughs) I still got the `utfa in me
so .... (laughter) We'll go through the projects, um, as you know a lot of these started
before I started here. So I do have my great staff behind me. I have Chad Dyson our
Recreation Superintendent; Zach Hall, Park Superintendent; and of course Geoff started a
lot of these projects as well, so they may help me out if you stump me on a question or
two. First of all though some of our neighborhood park projects. Uh, these are things
that we've been doing to reinvest in the parks out throughout all of the neighborhoods in
Iowa City. This is Highland Park renovation. Before this picture you would have seen a
very old piece of playground equipment and not much else in this park. Uh, just south of
downtown by Keokuk. Worked with the neighborhood to pick out that playground
equipment and they did a very nice job of picking out the colors and the equipment has
been a very popular park, uh, since it was finished in July. So we got... playground,
shelter, and water fountains, along with the Blue Zones and some of the other initiatives
we have going in this park. Next, our very popular playground that has been installed at
Mercer Park. It's amazing to look at that little old playground (laughs) up in the top left
corner and see that that transformed into that larger project. A $220,000 playground, and
I joked when it first went in I was going to have altitude sickness at the top of it. It is that
tall and that exciting. Uh, in the top left you can barely see it, but you see the fire truck
back here, and that was our number one comment that we got from the neighbors was
don't take away the fire truck! We love playing on the little fire truck. So although you
can't see that in the main picture below, it has been refurbished through some help from
the Noon Optimist Club and it is back in place. We're waiting for tires, um, and you'll
have a whole new, uh, little fire truck as well, but that's been a very popular project out at
Mercer Park. Tower Court Park renovations, finished about a year ago. New playground
and spray pad on the western part of the community over by University Heights. And
then this is one that's coming — Pheasant Hill Park playground. We had our community
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meeting to choose the playground a few weeks ago. Very interesting — we had sent out
postcards around the neighborhood and kids were lining up, telling their parents they had
to come and they had to come give their input and maybe Clay and all his grandkids had
something to do with that, but .... they did and we had almost a little caucus going that
night (laughs) of voting for different types of playgrounds. One .... one, the pair of boys
went home and brought back their little sister in a stroller, just so she could vote for their
playground (laughter) so .... it was exciting. You can see what's there right now is, uh,
some individual pieces of older equipment. Uh, next .... early next spring we will be
replacing it with what you see below, along with the new swingset, which is not shown in
the picture. So we're excited to see that coming into that neighborhood. Uh, that's kind
of on the eastern side of the city. We have another .... a number of other neighborhood
park projects in the works right now. Willow Creek Park — have a new restroom that we
hope to get open in the coming weeks. It's been a .... kind of a long project out there.
New trail work, some drainage work, um, some new backstops for athletic fields in that
park. That is almost done and open to the public. Happy Hollow Park — we've had a
neighborhood meeting there to replace the shelter and the restrooms, and we are currently
have an architect looking at plans for that. So we'll be getting that done probably first
thing in the spring. Mercer Park — we finished the playground and now we're moving on
to renovating the tennis courts. We had six tennis courts there. You'll be seeing those
renovated to become three tennis courts and six pickle ball courts. Pickle barl.... pickle
ball is becoming an emerging sport that we're seeing. It's been, um, very popular in our
gyms with no real outdoor space right now to play it. So we will have a six -court pickle
ball there when we're done. Fraunholz-Miller Park on the east side by St. Pat's Church —
some work was done on this on a master plan several years ago. We resurrected that, uh,
we have a community meeting coming up on Thursday, September 15`h, where we're
going to look at next steps on that park. It'll be a, somewhat smaller plan than it maybe
was when it was done six or seven years ago. We're looking at shelter, playground,
paths, and landscaping, um, as part of going into that park, and that will also be an early -
spring project. So spring 2017. And just down the road from there we have a new park —
Cardigan Park, which a lot of people have not even heard of. It's actually about the same
size as Fraunholz-Miller Park. It's on the east end of Court, right before you get to Taft
Road. Uh, we're looking at doing a master plan with a public meeting tomorrow night,
just to find out what those folks would like in that park. Not a lot of funding other than
some open space funds right now to implement it, but we'd like to at least get the plan in
place, so we know what's coming there. And then Creekside Park is planned for
renovations in 2017. And then Wetherby Park, a late addition, is one that we just
received a $75,000 Wellmark grant to put athletic courts, more athletic courts in that
park. So we're looking at building a athletic court that can be basketball, soccer,
probably a few pickle ball courts there as well. So that will be, um, (mumbled) actually
probably join in with the Mercer Park tennis/pickle ball court project at the same time.
So just lots of things happening throughout the entire city and we thank you for the
support to make all these happen. It's just a really exciting time for those. I next want to
take you through four of our larger master plans that are in place. Uh, we're going to talk
a little bit about our East Side Sports Complex, our Lower City Park master plan, our
Hickory Hill Park master plan, and then Riverfront Crossings Park, phase one.
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Throgmorton/ Julie, if I could interrupt for just a second. I .... I noticed that another
Commissioner has joined us. I'd like to welcome you. Uh, please remind us of who ... of
what your name is.
Throgmorton/ Thank you, Cara. Oh, Lucie! (several talking) Yeah, she was here. Okay, Julie,
sorry!
Seydell-Johnson/ Here we go! So the first one I'm going to talk about is our East Side Sports
Complex, uh, on the east side of town obviously, near the industrial park. We had
Hitchcock Design Group out of the Chicago area come in. They started doing work late
last fall with City staff and a number of the sport associations, School District, lot of
public input gathered on this. The site, um, on the east side, so Taft Road on the east
side, um, the railroad on the south side of the, um, parcel, and then Compass Drive on the
west. The new Hoover Elementary School is being built right about .... here, above where
the map shows. So .... if you can imagine, we think this will all end up being a
neighborhood. So this park is being designed to not only be a first-class athletic
complex, but also to help serve the neighborhood that will likely grow in that area as
well. So we see a little bit of both things in this park. Uh, this is a rendering of what it
could look like. Once again here's the railroad. You notice it's kinda a big gap here.
They've got some expansion plans that we had to take into consideration on this site, so
it's pushed back quite a bit. These are baseball fields. Lots of parking, a new
maintenance facility. There would be three access points from the neighborhood here in
the middle and over here, so this is all — if you can imagine — that is housing, they would
have the ability to walk into this park. There'll be trails, playgrounds, and some other
amenities to help serve the neighborhood. Let me show you on the next map cause it
shows it a little bit better. The drawing shows.... baseball fields with a central area that
would include concessions, restrooms, playground all through here. Then a central area
over here that includes some open field space. Could be anything from, uh, flag football,
rugby, whatever the needs are at the time it gets built, for big flat field space. Once
again, with a central, um, kiosk area or small shelter in the center, and then another four
smaller baseball fields on this side, once again playground and concessions in the middle
of that. Um ... it includes a small dog run area down here. Not so much as a satellite dog
park for other neighborhoods, but the thought being that we have a lot of families coming
to baseball tournaments and coming .... they come to the site for an entire day. Lot of `em
are bringing their dogs anyway, so this'll give us a place to have a little extra amenity for
those families. And then finally, one of the things that came out as we were doing this
plan that wasn't contemplated at the start was that we had requests for indoor, um,
athletic space, and you'll notice that's not shown on this plan, but they did leave a spot,
um, one of the soccer fields designated as a potential space for a future indoor facility,
and that was something we heard from the Commission, as well as different stakeholders
on the project. Uh, we've gone through the plan, taken it back to the stakeholders, gotten
a lot of good feedback, and .... and reached this point. It does come with some phasing,
so that it could be built, obviously, in a number of phases. The first phase being the first
six baseball diamonds along with their, uh, facilities in the center and the ... oops! The
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maintenance, well you can see the price tag now too (laughs) The maintenance and the,
uh, parking lot for that. Second one would be the second part of the baseball fields, and
then the final would be, um, some of the other, uh, soccer fields in other areas. The
estimates on the price, we see total package of about $13.8 million, spread out through
three phases. That does not include anything about that indoor facility I just mentioned.
That is just simply a placeholder there, so.... Our next master plan that we have for you
is our Lower City Park master plan, and what an honor to get to work on this when I first
started because this park has such history here in Iowa City and is such a community
icon. It was fun to be a part of it and fun to see .... most of the work was actually done
before I got here, um, but to see ow consciously the plan was made to keep some of the
things that have been really important to our residents, but yet make it a much more
usable park and I have to say, if you've been down there and not a lot of people were
down there this summer because of all the road construction, but if you've been down
there lately, there's parts of it that are lookin' a bit sad and we need to make some
decisions soon if we're gonna invest in those or do something larger, um, particularly you
can even see it here. We've got three fields that have been somewhat abandoned.
