HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-09-19 TranscriptionPage 1
Council Present: Botchway, Cole, Dickens, Mims, Taylor, Thomas, Throgmorton
Staff Present: Fruin, Andrew, Dilkes, Fruehling, Ford, Bockenstedt, Dulck, Yapp,
Laverman, Howard, Hightshoe, Seydell Johnson
Others Present: Nelson, Stewart (UISG)
Neighborhood Stabilization Update [IP3 of 9/14 Info Packet]:
Throgmorton/ Okay, we're gonna begin the Iowa City City Council's work session for Tuesday,
September 19th, 2017. The first topic on the work session agenda is neighborhood
stabilization, an update on all that, and I think, Geoff, you're gonna begin, right?
Fruin/ Yeah, I'm gonna start us off here. So in June, staff presented an overview of House File
134. We talked about the anticipated impacts of, uh, the new law, and presented some
initial thoughts on .... on how we might react to that. Um, tonight we want to give you an
update on our refined plans and get your informal approval to finish up with the analysis
that we need to do and ultimately prepare the code changes that, uh, you all will need to
consider. So I've been with the City about six years now. Uh, we've gone through three
different strategic plans, uh, with three different Councils, and the one consistent theme
through all of those has been a strong focus on neighborhood stabilization and healthy
neighborhoods. The goals have been pretty consistent, pretty clear — ensure our
neighborhoods offer a variety of housing types and attract a balance of rental and owner
opp ... owner -occupied, uh, opportunities that appeal to a diverse demographic and, uh,
economic cross-section of the community. Much of our efforts over, uh, certainly the last
several years, but I would venture to guess, uh, going much further back than my time
here have been focused on slowing or reversing, uh, the growing imbalance of rental
and .... and owner -occupied opportunities in some of our, uh, neighborhoods in and
around, uh, the University area. We've adopted new regulations and invested millions of
public dollars in, uh, public improvements and housing programs in these neighborhoods.
When we talked about House File 134 in June, I told you that the three -unrelated, um,
regulation that has been on our books for quite some time was probably in my view the
most critical tool, um, in ensuring, uh, that we, uh... uh, can, uh, stabilize our
neighborhoods. With that gone as of January I", we have significant challenges ahead to
meet your strategic plan goals. Uh, without any action, I think the destabilizing trends,
uh, that we have seen over the last couple of decades will surely accelerate in some of
these neighborhoods. Unfortunately there's not any, uh, a whole lot of blueprints that we
can look to in other communities, uh, because the vast majority of, uh, communities
across the ... the country rely on familial status to regulate occupancy. Matter of fact when
I met with, uh, many of the Big Ten cities earlier this summer and posed the question of
how they all approach occupancy, uh, to a community, they all used familial status to
regulate, uh, their occupancy in their communities. That said, uh, staff, primarily in, uh,
Legal and Neighborhood and Development Services have been workin' hard to refine
some, uh, of the initial thoughts that we presented in June. So I'm gonna start, uh, and
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give you an overview of one component of that strategy, and then I'm gonna turn it over
to staff to cover the rest of the plan to actions. Again, tonight we're just lookin' for some
initial reactions, uh, and feedback from you, and a green light to proceed with the final
analysis that's needed to prepare the code revisions. So in your Information Packet you
received a, uh, fairly lengthy memo that had a few maps, uh, on it, attached to it as well.
Uh, that's what we're gonna review, uh, with you tonight, and to start I'm gonna discuss
the concept of a cap on rental permits for single-family and duplex units within a defined
impact area. The primary objective here is to ensure a healthy balance of rentals and
ownership opportunities in our single-family neighborhoods. Without a strong
occupancy regulatory tool like we have now, the pressure to convert owner -occupied
homes to lucrative rentals will accelerate rapidly. In some neighborhoods we arty .... are
already arguably past the tipping point in seeing those destabilizing effects, and we're
certainly, uh, would predict to see those continue without any, uh, further action. What
we're doin' is lookin' at a, uh, is lookin' at rental permit density in our neighborhoods,
and uh, seein' where there's correlation with police calls.....police calls for service, on
neighborhood nuisance issues, and with, uh, John Yapp's help, uh, we're gonna step
through a couple of maps that were in your memo, just to give you a very, very high
level, urn ... kind of glimpse into the type of data that we're .... we're studying on a more
micro level at the .... at a ..... at a staff, uh, level here. So the first map you see there is just,
uh, what we call a `heat map,' showing the density of, uh, rental permits. Uh, and you
can see the .... the darker, uh, blue colors would .... is where we have the, uh, the highest
concentration of, uh, rental permits, and then out in the lighter yellow, uh, colors, uh, is
where the .... the, uh, the fewer numbers of rental permits would be located. What we've
been doin' is takin' this information and then, uh, correlating that with, uh, map #2,
which is, uh, nuisance and noise complaints that are coming in, uh, through our Police
Department. So we've taken the calls for service data, uh, from the Police Department
and started to take that same approach. It's a heat map. Uh, the darker...... the color, the
heavier concentration of police calls for service, specifically focusing on the nuisance and
noise issues that tend to have the greatest destabilizing impacts on the neighborhoods.
The third map that we shared with you, um, is simply, uh, looking at the percentage of
single-family and duplex units that have a rental permit in these geographic areas. Uh,
these geographic areas are.....are currently used open space districts, uh, so, um, they
might not mesh completely with neighborhoods as .... as some might recognize them, but
um, they are established and .... and, uh, utilized, uh, boundaries, uh, that the City, um....
uh, has already, uh, on the books. So what you see there is, again, just the single-family
and duplex, and as we talk tonight, um, we're gonna try to be very clear about, um, when
we are talking about single-family and duplex and when we might get into multi -family,
but the vast majority of the recommendations that we have for you, and certainly what I
would say the most impactful, uh, recommendations that .... that we have for you focus on
that single-family and duplex, urn .... uh, housing type. They don't get into the .... the
multi -family. So when I talk about a cap on, uh...... uh, rental permits, again, we're
talking about a cap on rental permits for those single-family and duplex, urn.... properties.
So using all of this data, uh, again, and we're looking at it, uh, not just at this high level
but on a more micro level too, uh, we're drilling down to determine an appropriate rental
cap, um, for single-family and duplex units, and uh, we're not prepared to, uh, tell you
what that cap or recommend that number, uh, to you tonight, but as we indicated in our
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memo, uh, based on our preliminary review of the police data and the rental, uh, permit
density data, uh, we think it's likely to fall between 35 and 50%. So when I gave you that
number, 35 to 50%, you can look up at this map here and see that, uh, we have several
neighborhoods that are below that number and several that are above that number, or ... or
that ... or that range of numbers. If we were to, uh, recommend a cap and .... and ultimately
the Council, uh, were to agree with that and establish a cap, um, essentially what you'd
get is a situation, uh, in which, uh, particular neighborhood, urn .... if it was already over
that established cap, uh, would not ..... we would not issue any new rental permits for
single-family or duplex properties. Again, we're not talking about the multi -family
properties here. Um, if it was, uh, not in the cap, so again if we were to set that at, uh, I
gave you the range of 35 to 50%, if we were to take that, uh, low end and say 35% would,
uh, be the cap, and a neighborhood was say at 27%, we would still allow rental permits,
uh, to, um ... be issued in that neighborhood until you reach that 35%. However, the
second component, which is mentioned in the memo, is that we are also looking at a
spacing requirement within those neighborhoods that could take on more rental permits.
Uh, we use .... we use, uh, spacing requirements with a number of other, uh, uses, uh, in
the .... in the community. I think probably the one that you're probably most familiar with
would be, um.....uh, drinking establishments downtown, uh, but it also comes into play
when we look at our affordable housing tools, our location model for example, uh, so
it's..... it's somethin' that we .... we've certainly used before, uh, in City code. So again,
the rental cap regulation is aimed at, urn.... countering the market impact of the
occupancy changes. As occupancy goes up, uh, which it will once HF134 is, uh.... uh,
officially enacted in January we will see more market, uh, pressure towards rentals and,
uh... uh, and an accelerated destabilizing impact on some of these core neighborhoods.
By capping rental permits we can help ensure that, uh, you reach your goal of, uh,
achieving balance and stability, uh, with these neighborhoods. So that's a quick
overview of the ... the rental cap concept, uh, that we, again, mentioned to you in June and
that we've been spending some time refining. Um .... my suggestion would be that we
allow staff to go through all of the recommendations and then you can ask questions
about, uh, any one of them after, but if you would rather focus recommendation by
recommendation, we could take questions now on this concept.
Throgmorton/ I'd say go ahead.
