HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-05-01 Transcription Page 1
2. Moratorium on rental permits—Consider an ordinance amending Title 17 of
the City Code (Building and Housing) to establish a moratorium until March
7, 2020 on the issuance of new rental permits for single-family and duplex
units in RS-5,RS-8, and RNS-12 zones within certain rental permit districts
in the Rental Impact Area shown in Figure 17-1 of the City Code. (First
Consideration)
Throgmorton: Could I have a motion for first(both talking)
Mims: So moved.
Cole: Second.
Throgmorton: Moved by Mims, seconded by Cole. Discussion? All right, I'm gonna ask Geoff,
uh, Fruin, our City Manager, to provide some background and get us into the
topic, and then ask if any members of the public would like to address us on the
topic. Geoff.
Fruin: Okay, thank you, Mayor and Council. Uh,just over a week ago the legislature
passed SF447 (mumbled) tune in the mics here, uh, which prohibits cities from
adopting or enforcing rental permit caps.
Throgmorton: A little louder.
Fruin: We'll get it. Uh, as Council is aware, we instituted rental caps in certain defined
neighborhoods in 2017, after the State legislature restricted our ability to regulate
occupancy on familial status. The decision to implement rental caps came after a
moratorium period that allowed us to research practices of other similar, uh,
communities throughout the country. I've been with the City, uh, about eight
years now, and in each of those years the City Council has identified
neighborhood stabilization and the continual enhancement of our core
neighborhoods as a primary goal in your strategic plan. Many of you have been
involved with the City for....for, uh, quite some time and know that that goal
spans decades, not just, uh, the last eight years. As a city we've spent millions on
infrastructure,parks, quality of life amenities in these neighborhoods in recent
years. We've also invested millions of dollars of public money in private housing,
uh, through these...through programs like UniverCity, our owner-occupied rehab;
historic preservation grants; and exterior maintenance grants. We voiced our
strong support several years ago for the School District to reinvest into Maim
Elementary School at a time when closure was on the table, due to the,uh,
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special formal meeting of May 1, 2019.
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enrollment from the surrounding neighborhood. Uh, we knew that neighborhood
schools such as Mann, uh, were a critical component to our ongoing effort to
strengthen, uh, our core neighborhoods. All this investment by the City has been
great,but a well-crafted regulatory framework, uh, also is needed to help ensure
that housing options remain for a wide cross-section of our community. So we
are asking the Council for a 10-month moratorium on rental permits in
neighborhoods that are currently capped. Uh,this'll give us sufficient time to go
back and research and recommend alternative...an alternative regulatory
framework that continues to prioritize the health, safety, and integrity of our core
neighborhoods in a manner consistent with your strategic plan.
Throgmorton: Thanks so much, Geoff. Okay, uh, seems like there's 60 or 70 people here. I
wonder how many of you would like to address us? Would you just raise your
hands so I can have some idea of how many people want to speak. Okay, not so
many. I'm seein'like seven or eight hands. Okay, uh,please feel free to come up,
address us, state your name, say whatever's on your mind, take not more than five
minutes, and we'll go from there. So, who would like to speak first?
Lehman: Do you want me to sign in too? (several responding) My name's Tim Lehman.
I'm actually a local realtor here in Iowa City, and uh....I'm against the rental cap
here. Uh, I just got a couple examples I wanted to point out to you people. Um, I
have a client who has....has a house. The address is 117 N. Van Buren Street.
He's surrounded by rental properties. He's been the owner-occupied rooming
house for 25 years. Uh, the gentleman has now turned 70 years old and he'd like
to sell the house. Uh, about 10 years ago, um, he was....in some discussions with
the City,he was told since he's owner-occupied,he does not need to have a rental
permit. So he let his permit lapse. Fast forward 10 years (clears throat) 10 years
to the day and,uh, so he wants to sell the house and, uh, we just can't get it sold
because it's...it's in a....an area that probably should be used as a rental. It's a
five-bedroom rooming house, and um, I value it at about$400,000. If it had a
rental permit, um, we had it on the market for$300,000 and we couldn't get it
sold. So he's....he's gonna be financially, uh,burdened by this. Another example
would be, let's say that there's a, uh, doctor or young couple that owns a house on
the northside that maybe they're gonna move out of town for a....a two-year or a
one-year fellowship, and they wanna rent the house out for the two years they're
gone. They're not....they're not able to do that, um, with this rental cap in place.
So, uh, I'd just like to have ya be aware of those two examples.
Throgmorton: Great. Thank you, Tim. Hi, Ross, how are you?
