HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-06-06 TranscriptionPage 1
Council Present: Botchway, Cole, Dickens, Mims, Thomas, Throgmorton
Council Absent: Taylor
Staff Present: Fruin, Monroe, Boothroy, O'Brien, Andrew, Knoche, Havel, Ackerson,
Bockenstedt, Yapp, Laverman, Ford, Dulek, Seydell Johnson, Fruehling,
Dilkes
Others Present: Nelson (UISG)
Neighborhood Stabilization:
Fruin/ (recording starts in mid -conversation) .....presenting was, uh.... urn, crafted by a team
effort, um, largely from the Legal staff and staff with the, uh, Neighborhood
Development Services Department. So, uh, we're gonna jump right in. I figure, um,
we'll spend, uh, probably 20 or 30 minutes on the presentation and then I think there'll
probably be a good discussion afterwards. Um, our focus tonight is on, uh, occupancy,
uh, regulations in our neighborhoods, and uh, the, uh, if you can see the italics up there. I
realize that's a ... small print. Maybe you can see it a little better in front of you. Uh,
that's the current definition that we have of a family in our code, and I would argue that
that's the most critical regulatory tool that we have right now, uh, to ensure that we have
healthy, stable neighborhoods, um, around our, uh, in our inner core community. Uh, the
regulation, uh, as you can see, it....it defines a family as, uh, one person or two or more
persons related by blood, marriage, adoption, or placement by a government or social
service agency, occupying a dwelling unit as a single housekeeping organization. A
family can also include two or more, uh, persons that are not related, and so effectively
what we're saying here is our .... our limit is .... is three unrelated, and that's how we
govern, uh, the occupancy, um, in our neighborhoods. Uh, this attempt to balance the
market between rental and homeownership, and protect the health and safety of the
public, and not overburden our public infrastructure and our municipal services that we
offer. This is a pretty common, uh.... regulatory tool that's used not only, uh, in the state
of Iowa, uh, but also throughout the country. Probably the most common way that
university communities, uh, would manage, uh, occupancy or regulate occupancy, and
um, also has been well tested in the courts, uh, throughout the country and ... and upheld.
Um, it....it is, uh, an effective tool for us. It's, uh, it's a very simple standard to
understand and for the most part, uh, we get voluntary compliance. Uh, you can see from
that last bullet point on the slide that, uh, over the last five years we've only had 26
citations, uh, for occupancy. We have over 18,000 rental permits in the community. So
if you were to, uh, take those 26 citations, uh, and divide by the total number of rental
permits there, it represents more than .15% of all rental permits. This all, uh, the reason
why we're here tonight is, uh, House File 134. It's gonna change how we have to
manage occupancy in our community. Um, this was, uh, signed by the Governor, uh,
late, uh.... uh, this spring, and I'll skip right down to B, which, uh, effective January 151,
2018, restricts the City from, uh, regulating occupancy by familial or non -familial status.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 2
So essentially everything I pointed to in that previous slide is no longer going to be
available to us come January 1 of 2018. I do want to point out Section A above, which is
not underlined, and um, I think it's important to note that the State is still expressing, um,
a.....a, um.....a.... a recognition that cities need to promote the health, safety, morals, and
general where.... welfare of the community. Um, it talks about preserving historic areas
of the community and it empowers cities, and that word's in there. It's, uh, any city is
hereby empowered to regulate and restrict height, number of stories, size of buildings,
structures, the percentage of lot that may be occupied, and you can see the, uh, remaining
lot there. So, uh, clearly the State is still recognizing that the .... that cities need to be able
to regulate, uh, occupancy in order to protect, uh, the community and the neighborhoods
within it. So why .... why does this matter? Um .... why do we care if we have balanced,
healthy, stable neighborhoods? Um .... why do we need to do anything maybe? Uh,
clearly when you remove the occupancy restriction that we have right now, and you go
from a situation where an owner, uh, of a single-family home could rent to up to three
unrelateds and now that restriction's gone and they can rent to five, six, seven, or more
unrelated, uh, individuals, um, it...it tips the market, um, very heavily in the favor of
rentals, um, and the, uh, stability of the neighborhood starts to .... starts to fall apart and
become one-sided. Balanced neighborhoods support a diverse economy and a healthy
downtown. When you think about the areas that are walkable to the downtown, if you
had one single demographic, let's say your demographic was all, uh, 18 to 22 -year-olds
that lived within a walking distance to downtown, because that's what the market kind of
forced, uh.... uh, property owners into, or led them into, um, you would see a downtown
business community that catered directly to those students. The types of businesses, uh,
that would invest and, uh, open up shop in places like downtown and the Northside
Marketplace would cater in large part to that demographic. Clearly over the past 10 or
more years, we've been tryin' to, trying very hard, to not only diversify our
neighborhoods, but also diversify the, uh, downtown, uh, business mix, and that's, uh, it's
key that we have stable neighborhoods, uh, diverse neighborhoods, uh, that appeal
to .... to ..... to diverse populations, um, surrounding the downtown for that purpose.
There's a whole list of other reasons why it matters here. Housing affordability, uh,
certainly this Council has talked a lot about affordable housing. Um, if you are taking
away some of the older areas of the community, um, if you take away the
homeownership opportunities because there is such a strong rental market, uh, that
absolutely has an impact on housing affordability. Some of the older neighborhoods that
we're focusing on here, uh, were built 50, 60, 70, even, uh, e.....even longer periods ago.
The ... the municipal services that have been designed around those neighborhoods, the
public infrastructure that supports those neighborhoods were not designed, uh, for the
level of occupancy, uh, that we may see if we don't take any action, uh, post House File
134. Uh, as with public infrastructure, a lot of the homes, uh, that may become, uh,
occupied to greater extent were not, uh... built with that purpose in mind. Uh, they may
not be brought.... they may not be up to current code standards, and we have to look
critically at measures that we need to take to ensure the tenant safety, uh, but also the,
um, the safety of the public, uh, in those neighborhoods. There's a lot of character
and .... and charm, and historic value to our .... our urban core neighborhoods, and we have
to ensure that, uh, we have regulations in place to, uh, keep those, uh.... keep the.....keep
the character, um, as .... as well. Uh, viability of neighborhood schools, uh, is certainly
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 3
if. ... if, again, a neighborhood becomes one-sided in terms of the demographic it's
attracting, uh, particularly with the student market that we have here, um, I would have
strong concerns for the viability of neighborhood schools. I think, uh, we would see a
continued, um... uh, move away from home.....homeownership and .... and families
investing in these neighborhoods, uh, more to the rental side and I question whether some
of those neighborhood schools can continue to .... to stay relevant over the long-term. The
last two deal with some of the nuisance and property maintenance concerns. Um, you
know, I think those are pretty self-explanatory there. So what do we do? Uh, we have
until January 1, uh, to come up with another set of regulations. Again, the State
has .... has empowered us to do so. They've just said that we can no longer do so
utilizing, uh, familial status. So we're gonna outline seven strategies tonight. I want to
emphasize that none of these are fully fleshed out at this point. These are, um, ideas,
some illustrative examples so you can get a sense of where, uh, as a staff we are doing,
and then you can redirect us, offer some additional ideas, suggestions, or tell if. ... if
there's anything that you're not necessarily interested in us pursuing. So real quickly, I'll
go through the seven and there's a slide that supports each of these seven points. Ensure
that neighborhoods support both homeownership and ... and rental occu... uh, and rental
opportunities. Uh, basically what we're saying is here we need to come up with a set of
regulations, um, that leads to the market, um, supporting both types of opportunities in
our communities. We need to prohibit investments that detract from the neighborhood
character and over... overburden City infrastructure and services. We have to make
certain that nuisance and criminal infractions are handled swiftly and efficiently, to
preserve that neighborhood character. Um, in short, this means that we're going to have
to step up our enforcement activity. And, uh, we've got some ideas that we'll share with
you on how we might do that. Protect the health and safety of the occupants in the rental
units. Um, we ... you all know that we've invested a lot, we continue to invest a lot of
money in housing programs in Iowa City. I think we need to just take a step back and
look at all those programs and ensure that, um ... they are helping us achieve the objectives
in here, and I'll get into some examples, uh, of that, but let's make sure if we're .... if
we're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on .... on housing programs that,
uh, they're.... they're helping us achieve the goals that we, uh, need to achieve. Six is the
encouraging the development of student -oriented housing. We have to recognize that
we .... we need more supply, uh, particularly, uh, for the .... for the student market. Um, I
think we've seen some success in the Riverfront Crossings District, how we changed
some zoning to incent, um, development in those areas. I think we need to take another
step back, look at some of those surrounding areas, and see if there's more opportunities
for purpose-built student housing in appropriate locations that are walkable to campus.