They're not really used for any of our, um, scheduled activities. Sometimes a practice or
two, um, the areas down here are largely wet most of the time, so there's not much going
on there, and a lot of even small flooding takes out a fairly large part of this park. So, the
emphasis on the master plan was to continue some of the uses that we heard that were
very important from the community, but at the same time do our best to .... to make them
less flood prone in the future. So let me walk you through some of those things. In the
master plan, same number of baseball fields, um, but they are now behind a road that has
been slightly elevated, and this road that goes throughout the park is slightly elevated so
that it can help keep the flooding events between the road and the river, and you'll see
that most of the active use areas have been moved between the hillside and the road, so
we have the baseball fields, the, uh, tennis courts, a new maintenance facility over here,
um, the Riverside stage stays largely as it is, except that it is greatly enhanced with a new
area around it that can be used for larger community gatherings. So you'll see a picture
of that in a second. Um, you can still do the small intimate stage at Riverside Theater, or
if we were having a larger event, it gives us quite a large performance space for that. If I
go back to the picture before, you notice there are two ponds here, kind of in the middle
of the park. Uh, those are actually connected to the river and part of the flooding issues
that have been happening in the park is every time the park would flood, those, uh, two
small lakes would flood at the same time. So this plan has those two lakes are now gone
and they're replaced by a wetlands area down in this area that has been fairly historically
wet, uh, for the last several years as well. So a new water feature here and it's gone from
the center of the park. Um, ice skating was one thing we heard about that may be
different in this new plan if we go this route. What we show is an ice skating track
instead of an ice skating pond, so right here you can hardly see it on the plan but this is
a .... kind of an ice skating trail, um, very popular in Minnesota. We built a couple up
there that were just extremely popular, so we think that would be .... and I didn't add that!
That was added before I came down here (laughs) but I was like, yeah, that's been really
popular. New boat area over here. Uh, adventure playground eventually, and the, uh,
amusement equipment, the rides, will be moved up out of the flood area. Um, here's a
picture of what is anticipated for the Riverside stage area. So the stage stays in the same
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place that it is. It is added, there's an added stage area around it. One of the comments
we heard in the master plan process is that's a lot of concrete, so I would agree, and I
think there'll be some landscape or some other things to soften that if we were to actually
go this route. Um, and then this is a large, somewhat of a large bowl area so that you
could indeed have events, larger events, where you would have a staging up here and
have room for quite a few people, um, out in this green space... around it. Flooding is one
of the things I've already talked about, but this is a .... a map of. ... current, where current
flood levels end up in the park. So basically to simplify it, pink and red not so good, um,
and even some of the orange. So not .... just a typical flood that we might get couple
times a year often times takes out those areas. This isn't talking about the large flood
events of like 2008. This is the smaller events in between. So look .... take a look at this
picture. The new plan .... you can see it moves the pink and red out so it basically.... the
orange area is where the road would be within the park. So we keep everything and the
road, pretty much from there up to the hillside, more flood proof than it had been before.
Not completely flood proof. If we have a 2008 type event again, the park's going to be
largely under water, again. Um .... but in between types of floods like you might have
experienced a few years ago, this would keep most of the public use areas, um, up out of
the flood way. Everything in the darker purple or darker red and pink areas would be
designed so that it is floodable. So you would have trees that are more flood tolerant.
You would have any structures in there would be simply like open picnic shelters so that
the water could do through and fairly easy clean up afterwards. Phasing again for this.
We've shown this in a five phase. Could take six or seven years though. However, phase
one is a lot of earth moving because it includes filling in the two ponds and replacing
them with the larger one, um, down over in this part of the park. Um ... and then phase
two goes to ... towards the Riverside stage area and some of the road. You'll notice there
is an access road shown here from Normandy Park neighborhood. Another big, uh, touch
point of the entire process was the neighbors being concerned about that. This plan
doesn't anticipate that road being a final end-all, always entrance into the park, but it
does show that it would be necessary during certain phases of this project. So as work is
going on over here, in order to access the baseball fields and some of the park amenities
over here, you would need that access at least on a temporary basis to be able to do that,
and also shows a maintenance access, which comes down to a new maintenance facility.
Price tag — lots of things in this plan. The earth moving is by and large one of the larger
parts of the project, uh, getting it reshaped, getting the road elevated, and then the
Riverside stage. There's a lot of things in there we've looked at ways that we could value
engineer it and bring some of the cost down, urn .... but it is a .... it would be a large
commitment to this park if we wanted to ... to do this route. Next, Hickory Hill Park
master plan. This is what I've gotten the most questions about in the last 24 hours
(laughs) so I know that it's highly watched out there. People are very interested in it.
What a great park, I mean, amazing asset for the community. Uh, this project's a little
different in that there is funding available right now. Uh, we have $200,000 in the CIP
this year, next year, and the year after. Uh, so we brought in Snyder and Associates, did
a .... a public, uh, master plan process. We had Friends of the Hickory Hill Park on the
Steering Committee. John served on the, uh, Steering Committee as well, and a lot of
discussions that I could summarize by saying people really love this park (laughs) and
they love it the way it is. So you'll see that the master plan is not really, uh, proposing
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anything that is, uh, that different from the nature of the park right now. Let me walk you
through. So the main things that it talks about is shoring up the current trails that are
there. Any changes to the trails that we see are largely because of erosion areas or things
that we need to redirect it to maybe a better stream crossing or make it safer for people to
use. Uh, there was a lot of talk about how much we were paving Hickory Park, or
Hickory Hill Park, or maybe not paving it. So, let me just show you that on the next
slide. Uh, this plan would propose two areas of paving and they're fairly small. They are
called primary trails and they are by the Conklin Street entrance so you notice a loop
here. It's already, um, somewhat milled asphalt, um, so it's already fairly hard surface,
but that would be one of the areas that the plan proposes to possibly be paved, and then
another, a loop down here by Bloomington Street. The reason for both would be to
provide some sort of access to areas of the park so other people with mobility disabilities
could experience the park in some way. Um, the thing about the plan though is that
although they're called `primary trails' and they're paved, uh, they came up as the third,
um, priority. So you'll see that it's fairly far down the line as far as where those might
be. The other thing that was discussed would be a bicycle trail connection, um, from
First Avenue through, uh, Seventh Street.... Seventh Avenue. Um, that's not shown on
this plan, other than a note that this could be a possible bicycle connection if there's
future funding available from a different source for that. So, um, the plan proposes
working first of all on the secondary trails, and that's pretty much what you find out in
the park right now that are already limestone or asphalt milling trails already. Um, it
in .... um, it entails shoring those up, making them safer, filling things in, doing a lot of
bridge work. You've got some bridges that could use some, uh (laughs) some attention
out there, and then signage is the third part of the first ... first priority. The signage, we did
hear from people that said they enjoy getting lost out in the park (laughs) but uh (laughs)
by and large I think we really want people to know where they're at and not have to send
out the police to find them so (laughs) the .... the, uh, signage would be pretty minimal,
but allow people that are new to the park a way to find their way out once they get in the
midst of the areas out there. Um .... the other things that were contemplated were some
additional amenities, um, especially around the Conklin Lane or the Bloomington Street
entrances. These are the areas that are already fairly well developed recreational park
areas. Um, we know that there's Boy Scout, Girl Scout troops that use it, so some things
like a council ring or we all learned what a ga-ga pit is. It's a new game that kids play
(laugh) where it's an enclosed circle, wooden circle, and it's like dodge ball in a circle,
so .... uh, the possibility for some of those kind of things, but those are once again lower
down in the priority list. Um .... so our high priorities on the list would be secondary
trails, so shoring up what's out there is limestone or asphalt millings. A lot of discussion
at the Commission level, and at the master plan meetings, about the values of one or the
other. The current master plan doesn't call either one out as a priority. It leaves it to
the ... the time when we're ready to actually do the work. Um, we have both types
available out at the park. We have both lovers of both kinds (laughs) of surfaces so I
think it'll be an ongoing, uh, conversation at that point. Um, bridge improvements,
something that's needed in phase one, and then the signage. Then the second phase
medium priorities, would start to look at some of the primitive trails, and once again
there's not much on this, other than keeping the trac... trails clear. Some of these would
be rerouted to areas where there's less erosion and would make it safer and easier to
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cross. Uh, potentially a new playscape, a natural playground area at that time, and I think
everything from that list on down are things that could be added in the future. The
600,000 currently in the budget really pretty much takes the high priority items and
potentially one or two things off the secondary list, so..... And lastly one of the larger
projects that we just kicked off with confluence, and HR Green is our consultants, is
Riverfront Crossings Park, phase one. Uh, phase one is the wetlands work and the stream
bank restoration. Uh, they did this new .... they took a, um, drone out and did this aerial
work already, so they're starting some of the background research on the project. So
we ... here we have the park area. You'll notice over here the Riverfront Crossing area
where the new brewery is going to be cited, so phase one will also include a crossing of
the creek so that people can use the park and get to that area as it develops. Uh, phase
one .... (mumbled) through the next slide, it's the southern portion of the park primarily.