Fruin/ Okay! Does that sound good? All right, so I think Stan Laverman from our, uh,
Neighborhood and Development Services Department is gonna walk you through, uh, the
remaining pieces of, uh, the memo.
Laverman/ I'll cover the housing code changes. Karen Howard will address the zoning code.
So, Stan Laverman, Senior Housing Inspector. So, uh, starting with the first housing
code, uh, change there is that no more than 30% of the habitable floor area of a dwelling
can be bedrooms. Um, other habitable space may not be used as a bedroom. Uh, we're
getting this number from the, um, National Association of Home Builders, uh, for what
the average home is currently. And what we're looking to do is prevent, um, existing
rentals, dining rooms, living rooms, family rooms being converted to bedrooms to
increase occupancy. Along with that, uh, the second one kinda ties into that, is increasing
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the minimum bedroom size from 70 -square -feet to 100 -square -feet, and this is referring,
again, to single-family and duplex homes. Um, and again the desire is to prevent existing
rentals from, uh, converting existing rooms, maybe even dividing up existing bedrooms
to create more bedrooms to increase occupancy. Urn.... additionally the .... that any
bedroom over 200 si... uh, 200 -square -feet would be counted as two bedrooms. Um, as
we're looking at how to regulate some of this, there's going to be parking requirements,
uh, in place and it won't be based on a per occupant basis but it'll be based on a bedroom,
uh, count. So .... logically, uh, some of these larger bedrooms will hold two people and
should be counted as .... two bedrooms because of the increased occupancy. Is there any
questions on that portion of the changes?
Throgmorton/ There might be as we go along but.....
Laverman/ Okay! Uh, interconnected smoke alarms. Uh, we feel this is a life safety issue, uh,
that as bedrooms are added to these single-family, duplex units, uh, that this increase
code requirement would also provide a measure of safety. Uh... duplex units, one of the
issues that we have is duplexes functioning as single families and the larger occupancies,
uh, is where we tend to see our nuisance complaints. So physically separating those two
dwellings, uh, so you can't have the duplex with the door in between and large groups
living together as a .... as, in one unit. We feel that the permanent separation would, uh,
be a better solution to.....to create two separate units. Um .... dead bolts, um .... required
on the exterior doors of units. Uh, we .... we do have, uh, existing single-family and
duplex units in this community that don't have dead loads, that don't have that measure
of safety, and uh.... that was a recommendation from the University of Iowa Student
Government that they would like to see. Uh, looking at requiring rental permits where
there is more than one roomer. So if you owner -occupy the property and had two
roomers, uh, we would require you to have a rental permit. Uh, again, this is mainly to
address, uh, the situations where homes are bought, uh, for .... by parents with students,
uh, and then they're rented out to larger numbers. Um, this is an opportunity for us to
inspect those properties and to verify that, uh, conditions are being maintained and that
they're safe housing. Um .... and lastly we have the rental permit sanctions. Um .... under
the housing code right now, uh, if you have two, uh, complaints within a 12 -month
period, you're required to come in for a code compliant settlement agreement. We're
looking at extending that time period out to 24 -months, uh, and then adjusting how we,
urn .... we look at some of those complaints. In the housing code right now, uh, there's
two sections. There's one, the criminal complaints that are a violation of the housing
code and then there's a nuisance complaints, and while the nuisance complaint
component has been in the housing code since the inception, we haven't used that section
of the housing code. It'd be our intent to combine that to address the nuisances that we're
seeing in the neighborhood, under this provision, under a 24 -month period as opposed to
a 12 -month period. That's my section of the housing code. So, if you have.... staffing,
uh, yeah, that's at a later .... uh, under enforcement, uh, we're looking at increasing
inspections, uh, looking, at, uh.... increased inspections on multi -families older than 1996.
Uh, that's a cutoff for, uh, sprinkling in buildings. Uh, rooming houses, group homes,
public housing units, single-family and duplex properties with four or more bedrooms,
um, there are some exceptions to that. Um.....the permits and the fees, uh, depending if
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they're affordable units, they're part of an affordable public or non-profit housing
program. Uh, we're looking to add staff to handle the additional inspections and the
nuisance complaints, uh, two full-time Housing Inspection staff and, uh.....uh, a police
officer to better address the nuisance violations, uh, and we would be staffed in the
evening and the weekends, uh, in the Housing Department, which we have not in the
past. Uh, additional housing code, um .... with new software coming online, uh,
beginning of next year or early next year, uh, we would be requiring that the information
disclosure form be submitted, uh, at each rental permit. Right now we ask for it if there
is an issue, um, but we will have the ability to collect that and take it to the rental
property. It'll just ease and increase our ability to enforce ... with enforcement. Urn ... and
then also requiring that designated agent to be available 24/7 to address issues that may
arise, looking for, you know, a more professional response than we may be getting right
now. And again as we're looking at those, um, we talked about the ... the time period for
the .... the nuisance complaints and the .... the rental permit sanctions, we need to,
uh.... look at our enforcement of the nuisance and how that ties into the revocation of a
rental permit. So we'll be tightening up those standards and clarifying those too. So
there, that's my housing code (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Okay, good, Stan. Thank you. It may be other people have questions they'd like
to ask you, but I certainly would like to ask you one. Sorry! My voice is soft today. Uh,
I need some clarity about something. So would all the proposed changes concerning the
housing code apply to all rental units in the city, or just to the capped neighborhoods
and/or to just single-family and duplex structures? I can ask that again if you'd like.
Laverman/ No, I .... I've got ya there! So ... uh, the habitable area, the 30% for the bedrooms,
that's to all single-family, duplex rentals in the city. Um, the minimum bedroom size is
for single-family, duplex in the city. Two hundred is for single-family, duplex in the city.
Interconnected would be throughout the city, for single-family, duplex. If you're
building a new building, multi -family, that's a requirement already. The separation
would be entire city. Dead bolts would be entire city. Single-family, duplex. No,
I .... I'm sorry. I take that back. That's for multi -family also, if we have those situations.
So that would be all rental property for dead bolts.
Throgmorton/ Okay, so almost all of `em apply only to single-family or duplex units....
Laverman/ Correct!
Throgmorton/ .... but throughout the whole city.
Laverman/n Correct!
Throgmorton/ Okay! That's what ... I ... I needed clarity about that. Thanks! I don't know if
anybody else wants to ask Stan.
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Cole/ I have.....I have a question. Um, for affordable housing units, um, will the cap apply to
those units as well. So for example say Housing Fellowship has an opportunity to buy on
the Northside, uh, would they be subject to then that, uh, cap?
Fruin/ Yeah, um, and we still ... just so every ... so.....so we know, we still have the zoning code
amendments to work through here, the zoning code recommendations, but um, there has
been some questions raised in the .... in the last few days. We've had a couple of, uh,
correspondences filed with ... with the Council that, uh, raise the question on affordable
housing. We have had some preliminary discussions internally and it's referenced in
your memo, um, but we're certainly aware of the concern. We're just not quite ready to
offer firm recommendations on how we handle the affordable units. Clearly we know
that's, uh, a top priority of the City Council too, um, and we have to find a .... an
appropriate balance in how, uh, some of these regulations and proposals interplay with
each other, so not quite ready to .... to get into that, but understand it's a concern.
Cole/ Okay. Thanks!
Throgmorton/ Susan, did you want to (both talking)
Mims/ No, I just... thought we were going through everything with Karen before we started
asking questions (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Well we were but I was ... kind (several talking and laughing) with regard to that
particular point so (laughter) Yeah! Okay, good, uh, I guess we can move on.
Mims/ We'll get ya back! (laughs)
Throgmorton/ Yeah, that's right! (laughs) Good evening, Karen!