And lastly is just ... is, uh, a recognition that we need to partner with stakeholders to
engage, educate, and empower, uh, the neighbors. City government may not have all the
solutions, uh, some of the solutions can be, uh, done in partnership with the University,
with Student Government, with, uh, neighborhood associations. We need to figure out,
uh, what we need to do as a city to empower those groups to ... to take the steps that they
feel are necessary as well. So we'll walk through, uh, each of these seven strategies, uh,
pretty quickly, and again, you're not gonna see fully fleshed out ideas here, um, you're
gonna see concepts that we have, uh, that .... that need some more thought and attention,
uh, before we can bring you any specific code change recommendations. We know we
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 4
have to replace the familial relationship code language, and we need to do so, uh, in a
manner that balances that market that I've talked about a few times. What we're looking
at right now is a regulation on the number of rental permits and the occupancy levels, and
uh, we would... we would look at that on a neighborhood basis or perhaps even a block -
by -block basis. We've seen a .... examples of a few communities that have done this
elsewhere outside of the state of Iowa. That appears to be, uh, an effective strategy, um,
but we don't know what those numbers may be. So what we'd be looking at is saying
no ... uh, no more than X number of rental permits per a specific geographic area, um,
what I really like about that strategy is that it achieves that balance in the market. If you
know that there are no more rental permits that can be, urn .... uh, sought or pursued in
that area, you're gonna ensure some continued homeownership opportunities. Obviously
you get into, um, a lot of studies and thought in determining those levels at a
neighborhood. What ... what is the appropriate percentage of units that can .... can be
rented, uh, but you also have to recognize, um .... that some of those neighborhoods may
already exceed that number and so we're probably going to get into a situation where we
need to grandfather, uh, permits in, or rental permits in, but again, that .... those are things
that, uh, we would fully flesh out, uh, in the next several months. Prohibiting
investments that detract from neighborhood character and overbi.... overburden City
services, um.....because of the occupancy restrictions, uh, being lifted here come January
1', we just need to make sure that, uh, additions onto properties, enlargements of
properties, uh, and even new construction, if you have demolition and .... and a .... a new
construction, are done so in... in a manner that does not detract from the character, that
hopefully adds to the character of the neighborhood. So we've gotta be careful not
to ... not to start gettin' into a situation where we get a bunch of, urn .... poorly planned
appendages, kinda built on to some of these older structures that really start to detract
from the neighborhood and... and not only impact that property, but all of the properties
around it. The last three bullets are .... are some examples of things that, um.....uh, we're
looking at and .... and they speak a little bit to the City infrastructure and services, but also
to the ... the neighborhood character. Uh, if you are going to be increasing the occupant
load in dwelling units, uh, you may, uh, or you may think you need to increase the
amount of hard surface on your property, uh, to accommodate parking and ... and, uh,
other requirements. Want to make sure that we have appropriate, uh, code language in
place that .... that does not, uh, allow excessive paving of lot areas that not only detract
from the neighborhood, but could overbor... overburden our storm sewers, urn, which
again in these areas are mostly, uh, older and ... and not sized for ... for that type of use.
Also want to limit occupancies on structures based on available, uh, off-street parking.
So if you're going from three unrelateds to seven unrelateds, and all seven of those have
vehicles, it's obviously a .... a burden on a .... on a neighborhood, or could be, if, uh, that's
magnified. We need to look at that, and look at how parking could be a tool in regulating
occupancy. We also need to look at it from a .... a municipal service, uh, end of things
and the example here is the private, uh, private waste hauling. We have .... we service
single-family, uh, residences, and again, if. ... if those were three unrelateds now and it's
going to seven or eight, we have to, urn .... we have to think about whether our service is
really designed to accommodate that. And if not, what is that level in which they may
need to provide, um, a dumpster or go to a private option, and if they have to say after
five or six or seven, whatever that number may be, you have to have a dumpster, um, and
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 5
then what are the ways in which we require placement and screening of that, and does
that property even allow for a situation in which, um, it would be appropriate to have
a.....a waste receptacle like a dumpster on site. Again, nothing fully fleshed out. Just
something we need to think about. On the enforcement piece, uh, we expect as
occupancy goes up, um, that we will, uh, have greater enforcement challenges and we
need to be able to respond to that. Um, it's gonna require additional staff, and we'll have
to look at, um, the ways to a .... accommodate that additional staff. Um, it would likely,
uh....be through, uh.... be accommodated through the rental permit inspection fees. Uh,
that's currently how we fund, uh, our inspection staff now. We need to look at, um,
getting inspections at different times of. ... of days, or different times of the week. We
don't do any weekend, uh, inspections now, and certainly that's when a lot of the
nuisances take place. We're not able to respond to those until Monday, in ... in many of
cases. We also need to look at, uh... uh, perhaps a me .... more proactive, uh, Police
Department presence in the evenings, um, and uh, we're .... we're doing that through kind
of the lens of the neighborhood liaison officer program that we already have set up here.
You see a couple of other bullet points there. Uh, one other, uh, concept that we're
lookin' at is a landlord response requirement, making sure that the landlord is responsive
to nuisances. So at any time of day or night if there's a nuisance on your property that's
causing a disruption in the neighborhood, you have an obligation to respond and help, uh,
remedy that situation, and if not there could be sanctions, uh, for a lack of response. Uh,
we need to look at the ... uh, the penalty structure that we have, uh, for nuisance properties,
particularly repeat properties. Uh, in ... in the last five years, we have had only one rental
permit that we have revoked or suspended. Uh, we've also had one where we put a
reduced term on that, uh, rental permit, and again, we have over 18,000 rental permits.
So I think it's safe to say we've been pretty lenient, because you all know that we do
have nuisance issues in the neighborhoods, uh, so we need to look at, um, what is
appropriate? Do we need to become, uh, a little bit more aggressive in our enforcement
and .... and dangle some stiffer penalties out there in order to get better compliance, and
again, that compliance is key to .... providing a stable, uh, neighborhood that's attractive
to different populations. Nobody, uh, if you've got, uh, a family, you don't want
to .... you don't want to be constantly, um, dealing with a neighborhood full of nuisances.
We've gotta be able to be responsive and, again, make that whole neighborhood
appealing to a .... a variety of, uh, different people. We do re ... we do right now require,
uh, that their landlords keep an information disclosure and acknowledgement form. Um,
that helps us, uh, check on occupancy levels and also notifies the tenants and landlords of
different, uh, City regulations and provisions. We've never required that to be filed with
the City. It's always to be produced upon request, and uh, we would suggest an annual
filing of that document now, uh, so it's readily available to us, um, so we can ensure that
it's bein' done, that folks are bein' notified, and it could also be, um. .... uh, available as a
public record. Protect the health and safety of occupants in rental units, again as, um,
occupancy goes up, particularly in older homes that were not necessarily constructed for
that purpose, we have to make sure that those folks are movin' into a safe living
environment. Uh, we are looking at moving from a two-year inspection cycle to a one-
year inspection cycle for, uh, some of those properties. Not necessarily all properties, but
those ones where we feel that there are the .... the greatest public safety risks. We'd look
at things like annual furnace and hot water certifications to make sure that some of those,
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 6
uh, core, urn .... uh, mechanical systems within the ... within the structures are operating
properly, and are, um, basically adequate for the types of use that are occurring in that
structure. From a fire perspective, a lot of, uh, older homes, uh, still don't .... would not
have, uh, hard -wired, interconnected smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. That's
something I think we need to look at, um, certainly as occupancy goes up, there's a
greater risk for, um, there's a greater fire risk and... and.... and public safety risk there.
We need to ... to make sure that, uh, again, we're providing a safe living environment.
And then as I mentioned before, uh, we're gonna have to work, um, closely with our
Police Department and our Inspections group to ensure that, uh, we are, um, addressing
the disorderly house occurrences in the evenings that could provide an unsafe, um,
situation for .... for tenants. Okay, moving along to the City programs that we already
have and taking a look at those. Um, I'll give you the example of the UniverCity
program. I think you all are very familiar with that program in which we, uh, buy a
property, invest a little bit into the, uh, remodeling of that property and then sell it. Uh,
currently we have a 20 -year, uh.... uh, deed restriction that requires that to be an owner -
occupied property for ... for 20 years. Uh, so if the party that ... that buys that from us today
wants to sell it in year 10, uh, they have to, uh, sell it to someone that will be, uh.... uh,
living in that unit for at least 10 years. Uh, we need to look if that 20 -year period makes
sense, um, does it .... does it, um, make sense for us to push that to 25 or to 30 years? Um,
and have that same kind of thought process with our rehab programs, our health
programs, um, any... any other way that we're investing in these neighborhoods, we need
to look at, particularly that owner -occupied, uh, component to it. May not be appropriate
in all cases, you know, if we're doin' a.....a.....a rehab project that's a couple of thousand
dollars, I don't know that it's appropriate for us to put that type of, um, owner -occupied
restriction on there, at least of that length. Um, but staff... as staff we need some time to
go through all those various programs and see what can be done. Uh, are there new
programs? We need to look at how some other cities are addressing those, but cer....
certainly the UniverCity program appeals to, uh, some property owners. Other property
owners wants to maintain their property, but, uh, they may want to .... they may be willing
to, um, maintain it in a different way. So if it's a non -conforming rooming house, for
example, that already can have a high occupancy load and we can work with the property
owner to essentially buy out of that use, and ... and bring them into a .... a current
compliance, that may be a more cost-effective way for the City to, uh, help achieve a
balance in these neighborhoods. And then look at some of the other opportunities we
have with our CDBG program. Are there some other things, like downpayment
assistance and some targeted neighborhoods that could help, uh, create that balance and
stability that we're lookin' for. Uh, this is, uh, this is one we talked about, uh, I gave you
the example of the Riverfront Crossings' area. Um, how we, uh, very carefully
considered some new zoning in that area and .... and you all know the type of
development interest that we've had there. Um, are there other areas of town, uh, that
are, uh, that would be considered appropriate, particularly for purpose-built student
housing, uh, where we could make some code changes and ... and incent some
development, uh, to help accommodate the supply that's needed and .... and hopefully
serve as a relief valve for some of the, uh, neighborhoods that we're lookin' to preserve
here, and certainly we need to recognize, uh, the efforts that the University of Iowa has
made in recent, uh, years to bring on some new, uh, on -campus housing opportunities.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 7
They're an important part of this, uh, equation, and we need to support them as they
consider, uh, future on -campus housing opportunities. Okay, last is the, um, partnering
with stakeholders to engage, educate, and empower neighbors. Urn ... you know, most of
the .... most of the neighbors are probably unaware, um, of this, uh, transition period that
we're in with the occupancy. Uh, they're probably very well plugged in to the rental, uh,
dynamics in the neighborhood, uh, but we need to make sure that they're, uh, engaged,
uh, on this issue. Uh, we need to partner with the University of Iowa and Student
Government to explore ways to proactively, um, work to, uh, prevent, um, the behaviors
that would trigger our enforcement, and .... and certainly eliminate those behaviors if they
come up. I think we can, um .... you know, be proactive on that front and hopefully
achieve some good results so it's not just the heavy enforcement hand that's.... that's....
that's, um, coming through the neighborhoods. And then there may be some
opportunities for neighborhoods, um, to, um, take some matters into their own hands.