It .... look at the wetlands area. It will reconnect the trails. Connect the park to the, um,
area over here, um, and do some stream bank restoration of Ralston Creek. It will start to
look like a park after that, and the construction will be approximately a year from now,
um, but it won't look like a traditional park yet at that point. So phase one doesn't
include things like the parking lot or the shelters or restrooms or anything like that you
might see in a park. It does shape it and get it ready for future, um, additions after that
point, but it does get the wetlands area which we, um, are required to do through out, um,
State hazard mitigation funds completed. So there we have, uh, Riverfront Crossing
Park. And if that's not enough, we have three major planning efforts that we are in the
process of kicking off right now and I'll go through those just very quickly. First of all
we have the park ADA access and facility master plan. Uh, there's a contract for that
later on the agenda tonight for your approval. Uh, our hope is to have the firm come in
and go through all of our parks and first of all look at all of our recreation facilities in the
parks, so shelters, ball fields, playgrounds, um, restrooms, and see about our ADA access.
Did we meet ADA guidelines for all of those things? At the same time looking at the
condition of all those facilities, to help us prioritize, uh, where we're at on the overall
park system and what expected life span will have on all of those features throughout the
park. Then next January, February, March we'll be having a public input process to look
at the question of what else would you like to see in the parks, here's what we have,
here's how we've measured how we're serving all areas of the community, and we'll get
public input and then next spring you'll see that come back to us as a big master plan for
the parks. Last one done in 2008. That was right before the flooding, but it's amazing
most of that plan has been completed in one way or another. So staff has been working
hard following the master plan. It's just time for a new one, uh, to re-evaluate where
we're at and give us a vision. The next ... the natural areas maintenance and master plan.
This is for all the other areas throughout our parks and a number of other City -owned
sites that aren't technically high -use recreation areas, but they're areas that we maintain.
So this can be wetlands, storm water areas, prairie areas, um, some of our larger forested
areas. We're in a contract with a firm to come in, analyze all those first of all for ... see
how ecologically healthy they are and give us some ideas of what we need to do to
maintain that so that we can prioritize that as well, because it's another big thing that
we're doing, uh, throughout Parks and Public Works is making sure those systems are all
working. And then finally we have our tree inventory and Emerald Ash borer response
so, uh, we right now have RFPs out to hire a consultant to come in and do an inventory of
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all the trees. That'll help us answer the question of how diverse our trees, where there are
other areas we can add more trees, and the big one — what are we going to do about
Emerald Ash borer? How many are there, what's the cost going to be, and how can we
replace and come back from that? So just a really exciting time happening with all of
those planning things as well. We've got plenty to keep us busy, that's for sure! That's
it! I'll entertain questions along with the Commission and the rest of the staff.
Throgmorton/ Fabulous job, Julie! Thank you very much. It's pretty exciting work. I ... I wonder
if Clay or any of the other Commissioners would like to elaborate on anything that you
said, um, just to draw our attention to particular features of the .... uh, of..of all of these
proposals. Or .... or not, and then we'll get into questioning.
Claussen/ (mumbled)
Throgmorton/ Sure!
Claussen/ Thank you. It's our pleasure to be here this evening and, uh, I certainly appreciate the
invitation and the chance to do a co -meeting, uh, and I speak for myself because
everyone else has their own voice. Uh, but as the Chair of the Commission, I had the
privilege to sit in on the interview process when Julie was hired, and there were a number
of outstanding candidates, but ... they weren't even close to Julie. So I think we're very
lucky to have her back in the community and look forward to working with her for a long
time down the road. Uh.... of the projects, uh.... one thing of note is that, uh, Parks and
Recreation is growing. The staff is not growing. The production is growing, uh, the
quality of the work, I think, is getting better and better. So it's almost like a magic act to
get more out of less, and I know that we have challenges ahead of us funding wise, and
I'm, uh, I'm kind of a numbers person. I like to keep track of budgets, and uh, I know
that's going to be a challenge for all of us down the road. But I think we're all willing to
work together to get something done and ... and keep the community moving forward. Uh,
I do .... I'm excited about the Riverfront Crossings Park and uh, East Side Sports Park.
Boom! Big expansions there. Um .... and I look forward to working with, uh, the Council
and appreciate all your support.
Throgmorton/ Terrific! Uh, any other Commissioners?
Laurian/ (mumbled) I'm Lucie Lauri an. Um, I think it's fabulous and just a scale of what we've
been producing. I don't know if I like the word producing, but putting forth for public
use has been phenomenal. I .... I have a general question maybe that's more of political
relevance is .... why do we need so much reliance on these general consultants. If there
were a few more staff we could do more things in-house. So that sort of goes with Clay's
comment that, you know, maybe we could do our own (mumbled), maybe we could do
our own tree planning or planning for parks if there are more staff resources, and we tend
to rely a lot of consultants, which may be wonderful sometimes, sometimes they don't
know the place as much as we do. So that's.... that's a budget issue, so, uh, on that line I
have a comment on the final master plan for Lower City Park. I haven't seen a
hydrological report that shows me that it's a good idea to have a .... pond open onto the
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river. I've asked for it and the consultant seemed to say it's a good idea. It may be a
good idea, I don't know if it's a good idea. Um, I have doubts about having a, literally a
bowl into a flood plain in terms of flooding impacts. I think these may not be the best
designs, but.... again, we rely on consultants because we can't do it in-house and so we
get ideas that may or may not be, um .... the best ideas out there. So these are .... these are
my concerns with Lower City Park, but .... but again I think if we can rethink what can we
do in-house, who we rely on consultants for, that'd be a wonderful thing to do. Maybe
not ... just for parks but for other departments too. That's my comment.
Throgmorton/ Thanks, Lucie. Okay, well, uh, Council Member Rockne, welcome! Uh, any
Council Members have questions or reactions or anything?
Botchway/ I personally just want to say amazing, beautiful parks. Love the fact the Commission
has had a hand in working and putting this plan or asking questions around these
wonderful parks. Um, my son loves Mercer Park, um, especially and I did not know
about the fire truck, and so that's going to be a .... actually a sticking point between him
and I because, um, I'm not going to be able to get him out of the park now, so that's great
(laughter) Um, questions I had about some of the things are, I had three questions. One
is focusing around that wetlands area that you had mentioned. Um, is there any thought
on .... I think that's a huge concern now that you bring it up .... uh, but then also I was
thinking about the usability of that area and so I think about Terry Trueblood and all the
wonderful things that are happening there. Are there things along those lines that are
maybe being considered for use, urn, from that standpoint?
Seydell-Johnson/ Yeah, and let me bring this up again real quick. Um .... (mumbled) Lucie's
concerns are about the way the, um....the Riverside stage area is being built, and it, you
know, it is an area that will eventually flood if we have a very, very large flood. It's
being made as flood tolerant as we can, um, and the idea being that this road system and
actually the top of this, uh, public viewing area or the green space is high enough that it
should keep the water out. There could be some .... we will likely, I should say, need
some kind of pump in the very bottom of this bowl, as you went in front of the stage,
that's being contemplated as part of the plan. As far as the wetlands area going here
and .... and the usability, that area of the park is largely not usable right now and it hasn't
been for a number of years, uh, just because it's so often saturated and so often so wet
that we can't .... we have trouble mowing it even. So, I think this will add to the
recreational uses of that area. There are a number of trails included in one of the last
phases, similar to what you see in Terry Trueblood, um, through that area, trails that
could indeed be flooded occasionally and .... and brought back.
Botchway/ Um, my other question was looking at the ..... you mentioned the ADA, that kind of
accessibility work that you'd be doing and .... kind of almost all the parks, right, all the
parks (both talking)
Seydell-Johnson/ Correct!
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Botchway/ So a comprehensive look, um, you know, one thing I think about that is, you know, is
it.....are we going to be moving on projects that wouldn't.... may or may not be as ADA
accessible? I mean obviously I know you have your minimum requirements, but .... if the,
you know.... consulting group comes back with more, urn .... advice or more suggestions
or more recommendations as far as how we can be more compliant or even better
accessible, you know, are we .... are we gonna be able to kind of draw back or pull back
on some of those plans. That's ... I see a lot of our master plans moving forward, but then
I worry that we're going to have this consulting group come in too late for some of the
big projects that we're doing.