Howard/ Good evening! Karen Howard, Neighborhood Development Services. Urn ... uh, zoning
code changes, they kind of build on some of the housing code changes, and also some of
the work that we'll be doing fairly shortly with form based code, um, and so we're trying
to build on all those things and make sure that we have house -scale buildings in
neighborhoods and areas, um, where we should have house -scale buildings, um, and that
also goes to how many .... what a reasonable size a household can live, um, within....
within these housing types of single-family and duplex. So the first one is establish, uh,
maximum building depth and width standards for, um, new single-family and duplex
structures, um, and also it would apply to any kind of enlargements for existing. Um, that
way you don't get the block -scale buildings, you don't get, uh, adding on to existing
single-family to add bedrooms and that sort of thing to make them sort of de facto
rooming houses. Um, and then the second one also to keep a certain amount of rear yard
space, and in fact your memo should have said a certain amount of `pervious surface,' in
the rear yard for open space. Um, that's just a .... a very typical thing that you have with a
single-family and a duplex, you have some open space that's used by the household that
lives in the unit, and so we feel like adding that will ensure that they'll... there continues
to be a yard rather than paving over the entire back yard for parking. Um, and then the
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third thing of course will be, uh, the parking standards right now are based on the number
of unrelated people that live within the household, with the idea that the more unrelated
people you have, the more potential for cars that you have. So we'll have to base it on
something different. Um, and so probably the most logical thing to do is base it on the
number of bedrooms in.....in the house or the duplex. Um, so just sort of balance
between open space in the yard and the number of parking spaces that can logically fit on
a lot and maintain that single-family character of the neighborhood, um, and for that lot
itself, uh, to be a house -scale building and to be serving a household size, uh, type group
of people. Um, those are the kinds of things that we're looking at, rather than having to,
um, use the....the household size. Uh, fourthly we'll need to amend the zoning code to
be consistent with some of the changes that Stan went through in the housing code related
to the bedroom size. So some of those things will have to be also in the zoning code
because they'll be related to parking requirements and, um, you know when somebody
comes in for a building permit, we'll need to be able to say, you know, you keep .... you
need to keep your bed.... bedrooms a certain size. We're not trying to encourage, uh, you
know, rooming houses here. We're trying to keep things a certain, um .... and one of the
things that Stan mentioned was it was based on a study, the 30% bedrooms, uh, in a ... in a
household, and that was in that study. It was a cross, um .... house sizes, that 30% kept
consistent and that was convincing to us that that 30% was the right number because
regardless of how big the house gets, that 30% tends to .... to stay about the same. Um, so
we felt like that was a pretty good number to deal with. Um ... and then finally we'll have
to amend of course the zoning code to take care of all the familial relationship language
that's currently..... currently in the code. Any questions?
Fruin/ In addition we .... we, um .... had talked about a number of other things, urn ... and realized
that there's complexity involved with each of these. Uh, with several of them, we've
talked internally about, um, the need perhaps for some administrative flexibility. So
Karen mentioned for example that 30% threshold. Uh, or that 30% figure. I think we're
going to need as we .... as we draft the code to have some reasonable wiggle room for
staff, for someone that comes in with a plan that may be a percent or two off of that, but
clearly meeting the intent, and that can go with a number of these items here. So we
realized that, uh, it's hard to when we have thousands of units in the community to .... to
pinpoint exact numbers. So just keep that in the mind .... in your mind as you .... as you're
discussing through... through some of this. We may need that administrative flexibility,
uh, as long as the intent is there.
Throgmorton/ Okay! Do we have questions? (mumbled) I want to thank the staff. You .... you
faced a very significant challenge here, tryin' to figure out how to respond to this
particular piece of State legislation. And, uh, you've come up with a very
comprehensive, and thorough set of proposals, which we're gonna have to sort through
and figure out what we want to recommend goin' back to ya. So, Susan, I know you had
(both talking)
Mims/ Well, I was going to ask a question on one, but actually I'm gonna make a suggestion that
maybe to make this more efficient and we can keep our thoughts straight if we start at the
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beginning with the rental permit limits and maybe work our way down through, so we're
not jumping from one section to another.
Throgmorton/ Makes sense to me!
Mims/ Make it easier to ask all our questions and....
Throgmorton/ Well let's do it! So how bout the rental cap and spacing requirements?
Mims/ I like that. I mean that's something that as a Council we started thinking about .... oh, four
or five years ago at least, I remember when Stan and Matt Hayek and I and .... and I think
John Yapp maybe drove around the Northside, looking at things, and that's where we got
one of our most recent I think housing code changes had to do with some of the
maintenance issues and .... and those kinds of things, just to try and make sure that ... and it
applied to both owners and landlords, were keeping up the outsides of their property, you
know, in a way that was not, um .... so it wasn't detrimental to the neighborhood in terms
of, uh, what was happening with those. So .... like with so many things, the devil's in the
details, but certainly as a starting point I think that's one thing that we've thought about..
I think a lot of us in previous Councils .... is how do you find some sort of limit over
which you really start affecting the livability, you know, the sustainability of a
neighborhood, because you get too many short-term rentals, um, in the area. So at least
on the surface at this moment I'm .... I'm supportive of those two. I think we've got, um,
I'll be interested in the details, and the minute you start saying, okay, 150 -feet, are you
measuring from property line to property line, you know, just .... all kinds of little details
like that.
Fruin/ Yeah, and that's really where we have to get in to breaking down these neighborhoods
individually as staff and seeing what is the impact of 150 -feet versus 75 -feet versus some
other number.
Mims/ Right.
Fruin/ Not quite there yet, but that's what we're goin' through right now.
Thomas/ I'm supportive of it too. I .... I know I've spoken to some on Council as well as, uh,
staff on this. You know, I .... I lived in the University impact zone. I .... I've experienced
what the issues are and um, you know, this of course as a preface, this is.....this is not
meant as an attack on the student population, you know. (laughs) This is really trying to
find a place in Iowa City where we can all live, uh, affordably and comfortably and, you
know, this... we're...... we're talking about some of the actions the City is taking. We're
not really talking tonight about actions the University will be taking, urn, but when I was
looking at this .... this issue, you know, I saw that, urn ... Iowa State and UNI were
providing more housing on campus for their students than the University of Iowa by a
long shot. Uh, so hopefully..... without getting into those details, that this will be a joint
effort by the University and the City to, urn ... to address the ... the question of housing and
affordability. Uh, but I .... I do think that .... that, with respect to the, um, cap, you know,
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there're basically two key ways university towns address this issue. One is the
occupancy. The other is density. We lost the occupancy control, so this is the
alternative. Um, I'm very pleased with ... with how staff and Eleanor have worked on, uh,
the framework here, and how it's tied to, you know, the kinds of quality of life issues that
are factored into how you define what that cap is. Um .... so, one of the questions I'm
hoping we will hear from, uh, the community on is what should that cap be? Uh... you
know I... I haven't heard too much. I'm sure we will start to hear things now that we're
having the work session, but....
Fruin/ We're gonna try, I mean, we're gonna really try to base that recommendation from a staff
level on the .... the police data itself. We want that to be a .... a.....a data -driven
recommendation, uh, to you.
Thomas/ Right, and I .... I really, that data -driven aspect I think is what's so key and.....and what
I had always been frustrated by with our Comprehensive Plan. It talked about the
imbalance but it didn't define it. Now I think we ... we have an idea of, a working
definition of what that issue .... how we .... how we do define it.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, there's a key issue havin' to do with rational nexus, which is a legal
concept. Eleanor, I wonder if you could give us a quick hint about what rational nexus
means and how it plays out here.
Dilkes/ Well the standard here is .... is rational basis, whether we have a rational basis to impose
the, urn .... uh.....the cap and the spacing limits. Um ..... I think we quite clearly do.
Um .... and.....there are community.....there are a number of communities, for example in
Minnesota, that have these types of caps and spacing requirements, and .... they were
challenged. The District Court and the Court of Appeals both upheld, um, the City on
those. So ... legally I'm.....I'm comfortable with the caps .... and spacing requirement.
Botchway/ So, uh, I would say I agree again with a lot of the points John made around, um,
supporting this particular recommendation. Uh, I do have a couple of kind of
recommendations/suggestions. Um, I think some of it involves feedback, and so you
know obviously from a community standpoint and, um, from the newspapers,
media/that's in the room, getting that information out and spreading that out to the public,
I think, is going to be important, but I also kind of wanted to know what feedback that
we're giving, not only from a University perspective because I do think it's important
that that doesn't get mixed .... or missed in all of this. Um .... and maybe being a little
more, and I don't know what we've done but deliberate with that, kind of pushed to see,
you know, um, this is a ..... I mean obviously we've talked or had conversations about
this being a concern, but these are the changes that we're making because of some of the
deficiencies, um, that other areas, as you mentioned Iowa State. I think you mentioned
Iowa State, right? Iowa State have addressed in different ways or, um, have had more on
campus housing to address, and so can you help us out to a certain extent. One of the
other things I thought about is, you know, what's.... always look at the kind of ...the
unintended consequences or maybe intended consequences and so what are .... have we
reached out to other municipalities, um, how does this change affect, um, you know, the
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businesses or the rental property owners currently, I mean obviously they're paying
attention, um, but also from a market pressure standpoint, some of the other communities
as well. Uh, the data -driven apt .... approach, going to another point, is good, um, I mean
I really appreciate that approach, but this in particular, because of this being such a big,
uh, issue, I'd really want us to run that, uh, racial and socio-economic toolkit analysis. I
know that we've done it through some of our departments through our strategic planning
process, but for this particular one, um, because of some of the data and some of the areas
that I was looking at or I saw on the screen, and in the packet as well. Uh, I just want us
to go through that kind of. ... I think it's a question -based worksheet to make sure that
we're some of the ... the unintended consequences aren't falling back on, um, on
com... on ... on our communities or under -represented communities that could be highly,
uh, problematic. One of the things I think we're going to get into with the housing code
recommendations, um, is talking about, again, where we have... Stan, I can't remember
what you were mentioning, but, uh, where we have those issues where that duplex or
door or whatever the case may be, may allow for more people in a particular space,
thinking about how that affects different communities. I just want us to make sure that
we're.... we're paying attention to that as well. So that would be my major concern and
how we receive feedback on that is going to be really, really important for me.