Certainly an engaged, mobilized neighborhood is always more effective than .... than a
neighborhood that's maybe loosely organized or not organized at all. So, are there some
ways that we can strengthen neighborhood associations in some of these, uh.... um,
nearby neighborhoods. Um, are there neighbors that may be willing to look at, uh,
restrictive covenants and can we help them understand what that process is to develop
private, restrictive covenants that may, um, limit some of the types of improvements
that ... that you can do in a neighborhood, you know, to preserve the, uh, to ... to ensure that
we're preserving the character, uh, of their neighborhood. That's certainly common in
more suburban style sprawl developments, but it's a tool that could be used, um, in .... in
the older neighborhoods as well. As you know on your agenda tonight we have a, uh,
moratorium, uh, that is proposed, a first reading of a moratorium, and again, um .... what I
would say is, we are losing our most effective regulatory tool when it comes to ensuring
that we have, uh, stable, healthy neighborhoods. Um .... we need to .... we need to take
some action now. Uh, there is some urgency to the matter as this ... as, uh, indicated in
the, uh, Council action report that you have that was included in your late handouts. In
the past couple of weeks, we've received 40 permit applications, two in large existing
rentals. Um, that's compared to an average of five the last couple of years. There's
clearly, um, a desire on the part of, um, some landlords to begin to enlarge their
properties and we're not in a position right now to have a regulatory framework beyond,
um .... beyond January 1" that can .... can manage such, um, desires from the property
owners in a way that, uh, we ... that we're comfortable with, uh, that we feel is in line with,
uh, our duties to protect the, uh, stability of the neighborhoods and the character of the
neighborhoods. So we are asking for a moratorium so that we can study this issue more,
that we can have staff, um ... uh, more fully flesh out the ideas that I talked about, uh,
here, those seven strategies. So the moratorium that's proposed goes until December
31 .... December 31" of this year. By that time we would bring you anew set of
regulations or ordinance changes that .... that you could consider. Here's the map, um, of
the impacted areas and ... um, we can .... we can talk about the rationale, if you have
questions for that, uh, for that boundary map. And, uh, for discussion purposes, I'll just
leave those seven, urn ... focus areas up there, and then I'm .... turn the floor over to Mayor
and Council and answer any questions that you have and Eleanor and the staff from NDS
will ... will help me out in responding to any thoughts that you may have.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page S
Throgmorton/ Okay, folks! It's an important topic. Do you have any questions or, uh....
Dickens/ First... first of all has, uh... anything been done with the Metro Coalition about
challenging this particular file or .... because it's been proven all over the country that the
other one works?
Fruin/ No, I don't know that there's really any .... any grounds to challenge it. Um .... Eleanor?
Dilkes/ There aren't any grounds to challenge it, and there's been no discussion about that.
Fruin/ We have met with a few of the other cities that rely heavily on this tool — Ames, Cedar
Falls, Des Moines — and we've shared some ideas, some of the ideas that you have in
here are also being considered by those communities, but pretty much, uh, we're all in the
same boat right now trying to figure out the best way to do it, and unfortunately, there's
not a whole lot of examples outside of the state of Iowa that we can look at because they
all .... most, for the most part rely on that familial status strategy.
Mims/ Well I would .... I'll go ahead and start I guess. I mean I would say I like a .... virtually all
the ideas that staff has put forward. Um.. ..certainly I know, and this has probably been
now maybe three or four years ago. Stan, you had ... I think you drove around with Matt
Hayek and I looking at the near Northside and looking at some of the .... the condition of
some of the housing and trying to start thinking about some ideas of how we could
address this issue and... and certainly one of the things we talked about at that time, that
we haven't moved forward, and I .... and I think we're at that point now, I think with no
choice, and you've addressed it in here, some sort of rental permit density. Um, and how
we do that ... you know, the details have to be figured out, but to somehow maintain some
balance within these areas, um, to get some kind of a density limitation on the number of
permits, and then, um, along with that, I .... I think so important is the increased
enforcement and to me I guess I would look at it as even if we start out just like we did
with the bars downtown, we may .... we may set a density, we may set a rental permit
density and the block or the neighborhood may currently exceed that, but we have to
grandfather people in, but by enforcement over time, people may lose their rental permits
if they don't manage their property well, which would get us down to the density limit
that we have set, or .... people actually enforce the rules on their property and we're over
the limit but it still is a stable neighborhood because people are behaving more
appropriately. So, I .... I think those are two really good tools, I mean I think there' s a ton
of really good stuff in here. Urn .... I'll just, the other comment I would make on .... some
of the, uh, deed restrictions. I would certainly be open on the UniverCity housing where
we're putting in a lot of money to looking at more than a 20 -year restriction. Urn ... with
other programs maybe not as much, because again, I think if we put in density
limitations, um, and.... increased enforcement, that will ultimately take care of an awful
lot of the issues.
Thomas/ Yeah, I would agree the ... that the density ... uh, approach, which ... you know, the bullet,
or the first point — ensure neighborhood support, both homeownership and rental
opportunities — you know, this is something living in the Northside I've been struggling
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 9
with for years, and you know, there's language in ... in our Comprehensive Plan that
speaks to addressing the imbalance, but it's .... it's in very soft language. It's `encourage,'
you know (laughs) it's ... it's that type of language. I .... I do think the .... the percentage
approach will ensure, I mean, we need .... the details need to be worked out, but .... uh,
it...it should ensure that the numbers won't get any greater. You know, that.... that I think
is one of the key issues is .... even if a neighborhood is over and, uh, you know, in the
Northside, and this is another issue I .... I'd like to raise is .... I .... I'd like us to follow, uh,
this up with respect to the data. Uh, you know, for years .... you know, I ... I'd heard that,
`Well, we're working on the balance,' and I would ask, `Well what is the imbalance?'
You know, I .... I hear we have imbalance; what is it? And, uh, you know, the census data
suggested that in .... in our census tract, the number of rentals is, um, as I recall,
something along the lines of 80 to 85%. So, you know (laughs) that's a.....I think we can
fairly assume most of those rentals are short-term rentals and .... and so .... and that the
numbers were actually trending higher from 2000 to 2010. So despite all the efforts, it
seemed things weren't moving in the right direction. So it...it does seem to me the ... the
ensuring through percentages, uh.... may actually work better than monitoring the
unrelateds, in terms of the .... the overall trend with respect to stabilizing the
neighborhoods by number.
Throgmorton/ I'll make a few comments as well, uh, just picking up on what Susan and Terry
and John have just said. I ... I wonder first, Geoff, whether you've had a chance to talk
with Kelly Heyworth ... in Coralville? Are they affected in a similar fashion? I do know
that there are parts of the city that are very close to the University so .... I wonder about
that.
Fruin/ I have not had any conversations with Coralville.
Throgmorton/ It'd be worth checkin' out with them.
Fruin/ Sure!
Throgmorton/ Uh, secondly, could you put the map up, please, when you get a chance? Thanks!
So, uh, it's a pretty big swath of the city and I think .... a pretty appropriate swath of the
city in general, but when I look at it and think in terms of what Susan and John just said
about, oh, basically a rental density, uh, I .... and a.....appropriate balance, I think the
current rental densities vary considerably within that whole area. So there's gonna.... it's
gonna take some significant staff work to kinda figure out what a reasonable balance is
for specific areas in the city. So I ... I don't want you to figure out how to do it right now
(laughs) but I can see how that would be a .... a challenge. But I'm also wondering about
the, uh, basically the area around Grant Wood or immediately south of Highway 6, uh, I
was pretty surprised to see it not appear on the map, and I worry, Geoff knows this cause
I communicated by email and I think that's why Doug's standing up right now, but I .... I
worry that perhaps, uh, there might ... if. ... if we adopt that boundary, it might create a
short-term incentive for particular private developers to convert existing single-family
homes into, you know, rental units or expand on `em in a way that, uh, would not be good
for that neighborhood. So, uh, wh... what's your thought about that?
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 10
Boothroy/ Well the 40 permits that we've received are all contained within this area, or this
boundary, that we're going to have the moratorium, and this area reflects a lot of the
areas that are close to the University that are feeling the pressure of converting single-
family houses, uh, to, uh, higher density rental, uh, occupancies. We're not seeing
anything, uh, south of Highway 6. Uh, historically it's not been an area where there's
been a lot of pressure for single -families to convert. The Grant Wood area has a high
home.... homeownership, A .... uh, rate, one of the highest in the community, so we felt
that, uh, that boundaries that we have drawn, uh, fairly encompass, uh, the area where the
greatest pressure is, and, uh, we're not, uh, we don't feel that we need to go farther south.
I mean it ... we can ... it .... I suppose debatable what we don't (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ...but you clearly thought about it (both talking)
Boothroy/ ...yes, we did think about that, yes.
Throgmorton/ I guess I wonder then may ... I think I have a legal question pertaining to the map
then. If we adopt this moratorium, with the .... the boundaries shown on the map, would
we be able to alter the boundaries at some point in the future, prior to the expiration date
of the moratorium?
Dilkes/ If...if there was sufficient grounds to do so, yes. There's nothing that would prevent you
from doing some other legislative action to change the boundaries (both talking) for... for
another, for some other purpose. I think the important part for this moratorium is to keep
in mind the two reasons why it's being done. Number one the residential occupancy
legislation, which .... but for this rash of rental permits would not have been a .... wouldn't
have been a problem because it's not effective until January ls`.
Throgmorton/ Okay. So, I .... I totally agree that a major concern is in the area bounded, uh, on
the map. Uh.... but if. ... if it turns out we start getting a flurry of. ... applications for the
area south of Highway 6, we could amend....
Dilkes/ We can look at the (both talking)
Throgmorton/ .....if it looks like it's justified.
Dilkes/ Yep!
Throgmorton/ Yeah. Okay. How bout other questions or reactions?
Botchway/ Geoff, have you already talked to the University about this? That last point that you
had about the University?
Fruin/ Um, we haven't had any direct conversations, uh, with them. We are going through the,
um, housing study with them right now and, uh, I was not able to make the last meeting,
but, um, John Yapp, uh, was, uh, present on behalf of the City and I know, um, he
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page I 1
informed the consultants and the .... made sure that the University players were aware of
what was going on here. Um, but between now and the time that we return to you with,
uh, some of these .... uh, regulations, um, we'll have to engage with University officials
and Student Government to, um, see what the best path forward is from their perspective.