Seydell-Johnson/ Well first of all all the new projects are definitely built to standards to ... to be
ADA accessible. So we know that all the new construction, new projects will meet those
guidelines to begin with. I think the beauty of including the ADA with the Parks master
plan is that you'll get a chance to weigh those things of, yes, we have to meet minimum
standards, but it'll be a question of how much farther do you want to take it and where
does that fall in priorities with all the other projects. That'll be a really interesting
question (mumbled) along with the age of these facilities, some of these shelters are older
than our longest serving Parks maintenance folks. So, um, there's a lot of interesting
questions this is going to bring up for sure.
Botchway/ Okay. And my last question was around trail accessibility. And so as we talk about
ADA compliance or having, um, you know, it be more accessible for, you know, all
persons, um, I guess in looking at that, is there going to be some work, or .... I guess I'm
asking a question more towards the future, um, to ensuring that trails are accessible for,
you know, everyone using them, instead of, you know .... just able-bodied folks.
Seydell-Johnson/ I think so, yeah, I think that's the direction we'll go. Now ... that doesn't mean
that every area in all parks will be accessible. I think that'll be one of the decision points
cause there's some areas that putting in an accessible trail would either hurt historical
property or make it so, you know, the trail so big that it ruins the thing that you're going
out there to see in the first place. So, I would say that you will want to work towards a
nice balance so that people have opportunities to see all different types of areas and
experience them, but maybe not every area that we have.
Throgmorton/ And that's especially true for Hickory Hill Park.
Seydell-Johnson/ Hickory Hill is a great example. I mean we want to make it as accessible as we
can but there's certainly areas there that I think you would kind of mess with the overall
feeling of the park, and there are ways to experience it in different sections or different
parks too, so.....yeah.
Throgmorton/ So, other questions?
Dickens/ Is there any idea of what you're going to do with the Pappy Dickens' Reserve? I know
it's part of Burr Oak. Is that going to remain natural or .... or are they going to put trails in
there eventually because it's....
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Seydell-Johnson/ I think we didn't really, urn .... talk about that during the master planning. I'm
not that familiar. I don't know if John or Pete can .... jump in on that.
Dickens/ I just .... I'm surrounded on three sides by that.
Seydell-Johnson/ Yeah (laughter)
Dickens/ ...so I just was wondering how much is (several talking)
Seydell-Johnson/ I knew I had `em all up here for a reason. These are all my smart people!
(laughter)
Mims/ I just want to say .... you know, this is .... this is an area in the six and a half years that I've
been on the Council that, you know, we've seen more and more demand and aging
facilities and .... and things that need to be done, and it's nice to see these master plans
really start rolling out and kind of looking at how are we gonna phase, you know,
improvements and additions to our parks, you know, to meet the needs of the members of
the community, and I think as you mentioned, Julie, part of it, and Clay, you kind of
mentioned you're a number's guy, uh, there's a lot of big numbers here. (laughs) And
that ... that is gonna be a real challenge for us, um, you know, as we go forward and look at
all the other, uh, needs within the city. But it's certainly, I think, a crucial area in terms
of continuing to make this community a very, uh, popular, welcoming, you know,
destination for people who think about moving here and want to live, work, play here, uh,
so it's all really important to that, you know, that part of our community, and so being
able to find that balance with all the other financial needs within the community, I think,
is going to be huge, and .... and just like some of the other areas, you know, whether it's
the Animal Shelter, whatever, um, hopefully fundraising can also play a part because I
think that's the only way we're gonna get to some of these in a reasonable amount of
time. But I want to thank all the Commissioners and you, Julie, for all the work.
Thomas/ I have one question and then, urn .... couple of comments. The inventory, the tree
inventory would cover street trees, as well?
Seydell-Johnson/ Correct. In fact, primarily street trees. I don't believe it covers actual park
trees in this realm. (person responding from audience) Street and park, okay. (person
speaking from audience, unable to hear) Okay, so .... street and park trees, excluding
Ryerson Woods and the interior of Hickory Hill Park.
Thomas/ Um, you know, it's a really great presentation, uh, I ... a couple of things I would want to
emphasize is I'm really pleased with the what I'm sensing is, you know, more attention to
the aesthetics, you know, the, you know, seeing those before and after shots, you ... you
really get that sense and so I .... I really want to encourage that, and I ... I want, I would like
that level of aesthetic concern to be, uh, consistent, you know, with respect to .... you
know, whether it's a large kind of destination project, a, you know, a Riverfront
Crossings' project, or a small neighborhood park project, that that same concern about
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aesthetics be applied across the board. Um, one thing, and I know I've mentioned this to
staff when I've gone on tours with you and .... and Zach is that, uh, sociability I think is a
really important aspect of park use. (clears throat) And I've noticed on some of the
neighborhood park projects, but it may apply even broader than that, where there have
been renovations, uh, I was looking at Highland recently, and .... the.....the playground
looks great. I really like the way it was integrated with the slopes and so forth. I didn't
see any seating. I don't know if the seating is coming later or .... or (both talking)
Seydell-Johnson/ I think it actually went in .... last week? End of last week? (person responding
from audience)
Thomas/ Oh, it is coming! Okay! (laughs) (both talking) It's phased.... phased seating, so....
Seydell-Johnson/ Same with some of the pathways you haven't seen there yet (both talking)
Thomas/ (laughs) Okay!
Seydell-Johnson/ ....probably coming next! (laughs)
Thomas/ Um .... so, but in general I often find that, uh, you know, the .... I'm a big fan of having
lots of places where people can linger, make choices with regard to where they position
themselves in a park, um, gathering spaces of different scales, that sort of thing. Uh, and
then .... in line with the .... the finances, I mean it is kind of. ... it sort of blows you away to
see, you know, the cost of some of these .... these major park projects, and .... kind of in
the line with our discussions in Council on land use, I really want to encourage us to .... to
utilize to the best ability we can what facilities we already have, first of all. I would
encourage that we .... look at partnering to the degree we can with the School District,
where, you know, we don't have a neighborhood park, um .... serving the larger
residential community, but we have a school, uh, sort of placed in .... in convenient
location within the neighborhood, that we .... we consider using that as.....you know,
rather than acquiring land by the Parks Department, coming up with a joint use concept.
And that might apply to .... to fields, as well as neighborhood parks, um.....I.... I think we
are at a point where we .... we can't duplicate. We have to be thinking across
departmental lines so that we, you know, maximum the benefit of what we have and
don't overreach, um, and I think... you know, I ..... my experience in San Francisco, there
had to be some redundancy because the school districts were not comfortable.....the
school district wasn't comfortable having the public going on to their school sites. Here,
fortunately, I don't think that's really an issue. So I .... I'm, I think that's an opportunity
where we can, you know, the schools would benefit from that, as well, you know,
urn .... their sites then would become more valuable to the community. So .... so those are
some of my thoughts.
Taylor/ I'd like to applaud you for many times during your, uh, presentation you mentioned
public meetings and the neighborhood, uh, input and.... including the children, and I think
that's a wonderful thing, especially wonderful that you listen to the children on what
they'd like because they're a major part of the users of these parks and, uh, so I really
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would like to applaud you and the group for .... for listening to .... to the public, and I
would encourage, if anybody's listening out there, she, uh, mentioned the two meetings
coming up, uh, tomorrow and then on the 15a' for the two different parks and I would
encourage people... obviously they do listen to public input and that's wonderful.
Seydell-Johnson/ And I would mention on both of those projects, we also have an event on the
Parks and Rec Facebook page so if people aren't able to come to the meeting, and still
want to give us input, we'd love to hear it and they can enter it there on the Facebook
page, as well.
Taylor/ That's great!
Brown/ Julie, I was just curious has .... has the....have you tried to touch base with, uh, a possible
meeting with the School Board, for example the joint meeting of City Council, School
Board. I mean there's so many issues that affect the entire city, you know, that are .... tied
very closely to the School District and the City Council, the things that you're doing,
so .... I think, you know, it might be worthwhile to .... try and schedule a joint meeting or
two, maybe every year, you know, to think about the things that they're doing so that
we're not overlapping what they're trying to do and .... and, plus we can help out, you
know, what they are ... are doing. The other question I had was ..... is, uh.... is the East Side
Sports Complex, is that actually part of an industrial area or when will the decision be
made there, whether that's going to be an east side park complex or an industrial
complex?