Dickens/ (clears throat) Have we talked to the Iowa City Rental Association and the Home
Builders? I don't know .... we got any information from them or .... have they .... (both
talking) contact with them?
Fruin/ We did not... specifically meet with the Home Builders. We met with the, um, Rental
Association, a few representatives, uh, right after the June work session, and uh, walked
them through what we presented to you in June, and then we gave them a ... a preview, not
as detailed as the memo, but a preview of what was going to be on the table tonight, uh,
in early September, shortly after Labor Day, um, and I'm sure they're prepared when the
time's right to offer their feedback.
Dickens/ Thank you.
Cole/ I guess I just have two questions. Um, for existing permits, for example if they were to sell
the property to a new person, would the person acquiring the property be able to obtain a
permit? So for example in the Northside, you sell a permitted rental, does that
grandfather extend to the new purchaser or would they have to reapply?
Laverman/ Rental permits typically stay with the property.
Cole/ Okay. So the existing home ... or owner would not then lose value by virtue of not having it
as a rent .... which I would support.... okay! Um .... the other question I would ... go ahead,
sorry!
Dilkes/ Assuming it's a valid rental.
Cole/ Okay.
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Dilkes/ And in place rental permit, that they haven't let it lapse for 18 months or....
Cole/ The other question I have relates to a nuisance violation that ... it's my understanding that if
there are excessive number of these, potentially that can lead to revocation of the permit.
Is that true?
Laverman/ Yes.
Cole/ Um, if they were to have a permit revoked because it's a nuisance property, would they
then be subject to the cap, for example? How ... how would that work?
Laverman/ We ..... we need to spell that out clearly, but over time it's my understanding that yes,
that they would fall subject to the cap and not be able to rent that property (both talking)
Cole/ Okay. (both talking)
Dickens/ And was there a reason goin' from 12 to 24? What was the basis for that?
Laverman/ Uh, a lot of times we're seeing one or two a year complaints, um, so if you lived in
that neighborhood, um, for years, there's a lot of complaints. I mean if you look at the
complaints at....at rental properties versus complaints at owner -occupied, yeah, it's only
one or two a year but it's one or two every year, you know, so .... we just need to get a
handle on that. And we're looking at things like, okay, so they're not mowing the grass.
Maybe it's not a good situation to have them with the expectation that they're mowing
the grass. Maybe you put a property maintenance plan in place where you're providing a
mower or you're addressing that more thoroughly.
Thomas/ How is, um, Airbnb affected by this?
Laverman/ Uh, that would be separate because Air ... uh, Airbnb, as long as they're owner -
occupied legally, uh, get a bed and breakfast permit and it's allowed. So that's exempt
from, um ... the....the cap, from the cap and underneath the, um. .... the distance
requirement.
Thomas/ And I .... I think this was covered but I just wanted to highlight it. If the ... if the primary
residence is owner -occupied, uh, in a district that is over the cap, uh, rental permits will
still be allowed on accessory units, correct?
Laverman/ Correct, yep!
Taylor/ I just had a question about those properties that, uh, might have an owner say on paper,
um, like a parent has bought a home and their student lives there with others.
Laverman/ Sure.
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Taylor/ They obviously wouldn't be included in this data because there wouldn't be a rental
permit as such.
Laverman/ Not at this time, no. Right. That's correct (both talking)
Taylor/ It would be difficult to capture that.
Laverman/ That's correct (both talking)
Botchway/ So that brings up a good .... oh, go ahead! That brings up a good point about
enforcement, and so as I heard you kind of talking through this (mumbled) I was really
worried about that particular piece. It talks about annual inspection but .... what changes
are happening? We're adding the nighttime, um, recommendations are requesting to add
the nighttime, two nighttime people or two evening people, and a weekend person, as
well as the part-time police officer, which actually would want .... I have a question about
that as well, but .... what changes as far as enforcement?
Fruin/ Well I ... I think that's .... I think it's a big component of that, and if we .... we got back to
the, a lot of the debate at the .... at the State House the last several years, and this has been
on the table, when we would go and talk with, uh, folks about this in Des Moines or cities
in general would, the constant refrain from the .... the law makers who are supportive of
this is if you have nuisance issues, deal with `em through enforcement. You have
enforcement tools and so we .... we have to step up our enforcement. They're right! We
have enforcement tools. We haven't been as aggressive as .... as we could have been, um,
because we thought the occupancy, the three unrelated occupancy control took care of the
vast majority, or gave us the tools to intervene in cases and take care of the .... a good
number of the complaints. That's not gonna be the case anymore. So we need, um,
additional people, uh, both to prevent the nuisances and address `em when they come up,
but to ensure that, uh, the life safety issues are met. So what, urn .... uh, we're
recommending here tonight is that, uh, we would hire two additional, um, inspectors.
Um, we would have, um, weekend coverage, um, the evening coverage would be more
focused on the police officer position, um, and what, uh, my current thought on the police
officer position, cause we wouldn't hire a ..... a half-time police officer. It'd be a full-time
police officer. So we would have, um .... uh, roughly half of the position, again still
working out the details, um, funded by, uh, rental permits, inspection fees, if you will,
and the other half funded by the general fund. So that's, uh, an expense that we'll have to
accommodate in the general fund, um, but that .... that officer, um, would be, um, tasked
on, uh, particularly Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights on neighborhood nuisances in,
um, it'd be neighborhood nuisances, um, that .... that come up. Um, so that would be his
or her sole focus during those times. The other parts of her shift, or his shift, would focus
on traditional policing or maybe another community policing type of exercise. And Stan
can jump into the enforcement piece.
Laverman/ Right, and the additional staff allows us to do those yearly inspections, allows us to
get into those properties that occupancy may still be an issue. Um, we're requiring more
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paperwork, uh, which we're able to compare against our own records, uh, to, you know,
verify in the office that, um, you know.....they're meeting our requirements.
Mims/ Going back to the rental permit limits, um, and this was .... part of this was brought up
earlier, uh, related to the affordable housing. Rockne, you brought that up in terms of an
exception. I'll be interested to see, you know, what staff comes back with on that. Geoff,
you mentioned that, you know, you're still working that one out, and the other one is not
just the .... I don't think it ... doesn't come just under the affordable housing, but we have a
lot of, um, social service agencies that are, you know, renting by the room to clients, um,
and certainly, you know, some of them have been interested in expanding the number of
bedrooms because it allows their clients to pay less rent and they, you know, they have
them supervised or whatever, depending on those circumstances. So, I think those are
also, um, exceptions that we have to look at carefully, and I .... and I say that from the
standpoint I want to make sure that those agencies, as well as the affordable housing
community, you know, isn't shut out of areas. At the same time, I think we have to look
carefully at, urn .... the data, you know, and .... and my guess is that as we look at these and
you look historically that hopefully a lot of those social service homes and hopefully a lot
of the affordable housing units are not the ones with the police calls. And if that's the
case, and if we can document that, then I think that strengthens the case that we could
make exceptions for them, at least up to some limit. So, I guess I would encourage staff
to kind of look at it from that perspective.
Dilkes/ And ... and I think some of those places you're talking about are not classified as single-
family, duplex units.
Mims/ Okay. I .... I've talked with some of the social service agencies and I know they have at
least a number across the city with different agencies, so I know that's a concern that
some of them have mentioned to me. So....
Throgmorton/ Well I have two broad areas of concern I want to share with you, and I'm .... but in
sharing them I want to emphasize I'm very confident the staff has already been thinking
about these and in part has already addressed them in the oral presentations. The first has
to do with the form based code work we've been doing, in .... in relation to the missing
middle concept. Uh, I hope that, uh, the cap and the spacing and the housing code
amendments and so on don't undermined.... undermine that, um, that work. Uh, and the
second has to do with the general affordability of housing in the city. Uh... I know that
there's, uh, already been some concern expressed to us about implications for
affordability. So, uh.... I think we need to keep that in mind and I'm absolutely confident
the staff is keeping it in mind. Those are two broad areas of concern I have.