Botchway/ So I mean I think there's, I mean, Susan mentioned this as well. There's a number of
different, you know, things that I like that's a part of the, um, kind of the things that
you've shown us tonight, or this evening. You know, I .... all of them seem, you know,
doing all of them seem..... awkward, uh, from a cost standpoint, you know, how .... how
would we effectively, um, you know, have staff for additional, increased patrol of some
of the issues that we've talked about in prior meetings and so I have some concerns, um,
as we discuss that, and I also have some concerns, I am for the .... kind of the regulation a:
there.... applies to kind of the permit density and some type of percentage, but I feel like,
you know, I would really want it to be fleshed out. I also think about kinda that... that,
um, racial and socio-economic toolkit being used, just because, you know, what's the
percentage in some neighborhoods compared to other neighborhoods? Why would we, I
mean, why would you make that choice? I mean I'd just be .... there's a lot of questions I
had about what that would look like, even though that was kind of the first thing that you
showed, but also the first thing I was like, man, that would .... that would make an impact
that probably would help and benefit a lot of our .... our neighborhoods from that
standpoint. On slide one, I think that, um, there's a misspelling. It's supposed to be, um,
country, not county.
Fruin/ Oh, thank you!
Botchway/ And then, um....
Throgmorton/ We're not regulating the country? (several talking)
Botchway/ No, no! It's not a regulation. It was just something about the county, and I think he
meant across the country, and then, um.....just incentivizing homeownership, you know,
as a .... a person that rented for the majority of my time in Iowa City, I would ... I would
just say from my perspective, there isn't enough education and information out there
about incen...incentivizing homeownership. Not saying that there isn't information from
the City's standpoint, but how we .... how we communicate or how I, you know, interact
in whatever way about that information just didn't get to me and so I think that would be
another way from a .... from a, not a regulatory standpoint, but an education standpoint,
that I feel like really needs to get fleshed out as you move forward because I think a lot of
people, um, would benefit from it. I do have an issue, as we were talking about rental,
um, housing, as I think about diversity in neighborhoods, and this is just anecdotally from
people that I know, that I know that some neighborhoods are more diverse, based on
some rentals, and so I'd be interested again how that toolkit makes sense of all that,
because I could see a situation where, I mean, you'd almost be pushing folks out of a
neighborhood, um, in order to get a particular percentage and I would worry about that.
Urn .... and then my question about the University was just about, so when I used to go to
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 12
school, uh, in South Carolina they had something that had freshmen stay on campus for
the first year. Is that not ... that's not here at Iowa, right?
Fruin/ Um, there's....
Mims/ I don't think so. No.
Throgmorton/ About 94% of the students, first-year students, live on campus.
Botchway/ Okay. So that would be something I would consider kind of (both talking)
Fruin/ Something we're looking at that ... with, the University's interested. The question with the
housing study we're doing with them now is ... is how do they get to 100%. What's it look
like if they were to try to bump that up to a .... a sophomore requirement, like a lot of
university communities have done. Just trying to understand the issue. Not necessarily
make it a commitment to go there, but what would that mean.
Throgmorton/ I want to pick up on the term `reasonable balance,' which I think you used and
we've been using. It's a pretty important concept, uh, but not something that can be
objectively defined. So we're gonna have to put some thought into that, and I also want
to make sure that, um, our .... uh, student representatives understand, and any students
watching, anybody else who has ... parents, any parents of students understand, this is not,
clearly, not an effort to demonize students or attribute, uh, any bad things to students. It's
about the balance of rental versus, uh.... uh, home .... rental units versus home, uh, owned
units, and about the market incentives that would be .... that are being created by this new
legislation that have .... a very strong likelihood of tipping the balance in various
neighborhoods dramatically toward rental units. So that .... that's a big challenge for us in
Iowa City, but it ... we're not singling out students as being `the problem' or anything like
that.
Botchway/ I would speak to that comment though, um, not in direct opposition but just thinking
about the fact of, you know, I remember Jacob not talking long ago just about how that
change in the occu... occupancy requirements, you know, made it so, um, it could be
unaffordable for students, I mean, in thinking about the housing market and the current
rental market as it is right now, I mean it is...
Throgmorton/ (both talking) ...go up!
Botchway/ ....unaffordable, and so how we .... how we navigate that piece I think is
a ... interesting kind of. ... we're at this point because we're forced to be at this point
because of the State, and so I think we need to think about that because having four, you
know, I think you even talked about having, you know, three or I think four, five, six, it
does make a .... a property, um, more affordable for students from that standpoint. And
we just need to think about how that affects people because students are an important part
of our population as well.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 13
Throgmorton/ I'd like to ask Eleanor a question. A legal question of course, Eleanor. Uh, since
we have an item on the formal meeting agenda pertaining to the moratorium itself....
Dilkes/ Uh huh.
Throgmorton/ Is it appropriate fus... for us now to be discussing, sort of deliberating the
moratorium in detail or would it be better to reserve that to a later....
Dilkes/ There's no legal prohibition on you talking (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Okay.
Dilkes/ ....about it now.
Throgmorton/ Okay.
Nelson/ From a student standpoint, my only concern is when we talk about, um, the rental permit
density is that we be realistic and pragmatic, um, with where students are living. Like,
John, I don't .... like specifically to the Northside neighborhood, I don't think there's any
particular reason why a student might want to live there. It's just that they move there
because that's where it's available. So if we were to like have inappropriate density
regulations say from like College Green, then you'd push students out there. So I think
just ... for the City to keep in mind that we need to make sure that we're doing what's best
for the student market cause they'll move where they want to, um, or not where they want
to, but where it's available and I think it's .... that we be like realistic with who is trying to
live where.
Fruin/ All these questions that you're havin', I mean, really drive home the need for the
moratorium, cause we don't have the answers to that. We know that those are very good
questions, um, but .... but what's important is that we need to maintain the status quo
while we figure this out, and hence the .... the request for the six and a half month
moratorium.
Throgmorton/ Geoff, before you go on, could .... could I pose another question or do you want to
follow up on what you were just saying?
Fruin/ Go ahead!
Throgmorton/ Okay. With regard to Item 6, uh, perhaps I heard something that you didn't really
say, but I just want to make sure. Uh, with regard to encouragin... encouraging
development of student -oriented housing that meets modem demands, etc., um, I ... I see
good reasons for doing that, but um, in terms of the balance of students and ... people own
their property, I think it's important to ... to not let us imagine tryin' to concentrate renters
in one part of the city. We need to achieve a reasonable balance in the various
neighborhoods of the city, it seems to me.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 14
Fruin/ Yeah, I guess what .... what, um, you know, we need .... we need to take kind of a broader
look at that. Uh.... at the whole area that's walkable to campus, and see where do
we ... where do we really want, or where do we think student hou.... housing would, again,
purpose-built student housing, um, would be best located, and ... you know, we have some
areas in .... in town, um, if you go south of Burlington and you look at the Johnson and
Van Buren, those neighborhoods are long gone. You know, that .... that tipped, that scale
tipped decades ago. Um, are those .... are those areas, are they at a density that .... that,
um, is .... is right for us now? Are there opportunities, uh, I don't have the answers here,
but are there opportunities in an area like that to provide some incentives through zoning,
um, bonus heights, those types of things, like we've done in Riverfront Crossings to, um,
lead to some .... tear down and rebuilding, uh, in a way that adds to .... to density and it's
not gonna take away from that .... that neighborhood, because we're not gonna get that
neighborhood back. Um, and there may be others, urn ... uh, not sayin' that that's
something we're gonna do but something that we, I think we need to look at.
Mims/ But I think in response to that, Jim, also .... with the Riverfront Crossings' zoning, if you
remember there's the various regions within there and the one just south of Burlington
was more .... I don't remember the.... the.... the title of that region, but the whole idea was
more height so .... because it was closer to the University, walkable, and so .... buildings,
particularly for students, and again the idea, and I think Geoff, uh, and staff had the
language in here, well managed and having the amenities, um, that would be attractive to
students. So basically, a private dorm type environment, um, so not like a lot of the large
apartment buildings, where it can be a free-for-all. I'm not saying it is all the time, but in
a .... in a .... basically private dorms, which you know, give the students lots of amenities
that they're interested in, some structure if they need it, urn .... avoids a lot of the nuisance
problems, etc., and so .... while you might say we're concentrating students in a certain
area, I think that also thought can be a very positive thing, if we have the right amenities
and management, and it's still close to campus so they can walk, which is what so many
of them want.
Thomas/ Yeah, I .... I would say, and partly is, uh, due to some comments at a listening post from
a while back of exploring, um, housing types, such as micro -housing, uh, possibly, um,
boarding houses well managed, to try to address the affordability issue, which applies to
the student housing market as much as it does the general population, and you know, one
of the frustrations with all the new development is it tends to be expensive. So how can
we .... develop new housing, uh, which at least lowers the cost of that new construction,
uh, because it's going to take a while for that new construction to become marketable to
lower income, uh, residents. And I would also say that I think another piece of this in my
mind is how do we incentivize, and I like to look at it as long-term versus short-term
residency as opposed to ownership, and um, rental.... rental, but how do we incentivize
long-term residency and homeownership? I mean, there .... in .... in the Northside we see
people put sweat equity and .... and financial equity into renovating their homes, and then
get hit with a reassessment, you know, whereas a ... if a .... if a landlord isn't
main... maintaining their property, they can actually see their property values decrease,
which means their taxes are lower. There .... there seems to be a .... you know, we need to,
I think, really look at how our taxing, property taxing structure to try to incentivize what
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 15
we want, which is people who are committed, uh, to the long-term viability of the
neighborhood and .... and not give in a sense a reward to those who don't maintain their
property well. And, uh, I mean there's some great examples in our neighborhood of
people who have deeply invested, uh, Linda McGuire and Ann Burnside, took the house
next to them and basically recreated it. Uh, I think that kind of, you know, in ... inspiring
effort to, cause they want to stay in the neighborhood, um, should be rewarded rather than
punished.
Throgmorton/ This reminds me of a conversation we had .... several months ago, maybe even a
year or more, uh, ago with our City Assessor, uh, about .... in which we wondered whether
it was possible to .... uh, assess the taxable value of....um, of a commercial, uh, apartment
property on the basis of income generated, and I don' t know where that went, if
any ... well, it didn't go anywhere I guess, but I don't know why and that .... but maybe we
could pick that back up.