Throgmorton/ Geoff, why don't you address that particular point. I could respond to the first
part, uh, we have joint (both talking)
Brown/ I was just curious.
Throgmorton/ We have joint entity meetings on a quarterly basis with the School Board and
other municipalities in the County and so on, uh, plus Susan and I, uh, meet basically on
a quarterly basis with, uh, the President and Vice President of the School Board of
Directors, uh, so there are these opportunities for conversation along these lines, plus
staff has interaction, uh, with the administration of the School District on .... with regard
to joint use and that kind of thing.
Fruin/ Yeah, uh, regarding the East Side Sports Complex, no decision has been made on whether
it should stay industrial or .... or go to parkland. Um, what we wanted to do is .... is show
you what .... I think we all can envision what the industrial use may be and what it may
look like and how that may, uh, interact with the neighborhood. We didn't have a
concept to really talk about publicly on the ... on the park piece. So, um .... at the time,
uh.... uh, Mike, uh, Moran and I, uh, and staff, um, sat down and .... and looked at our
needs in the community and it's not too often you have, uh, 70 acres of. ... of parkland to
work with in one of the areas where we really needed, uh, to ... to expand and is in our
sports fields, particularly baseball and multi-purpose fields, so, um, that's what we
focused on. You know, if we don't use this opportunity and .... and decide to keep it
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industrial and market that property and ultimately sell it, I think we're gonna have to
really be thinkin' about what our next steps are in terms of field expansion because we
just don't have that type of ground available, urn .... uh, for .... for that number of fields
and it would be pretty expensive, uh, to .... to go out and acquire that land.
Brown/ Geoff, do you know what's the size of the Hoover School area out there? I'm not sure,
does .... is anyone familiar with how much ground is tied into ... with the new Hoover
School (several talking)
Fruin/ Yeah, I don't know how large it is. I .... it's, um .... yeah, I .... I don't know. Nothing at the
scale of what that park would be, and .... and there's a .... there's a bit of a distance. There
would be a pretty sizable neighborhood between this park and ... and that school.
Brown/ Thank you.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I guess, uh, I ... I'd like to echo, uh, basically what other people have already
said, uh, and I don't want to repeat the details of that. Three particular aspects come to
my mind, with regard to the East Side Sports Complex, if we get to the point where we're
gonna fund it because that decision hasn't been made yet or anything, but ... but if we do, I
think it's really crucial to have it very well integrated with the residential neighborhood
that will build out north of it and be connected with the new Hoover Elementary School,
so .... I ..... I think that's crucial and ..... so, we'll get to that at some point in the future.
Also I'm very glad to see that, uh, the plan and budget has money in it for repairing the
bridges. I ... I've been hearing from various people about how the bridges in Hickory Hill
Park are in pretty sad condition, at least some of `em are, and they need attention. Lastly,
I think ... I .... I don't want to speak for Lucie Laurian, but uh, when .... when I look at the,
uh, the map of the City park plan, I ... I see a lot to admire about it, but I do puzzle over
the .... the river side pond because it's my understanding that it...it will flood and that
means there'll be siltation in the pond, which means over time that it'll have to be
continually cleaned out, and if that's part of the plan, fine, as long as that's taken into
account. But that just seems to me to be a .... a pretty obvious thing that will happen, uh,
as a reco.... as a result of normal recurring flooding in that particular spot. So, anyhow,
uh, Julie, there you are! Brilliant job on presenting this material! It's very exciting, if,
uh, ambitious, which is a word we've used on our Council before (laughs) about various
things we want to do, uh, and it's, uh, really pleasing to see the good work the
Commission has done on this, and the staff has done.
Seydell-Johnson/ Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure to be here and have the
Commission and the Council together. Thank you.
Throgmorton/ Is there anything else that we need to hit on with regard to this?
Thomas/ Oh, I'll just add a ... one more thought, uh, since I spoke last and that would be, uh, it
seems .... the, urn .... you know, the, uh, many cities have `friends of park systems, uh,
that really help, you know, if we're talking finances and .... and my sense is that there isn't
a real strong one in Iowa City. Is that....
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Seydell-Johnson/ We do have one and (both talking) a part of the, uh, under the umbrella of a
Community Foundation very soon, but there is a Parks and Recreation Foundation. It
was very active during the Terry Trueblood development, uh, has not been quite as active
since then or very active at all really, um, but we still receive a number of donations for
smaller things like benches, trees, and that sort of thing through the Foundation there.
Taking it much beyond that right now, but .... it does exist. (laughs)
Thomas/ Good.
Seydell-Johnson/ (both talking) ...be stronger.
Thomas/ That .... so that and volunteerism if. ... to the degree we can.....promote volunteerism. I
just sent Zach an email today. I don't know if he had a chance to see it but I just spoke
with someone last week who's really keen on becoming involved in, uh, you know,
community-based volunteer street tree planting, which is often done in cities as well. So,
that too might be a way of deferring.... reducing some of the costs, and build community
at the same time.
Botchway/ One last point of focus I forgot to mention around accessibility. Um, as I was just
thinking here, if I ... I just moved from the west side to east side. If I was on the west side
and I wanted to use the sports complex, it'd be really hard for me to get there if I didn't
have a car, and so I don't necessarily know what kind of conversations we're having,
cause I see Chris in the room, with the Transportation Department, but thinking about
how that plays into accessibility and the park and other things would just be huge from
that standpoint.
Seydell-Johnson/ Definitely!
Laurian/ Can I add something or is it out of order?
Throgmorton/ No, go ahead.
Laurian/ The one park we haven't talked about is Chauncey Swan across the street. Um, I've
had a concern, I've shared my concern with everybody I think over time. Um, that it'll
be used for staging, which is fine. We've agreed to this. It'll be used for geothermal
underneath. That's fine; we've agreed to this. But what is not clear to me, and maybe
it's clear to you, but I've had discussion with our City Attorney and it's still not clear to
me, so after many emails.... I don't think we have agreed to give absolutely 100% of the
square footage of the park for the geothermal system. I've seen plenty of documents and
it is never specified that we give 100%. It says we specified an area that was descri... to
be describing (mumbled) which is not available. So as far as I understand, we as the
City, and I don't know if it's you or just our attorney. I don't know who that `we' is, uh,
understand that we will give 100% of the park for the geothermal. The developer
understands it also to be 100%, which make sense from their perspective. But I don't
know that we .... really understand it to be 100%. Our attorney does, but I'm not sure on
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what grounds. Do we know that they need X amount of square footage for X amount of
wells to produce X amount of kilowatt hours for ..... I don't know. I've never seen
anything like this in writing, and I've been struggling to find that out. I ... it is my
understanding that we could ask that part of the site, maybe on the east side, would be
reserved for anything the City may want to do in the future — building a tree that could
grow 200 years, putting bathrooms in 200 years down the road, something, right. In that
case we don't want geothermal under 100% of the site; we'd want some part of it to be
left alone so we could some day build something. Um .... and I .... I don't have clear
answers. I think .... I think our attorney understand this to be we've already agreed it'll be
100% of the site, but I don't know what grounds she does that, and I have never seen any
document that justifies that. My sense is that we're currently giving public assets to the
private sector for free without justification. That's a very strong concern of mine, and I
don't know if you have any answers to this but I know our attorney doesn't so....
Throgmorton/ Thanks, Lucie. I don't think we're prepared to discuss that at any length here
tonight.
Laurian/ That makes sense.
Throgmorton/ I would suggest that you talk with Geoff. Where are you, Geoff? (laughs) Uh,
about your particular, uh, concern. Uh, he may have a different perspective on this, I
don't know, but um.....thanks for bringing it to our attention and .... I think we need to,
you know, move on from ... from this, so thanks to the Commissioners for comin'. Um,
where are you, Marian? So we're gonna need a little bit of time to make a transition here,
right? So, uh, we need to take about a two minute break, uh, while we adjust chairs and
stuff like that. Thank you all.
Mims/ Thank you very much!
Questions from Council re Agenda Items:
Throgmorton/ Okay, we're gonna return to our work session of, uh, what is this, September the
6`h, 2016. Questions regarding agenda items.
ITEM 3d(3) NEIGHBORHOOD TRAFFIC CALMING POLICY REVISIONS —
RESOLUTION RESCINDING RESO 11-294 AND ADOPTING EVALUATION
CRITERIA FOR THE IOWA CITY NEIGHBORHOOD TRAFFIC CALMING
PROGRAM
Thomas/ I would like to ask that we pull, urn .... 3d .... (3), the traffic calming.
Throgmorton/ Okay. Let me make a note of it.
Botchway/ I guess I had questions in regards to that one.
Throgmorton/ Do you want to ask them now or .... during the meeting?