Cole/ And I'm assuming too, we probably put downward pressure I think on the price if there's
not as many .... if it doesn't have that opportunity cost as a rental value. Has staff made
that assessment?
Fruin/ Well ... you know when .... when you get into the affordability of housing (both talking)
there's umpteen variables that play into that, um, you know, even.... probably the most
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impactful variable in my mind is the supply of housing throughout the entire community,
um, not just focused on the micro level but the macro — how many new units are coming
on? That's probably gonna have more impact on the affordability, but certainly
particularly when you get into the cap discussion here, we're intervening with market
forces and there will be ripples through the market, um, and there'll be different ripples
for the rental. If you have a cap and you can't expand the rental market, those rental
values will .... will go up. The value of that permit will go up. Um, on the other hand, uh,
if you're an owner -occupied person looking for housing and you're not competing with
that rental, to your point, Rockne, um, there should be some .... some downward pressure
on the owner -occupied, but again, with so many variables, those things can get washed
out quickly by, uh, the .... the other things at play in the market.
Throgmorton/ And on the other hand, the more new units are added in other parts of the city, but
within pretty close distance of the University, uh, that reduces market pressure in the, if
you will, the impacted neighborhoods. Yeah, so.....
Fruin/ Clearly what John was talking about with the University adding, uh, on campus beds
would have an impact. At the same time you look at, uh, some of the .... the, uh, pretty
dense, extremely dense in many cases, development in Riverfront Crossings that'll be
student, uh, oriented. Um, absolutely that has an impact on the .... on the rental market,
uh, even in traditional single-family districts.
Botchway/ I want to go back to something that Susan said earlier. It reminded me of, um,
around the nuisance portion of it and so I .... wanted to talk, you know, wanted to do the
(mumbled) analysis for obviously the entire proposal, but focus on that nuisance piece,
just making sure that, you know, and again, I'm not necessarily as clear about how our
nuisance process works but .... you know for example if I'm right across my house right
now and I, you know, continually call, you know, urn .... uh, the Police Department, how
that translates from a data standpoint, and so I'm more thinking of, you know,
founded .... a founded nuisance call as compared to unfounded nuisance calls and how
that plays into the data that we'll.... you'll have available for housing calls. Does that
make sense? So if I call (both talking) Say what?
Cole/ Are you saying like if they plead to it, cause...
Botchway/ I just mean it from the standpoint of if I'm calling a whole bunch of times for a
particular house, I mean, how that raises the overall neighborhood, uh, from a nuisance
standpoint. And that's where I saw some of the dots that are red. I'm not saying that
they're not legitimate. I'm just saying that's a cause of concern to look at that I'm ...that
I'm thinking through and maybe I (both talking)
Fruin/ I understand what you're sayin', urn .... I have to get into the data. That may be very
difficult for us to discern if a call for service is coming, you know, if a neighborhood has
75 calls for service in a particular year, um, and I think you're sayin' if 60 of `em are
from one person, targeting a neighbor across the street, we need to be able to sort that out.
I think that's gonna be tough for us to do, but we can look at the data and see.
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Botchway/ Okay, cause that skews it (both talking)
Dilkes/ Well and I think also a lot of, for instance, disor.... disorderly house calls .... may be
resolved with the police showing up and talking to the people and then it calms down.
Um ... I mean there's ..... so I'm not sure how you would ferret out .... those. I mean so we
can't really just look at a conviction rate on disorderly house calls.
Botchway/ Okay.
Throgmorton/ It's my understanding that the first response of the police is to give a warning.
Dilkes/ Right.
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Dilkes/ I mean it's .... it's overwhelming sometimes and (mumbled)
Mims/ I think back to Rockne's comment about, um, the.....(mumbled) my train of thought.
Botchway/ The housing, like the (both talking)
Mims/ ....cost, yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, the pricing. I think one thing we have to keep in mind is
until the legislature made these changes last spring, there was not even the opportunity
for landlords to expand a lot of these houses.... from the standpoint they couldn't make
more money renting because they were already at the maximum because of the familial
limit. So .... in essence, to me, what we're doing is .... we're preventing that expansion
that they couldn't do before anyway. I mean that's why we did the moratorium, was to
say, wait a minute, we need to get a handle on this before we get all kinds of expansions
to five, six, seven, eight bedroom houses or whatever. So to me it was that State law that
allowed the expansion that was not really available before because of the familial status.
So that part of it, to me, does not.... should not decrease the value of the properties for the
landlords. Secondly, I would assume that as we go forward with this, one, anybody
who's got a rental permit is gonna be grandfathered in. As long as they maintain that
property, uh.....you know, vet their tenants, make sure they don't have a lot of nuisance
calls, okay? They're not gonna lose their rental permit. So they still have the opportunity
to continue to make money, you know, from that house. You have say bad landlords who
do not enforce things and maybe ultimately lose their permit. Well, the other landlords in
the area are actually going to benefit from that and potentially that single-family is going
to benefit from a house that can no longer be rented and so doesn't have the same value.
So a single family could buy it. So .... you know.....
Botchway/ So .... two last questions! One, to Susan's point. Eleanor, you're kinda shaking your
head, so I'm worried that those assumptions weren't true. Is that ... is that, was that correct
though?
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Dilkes/ No. No, that's right. (several talking)
Mims/ My assumptions are correct (both talking)
Botchway/ Okay! I was just worried cause I was like, wait a minute! I'm agreeing, and so I
don't want to (laughter) um, the .... the second thing is, um, I kinda want to open the floor
to UISG a little bit. I know we had talked a number of months ago, and one of the things
that Stan highlighted was the, urn .... was the dea ... (several talking) the dead bolts, um,
there were other recommendations that I do not have in front of me. Urn .... were there
any ... was there anything else that needed to be .... cause I thought we were talking about
incorporating within all these exchanged some of the questions or comments or things
that ... or suggestions that you were thinking about. Was there anything else that you
remember from that meeting that are ... that was important to bring up?
Nelson/ Yeah, um, so in the summer we wrote a policy proposal, um, to the Council that
included everything from, uh, wanting deadlock, or dead bolts, um, reinforcement of,
uh.... dial, key pads, and then also background checks for property, um, management
companies. Uh, there were issues.... there have been issues in the past of, urn .... people
who should not be having access to students' apartments, uh, working for these
companies, um, and then thus having, uh, unsupervised access. Uh, that was one of the
concerns of ours and, you're right, like I do not see that in here, so I was .... kind of a
concern that I had. Um... and then kind of I guess while I have the microphone, um,
Susan's right. The devil's in the details. Uh, but seeing the skeleton structure that I see
here, uh, I feel comfortable, especially to the point of, you know, most of these rental
permits will be grandfathered in, so I wouldn't expect to .... too drastic of an immediate
change. Um, but I would of like to make the ... just make the point that, um, when
stu... students are looking for off campus housing, they're.... they're looking for a place to
live first and foremost that's cheap and close to campus. I think to them it's pretty
irrelevant whether they're on South Johnson Street or whether they're in the Northside
neighborhood. So I think as we .... as Council moves forward with housing development,
uh... they continue the ... the type of, if they want to maintain the residential feel of certain
neighborhoods, that's perfectly fine, but also keep, um, the sort of development that's
going on, like the, uh, Riverfront Crossings District, uh, with The Rise coming online
next year. I think that'll have a pretty substantial impact on the housing market. Uh,
Susan, in a previous work session you talked about, um .... uh, the South Johnson
neighborhood, um, and how that's pretty dominated by student population and that's
probably not going to change, um, so kinda like taking advantage of the situations that we
have and the City kind of finding a way to promote student housing even more. As Geoff
said, kinda the biggest .... the biggest, um, determiner in price is the supply, and so I think
the City should take advantage of where students live now and promote more supply
there. Um, which will in turn stabilize, um, the other neighborhoods — College Green,
Northside, um.....I guess those are the two big ones impacted by students, but kind of
remembering that it's a holistic approach and that students.... the University is doing their
part. Two .... two dorms just came online. They're the largest dorms on campus. Um,
depending on the survey you look at, Iowa has median, um, on -campus beds compared to
their peers. So I think it's important that the City kind of, uh, also gives their fair share
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and ... but also takes advantage of the situation. I think we can strike a fine balance
between owner -occupied, long-term residents, but also student housing, so....