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Nusser: Well, how are you? I'm Ross Nusser and I'm also a realtor here in town, urn, with
Urban Acres Real Estate. I just had a couple of comments that I'd like you to take
into consideration as you vote on this today. Urn, one being when this was
enacted about a year ago, as I remember, and I might not remember this correctly,
but it was kind of a resolve of two things. One being that the Supreme Court
decided that you cannot define a family, and so it was kind of this whole
restructuring of the rental process. And so we got two things out of that. We got
new rules about living spaces and percentage of living spaces within a dwelling
unit, to bedroom ratio, and parking also restricted the occupancy there. Then we
also got this rental cap out of it. Urn, only one of those two things has been
challenged and by the St....at the State level, and I just would urge you to think
about....what the true motivation behind this is and if you're doing this out of fear,
urn, that people are gonna come in in big groups and buy up these large groups of
single-family houses in these neighborhoods that we have cherished as
neighborhoods, urn, because I just don't think that that's realistic and not somethin'
that's gonna happen. Uh, or if it's, you know,just taking a stand against the State,
and I'm not here to say which one's right or wrong. I'm just urging you to
consider why you're really doing this, because I think that at the end of the day,
who this is really going to affect will not be the big business or the big landlord. I
think this will affect the people who are living in our community who might want
one rental property, or the people like Tim was saying who are trying to sell and it
restricts what they're able to sell their property for. You know, this greatly
impacting their property values. Urn, so that's all I have and you have a tough
decision ahead of you,but best of luck.
Throgmorton: Thank you, Ross. Good morning.
Bowans: My name's Lorainne Bowans. I'm a realtor. I'm also a very active member of the
City Neighborhood Council. I was a member of the Longfellow Neighborhood
Association. We were the second neighborhood association formed in Iowa City,
and I was a huge advocate on protecting these older neighborhoods. My husband
and I lived in a home at 510 S. Governor Street for 30 years. We put it on the
market in June of 17. We did not get a rental permit because we were hoping
another family would move in there. We cherished that home and prior to us
selling we invested about $80,000 in the last seven years to make this home very
attractive. When it went on the market I was also the agent for the property.
When it went on the market we had so many calls, people looking for rentals. It
did not have a rental permit. Had we had a rental permit, we probably could have
sold it for $400,000. I did have one agent had a property own....had an investor
who was looking for a high-end property very close to downtown for professors
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and visiting doctors. They thought our house fit the bill. Uh, we did not have the
rental permit, so that went away. So we sat on the house and we lowered it 375
from 400. Uh, had a little bit more interest. In October we had a verbal offer of
375, hoping for a rental permit after January 2nd. It was for a father who wanted
his daughter and her three teammates to live in a residential neighborhood
because the girls were two were from out of the country, one was from out of
state, and one was from a neighboring state. They wanted a family neighborhood,
which Governor Street is. And still is. When we bought our home 32 years ago,
it was 80%rental. As neighbors, we brought this neighborhood back. We had it
rezoned twice. We had it made into a conservation district. We called police
when there were parties, for all kinds of things. We brought this neighborhood
back as the residents. We had a fight a few years ago, well I guess a decade ago,
when a historic....an old farm house on Lucas Street was torn down and they
were allowed to have four units there on that property. They built four units, four
bedrooms each. They turned down...tore down every old tree, everything. So that
activated us. We were fought by the landlords. We are not...they were not, at that
time we were not against rentals. We had a lot of great landlords, a lot of great
rentals. As the neighborhood progressed and improved,property values went up
for everybody. Landlords, everybody. Okay? So I have a big strong interest in
preserving these neighborhoods. Now when it comes to myself, when you moved
the boundaries while we were off in vacation in November of 2017, you lumped
our street into Bowery Neighborhood, which was 70...or 82%rental, I believe, at
that time. By moving just half a block from Burlington to the railroad tracks of
Governor Street, that brought the Longfellow Neighborhood under 30% and
lowered the Bowery Street down to about 78% rental. By having these little
pockets of'this is high rental, this is this, this is that,' we lost the sale because we
could no longer get a rental permit. Then people started going, 'Why has this
house been on the market for six months? What's wrong with it?' I even had two
agents call me in like January going, 'What's wrong with your house? It looks
great. You've done everything,' and I said, 'We don't have a rental permit.' And
we've been lumped in as high rental. No one wants to pay 375 to live in a rent....
a neighborhood that's 77%rental! So I agree—the City has done some wonderful
things to try and preserve these neighborhoods with some of your ordinances.