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Botchway/ I'll probably ask `em now cause I don't know ..... I know it changed based on, um,
Pauline and John talking with staff. So, I guess my question is ... you know, the rationale
for lowering the, I think it was the .... let me go back! Kind of explain to me the approval
rate being higher than the response rate. Because if you, let me go back to it .... sorry!
I've gotta flip between both packets.
Mims/ While you're looking, Kingsley, I'll comment too, I mean, my concern with those
lowering is you're really getting it down to only .... all you need is 30% approval (both
talking) within the neighborhood before the City would move forward. That seems pretty
low, if all you've got to have is a 50% response rate to the survey and the 60% approval
rate (both talking) of those who respond.... you're down potentially to only 30% of the
neighborhood wants it and the City's going to spend time and money on it. I think that's
getting kind of low.
Botchway/ What Susan said! (laughter) Cause I didn't .... (several talking and laughing) take me
awhile!
Throgmorton/ Well we could, um, just defer discussion of that to the formal meeting, but
recognizing that we're going to pull the item and have a separate discussion and vote on
it. Uh, I .... seems to me that'd be the .... proper thing to do.
Cole/ I would support that.
Botchway/ Well my .... my issue is that it was a change in, well, the staff made the change and
then made the recommendation, and so .... I guess I'm more asking why that was the case.
I'm not necessarily asking to .... deliberate or .... my decision be changed based on what is
being.... talked about.
Throgmorton/ So you'd like to have this .... staff briefly explain the revision. (several talking)
Okay! Kent!
Ralston/ Yeah, good evening, Kent Ralston, Transportation Planner. Um, as far as how that
worked, um .... Mr. Botchway, was really just a compromise. Um, staff came in a little bit
higher than what I think a few of the Council Members supported during our meeting,
and I think I mentioned this at the last work session when we had discussed traffic
calming is that those numbers, there's nothing magic about those numbers. It was just
trying to gamer enough support that we felt good, uh, moving forward, making sure
we're funding projects that the neighborhood really wants. So again, nothing magical
about those numbers, but um .... some of the higher numbers that we recommended
originally .... I would say represent more of what we saw in our random survey of other
traffic calming programs across the country, you know, in our 10 or 12 different
programs that we looked at.
Botchway/ But I guess going back to Susan and I's point, is that true of the response rate or the
approval rate being in the actual response rate, and so 50% respond then the approval is
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of that 50% so you could potentially only have, like what Susan said, 30% that are...
wanting a particular thing to happen in a partic.... in the neighborhood.
Ralston/ Right. It's more of a threshold where if you would not in this case get the 50% survey
response rate, we would not plan to move forward at all is really .... so they're really
separate measures is the way that I see it working. Um, so .... one of the first things we
would do is look at that survey response rate and if you only have 25% of those folks that
received a survey in the neighborhood actually respond, then we would bring that to the
Council and say .... it's just not a viable project. So that would stop it right there. So
really you have to meet that 50% survey response rate. Then of those 50%, you need to
have, uh, 50 or 60% (both talking)
Mims/ 60.
Ralston/ ...approval rate.
Throgmorton/ So it's not really 50% times 60% equals 30%.
Mims/ Yes it is. If you meet the minimums, it is 50% times 60% is 30%.
Botchway/ You split a street. One's on 50%, the other side gets it and then this side could vote
60% on the one half. (mumbled) approve a project for the entire neighborhood, I guess is
my question. Two halves, 50% on this side. If they .... if they all response, 60%, it would
be for both sides of the neighborhood even though their 50% wouldn't have wanted to do
it.
Ralston/ I'm not sure if I follow. I'm sorry.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I ... I think we ought to discuss this during the formal meeting, cause it, you
know, it gets to the question of. ... whether we want to approve what's being
recommended by the staff, so I .... you know, we can .... we can deliberate this (several
talking)
Botchway/ Well I guess if I .... if my equation doesn't make sense based on what I'm reading
then I'm gonna vote differently.
Mims/ It makes sense.
Botchway/ Okay.
Mims/ I know my math!
Ralston/ It doesn't make sense to me, only because I'm not a very good mathematician, but I can
try and explain it to you. (several talking and laughing)
Mims/ Dennis agrees with me! (laughs)
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Ralston/ Dennis would be a better resource than I! (several talking and laughing)
Thomas/ I would just quickly insert, one of the issues I think we face in Iowa City is in certain
neighborhoods you have high rental rates, so the, you know, the .... in certain parts of
Iowa City, you may not have much interest, simply because of the .... the nature of the
neighborhood, but we can .... I just wanted to insert that idea so you would have some
time to mull it over.
ITEM 3d(5) IOWA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION MAINTENANCE
AND REPAIR AGREEMENT - RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR
TO SIGN AN IOWA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AGREEMENT
FOR MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR OF PRIMARY ROADS IN
MUNICIPALITIES
Throgmorton/ Okay. We'll return to this during the formal meeting. Any other agenda items?
Questions with regard to agenda items?
Botchway/ Sorry, I've got to flip back.
Throgmorton/ While you're doing that, I'll make a comment on Item 3d(5), the five-year
agreement with IDOT, the Department of Transportation, for maintenance and repair of,
what, primary roads located within Iowa City. Yeah, I just wanted to observe that after,
uh, the meeting with IDOT Director Paul Trombino on the 21", which Geoff, I think you
were present for and....
Frain/ I was not. We had, uh....
Throgmorton/ Ron was there, I know.
Frain/ Ron and Kent were both there.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, and, uh.....you, John, you were there. Any .... anyhow, after that meeting,
or during the meeting actually, I asked, uh, Director Trombino if Iowa City could,
urn ... uh, if. ... if IDOT would permit Iowa City to assume control and responsibility over
Highway 1, within Iowa City's borders, and I asked that just out of curiosity, not to push
a particular point but .... and I know we've had conversations about wishing we
had.... sufficient control over Burlington Street so we can make some revisions to the
streetscape and that kind of thing, and I understood we could not, uh, get .... assume that
kind of control, uh, that IDOT wouldn't let us do that. Uh, but Tr .... Director Trombino
made it very clear, yes, we could have that conversation and yeah, we .... we probably
could. Afterwards Ron told me, no, it's not really a good idea for financial reasons,
which we don't need to get into now, but I just want y'all to know I had that .... that topic
came up and, uh.... so at some point in the future it might come up again, but I think the
timing is not good for reasons we could go into. We don't need to right now. Other
agenda items?
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ITEM 3f(15) Kasey and Dennis Befeler: Enforce the Iowa Smokefree Air Act in the
Pedestrian Mall
Cole/ I guess I .... can we bring up reference to correspondence here? Um....
Throgmorton/ Yeah!
Cole/ ....I just wanted to bring up a concern that, uh, Item 3f(15), um, that was the concern of
Kasey and Dennis Befeler relating to smoking in the ped mall. Have we been getting a
lot of reports of unauthorized smoking in the ped mall, or has that been an issue? I don't
know, um, it certainly seemed like they had some concerns about that and what is the
status of that?
Fruin/ Um, I ... I, this is the first concern that I've .... I've seen.
Cole/ Okay.
Fruin/ I can't speak for the Police Department and tell you, you know, how many calls they
may .... they may get on it, but it certainly hasn't risen to the point where I'm cognizant of
a lot of people complaining. Um, you know, it's one of those ordinances that are very
tough to enforce. We don't always have a presence downtown and .... probably the times
at which, uh, there's the most violations, which would be later in the evening ... gettin' into
bar hours, our police officers tend to be, uh, occupied with .... with more pressing issues.
Um, but it is enforced, uh, Simon was telling me, uh, this morning that over the weekend
he saw it being enforced on the ped mall. So it's....
Cole/ Something to monitor.
Throgmorton/ Troy, I know you're sittin' out there in the audience. Is there anything you want
to add to that?
Fruin/ He's hidin' back there. Sorry (several talking)
Throgmorton/ ....come up.
Kelsay/ Troy Kelsay, Police Department. I think there's some validity to their complaint. Uh,
within the last month I was actually at a meeting at Formosa of some bar and restaurant
owners and.....was pointed out that on the benches right outside their seating area there
was what appeared to be a transient smoking. Uh, the enforcement that Simon saw was
probably largely as a result of I came back and spoke with Officer Schwindt and had him
redraw a map that shows, for officers, where smoking is allowed, where it isn't. About
the same time, uh, City Manager Fruin had forwarded me the .... the email that you're
referencing, the correspondence, and .... it was already in the works, but that refresher
training went out to officers and there is increased attention. Said I don't care whether
tickets or written, whether it's enforcement or whether it's education, but there needs to
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be .... there needs to be some reminders on it right now. It was a timely letter. It was a
fair letter.