Dickens/ Don't know if you could get the information... from the landlords. I don't know that
they would be required to give that.
Fruin/ The Iowa City Assessor's moving in that direction. I don't know if they've fully
implemented that but .... um, I can get that information from .... from Brad Comer and
share that with you, but I do know that they're moving in that direction.
Throgmorton/ It'd be helpful to have that information, please.
Botchway/ And, Geoff, you spoke about Johnson and how there are some neighborhoods that
have, you know, totally tipped over. It would be interesting, I mean again, looking at
this ... I mean to Jim's point, it's not negative but it is kind of. ... we're bringing this up
cause this is a concern. Um, how we can, um .... possibly look at kind of reclamation of
some of those areas, um, and, you know, if we're able to kind of tip the balance, and I do
like the location kind of discussion as far as that's concerned, but ... I mean it would be
interesting if we're able to have a different discussion about Johnson, um, coming from
this, you know, five years down the road, um, because of, you know, some things that
we're able to work out. The other thing, can you go back to that first .... or second slide?
The one (both talking) the one with the code. No, not the one with the .... that one, no.
Fruin/ This one? Or....
Botchway/ Yeah, so, Eleanor, I have a .... one more ..... I have a.....
Fruin/ This is the legislation.
Dickens/ Code was the first one.
Botchway/ I was just thinking. Well, never mind! So the regulation is the number, like we can't
make a restriction of regulation based on the number of people?
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 16
Thomas/ Unfamilial regulation (several talking)
Botchway/ Right. Familial relationships, but ... could we snake a .... could it be cost -prohibitive, or
is that the same thing? That's, I mean, it's a silly question but I was just thinking about
that. Could it be cost -prohibitive to have more individuals with the household that is
different than what we'd want to regulate? Or what we want to have? And so right now
we have two or .... two or whatever, but if it were three or more, and we would, you know,
have it more cost -prohibitive on the rental permit side, would that be allowed or is that
exactly the same thing?
Dilkes/ You mean cost -prohibitive you mean in terms of, um....
Botchway/ To the rental permit, not to us.
Dilkes/ Like you have to put sprinkling in or something like that or (both talking)
Botchway/ Well if you had six individuals, your renter permit would be higher.
Dilkes/ Oh.
Fruin/ Oh, to .... to scale that?
Botchway/ Yeah.
Fruin/ We do have a scale to ours now.
Botchway/ Could that then be....
Fruin/ Yeah, we .... I think we'd look at our entire structure, and certainly if we're gonna move
some to an annual cycle, they're gonna be payin' more, um, instead of paying every two
years for their permit, they're payin' every year for their ... their permit, for their
inspection, and that's what's gonna fund the enforcement. Um...
Dilkes/ But the ... but the pro ... what I think you're talking about is the number of people. The
problem with anything based on number of people is it...it has to be, if you have a ... a
couple and five children in there, that's.... seven people.
Botchway/ Right, that's true. Right.
Dilkes/ That's the same seven as the seven.... individuals.
Dickens/ Can the moratorium be extended past this time, if more time's needed and the second
part of that question is, how much time and are we gonna had to have staf.... add staff to
accomplish.... what we're going for here as far as....
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 17
Fruin/ Yeah, I think there's no question we're gonna have to add staff, and ... and, um, you know,
when this .... when this debate was taking place in Des Moines, uh, the common refrain
from the supporters of this legislation was cities, you already have the tools to deal with
all these.... all these things that you're talkin' about. you're talkin' about the
neighborhoods falling apart because of noise and litter and parking. Those are all things
at your power to deal with. Um, and so they were really calling, I mean, they really told
cities you just need to step up your enforcement and ... and so it's, um, I think .... I think we
have to respond in that fashion, um, and the tricky part is how do you fund that,
and .... and I think you fund it through the .... through the permits themselves. Um, if...if,
um, the rental units themselves are creating the nuisances, um, then absolutely we'll use
those rental permits to hire additional staff, to work `em on weekends, uh, to perhaps
supplement officer pay so we can do dedicated, uh, enforcement, where we're .... when
we're havin' trouble. Um, those are the things that when you look at .... and we don't
need to wait necessarily for, um, July I'a of..next year to implement that. We can ... we
can come to you with that proposal, uh, we can, you know, share with ya the amount of
rental income we need to generate to fund X number of staff and how we deploy those
staff. So, that would all be done before this moratorium expires.
Cole: Geoff, I have a question relating to ... my .... my initial impression is is I think this is an
incredibly impressive presentation, but my initial sort of first blush impression is that it's
primarily focused on the stick, and not enough on the carrot. Um, I really want to
encourage staff to also look at a proactive ways that we could offer incentive to land...
incentivize, uh, the sorts of neighborhoods that we want. Obviously that's going to cost,
uh, money. Um, two examples that I would think of, everyone knows how I love the
UniverCity program, um, right now though that's focused on, as I understand it, single-
family homes occupying one home. And so what I'm wondering is that reimagining that,
would it be possible to take a unit and say there's four bedrooms in there and say, you
know, we will allow someone to purchase this with UniverCity funds that would maybe
occupy one portion of that. So it would be an owner -occupied rental. Um, you know,
one of the reasons why I really love the Grannie Flat is that the Grannie Flat, as I
understand it, that's the auxiliary dwelling unit requires the renter to be essentially
owner -occupied. So you can rent up above, but the owner actually has to live there, and
that's obviously important because if the renter's causing any noise, they're actually on
site. Um, Susan, I think did you bring up the concept of sort of the private dorms?
Maybe that was Geoff. Zombie Burger, that building, my understanding for this year it's
essentially functioning as a University -administered dorm. And so that concept, the
concept of having a res .... I know I've talked with other developers about possibly
proposing that in other areas. To Susan's point, it's not students per se. It's the structure
in which they rent. And so I think if there is .... or anyone for that matter! You can have
six non -students, although students tend to have different hours as we know and it can be
more of a problem. So to the extent that we could reach out to the University and see if I
mean... in some of these other, you know, units that we have in other parts of the
community, to see whether the University may, you know, be interested in a similar type
of arrangement that'd be University administered. Now they may not want to do that,
um, that may be too complicated, but I think to at least reach out to them would be very
helpful, and then finally related to the UniverCity program, we know the Board of
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 18
Regents several years ago said, you know what, we're not gonna fund that anymore. I
wonder whether it'd be an opportunity to sort of at least reach out to them again to see
whether they would give us some more incen... uh, sort of incentives or assistance with
that, because it... essentially it's a university town. We .... we both have a stake in
making this work, and I think this is going to be good for the UniverCity...the University
as well. Um, deed restrictions, have any of the cities talked about essentially purchasing
the landlords' right to be able to develop or ... or rent to ...rent the property, so we'd
essentially purchase their ability to, urn .... um.....rent out the property. Is ... is that
possible to do?
Fruin/ That's kinda what I was getting at with that non -conforming buy-out, uh (both talking)
It's a way to leave, you know, the City doesn't necessarily have to take ownership of it,
but we can buy-out some of the maybe uses that have been grandfathered in over time....
Cole/ Yeah!
Fruin/ .....that maybe are contributing to, uh, nuisance issues or .... or neighborhood character
issues.
Cole/ Yep, and I think .... I think that that's a sort of definitely on the right track with that. The
final thing that jumped out at me in terms of something, even though I like it in concept,
just doesn't seem really feasible to me, um, here I'm actually thinking of the landlords
here. Uh, the 24/7 on-call. That ... that seems to me to be a little onerous. I don't know
what people think about that. As .... as I understand that would be that they would have to
have a phone or someone answering the phone 24 hours a day. Um, is that.... how.... how
would that actually work?
Frain/ We require a local contact right now (both talking)
Cole/ Okay!
Fruin/ ....uh, for (both talking) so even if you own the property and you live in California, you
have to have a local contact, urn .... uh, here in Iowa City or in Johnson County actually.
Um, what we're talkin' about now though is that local contact needs to respond, and so it
could be a disorderly house issue and ... and we call `em at midnight and say (both talking)
remedy this and if you don't, there's additional sanctions beyond what you may be
dealin' with for just the disorderly house.
Cole/ Okay.
Fruin/ Again we (both talking)
Mims/ I don't see that as being onerous. Personally. I mean .... some of these folks are makin'
hundreds of thousands of dollars off these properties, or more, and so I think they've got
some responsibility.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 19
Frain/ One of the ... I want to talk about the UniverCity real quick, because one of the .... one of
the things that this .... this changes, um, if we don't get to the percentage, kind of cap in a
neighborhood, um, properties will become much more expensive to buy out. If ...if now,
you know, we were buyin' out homes that could rent to three unrelateds, now if those
same homes can rent to five or six people, um, the price for those units is gonna go up
and you may see UniverCity, you know, the cost to continue that program on a .... on a
per, uh, house basis go up with it. Uh, so that's.... that's one of the .... kind of side effects
of this legislation.
Botchway/ The other piece I was thinking of, as .... when Susan and Rockne were talking about,
um, nuisance or 24/7, could there be .... I can't remember if you have that in there or not,
additional, um, consideration given to, um, state of the actual dwelling? So what the
dwelling looks like, the condition of the dwelling as well, I mean is that .... do we do some
of that now, and.....I mean I just remember from the, uh, Rose Oaks' situation that, you
know, we had some people in some dire situations, and granted we didn't necessarily
have, um, money in there, but that was still, you know, being rented out.....
Frain/ Yeah.
Botchway/ ...to that extent. I mean that would be, again, another situation where there's this
concern that's being, you know, has happened because of State regulation that really
gives us an opportunity to really deal with what I think is some terrible situations, and
kind of going back to Susan's point, I mean, you have some folks making some money,
and John's point as well, off properties that are awful. Like I don't even understand,
yeah .... it's just awful, cause it's the only place to live and I would like to see some type
of regulation, if we could, you know, do that even within this kind of construction.
Mims/ Well we made some changes to the housing code, remember, a year or two ago, and so I
think, again, the whole idea of stepped up enforcement, not only on the nuisance part but
on the housing code issues, as well as some of the housing code suggestions here of
potentially, you know, hardwiring, uh, carbon di ... monoxide and ... and fire ex .... uh,
things, etc. So....