Throgmorton/ Okay, folks. I think we need to turn our discussion, our focus toward the housing
code provisions. Before I do that though I think what I hear from the Council is pretty
clear. We support the idea of a cap. We support the idea of spacing standards
for.... areas under the cap. Uh, and you're gonna comeback to us with recommendations
with regard to the percentages or the percentage and the distance.
Fruin/ Correct!
Throgmorton/ Yeah, okay. All right, uh, let's discuss the housing code part of this. Anybody
have questions you want to raise about.... about this?
Botchway/ I want to apologize. I was adding all mine in there (several talking and laughing)
Cole/ I was just gonna say, back to Kingsley's point (laughter) um, that does actually raise a
question for me though is that I do want to make sure that the ... the landlord, and we're all
concerned about nuisance, but I want to make sure that there's some procedural due
process. I mean what if it's a totally unfounded complaint for example, or .... I'm
thinking of the equity issues. What if there are people of color? Then there's some other
potential issues as to why there's being reports. Um .... what .... how are we .... any phone
call constitutes a report, and if there's too many of them, am I understanding that
definition correctly, as opposed to some finding where they either plead or they're found
administratively responsible. Um, how do we deal with that situation (both talking)
Dilkes/ I think we're getting two things mixed up. The .... the data in the map is based on calls
for service. (both talking) ....or complaints. There's a lot of due process involved in any
kind of revocation or a rental permit sanction. In fact when Susan was talking I was
thinking .... if someone, I mean they are given many opportunities to deal with the
situation, to fix it. We have a code compliance meeting where the tenant and the landlord
sit down together with Stan and the PD and talk through what we can do to fix it and... in
fact we've never revoked a permit. Once we revoked a permit under it? Okay. So
there's all sorts of due process there.
Cole/ Can we get a map developed on that or is that, um, in terms of the actual findings where
there's been founded, um, nuisance violations as opposed to just calls for service? See
what I'm saying?
Dickens/ (mumbled) ...been hearings for, is that....
Cole/ Well there's been findings as opposed (several talking, noises on mic)
Laverman/ We have the nuisance complaint map. It's also the snow complaint map, I mean
those are .... pretty easy to pick out the, that they're founded complaints. Um .... (both
talking) we can ... we have that data. I'll see what we can do for that.
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Cole/ Okay.
Dickens/ Didn't we just change the way the nuisances are being reported in the police? I thought
we did that a couple years ago and the fine schedule and .... two or three years ago?
Dilkes/ (unable to hear, away from mic)
Fruin/ I .... I don't recall that, Terry.
Laverman/ Disorderly house, when they didn't answer the door, we changed that a few years
back. That's what you might be (several talking) and that's also a violation of our
housing code, so....
Throgmorton/ I'd like to reign us back in. I .... I think we're getting too deeply into questions
about how to enforce the housing code, etc., instead of what the specific
recommendations are to us here. Now whether we want to go on with them and on that
point, I think I need clarity about how the proposed changes in the housing code directly
respond to our concerns about residential stability. Uh... I .... I believe it's ... it's there, but
the material I read is not fully clear to me about how it responds (both talking)
Fruin/ So .... the cap is getting at market forces. It's getting at not growing the imbalance. The
housing code is where we're startin' to deal with the occupancy itself, and the zoning
code. That's where we are really getting into replacing that three unrelated, and we're
doing so by controlling bedroom sizes and defining parking requirements attached to
bedrooms, all those things, that is the .... the.....the true replacement for that three
unrelated provision that will no longer be here on January I"
Throgmorton/ Okay. I think when we get something back from the staff it would be very helpful
to have this clearly stated, and I don't know, a preamble to the housing code provisions,
so that, uh.... everybody knows and it's stated explicitly.
Dilkes/ They'll be fine. There'll be all the wherefore clauses in the ordina.... ordinance which
will do exactly that.
Thomas/ I thought the 30% rule was an interesting one and I, uh, you know, that there are only
no more than 30% of the habitable floor area of a dwelling can be bedrooms. Uh, I can
recall looking at floor plans on some of the apart ... there were apartment buildings
downtown and, uh, whether it was a one -bedroom or a three-bedroom, the ... the common
area was always the same size. So I think .... I think this is a good ..... a good idea in terms
of, as Karen was saying, proportionality does play a role in terms of, you know, the
more ... the more occupants you have, it's .... it certainly seems reasonable to expect there's
more common area that would follow. So that there's a proportional aspect. Otherwise it
becomes a rooming house.
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Dilkes/ Well and I think one way to explain it too is that regardless of whether people are related
or unrelated, they are not functioning as a .... a household unit if there is no common
space. You know? And ... and that's what you're trying to encourage is .... is people who
are functioning as a single household unit.
Botchway/ The, uh, so two things then. Again, I .... I keep bringing up that analysis cause it ... as I
was reading through the document, it just had me concerned. I agree with that, and I
think I agree obviously with the overall changes, but then that worries me for, you know,
for families that can't afford .... um.....uh, can't afford a particular unit. I mean I'm
thinking of a family of five and that ... that particular .... I mean I'm thinking about my own
personal situation growing up, you know, using that, um, that housing space was a little
bit more than 30%. 1 mean we had five people in our household and a lot of times, you
know, either one of us would be sleeping, you know, maybe outside of the bedroom, so to
speak, and so thinking about how that impacts families, I mean it's just a concern that,
you know, as we walk through this process I want to look at. The other question I had
was requiring a designated agent for each rental property to be available 24/7. How, I
mean .... how do we .... how did you come to that particular, um, point, and then you
know, I think about it in relation to the .... the taxi cab situation and, um, some of the
feedback that we got that wasn't, you know, favorable for that. I mean how do we get to
that particular point? I'm not .... I'm saying that's a good thing. I'm just saying how did
we get to that?
Fruin/ You know it's getting back to my comment about enforcement, and that's the directive
that we got is you .... you have to .... you have to rely on your enforcement provisions.
Well, one of the .... one of the things that we often need is landlord intervention. When
we have problem tenants, we really have to lean on, uh, the landlord or the property
manager to help us take care of the situation, uh, so that we don't always have to get into
police charges. Again, police charges should be the last resort, um, unfortunately a lot of
the .... lot of the nuisances don't come between 8:00 and 5:00, Monday through Friday.
Um, a lot of the .... the neighborhood nuisances, uh, that cause the most problems are at
12:00, 1:00 in the morning, 2:00 in the morning, and uh, there may be times, I'm not
saying that this would be a .... a common practice, but there may be times when our Police
Department or a weekend housing inspector needs to call, um, a .... a property
management company or a landlord and say, `This needs attention right now. This
cannot wait,' and if you can't help us address it right now then we're gonna have to, um,
take some action that, uh, you know, could lead to a revocation of a permit or ... or some
other, uh, dire consequence (coughing, unable to hear speaker) landlord or the property
manager won't want. And I want to stress, that's not somethin' that we ... we would
intend to use with every call for service that we get, but we think that it could be another
tool so to speak.
Mims/ I have a question, going back to that 30%. Not necess.... I think it means a limitation. I
don't know if the 30% is the right number. My question though comes .... let's say we
have an area where we are under.... currently under the cap and so somebody who owns
an existing single-family home goes to apply for a rental permit and that house happened
to be built in such a manner that the bedrooms, uh....cover more than 30% of the
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habitable space. That was just the design of that particular house, very small living room,
whatever. Are we going to deny a permit, and I'm not asking for an answer right now but
I .... I just raise that point.
Fruin/ Yeah, we're goin' through a lot of the .... and staff in particular is going through a lot of
those what if scenarios right now and that's why I .... I made the comment earlier about I
think we're going to need some administrative flexibility and .... and urn .... some (both
talking)
Mims/ If it's new construction, you know, with the intent of renting, I get that, but if we're
talking something that was built back in the 40s or 50s or 60s and just.... whatever, I
mean (both talking)
Fruin/ As .... as Karen mentioned, I think the 30% was a .... was an average figure....
Mims/ Uh huh.
Fruin/ ...and so as with any average you've got some below, some above. We're gonna need
some flexibility, but we think the .... the intent of the 30% will help us address a .... a, the
occupancy issue.
Mims/ Okay. And then I guess my final one on this, the others I'm pretty comfortable with, is I
think .... and again this isn't in the .... this is the devil's in the details also is how we're
going to find and enforce those owner -occupied houses that have more than one
roommate, which means they do require a rental permit. And that may be the neighbors
will help with that, but....
Fruin/ Yeah, it's typically when we have nuisance issues and we're tryin' to intervene and figure
out what the solution is, we'll come upon it and we'll see that, oh, you should have a
rental permit.