Strengthening fines for prop....landlords who are not maintaining their property,
trying to do away with dude houses. I sat in on neighborhood council meetings
with Stan, listening to some of the things that were proposed, and when this first
came out I was in favor of it, temporary, because he explained what some people
were trying to do, is a property like mine, which was a third of an acre and plenty
of parking and everything, could have been doubled in size with all these tiny
bedrooms and everything, and I didn't want to see that! Because I loved the
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neighborhood. I still love the neighborhood. I loved my house. Because of this,
it took almost 12 days shy of a year to close on our house. We paid $1,500 a
month to maintain that house. We had moved in....July of 17. So our house sold
last year for$335,000. So this is a chunk of my retirement. The people you are
hurting are the seniors and the people who are long-term residents in these
neighborhoods. We....you cost me a boat load of money. I can't update my
current home because I was planning on proceeds from my existing home. I had
to cancel a family vacation with my children because we didn't gross enough
money. You have things in place. This moratorium on rental permits, I don't
think, needs to be there. Because have you not seen all of the current
development that's going on downtown? These used to be mainly student houses.
Families are moving back in there. And I greatly appreciate what the City has
done with the UniverCity program, because many, many homes in these areas
have been brought back to families and made affordable, and these people are
taking care of the homes. So I guess I think we're on overkill now. Stan said at
the last neighborhood council meeting that they were already taking landlords to
court because they were not following the new rules. So I guess I don't
• understand why we still need this. Because I know of many other people, single-
family people, who could not sell their homes or had to sell them greatly under-
valued. I hope you understand how angry I am by the shaking I'm doing and my
voice. I mean I would like to see all of you put$10,000 in a hat and give it to me.
Put another 10,000 into the other single-family home owners who've lost their
butts, or can't sell their homes because of this. We as neighbors need to be taught
how to preserve our neighborhoods. I fortunately was a member of the
Neighborhood Council and learned how to do it, thanks to Marsha Bollinger, and
other City staff. You people are a wealth of resources. Help the neighbors figure
out how to save their neighborhoods. And there's nothing wrong with renters.
Renters is amazing. We have wonderful renters when I lived on Governor Street.
Once a year, for a while there, we'd have the party neighborhood. We'd have the
party house. It was usually the red roof house,but for some reason that seemed to
turn over from party to party, and all it took was about four times of the police
showing up at the door, they learned to settle down. We had an incident before I
left Governor Street where there was a party of about 200 people. The neighbors
called the police, the police showed up, talked a few minutes, did a fist bump with
the guy, and left. The party continued on. The next day the neighbors' yard was
full of broken bottles,beer cans, and everything else. To me, that was wrong. So
you need to enforce and....enforce the rules with the police, that when these
houses get out of hand. Also, at the last neighborhood meeting, the....one,
someone on the Northside said, 'Well, we still have a party house because every
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person on there own 1%. Their name was on the deed. They owned 1%. So they
were owners. They're still partiers.
Throgmorton: (both talking) Lorainne, excuse me, could you wrap it up, please?
Bowans: Okay. So I'm just saying that there's always going to be a ways to get around it,
so the only people I feel you're really hurting with this is the single-family home
owner, who is an individual, not a landlord. Thank you.
Throgmorton: Thank you. (applause) Good morning, Mark.
Kamps: Good morning. Good morning! I'm Mark Kamps. I'm with, uh, Coldwell Banker
Real Estate Professionals here in town. I'm also the immediate past president of
the Iowa Association of Realtors. I think our biggest concern, and while it's
mostly realtors who are here, but I think a lot of other people would show up if
they could. But I think our biggest concern is as realtors we protect private
property rights. And that's our, one of our most important issues is the property
protection of each individual's right. I live in a neighborhood that is at cap, above
the cap—Tower Court—which is over on the west side. Urn, it's cul-de-sac. We
have a park at the end. I think we have maybe a dozen houses on the street that
are rentals. I know which ones are rentals,but that's, you know, part of the
neighborhood. You know,realtors love the community. I've lived in Iowa City 42
years,43 in July, and um...you know (mumbled) we sell our community. We
volunteer, we get involved, and we try to do what's best. So, you know, when,
um....uh, if I as a property owner on Tower Court wanted to move, but I plan to
keep my home because it's paid off. Well it will be. Urn, as an investment, to
supplement my income. I can't do that. I can't keep my own home.....and move
into perhaps a condo, where I don't have to mow my lawn, but that just isn't fair!
That just isn't fair, and there are young homeowners in this situation. I work with
couples, they happen to live in University Heights, they have the wherewithal to
buy a new home. They wanted to keep their current home as an investment
property. They can't do it. They can't keep that house, and that's how you build
wealth, is with your investments, and sure you invest in the stock market. You put
your money in other places,but you should also be able to put your money in
your own property and have that pay residuals to you. So, you know, I know it's'
a tough situation. I live in the neighborhoods that have a lot of rentals, as I
mentioned, but....that's part of living in a university community. And I really
think you need to take all of this into consideration before you put restrictions on
who can and can't do what they wanna do with their home. Thank you.
(applause)
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Johnson: Hi, my name is Gwen Johnson and I'm also a licensed realtor,um, in Iowa City.