Cole/ (mumbled) Thank you.
ITEM 3d(1) ACT FIRST ADDITION — RESOLUTION APPROVING FINAL
PLAT (SUB16-00008)
Botchway/ Uh, 3d(1), so this is a .... ACT first addition. This isn't necessarily germane to the
actual project, but I guess my question is is .... I think we received correspondence about,
you know, the loss of jobs, urn .... in other areas. I can't remember the company, out of
West Branch, that primarily has .... West Branch and Iowa City, um .... does ACT do the
same thing, um, in relation to that, cause I see they're adding some .... or expanding a
little bit here, from an industrial standpoint, but that's .... when I looked at that, that's my
first thought as far as, you know, do we get any type of correspondence as far as, you
know, what type of jobs would be created with this expansion?
Fruin/ No, this is actually their .... I believe it's their McCarrel Center on ... on the south part of
town, uh, where they did a lot of their paper processing over the years. Um, this is a
subdivision of that property and .... and my guess would be that their intention is to sell
off a piece of that property. So they're .... as they're going to more of a digital, uh,
platform, I think (coughing, difficult to hear speaker) more looking at liquidating this
asset as opposed to growing down there.
ITEM 3e(1) AMENDING FY2017 BUDGET - RESOLUTION SETTING A
PUBLIC HEARING ON AMENDING THE FY2017 OPERATING BUDGET
Throgmorton/ With regard to Item 3e(1), which is about the budget, I'd like to ask Dennis a
question. I ... I think I know the answer but ... you know, just kinda want to ask it. Are
there any surprises in the amendment, uh, any bad news we should be concerned about,
good news we should be pleased about?
Bockenstedt/ Well I....most of `em are carried forward from the prior year appropriations. I
don't know if there are any surprises there, uh, there is a complete list attached, uh, to the
memorandum. So if there's anything on the list that you have a question about, I'll try
and answer it for you.
Throgmorton/ Just wanted you to say that (laughter) Okay, thank you, Dennis! Other agenda
item questions?
ITEM 3f(14) Martine Dunnwald: Horace Mann School traffic [Staff response
included]
Cole/ I guess I have a question about correspondence 3f(14), the correspondence from Martine
Dunnwald, um, regarding Horace Mann traffic. I did see the staff response but .... um,
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where sort of ...are we continuing to have that conversation with the Department of
Transportation in terms of the traffic, um, it just seems to be a reoccurring issue.
Ralston/ Tomorrow!
Cole/ Oh, okay! (both talking)
Ralston/ ....a long, uh, agenda and I've seen the draft and all that information did make it to the
DOT so we'll have that discussion tomorrow.
Cole/ Okay. Thank you.
Taylor/ I'm glad you brought that up cause I did have a concern about that too, living close to a
school myself. Crossing guards it seemed to be .... crossing guard was one of the major
answers in responses to that and .... they're on .... they're on a very short time frame that
they're around the schools, so .... and the kids are coming and going at all times. So I was
kind of concerned that the response was, uh, the answer was crossing guards.
Cole/ Uh huh. Thanks, Kent.
Throgmorton/ Any other agenda item questions? If not .... let's move to appointments to boards
and commissions.
Appointments to Boards and Commissions lAaenda # 101:
Throgmorton/ We have, what, one position to fill on Historic Preservation, uh, the Historic
Preservation Commission. There's one applicant, Kevin Boyd, to fill an unexpired at -
large term that ends on July the 15t, 2017. It's a male requirement position.
Dickens/ He's a wonderful young man.
Mims/ Yep! (several talking)
Dickens/ ....known him since he was born! (laughter) So, uh, he's livin' in the north end there.
He just bought a house up there.
Throgmorton/ Yeah!
Dickens/ He'd been in Washington D.C. for a while but he wanted to get back to Iowa and .... his
grandfather was a builder, built a lot of the houses down by Sycamore Mall, so he comes
with a background in building and.....so.... his mother's on the Iowa City Foundation
Board, uh..... or Johnson County Foundation, so .... um .... think he's a wonderful choice
young man that I think we'll be very proud of. (several talking)
Throgmorton/ I can say my dog Watson likes him too because, uh, we walk that street a lot and,
uh, several months ago, uh, Kevin just kind of yelled out at me and Watson while we
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were walking, and introduced himself and all that. So, okay, I don't hear a groundswell
of opposition so (laughter) Kevin Boyd, I mean I gotta write that down.
Taylor/ Very much in favor!
Information Packet Discussion (August 18, August 25, September 11:
Throgmorton/ Which leads us to the Info Packet discussion for the August 18a' packet. Anything
you want to bring up about it? I noticed the packets are getting shorter.
Karr/ We had an extra week...
Throgmorton/ Ah!
Karr/ ...between meetings.
Botchway/ I just want to say, uh, IP6, uh, congrats to .... Henry Harper.
Throgmorton/ Yeah!
Mims/ Kind of (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Go ahead!
Mims/ IP5, kind of after the fact but it's nice to see that First Avenue is now back open.
Throgmorton/ (several talking)
Mims/ ....it is nice to have it open!
Botchway/ It looks really good too. I'm just very impressed! (laughs) Sorry, I was really
excited (several talking and laughing)
Throgmorton/ Sure a lot of people are going to be happy with that!
Mims/ Yeah!
Throgmorton/ Anything else about the August 18a packet? Going once, going twice, going three
times. How bout the August 25h packet? Terry, could you say .... well, do you want to
say anything about the Paratransit Advisory Committee's meeting?
Dickens/ I'll report, uh, just, urn .... I don't know that we have to take formal .... we already kind
of discussed it that we would just .... we're downsizing the number of people. The County
was going to vote on it, just having one person on it, but we've already talked about, I
think, here that we were just going to have one person from each entity on it, uh, it just
will work a little better, um.....talking about First Avenue opening up'll be a great plus
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for the paratransit because they've been stopped so many times by the trains and with the
construction that that will help their on-time increase dramatically because there are a lot
of people that use that area, so.....um..... other than that, uh, just went over some of the
State regulations and, uh, and .... people are still a little confused on .... how they get their
services because there's only limited number of people that are providers but .... and they
did talk about the new .... um .... more of a van -type taxi that will be of smaller use but
they're still working on funding there. North Liberty, working on there. Uh.... single
route service that, uh.....will enhance the paratransit because it's tough for them to get up
there. They only get up there a couple times a day, so that's all being discussed
and .... we're supposed to get a report at our December meeting what's happening with
North Liberty.
Throgmorton/ Good deal! Thanks! Anything else about the August 25`h packet?
Botchway/ IP .... 2, uh, it was an email from Shams, um, talking about .... uh, mosque security
following Queens' shooting. Um, I just thought it was a, you know, frankly disgusting
article, not necessarily the nature of the article or not necessarily the actual article but just
the nature of it and .... just for us to be keenly aware of the Muslim community and how
that .... while it might not be happening here, um, you know, puts, you know, all folks of
the Muslim faith in somewhat fear and concern for what's going to happen in any
particular city. So I just wanted that as a, kind of reference point. (mumbled) Oops,
sorry! And that there's a, uh, Human Rights' event on October 13th, um, particularly
related, I think you're invited, um, to this particular issue.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I just read a lengthy article in the New York Times about Denmark and its
internal challenges pertaining to .... urn .... recent refugees who happen to be Muslim. All
right, so .... (both talking)
Botchway/ Last thing was IP3, um, so I put another article in there. It's not about ... police
searching for two after gunshots reported on Highway 90 in Myrtle Beach. It is about the
parking rules in effect. It was kind of, um, we're not having this discussion obviously,
but in reference to John talking about, um, or not John, but John mentioning, greater
discussion on residential parking and how they have looked at it, and now they're looking
at it from a .... a larger visitor spectrum for people patronizing Myrtle Beach, but I just
thought it was a really cool way. It didn't take that long to set it up on my phone and do
it and .... frankly felt pretty good and I just left and .... that was it, so....
Mims/ Didn't get a ticket?
Botchway/ No! Cause I figured it out! (laughter) It's a running meter. It's actually a running
meter and so as you leave you make sure that you .... you have to make sure that you stop
(laughter) then leave, but it's pretty cool from that standpoint.
Throgmorton/ All right, should we move on to the SeTtember Is` packet? KXIC radio schedule.
I'd be happy to volunteer for October the .... 5 . And I can actually do a Friday show,
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which I've never done before, and which means I'd be completely incoherent instead of
just partially incoherent (laughter)
Mims/ Then maybe you should pass! (laughter)
Throgmorton/ Yeah, really! (several talking) Yeah, so like Friday, October the 215`. I could do
the Friday show.