Throgmorton/ Any other questions about the housing code part? Okay, how bout the zoning
code part?
Fruin/ Mayor, as you mentioned, I think the important thing here is that, um ... that .... that this
meshes well with all the other planning initiatives that we have underway, particularly the
form based code and, uh, Karen's been our point on the .... the form based code and is our
point on the zoning code changes too, so I know that, uh.... uh, she is, um, working hard
to ... to mesh those two, although the form based code certainly is not fully developed.
Mims/ I have a ques.... well, not really a question. I have a concern, um, about #3 and that's
parking requirements based on the number of bedrooms. My concern there, and I ... I
understand we're in this mess because we can't use familial status. Okay? So .... how....
how do we set parking requirements based on the number of bedrooms when if you have
a family in there with three or four or five kids, versus .... a building with five bedrooms
with all adults that each have a car, those needs for parking are very, very different, and
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yet.....we can't base the parking based on who's living in the house. So .... it.....I realize
it's a challenge.
Howard/ Yeah, and I think we're gonna have to look at ... the way it's regulated right now, for a
single-family and duplex, it's not, um, based on .... it's ...... it's, uh, one per house or one
per duplex unit, plus one additional for each unrelated person above two. So there's
always one less parking space than there are unrelated people. So I think with the
thought of trying to keep it similar to what we have now, um, and not, you know, require
more parking than what's necessary on the one hand, but make sure that there's enough
parking, I mean it's a delicate balance there, right? And how much of the yard is paved,
to try to.....what.... I don't know if we would want to go to one-to-one, one space per
bedroom. We'll have to take a look at that. We may want to have it similar to what it is
now, which is similar to be one .... one less parking space than you have bedrooms in the
house, so.....you know, that's just something we'd have to take a balanced look at.
Mims/ The other question related to that would you, at this point, is staff looking at those
requirements being the same citywide, or would it be different as you get in the
University impact area where we tend to have that greater density within more unrelateds
living together.
Howard/ I think it would have to be citywide, because our parking is related to the use of the
property and these would be single-family homes, and uh, single-family homes would be,
you know, regulated the same across the city as far as ... otherwise I'm not sure exactly
how we would regulate the parking without, um, I mean we know that there's rental
properties in some of the outlying neighborhoods that have, um .... you know, students in
them and have, uh, groups of people in them. So I'm not sure exactly how we would
make that distinction, but....
Mims/ That'll be an interesting one (both talking) cause the, you don't have as much demand for
the on -street parking when you get further away from campus. You get really close to
campus you have huge demand for the on -street parking (both talking) commuters.
Comes back to our parking.
Thomas/ Comes back to the parking permit ... this, and maybe that we can now .... or we .... should
at least look at street parking as serving, uh, the need of tenant or resident parking.
Mims/ Okay! It'll just be interesting to see how (several talking) concerns (both talking)
Fruin/ We have similar concerns, as Karen mentioned, it's a really .... it's a really tough balance,
but when lookin' at how to ... how to regulate occupancy without familial status, there's
not a whole lot of good options out there. Uh, the thing I'd point out though, um, is
certainly the properties that have rental permits now would be grandfathered in in their
current state. Now it would get .... this would come into play if they look to enlarge it,
add bedrooms and so to speak, but for the percentages you see on the map up there, um,
you're not gonna see, uh, changes to those properties.
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Mims/ Thank you!
Throgmorton/ Okay, with regard to the housing code and zoning code, what I'm hearing is
general support for the recommendations, but as somebody said, the devil's in the details
so I know you're gonna have to refine the details and bring them back in a more specific
form. And then we'll.....see what happens with that. Yeah. Uh, we could talk about
enforcement and additional housing code changes but .... I, we've already done the
enforcement, haven't we?
Mims/ Yeah, I think so.
Throgmorton/ All right. So .... so you're gonna come back to us with specific recommendations,
uh, concerning these various elements, and it's no doubt but that .... that improvement
would be possible and I certainly invite interested members of the public to contribute
their own ideas and reactions and suggestions, etc., with regard to the specific, uh,
recommendations as they exist right now and as they will be proposed in the future, and
then we'll be in a position of, uh, adopting, uh, ordinances, res.... resolutions, etc., and at
that point, no doubt we can anticipate various kinds of legal challenges. So we should be
prepared for that. Exactly what they'll be I don't know. And then we're gonna, uh,
encounter unexpected, or unanticipated consequences that we're gonna have to deal with.
Well welcome to the world of regulatory government and so on. Of regulation I should
say. So .... any final comments from anybody? Geoff, is there anything you need to tell
us?
Fruin/ Well I just, um, something I failed to mention at the beginning. Um, you will not see all
of these be effective January 15`. We may not even present some of these to you until
after the new year. We've prioritized them at....at a staff level and .... and are working on
what we think are the most critical ones, uh, for that January 15` so that we can .... so that,
you know, the moratorium expires, the occupancy rules change, and we're well prepared
on those, but some of these other things will fall into place with July 15` deadlines.
Throgmorton/ Okee doke. Anybody else want to say anything? All right. Hearing nothing
more, we can turn to....
Botchway/ So the moratorium expires January Vt9 (several responding)
Clarification of Agenda Items:
Throgmorton/ Okay, we can turn to our next item, clarification of agenda items. I know some
people are here just listening to this particular conversation, so we'll give them time to
move out. Okay any questions or clarification needed with regard to agenda items? I
don't hear any so I'll, uh, propose one. As we all know the Economic Development
Committee — Susan, Rockne, and me — has unanimously recommended approval of Item
8, uh, the development agreement for Hieronymus Square. Uh, I personally am very
strongly inclined to vote in favor of it, but I think we should defer our vote tonight in
order to make sure the public has an opportunity to express its views before we vote, and
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because I....I strongly believe we need to demonstrate to the public that the Council as a
whole has rigorously assessed the proposal, rather than just rubber-stamped it. So, with
that in mind, uh, I .... I want, I ask you to pose, no! (laughs) With that in mind, I wonder
if you would, uh, support this idea of deferring the vote tonight, and I can tell you one of
the motivations I have is a phone call I received from somebody I know, and... and, uh, I
don't know this person really well, but I know him, and the first question he asked is, `So
why ... why would you folks be supporting, urn .... uh..... uh, a TIF for a particular project
in ... in that prime location,' and I don't want to go into detail about that, but the basic
point was, he said, `I didn't even know you were going to consider this until tonight, or
until today when I saw an article in the newspaper.' So, I think we need to give people a
chance to express their views about the proposal, uh, and ... and then we could, uh, you
know, vote on that. So, I don't know! What do you folks think?
Mims/ What do you think this does to the developer? Geoff, do you, I mean, do you know where
they're at with certain things or....
Fruin/ Um, the only thing I can tell ya is they're.... they hoped to break ground this fall. They
want to do site work this fall. So the developer will be here tonight. You'd have to ask,
uh, him, uh, I'm sure it'll be Kevin Digmann representing the development team, what
the impact of another couple weeks would be.
Cole/ I would rather at least consider it tonight. That's my (both talking)
Mims/ I ... I do too, Rockne. I mean my .... my concern is, and I think this is a challenge in today's
world, is .... we don't get as much press coverage on stuff. I mean the press doesn't really
cover or write about the EDC meetings very much. People aren't necessarily, you know,
taking the initiative to look at things, you know, go to the City web site and find things,
but at the same time ... I think, you know, we post those public notices. Those minutes are
online. The agendas are online. If people have, you know, an interest in what the City is
doing and .... and I think everybody understands there's not a lot of press coverage, they
kinda have to take it on themselves to .... the information's not hard to find if they have an
interest in it. And I .... I just (both talking) I mean I feel uncomfortable continuing to
slow things down.... because people are relying only on the newspaper. I don't know.
Botchway/ So I say this — one, um, and for any media in the audience, you know, if you could
shift school media to more citia.... more city stuff, I would really appreciate that
(laughter) so I agree with Susan to that extent. So whatever can happen along those lines,
thank you! Um, I would agree, Jim. I mean I think for me, um, or I would agree with
Susan and Rockne. I think for me, I mean, we had that kind of first .... wait a minute, let
me go back to the .... well, come back to me cause I want to look at .... what I was, uh, my
notes again.
Dickens/ I think we should move forward on it. Uh... this has been talked about a little bit before
this and now that it's here, I .... I don't see a big reason to .... to put if off, I mean we're...
yeah, I just see it costing more money to the developer eventually and ... we all know
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money, it costs ya every week you....you put things off and they want to get started. I
think it's very important that we (several talking)
Thomas/ Yeah, the EDC is televised. It actually, of all our .... sort of off -shoots and committees,
it's the most publicized, uh, on the other hand it is (laughs) human nature it seems to
often not keep up with things until, um, they're right on top of you, um, I don't know
what Kevin will say tonight. I mean, if we were to ask him that question. Um .... to defer
it.