Frain/ We also created an incentive program with that, the HELP program for exterior,
maintenance, uh....
Mims/ Right!
Frain/ ...to go along with that, and .... and ab ... while we have this, while we're .... while we're
lookin' at the code here, we'll .... we'll try to keep as broad a perspective as possible.
Um, in your late handouts you received, uh, a letter from UISG about some safety
measures that they want to take a look at. Um, we've had conversations with UISG. We
think that there's some, um ... um, common, uh, ground there that we can work with them
on and it makes sense to do it at the same time we're ushering in a number of these other
changes.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 20
Thomas/ I .... I think the idea of redeveloping south of Burlington. I know I've spoke to Geoff
about this. I think that would be a great idea. It's .... it's really .... I ..... I can't (laughs)
think that that environment down there is good for the students. I know there .... in the
Central District Plan there's.... quite a bit of discussion about that area. It's already, I
believe, rezoned as a redevelopment area. Um, so I .... I don't see there being anything to
lose there and we could, you know (laughs) could be a big win. The ... the other .... the
other thing I would say is that, you know, a fair number of. ... of houses are being
purchased in our neighborhood by parents of students and so I'm assuming that ... the, this
percentage approach would capture that group as well.
Fruin/ Um .... you know if it qualifies as owner -occupied it would not.
Thomas/ Well there would be (both talking) There would be those living in the unit who are not,
um .... who are renting basically.
Fruin/ Yeah, um, Sue or Eleanor (both talking)
Dilkes/ ...we've talked about, um, redefining.... rental to eliminate that situation where you've
got a 1% .... (both talking) owner who's an occupant.
Thomas/ Yeah, cause that's critical. We're seeing... increasingly see that .... seeing that, not only
in our neighborhood, but I understand in Longfellow and various parts of, uh....
Dilkes/ So if there was any, you know.... exchange of compensation for....
Thomas/ Right.
Mims/ So basically if anybody's living in the unit that is not.....I guess the family issue's out, but
I ... how .... how do you word that so that.... somebody puts their kid on as, you know, 20 or
40% owner. I mean, can you still get that, that it has to be a rental if they have other
people living in the house that are not owners or are you (both talking) or are you getting
at it from the fact that there's an exchange of money?
Dilkes/ The latter. Yeah.
Throgmorton/ I'd like to bring up two .... issues. One is to pick up on the point about the area
south of Burlington. John, I think .... you were referrin' to south Johnson Street, south
Van Buren, is that (both talking)
Thomas/ Right.
Throgmorton/ Probably from Gilbert Street over to Johnson, I guess. Um, but south of
Burlington. Uh.... five or six years ago I talked to Tom Markus about that and said I ... I
think it'd be great to be able to focus some attention on that area and try to imagine ways
to transform it, for the better, uh.... we can't do everything of course, but there might be
discrete interventions that could take place, and if we could look at that, that'd be great.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 21
The other thing I wonder about has to do with the University, especially with regard to
the housing market analysis that is being conducted at the moment. It's my
understanding that that analysis is not considering the recent change in State legislation.
I wonder if it's too late to .... to get an amendment into that analysis. I know it'd have to
be jointly approved by the University and Coralville, along with us, uh, but I wonder if
that would be a possibility.
Fruin/ We can .... we can have that discussion. Uh, things are so fluid right now, and we don't
know what we might enact that can also, you know, counter the State legislation, um...
so it's gonna be hard to get anything really to hang your hat on, but they might give us
some useful insight and ... we'll ask about that.
Throgmorton/ Right.
Mims/ The only other comment I would make is .... while we're talking, I think it's important that
we focus on what.... neighborhood stabilization issue, and I think that area that we're
talking about south of Burlington I think as you said, John, is already gone (laughs) if you
will (laughter) Now, do we want to try and make improvements? Yes. I mean, it's like
all student housing. So to me, there's a lot to do and the focus needs to be on stabilizing
the neighborhoods that we haven't `lost' yet. So....
Throgmorton/ Agree!
Mims/ ...okay. I .... I think we want to make sure (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ...priority has to be.
Mims/ Yeah, I think we want to make sure staff understands. I'm sure they do (both talking)
Cole/ Along those lines, it would seem to me that we really want to, I mean, there's several
recommendations, like especially over these next six months if we could really narrow it
down, the .... the top two or three most critical ones, and focus on those moving forward.
Fruin/ Yeah, I mean .... (several talking) right now, particularly in Neighborhood Development
Services, um, all divisions within that department are stretched pretty thin right now.
There's a lot of planning initiatives going on, um, there is a .... a ton of construction
happening that's requiring a lot of inspection attention. Um, this ... this we'll put at the top
of the list but understand that things will be bumped down. So we'll do our best to keep,
uh, previous commitments on schedule, but .... it's not realistic that we'll meet all the
deadlines of some of the .... the past commitments. So, there may be a few things, for
example, in the affordable housing action plan that need to slip a few months. Um ... uh,
again, we'll do our best to keep things on, but we've got a very limited period of time
here, uh, to study this issue, to develop what we think are, um, appropriate measures to
take to stabilize these neighborhoods, and then to get `em in front of you and ... and to go
through a couple month's process for you to debate and, uh, hopefully adopt whatever we
present.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 22
Botchway/ So you kinda .... I wasn't going to say anything until you just said that. Um, you
know, are we .... are we thinking about hiring staff in this moratorium period, not just in
the moratorium period, but hiring staff to....
Frain/ No (both talking)
Botchway/ I understand the priority piece, but .... I'm also, you know, there are competing
priorities here and so .... you know, I don't want, uh, kinda what you said, you know, kick
affordable housing down to like, you know, option five, um, when I feel like that's still
kinda of around neighborhood stabilization, but I understand the staffing constraints so...
you know, is this something that we have to consider or think about.
Fruin/ You know, there may be .... you know there..... maybe an outside consultant might need to
help with ... with some aspect, um, of gathering data, urn .... but I don't think that bringing
on a, you know, by the time you hire for a staff position and ... and get them in and get
them acclimated to the ... the community and the issue, this moratorium period's gonna
expire. It's .... it's really gonna be an in-house effort to .... and we've got the staff with the
expertise, the ... the community knowledge to put together a really good solution for ya.
I'm confident in that. Um .... but again, it's the staff that's stretched right now and uh
(both talking)
Cole/ Geoff, you anticipate that the staff would come.... additional staff would come out of the
increase in revenue, of the additional fees, is that what you're thinking?
Frain/ I'm talkin' enforcement staff, not (both talking)
Cole/ Yeah! Yeah!
Fruin/ ....not Planning positions, um, but.... inspection type positions, potentially police
positions.
Mims/ Kingsley, I ... I hear your concern about pushing the affordable housing, you know, and
those issues out a little bit, but I see this as absolutely critical to get done in the next six
months so that we can get the .... the legislation in front of us and passed before January
Is', that...that staff and we deem appropriate because if we don't.....we're gonna have
changes made that we can't undo, and they're gonna be critical, I think, critically
damaging to some of these neighborhoods. So....
Botchway/ Well I don't disagree, I mean, my .... my point is along the lines of, I mean, and kind
of Geoff answered my question from the standpoint of if we need to hire an outside
consultant, I mean, and granted that's Council approval, to, um, kind of. ... make sure that
we're ... not necessarily spending all our resources on some data analysis, some other
things, and being able to do that. I mean my issue is, again, when I think about
neighborhood stabilization, affordable housing is within that, so....
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 23
Mims/ Uh huh, I'd agree
Botchway/ I mean, so part of it, you know, if we need to have that stop -gap, um, and I know
NDS does some work for us (mumbled) additional people that need to come from that
standpoint....
Fruin/ Yeah.
Botchway/ ....I'd be interested in, you know, doing that pretty quickly.
Fruin/ Yeah (both talking) ...for example, if there's .... um, the Mayor mentioned, you know,
could an amendment be done to the current housing study, um, I .... I don't know what
that might be, but .... but perhaps there's some.... something as far as data collection
that .... that firm can offer us, and produce for us in short time, that, um, frees up our staff
for other purposes. If those types of things are identified, we'll ... we'll absolutely pursue
them. Um, but I .... I, we haven't identified those right now.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, so I'm .... I'm .... currently understand the challenge that NDS staff face here.
Maybe you could provide us with some feedback, say a couple months from now....
Fruin/ Sure!
Throgmorton/ ...about how that balancing is taking place within NDS and how they're doin' with
(both talking)
Fruin/ Yeah!
Throgmorton/ ....with the competing priorities.
Fruin/ I think the good news is ... is, you know, when you talk about the affordable housing action
plan, um, we ... we provided an update a couple of months ago. We ... we're on schedule,
and we .... we've accomplished a number of the things that we set forth. There's only a
few remaining items, uh, as we .... as we get through the summer and into the fall. Uh, the
form -based code, um, study, you know, we're on schedule right now to be presenting that
to you in August, um, so ... things are progressing on those .... on those major initiatives.
Um, so it's not .... I don't want to paint a picture like everything's coming to a screeching
halt, um, but I want to make it clear that this is from our perspective the top priority and
if push comes to shove, other things will have to take a back seat for hopefully not an
extended period of time. Weeks, months.
Throgmorton/ Okay! Thank you very much, Geoff. Very thorough presentation and good
discussion....among the Council Members.
Botchway/ Rockne labeled it impressive. I didn't see any colors or anything (laughter) That's
tough!
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 24
Clarification of Agenda Items:
Item 3d(6) Riverfront Crossings Park, Phase 1 - Resolution awarding contract and
authorizing the Mayor to sign and the City Clerk to attest a contract for
construction of the Riverfront Crossings Park, Phase I Project
Throgmorton/ Okay, let's move on to the next topic, uh, clarification of agenda items. I ... I want
to say that Item 3d(6), resolution awarding the Riverfront Crossings' Park Phase One
contract is going to be pulled for separate discussion. So we'll.... get into that after, uh,
you know, once the formal meeting begins.
Item 3d(2) CDBG/HOME amendment for housing projects — Resolution adopting
Iowa City's FY17 Annual Action Plan Amendment #I, which is a sub -part of Iowa
City's 2016- 2020 Consolidated Plan (City Steps), authorizing the City Manager to
submit said plan and all necessary certifications to the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development.