Botchway/ I can do October 7`h and September 215`.
Cole/ (mumbled)
Botchway/ So that's ... so that's ... pop it into Wednesday.
Karr/ Okay, Kingsley, you wanted the 7th and the....
Botchway/ October .... or September 2155, excuse me! There ya go!
Karr/ Okay. Thank you.
Dickens/ I'll do Friday, October 7h. That'll be (several talking and laughing)
Karr/ ...and the 215`.
Dickens/ It's the end of the baseball season (several talking) I have to collect from (several
talking)
Karr/ Together?
Botchway/ Yeah, and send Jay a note — hard questions for Terry October 7`h.
Karr/ Okay, the 7`h, two. Okay.
Dickens/ Yeah, we'll both do it then!
Karr/ Okay, so I have the 14`h, the 285h, the 12", and the 19`h yet.
Mims/ I can do September 14th.
Karr/ 10, Susan. Okay.
Cole/ I'll do the 19`h of October.
Karr/ (both talking) Rockne, okay. 28`h and 12th.
Dickens/ I'll do the September 28`h.
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Karr/ Dickens the 28th. 12'uh9
Thomas/ I'm out of town. Terry, could.... could.....
Dickens/ Which one?
Thomas/ Can I do the 28th, and (both talking) you could do October.... 12th or....
Dickens/ Sure!
Botchway/ I just told Terry that's my birthday so make sure you give me a shoutout!
Karr/ Thomas the 28th, Dickens the 12`h. Okay. I'll get a schedule out.
Throgmorton/ Okay, we're good to go on that. Excellent. Thanks everybody! Any other item,
uh.... uh, topics or items to discuss on the September l" packet?
Cole/ John and I are doing a listening post September 17t', um, from 9:00 to 11:00. I was
wondering whether someone could cover from 10:00 to 11:00 because I think Backyard
Abundance is doing their opening for the edible classroom on the north side of, uh,
Robert A. Lee.
Karr/ Why don't we talk about scheduling for listening posts off .... not at a public meeting?
Cole/ Okay.
Karr/ Only because there's a lot of shifting that occurs and then people who are listening think
for sure you're going to be there and when there's a last minute change we don't usually
say who's going to be there.
Cole/ Okay.
Karr/ So why don't .... (both talking) Why don't we talk about it and I'll send an email and see if
we can swap those details.
Cole/ Terrific!
Karr/ Okay.
Council Time:
Throgmorton/ Anything else?
Thomas/ Well, Jim, you and I will be going to the League of Cities, Iowa Cities, uh, next week.
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Throgmorton/ Yeah. Wednesday and Thursday. Yeah. That gets us into Council time. Yeah,
so .... that's your, one of the things you're going to say, right? What.... what else do you
want to draw attention to? In Council time?
Thomas/ That's it.
Throgmorton/ Okay. Others, Council time stuff? (several talking) All right, there's some things
I'll want to mention to you. Uh, let's see. First, Susan and I met with Chris Lynch and
Brian Kirschling on the 17th. Had a good, uh, conversation. Happily over beers at, uh....
uh... Hilltop Tavern. I had great fun welcoming people to the Farm to Street Dinner on
the 18th. I thought it was a brilliant success.
Mims/ Great evening!
Throgmorton/ Really great fun. I know ... you were there, Susan?
Mims/ Yep!
Throgmorton/ Uh, just tremendous success. Uh, I had lunch with John Lundell and Amy Nielsen
on the 196'. Had a pretty productive and fun conversation out at Brown Deer. Watched
people teeing off. Hitting big slices off to the right and duckhooks off to the left. Uh, I
spoke at the Rotary Luncheon on the 25th. Uh, there were, I'd guess, maybe 100 people
there, kind of a typical luncheon and uh, I'd like to thank Kingsley for a really kind and
generous introduction he made, uh, for me. Also I was interviewed on KU .... KRUI radio
on the 26th. I have no idea when that's going to appear on the radio. (laughs) I never
heard that and I couldn't find it on their schedule, so I don't know the answer to that one.
Uh, I'm going to be doing my fifth Mayor's Walk on September the 7th. This time out in
the northeast side of town, along Amhurst, from Rochester to Washington Street, and
wherever else I might end up going (laughs) Uh, along with John, going to the Iowa
League of Cities meeting. And along with Kingsley we'll be participating in the 30 Iowa
City Teach -In on September the 16th on the ped mall. Kingsley, can you describe what
the 30 Iowa .... the 30 Iowa City is?
Botchway/ Basically it's a ..... a group of various professionals, um. .... talking about, um, interests
as it relates to, you know, your particular field and so we'll be talking about .... I can't
remember off the top of my head. We'll be talking about, um .... how, you know, race
and other things, um, happen at the Council table and how we deliberate on it, so giving,
um, somewhat of an informational session for folks that are a part of it, um, and that's
kind of what the framework is as far as people, again, you know, interfacing with
different, uh, professionals, whether it be the University or obviously Iowa City
government from a Council standpoint. I'm not sure whether or not, um, you know, City
staff are invited to have any type of discussion, but .... it's just various (both talking)
professionals. Yeah. There's a .... I'll send out the communication. I guess I forgot to do
that. Urn ... in relation to, um, there's.... there's a laundry list from the 16th through the
18th of people that are .... that are, um, associated with participating.
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Throgmorton/ Yeah, and .... (both talking) Kendra Malone is the organizer, right?
Botchway/ Yeah.
Throgmorton/ Yeah. Yeah, good deal, and one other thing I wanted to mention to you. Uh,
some of you probably notice that the Press -Citizen on September the 2°a published a
version of my memo about downtown development. I want you all to know that I neither
knew it was going to be published, nor requested that it be published, nor authorized the
version that was published. So, you know, it surprised me when I open up the paper and
saw it there. That said, I hope the fact that it appeared, uh, in the paper will further the
conversation, uh, with regard to downtown development. So, I'm not mad or anything. I
just wanted you to know I didn't kind of get it in there intentionally or something like
that. Okay, uh, moving on I guess from Council time, how bout meeting schedule.
Meeting Schedule:
Botchway/ Affordable housing's next!
Throgmorton/ ...to announce about that? Well the only thing I know is, Susan and Rockne, we
have an Economic Development Committee on the .... what's the date? On Friday? No,
what's the date? Uh.... on the 9'h, yeah. Okay, so we can move off ...beyond that. How
bout pending work session topics? Marian, you and I, uh, briefly discussed the
possibility of, uh, focusing some work session time on work sessions (laughs) Do you
want to say a few words about that or.....should I? Would it be....
Pending Work Session Topics lIP # 3 Info Packet of 9/11:
Karr/ We'll (laughs) be preparing a memo, uh, on some different approaches that other
communities have taken on work sessions, and in light of, uh, some comments that
you've made recently, as well, and just presenting some different options available for,
um, work session discussion and hope that you'll give staff then further direction based
on that.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, so just..... it's a heads -up basically. You'll ... we'll all ... we will all be
receiving an email from, memo, from Marian about that particular topic. Okay, and on
the 20`h we're going to discuss the affordable housing action plan and provide staff
direction on the various recommendations contained in it. So we need to read that
carefully and be prepared to provide direction, uh, that night. Okay, moving on, let's see
what's next.... upcoming community events, Council invitations.
Upcoming Community Events/Council Invitations:
Dickens/ The Voxman, they're doing tours ... I believe they moved it to the 15`h now ... of
September. So....
Throgmorton/ That's the Downtown District tours.
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Dickens/ Yeah, right. So that was the 14`h but they moved it because of the .... I think the
President's Hancher event is the day before. So...
Throgmorton/ So there are quite a few ribbon -cutting events coming up, speaking of the
University stuff, so I asked Marian to give me the right dates cause I wasn't really sure
about that. So, let me go over `em quickly. Hancher's ribbon cutting is on September the
9`h; uh, I didn't write down the time for that but anyhow, September the 9'h. Uh, the
Visual Arts Building is on Friday, October the 7h at 3:00 P.M.; Voxman Music Building
on Friday, October the 21" at 4:30 P.M.; and, uh, Children's Hospital on Saturday,
November the 56' at 11:00 A.M. This is a big deal, isn't it, I mean all these things
opening up, so, uh, congratulations to the University. The last thing I want to mention is
that there's going to be a monarch butterfly festival Sunday, September the I Ith, from
1:00 to 2:30 P.M. at the East Side Recycling Center. So, that'll be a fun event. I'm
looking forward to it! Anything else we need to mention? If not .... I think our work
session's done. Thank you!
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