Botchway/ I say we leave it on and ask him. That's why I wanted to go back.
Throgmorton/ I think there are four .... I don't know, Pauline, did you want to express a view?
Taylor/ I'm wavering on this because, uh, I also thought that, I mean I myself hadn't had a lot of
time to really think about the TIF aspect of it. The project itself I'd given a lot of thought
to, but as far as the amount of the TIF, I hadn't had a chance to really think about that or
get any input from constituents, uh, so I would lean .... almost toward with you, Jim. At
least one more meeting.
Throgmorton/ Well I think I hear.....thank you. I think I hear four people who want to move
ahead tonight, so that's what we will do. Uh.... I would like to close though by saying I
don't see how anybody could express a view about something they hadn't heard about
until the day of the .... of the meeting, and I bet dollars to donuts that 99% of the people in
this city are in that position. So, now most of `em aren't going to express a view anyhow
about it, but .... I .... I'm .... deep in my soul I am committed to the principles of democracy.
So....
Mims/ And with democracy, there is ... personal responsibility.
Throgmorton/ Yeah. Okay. I've said enough, and we know how we're going to proceed. Okay,
so it'll be on the (both talking)
Botchway/ Going back to that point though, I have a question about it. So, looking at that
affordable housing component, there was an `or' related to that (mumbled) lieu of or
mixed units within that property. (several talking) Yeah, is that not ... so when we talked
about kind of that affordable housing requirement, it's not ... is that not an expressed thing
that has to happen either way?
Frain/ So in the .... in the Riverfront Crossings, uh, inclusionary zoning code, um, the developer
has the discretion to provide the units on site or pay a fee in lieu of. That's a developer,
uh, discretion. Um, that's 10% requirement. When you layer on a TIF, that 10%
requirement goes to 15%, and so what we're, uh, what we negotiated with the developer,
and this came up in the EDC meeting as well, um, is that the .... the extra 5%, um, which
represents two units, would be on site, um, and then the developer would retain that
discretion for the 10% of the units that are triggered by the form based code if you will.
So.....in short I think the developer would have the same discretion, um, is .... is being
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afforded the same discretion as .... as he would, uh, with any other project in the
Riverfront Crossings District.
Throgmorton/ I .... I, before we move off this. I .... I would invite you to ask the toughest
questions you can think of tonight, so that we can demonstrate to the public that the seven
of us have rigorously thought about this and .... have, you know, gonna make a decision
for good reasons, and I'm sure that's gonna happen but the tougher the questions, the
more confident people will be. Okay, uh, movin' on .... we could turn to the Info Packet
discussion, the September 7a' packet.
Information Packet Discussion [September 7, September 141:
Mims/ Just wanted to thank Geoff for the, uh, article on the `Looming Decline of the Public
Research University,' other than I found it very depressing (several responding) Really
depressing!
Thomas/ It was sort of another aspect to the struggles the midwest has (laughs) that, uh, I ... I had
not, um, I had not encountered this particular one but .... there it is.
Throgmorton/ Anything else? On that packet?
Taylor/ I think goin' back to that, all of us should get to know our elected officials and ... ones that
represent us in Washington and ... and talk to them, continue to talk to them about funding
for these research grants and the National Institute of Health, cause it's very important. It
has ... it does have a big effect. It's scary!
Throgmorton/ I learned today that Senator Joni Ernst is going to be here on (several talking)
Friday at 2:30 (several talking) at the IMU. I didn't know that.....(laughs).... until today!
All right, any .... I'm not hearing any other questions about that Info Packet. Okay. Next
one, uh, the packet for September the 14a'.
Taylor/ IP6 and 7, the listening posts and the listening post summary. It was interesting to see
that you guys at Uptown Bill's had an estimated 18 folks. That's a pretty good crowd.
That shows interest.
Mims/ Well, they came .... they came with a specific purpose.
Taylor/ Oh (both talking)
Mims/ Yeah, it was a large group that came with a specific purpose.
Taylor/ (both talking) That's the intent (both talking)
Mims/ Yeah, they took advantage of the listening post. It was good.
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Taylor/ And then in relation to the proposed sites, I think Oaknoll would probably be a good one
for the next one. Target the .... the older citizens.
Mims/ Yep!
Dickens/ (mumbled) gonna bring up the work session... or, uh.... talking about our committees,
bringing up our....
Throgmorton/ Yeah. Can do, so in the late handout is a very short memo I sent you, I don't
know, yesterday. Uh, which respon.... picks up on a .... a question I asked y'all at our last
meeting, which was .... would you be interested in adding a new topic in our regular work
session agenda with the new topics basic.... basically being `reports from Councilpeople
about what their boards and commissions are doing,' you know, ICAD, Chamber of
Commerce, and....
Dickens/ Para -transit.
Throgmorton/ Para -transit and so on. I'm thinking that, uh, we could do this right after the
discussion about Info Packets, and uh, I would really hope that the, uh, the reports would
be very brief. I mean the main thing I'm lookin' for is .... is for us to inform one another
about what's goin' on in those various meetings, cause right now we're not doin' that.
So....
Dickens/ Try to send the minutes....
Throgmorton/ (both talking) I know, but yeah .... I know (several talking and laughing)
Mims/ But I think it's a good idea. A lot of these committees and stuff don't meet more than
quarterly, I mean some are monthly. So it's not like it's going to be a ton of reports, you
know, that we're giving. So....
Dickens/ I think it would be informative (both talking) If we don't bring it, you're not going to
read the same reports that we do at the committees.
Mims/ I mean, JECC meets roughly quarterly and lots of times it's like.....there's not gonna be a
whole lot to report (laughs)
Botchway/ To Terry's point though, is there any reason why ... could it be written ahead of time?
I mean can we kind of agree to that, like.....
Mims/ No! (laughs) ...say that Kingsley when I'm thinking of JECC. I'm not going to waste my
time writing anything because most of the time I can probably give you a three or four
sentence summary of what we did, you know.
Botchway/ I'm more not thinking for us. I'm thinking about the community, wanting to know
about (both talking)
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Cole/ ...as well, that sort of thing.
Throgmorton/ All right, Kellie, would you please make sure our next one has that category. Uh,
any other.....questions or whatever? I have two or three but.....
Mims/ I just thought IP9, the invite, uh, for the Inside Out Re -Entry, doing a parole simulation.
Very interesting. That is coming up .... get to it here.....yeah, on the 18a`, from 1:00 to
3:00 P.M. So I mean, I love it when we get invitations with this kind of forewarning
(laughs) so I can, you know, sometimes by the time people send `em in and they make it
to our packets and I don't always read my packet immediately. It's like the event's gone
by, so, um, it's nice when we get these ahead of time. So, uh, RSVP by October 0. So,
thought that looked pretty interesting.
Thomas/ The, um, uh, `Making Cities Livable Conference,' I .... I don't know who posted that. I
didn't see....
Throgmorton/ I did.
Thomas/ You did? I thought the, um, the theme of that conference, which was `Public Places for
Community Democratic Dialogue Health and Equity,' kind of precisely expressed, um...
you know, the approach I think our master.... our parks master plan is taking, and uh, I
certainly advocate for, and urn .... and then Jim's, the one on the mobility at a community
building with the State DOTS. I would say amen to that (laughs) uh, you know, the....
probably the most problematic streets in our city are the State designated streets and
highways. Um, I mean that wasn't precisely what .... what the, uh, that article was talking
about, but it is interesting to me that, you know, the sensitivity to context is really an
issue on our State designated streets, and .... and I really wish we can, and hope we can
have a conversation with the State DOT on that.
Throgmorton/ I wanted to bring up IP #6, which is the September 11th memo from Kellie,
reporting about our listening post work, and naming other locations that have been
mentioned. Uh, given the time of the year, I'd like to suggest we schedule one at Oaknoll
for sometime in November. Does that sound okay to you folks? (several responding)
So, Kellie, maybe, uh.....we need a contact person at Oaknoll but uh, if you could contact
them and.....
Mims/ Steve Roe is the .... R -o -e is the administrator.
Throgmorton/ See if we can schedule a mutually agreeable date. If they're willing! (laughs)
Mims/ I'm sure they will!
Throgmorton/ All right, uh.....is there anything else? Guess not. I think we're done! And we'll,
uh, reconvene at 7:00 P.M. for our formal meeting.
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