Mims/ Um, I forgot to write down the number, but I had mentioned this to Geoff earlier today.
Could you or somebody give us a quick explanation of the tenant -based rental assistance
program that we're talking about reallocating $200,000 to that because of a return of
some CDBG money?
Boothroy/ I will!
Mims/ Thank you, Doug!
Boothroy/ The tenant -based rental assistance program is money that's being reallocated from
HUD, uh, funds, uh.... uh, which is necessary because we need to commit those on our
arm .... on a ... a two-year basis, and the way this operates, and we've used this in the past.
Not ....it's probably been 10 years ago since we had a tenant -based rental assistance
program with these funds, but, uh, it's basically Section 8 vouchers, uh, given out to
families under the same program guidelines, except different revenue source. It'd be
Home funds.
Mims/ Okay.
Boothroy/ And so what this does to ... for us is it ... it'll .... it'll assist 34 families, approximately, uh,
for two years. It therefore shortens the wait list, uh, a little bit. We're now a two-year
wait, uh, and so we'll be able to, uh, once this is approved, we'll start pulling, uh, these
families off our wait list as of July 1st, around.... around that time period I should say, uh,
and get them, uh, housing assistance within the community. So there's.... there's a
positive there. The other thing it helps with is a program balance in terms of our
capacity. HUD restricts us, uh, to not assist more than 100%. Uh, so every year with the
turnover that we have, uh, within the program, we have to make sure that, uh, we lease up
more than 100% and then we have to, you know, reduce down in order to not be
penalized for going over that number, so when we have these tenant -based rental
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 25
assistance with our turnover, we can make sure that we stay within that 100%, uh,
parameter. Uh, so that's a couple reasons that we, uh, looked at it. The other thing is
that, uh, going into the following year, we initially came up with this idea also because
we were concerned about the HUD budget and how it was going to impact the funds that
were coming to the Housing Authority. This provides some insulation going into next
year, as well, in terms of whatever happens at the federal level with regard to funds.
Mims/ Thank you very much (both talking) Yep, that answers my question.
Throgmorton/ Thanks, Doug! Any other agenda items?
Item 3f(9) City Engineer: Competitive Quotation Results
Mims/ Yeah, I did on 3f(9), urn .... can ... can we get an explanation again, I'd asked Geoff about
this, on the Iowa River Trail handrail repair? I was just.....I didn't know what the extent
of it was when I saw the dollar amount. It .... (both talking)
/ Sure, so there.... there'll be a couple work items that'll go into that. There'll be a
replacement of the, um, the railing there. There'll also be some work to replace a
drainage swale, so there'll be some paving, um, a small strip of that along the trail, and
then there'll also be some work to essentially take apart the wall and then put it back in
place.
Mims/ Exactly what's the location?
/ Um, so it ... it's more or less, um ... under the bridge, um, and it extends a little bit
beyond that, um....
Mims/ Which bridge, I'm sorry!
/ So that's the, uh, Highway 6 bridge.
Mims/ Okay. Okay. I just could put in a lot of handrails for $25,000 (both talking)
/ Yeah, and I think the .... the project title may be a little misleading. It's a little bit more
than just a repair of the rail.
Mims/ Yeah. I assumed that it was (laughs) that's why I was asking the question!
/ Sure! Yep, and I think the estimate that was originally.... the.... the FEMA estimate for
the work was in the neighborhood of $25,000 and I think the bids came in about $18,000.
Mims/ Yeah, lower.
/ Yep!
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 26
Mims/ Okay, thank you very much!
/ Sure!
Item 3f(7) Steve Goetzelman: Today's Edition of Fun Doing Business in Iowa City
Thomas/ I got a question on 3f(7), Today's Edition of Fun Doing Business in Iowa City. I didn't
see a staff response to that. I think this is the second....
Throgmorton/ What's the topic?
Thomas/ Uh, construction work in the Prentiss area, you know, where 300' Century Bicycle...
and the disruption that's taking place there due to construction.
Fruin/ Yeah, we did, um .... I .... I don't see a staff response to this one, but I'm .... I'm confident
there was a staff response, previously, and I think there was even an effort to have staff
meet with, um, this gentleman. Um, looking at any of the staff out here, I can't
remember who .... engaged with him. Uh, I believe it was someone in Engineering. Um,
it was ... Jason, did you meet with him? (unable to hear response from audience)
_(Jason)__j I had extended the offer to meet with him, but he never.....I never got a response
to actually meet with him.
Fruin/ If you'd like we can reach out again.
Thomas/ Yeah, I, you know, I .... I think..... there's a lot of effort during the Washington Street
reconstruction to manage the construction during, uh, you know, the impacts of the
construction on the businesses along Washington. This is a .... a different kind of
problem, you know, it's related to some.... construction projects, private construction
proects, but concentrated in a certain area that are impacting I'm sure Trumpet Blossom,
30 Century, and ... and those businesses that are trying to operate within this context
where there's a lot of dust and noise and so forth that's, um .... impacting them.
(Jason)_/ And this was actually a City project. We had to .... we had a undermining of the
pavement right there over top of the bridge, and we had to go in and do a repair last
week. So I think that's actually what this is in (mumbled) relation to.....
Thomas/ Okay.
(Jason)_/ ....not the general construction going (mumbled) so it was more of a, kind of more
of an emergency street repair that went on, on Prentiss Street, last week.
Thomas/ Yeah, I think some ... that, maybe that's something that he needs to hear, if...if he hasn't
already, that .... you know, the reason it was done during the lunch hour is .... because it
was an emergency.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 27
Item 3f(5) John Macatee: Like Chicago, can you post all the climate data deleted by
Trump EPA on your website?
Throgmorton/ I'd like to refer to another piece of correspondence. Item 3f(5), which was a
request from John Macatee that we post the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's pre -
current president's climate data on our web site. Uh, but I'm aware that the County has
already done the same thing. They posted a link to all that information that used to be on
the EPA's web site about climate stuff, but was removed by the current administration.
So, uh, I just want to say I don't think we need to do that. The request was that we do it.
I don't think we need to, because.... mainly because the County's already done it and...
Mims/ Sounds good!
Information Packet Discussion [May 18, May 25, June 11:
Throgmorton/ ...always refer people to that link. Should we move ahead to our Info Packet
discussion for May 18? On Item 3, which is a May 18 memo from Eleanor about, uh,
Amicus briefs, regarding the President's revised travel ban. I just wanted to draw your
attention to it and praise Eleanor for signing us up, uh, as one of the Amici, I guess. Do I
understand correctly, Eleanor, that the President has now appealed this to, or not the
President but the President's office.
Dilkes/ (mumbled) ...against the administration and....
Throgmorton/ Yeah, so it's ... it has been appealed to the Supreme Court?
Dilkes/ Well I believe there (mumbled) Yeah.
Throgmorton/ Anything else on that packet? Uh, not hearing anything. Let's move to the May
25 packet.
Thomas/ Appreciate the update on the planning initiatives. That was useful.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, me too! I think one of our most important tasks is to keep track of the staff,
you know, and provide oversight and ... and Geoff knows that and the rest of the staff
know that, so it was really helpful to have that kind of report periodically.
Botchway/ Check of the work of the staff, not just the staff, but (laughter)
Mims/ Just point out IP4, um, Party in the Park dates, if Council has a chance to stop in to some
of those. I think that's always appreciated and then, um, the invi.... IP5, the invitation
for the Merge open house.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, with regard to IN, my understanding is that ... we had proposed the
possibility of having one of our listening posts take place at a Party in the Park. So the
memo in part suggests, what, uh.....uh.... that Kiwanis Park on June 15a' or Mercer Park
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 28
on July the 20t' might be desirable locations. Uh, and so on, uh.... my own personal
sense is that .... and it might be better to do such a listening post earlier .... uh, earlier in,
well, either near the end of the summer or early, I'm sorry! Near the end of the spring or
early in the summer, rather than in the middle of summer, and ... and, uh, then possibly do
one in late summer. So, uh.... Kiwanis Park sounds like a pretty good possibility to me as
a place to hold a listening post for whatever that date was. What was it, uh....
Mims/ June 15th.
Throgmorton/ June 15th. Does that sound reasonable (several responding) to y'all? So we ... we
will need two volunteers, uh, Kellie, and you can help us round up the volunteers.
Thanks! Okay, anything else on that packet? Okay, moving to the June I'a packet.
Botchway/ IP7, I'll take, um, July 26th. (laughter)
Throgmorton/ Man, you are out of the shoot quickly! (laughs) Sorry (several talking)
which ... which (several talking)
Botchway/ 26th of July.
Throgmorton/ I ... I'm due. Could I do either June the 14th or the 28'h? 14'h would be fine with
me.
Dickens/ I'll do the 28h of June.
Mims/ Okay, which ones (several talking)
Dickens/ No, he's doin' the 14th (several talking)
Mims/ I'll take the 21st of June.
Fruehling/ Jim, this was the one that Pauline said, um, either June 21st, which Susan just took, or
July 19th. Should I just put her down for the 19t' then?
Throgmorton/ Yeah, if she said either one of those are viable for her.
Cole/ How bout August 2, is that taken yet?
Fruehling/ Nope.
Botchway/ It's all yours!
Cole/ I'll take August 2!
Mims/ I'll take July 5th.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 29
Thomas/ What's left? (laughs) The 12a', uh.... of July? (several talking) Okay.
Mims/ Do you have `em all filled then?
Fruehling/ Yep!
Mims/ Okay.
Throgmorton/ Okay, still on June 1". How bout IP #3, pending work session topics. I noticed
we don't have anything scheduled for June the 20a'. So, uh, Geoff, why don't you and I
talk about that tomorrow. Maybe the data driven justice, uh.... initiative would be a good
topic, uh....
Mims/ Yeah, they should be back (several talking)
Throgmorton/ It sounds pretty promising, but....
Fruin/ All right.
Throgmorton/ And also Pauline was tellin' me on the phone a couple days ago that, what is it
called, InvestHealth, the project that we've assigned her to....
Mims/ Right.
Throgmorton/ ...is also a finalist for, uh, a major funding possibility. So she's in Phoenix right
now, yeah, so uh, when Tracy and Pauline and so on come back, maybe we can hear from
them! If, I mean, if it fits their schedule and everything like that (several talking) I also
want to mention IP 44. We've received many emails and I've received, uh, quite a few
phone calls, from people requesting that we sign ... that I as Mayor, on your behalf, on the
City's behalf, sign a letter concerning the President's withdrawal from the Pans Climate
Accord, and one of the letters comes .... one of the requests from, comes from the Global
Covenant of Mayors, which I signed up with 18 months ago. So I intend to sign that
letter, unless you tell me otherwise.
Mims/ Totally support you signing it.
Throgmorton/ And there's apparently a .... Ashley, you and I talked about this earlier. There's
one other letter from another organization.
Monroe/ It's, um .... it's through the Climate Mayors, so it's a more recent initiative as, I guess
it's been around for a couple of years, but due to the .... you know, exit from the Paris
Agreement, they're reigniting the effort to get more mayors to sign on to it and that's
been a .... a very recent, um, request. I think that's the one that's had about 1,200, um,
communities, cities, states sign on to.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 30
Throgmorton/ Yeah, and it's my understanding, you and I talked about this earlier, it's my
understanding that we would not be committing ourselves to certain requirements
associated with that organization, but just signing on to the letter.
Monroe/ Yes, yes, it's just a statement, um, in support of our current initiatives that we're
already, um, striving to achieve. So, our, urn.... agreement to fulfill our obligations of
80% reduction by 2050 would be all that would be required of us at this point.
Throgmorton/ People okay with that?
Botchway/ I would say yeah. Are you gonna add something about the stuff that we're doing, as
well, within the letter?
Throgmorton/ I ... I think all I'm doin' is signing on to a letter that's already been pre -drafted.
Botchway/ Could you then edit that draft, and then (both talking)
Throgmorton/ No, probably not, but I can tell you, I have been telling people who have written,
I've been responding individually, telling them what we've been doing as a Council and
as a staff, as your City government. Yeah, okay, so .... any other topics on....
Dickens/ Just one thing, uh, MPO meetings. Our last one, there was only three of us there and
there was no alternates so .... uh, I know Susan was sitting there by herself. I got stuck in
traffic, got there a minute late, and Rockne showed up, but.....we need to make sure
everybody gets our calls. The City Clerk's office or Geoff, and we need to get alternates
there, because if ..there's times when we need all six of us there to vote, but uh, there was
only three at the last one, so we need to really work at getting alternates are getting there
because it's.... doesn't look good on us as .... as the major city in this and only had three
show up.
Mims/ Yeah.
Dickens/ So....
Throgmorton/ Crack that whip! (laughter)
Dickens/ Yes! (laughter)
Throgmorton/ IP #5 is workforce housing tax credits, and it concerns a memo that you wrote,
Geoff, dated I think Mar ... uh, May 31. Do you want us to discuss that tonight or...
Fruin/ Well ... um, I think what would be helpful is we .... we do have one request pending, um,
and we held it off this agenda because we wanted you to have an opportunity to ... to talk
about any potential guidelines, but if you don't want to talk about it tonight, um, we just
need some direction on what to do with people that are corrin' forward with requests.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 31
Tlrrogmorton/ Yeah. Okay. So .... I .... I'm gonna repeat my own point of view about this. I
believe.... that it's necessary to, um, approve rezonings before we approve workforce
housing tax credits. In my view, to do otherwise is to devalue the public's views. And to
send a signal to them that we've already decided what to do with regard to that rezoning.
I know we discussed it last time, with regard to one .... two particular proposals, but that's
my view at least with regard to, uh, to this particular topic.
Mims/ And .... and I think as you know from our previous conversation, I ... I disagree. I think
what we have to do is be very clear in our communication that approving the workforce
housing tax credit is not approving anything else. It's not approving rezoning. It's not
approving a plan site. It's not, you know, approving anything else. But we're doing it
because of the lead time required for people to get on that list so it doesn't push their
project out another year because of the long list of people in line for that money. And so
I'm comfortable at least for this point to stay with the .... the two requirements that staff is
already using, um, in that the project must be consistent with the Comprehensive Plan
and that it must not already be under construction. Um, all we're doing is allowing them
to get in line for that State money, and I just think to your point, Jim, and I think to
address that, I think we can do it with .... better communication and in what we're doing,
but I .... I just think we're gonna have people losing out on the opportunity for State
money, um, if we....
Dickens/ It goes quick!
Mims/ ...and it does, I mean, you know .... if we require the rezoning to be completed before we
would even consider approving. So....
Cole/ I suggest first concern about the pending permit. I guess I'm fine with that coming before
us next time. Um....
Mims/ Yeah, I am too.
Cole/ ....it's just one more. I don't know how people feel about that.
Throgmorton/ That one does not require a rezoning or does it? Do you know?
Fruin/ I don't believe it does. It's a small, I think it's a .... it's a four -unit.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, it would seem to me you should (several talking) Yeah. How bout, uh, I
don't know if any of the rest of you want to speak about the zoning thing, but with regard
you could talk about it or any of these other particular possibilities for inclusion with
regard to workforce housing tax credits. You know, there's a list of seven or eight or
whatever in Geoff s memo.
Cole/ I guess I would like to keep it as simple as possible, but the one thing that jumped out at
me is that I do think we need to identify what is the public benefit that we get in
exchange for the dollars that we're investing, cause we are .... there's a small amount of
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 32
cash that we .... that we are investing in these units. Um, and so Geoff had brought up the
possibility of sort of environmental standard that they would have to meet. Um, I guess I
don't want to have to turn it into ... that's it so complex that it's sort of like going... getting
a TIF or something like that. Um, but I would like to at least have some conversation
about what is the public benefit, above and beyond increasing the .... the housing supply,
which we know that eventually that that's gonna then lower the, you know, housing
price, hopefully, and make more housing available, um, but these ... these are public
dollars and I think as you pointed out originally, it can have a pretty significant impact on
a budget, at least on the front end. Obviously in the long-term we'll get the tax revenue
from it, but I would like to at least see us have that discussion. So ... one or two things in
terms of public benefit I'd like to focus on (mumbled) environmental component jumped
out.
Thomas/ Well that ... that makes some sense, but I ... at this point, I .... I'm satisfied with the current
standard. If we want to look at some additional considerations that ... that might be
worthwhile, but .... I think if it's compliant with the Comprehensive Plan, I think that
seems ... that coupled with the, you know, making sure that everyone's clear as to what it
is we're approving, um, seems.... seems okay ... to me.
Dilkes/ You know I meant to mention last time but .... and I don't know if it helps any because
maybe this is just more political than ... than legal, but ... I mean you really can't bind
yourself to a rezoning. I mean the ... the process required by State law can't be trumped by
any kind of workforce housing tax credit, that you have to go through the public hearing.
You can't make a decision until you go through that public hearing, etc.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I was thinkin' more about public perception than ... than legally
bounding... binding. Yeah.
Botchway/ I would say I like the current construction as well. I'm not sure about, I mean, when
you talk about public benefit, I mean I feel like that's what we're charged to do, um, and
I mean my first thought was to say, you know, why would just be .... why would
environmental consideration be the only consideration, or unless you were using that just
as an example. But, you know, for me then it would be Council determining what all
those pub ... public benefit, um, potential things could be and .... I just think that's
a .... that's what we have to do when we ... when it comes before us. So.....and I agree
with the State dollar analysis as well, I mean ... you know, it's ..... I do think we just need
to work on communication and how we ... how we approach that, how we approach that
because, um, I, yeah, it's money that goes quick and I think that it's an opportunity, yeah,
I mean .... I .... I'm for it!
Mims/ Just to keep the current....
Botchway/ Keep the current.
Cole/ But it is a thousand per unit, that's what we're committing, correct? (several responding)
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 33
Botchway/ But I think that's (both talking)
Cole/ That's at the front end, is that ... or that's over time?
Fruin/ No, you can structure it in any number of ways. We could do rebates. We could do a, just
a ... a lump sum check, but we're not gonna commit our funds till they're.... they've
actually built their project.
Cole/ Okay.
Frain/ So it's ... it's not as if the Council adopts the resolution and we cut a check the next day.
Cole/ So (both talking)
Frain/ It could be years down the ... it could be, you know, I think you have to wait now until
fiscal year 19 to get the award, so, um, it could be a couple of fiscal years out before we
even cut that check. (several talking)
Dickens/ I'm fine with it the way it is, but I think maybe we could have a stock.... something
written when any of these comes up and we just read it before we do any of the ... the
voting on it, just so the public knows that we're not approving anything other than this
particular, giving the State.... giving them the go-ahead to go try to get the funds, but
maybe we can have something written up that would just be kind of canned, that... at the
beginning of it or in the (several talking) in the resolution (both talking)
Frain/ Build it into the resolution. It may already be in there. I know we talk about it in our
Council reports. I just don't have a .... resolution (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Okay. Sounds reasonable. The Council's, uh, view is clear.
Fruin/ Can I make just one more....
Throgmorton/ Sure!
Fruin/ ....cause we hadn't discussed this before, but I did put it in the memo. We do have one
person that has a building under construction that is interested in ..... in getting support
form the City, and I have not put that forward, uh, because the supply's already being
created without our investment, but clearly it's a lot of dollars for a developer. Are you
comfortable with that standard or do you want to consider projects that are already under
construction?
Throgmorton/ How big of a can of worms does that open up? (laughs)
Frain/ I don't think there'll be too many because it's not a retroactive benefit. So once they get
their application in, you have to analyze where you're at with the project and they can
only get the credit for the portion they haven't built yet. Um, in this case we're talkin'
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.
Page 34
about a, probably an 80 -unit building that's .... has pretty substantial construction already,
you know, already completed. Urn.... again, from my perspective, it's under
construction. It was ... it was done so without a demonstrated need for this, and .... I'm a
little uncomfortable providing public dollars for a project that's even .... even (both
talking)
Mims/ I would say no. (several talking in background)
Throgmorton/ I ... while I think... doing something on the spur of the moment for one developer
doesn't feel good. Anything else? All right, I think we're done with our work session for
today! So we'll reconvene at 7:00 P.M. for our formal (recording ends mid -sentence)
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2017.