Urn, I also am part-owner of a property management company. We, urn,have
rentals in Iowa City, Coralville, and North Liberty,West Branch, uh, Lone Tree,
uh, and one of the things that I would like to....I loved what Mark said, um,
because number one, first off, how many of you up there have rented property? In
your lifetime? That's it? No? Okay. I believe that all of us started out as renters
and how we learn how to take care of property through renting and not,but you
know there's an attitude here that somehow renting is bad. Renting is actually
very good and with new technologies, particularly renters have to learn how to
manage credit. They have to learn how to manage their homes. They have to
learn how to take care of things, and then they decide home ownership is how
they want to do it. There are a lot of very, very good landlords in our community.
Very, very good landlords. Typically most of us who own property, we've learned
that if we take care of our property, our property'll end up taking care of us, and
that's what Mark was trying to explain to you, and there's a lot of people who are
seniors, who, um, who are, uh, professionals who are going to keep their property
because they know Iowa City is a great place to own a rental property, and it's a
•
great place to gain wealth, and I'm going to use my mom as an example. My
mom is a farm person. She took farm money, uh, when the highway went through
Danville, Iowa. She 1031'd exchanged it into property here in Iowa City. She has
two rentals. One on Benton and one in North Liberty. That property is what she
lives on. Okay? That's what she lives on, and she is a... a senior in our
community. She's 80 years old. She goes to the Senior Center. She plays bridge.
She volunteers. Okay? And if you start capping rental properties that are people's
wealth, that's what they're living on, you start jeopardizing how they're going to
be able to live their lives. So the decision you make directly impacts how they
live their life. It's'not people like me or people who have huge properties or who
own....you're talking about small, one single-owned land...uh, landlord, okay?
That's the types of people you're affecting. Um, I also know that there's a
frustration with how people take care of property. Well I have...I don't know how
to tell you this, but legislating boundaries for people, okay, everyone is going to
be a good landlord in this area doesn't necessarily work. It's through,urn,us
working together to help people to do good home ownership, taking care of your
property,maintaining your property. Those are all ways that you get people to
take care of neighborhoods. Anyway, that's my opinion and, um, I wish you luck.
The other thing I would like to challenge you with—come with us for a day.
Come, I'll show you property. Let's go look at property. Go inside property so
you know what the decision is that you're making, okay? I would....I think
there's lots of people in this room—am I not right—that would take you with
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them and we'll, you know, take two or three hours and we'll go show you some
property. We would love it! Okay? All right? (laughs) Thanks so much for
your time.
Throgmorton: Thank you, Gwen. (applause)
Evans: My name is Zac Evans. I'm the owner of ERP Rental Properties. I was born and
raised in Iowa City, lived at Meadowbrook Trailer Court, which is far over on the
southeast corner of town. I think it's called Breckenridge now, drive over there—
it's a good little place. Um.....moved to the east side just outside of town and, uh,
rented a house through the end of my, you know, high school career here in Iowa
City. Went to elementary school at Mark Twain. Longfellow. Southeast. And I
graduated City High in 1999. I care for Iowa City cause I grew up here. Simple
as that. Probably have more roots in the ground here than a lot of people. My
mom worked at Mercy Hospital for 38 years. My dad worked at Hawkeye Ready
Mix for 40 and still works there. My wife and I have three kids and we live just
outside Iowa City on the west side,just outside in the county. Iowa City is a huge
opportunity for not only people like me, but for anybody. I think you probably all
agree with that. But as soon as you start restricting things, opportunities, things
quickly can go south. My wife and I started a construction business about 14
years ago. We bought our first investment property in 2008. It was a duplex in
North Liberty. Over 11 years of intense hard work, sacrifice, and massive risk, we
now own and operate and manage 17 houses, nine duplexes, and one commercial
property. During that time, Iowa City's building department,housing department,
and many other departments in between have been fantastic to work with.
Unbelievably fantastic. Great people. I can't say enough good things about'em.
Well over half of our investment properties have been dilapidated and in need of
major repair, which I'm (mumbled)which I'm confident that no one was willing to
do, except for us. Um, these are properties in terrible shape. And they usually
come in groups because nobody wants to live next to a shifty property. Pardon
my language. These are single-family homes, remodeled(mumbled) we received
rental permits after the repairs were done, and we do our best to keep our
properties at high-quality, while maintaining healthy relationships with all of our
owner-occupied neighbors, many of which I talk to on a weekly basis. If that isn't
neighborhood stabilization I don't know what is. As some of the folks have told
ya, we're all in this together. So as soon as you start puttin' a restriction, or a cap,
you can very easily destroy something else. I was taught to inspire, not to
discourage. I give when I'm needed, and I accept a profit, whether it's a paycheck,
a dividend in cash flow, or a bonus, for doin' a good job. Older folks always talk
about how bad the County and the City can be when dealing with the bureaucracy.
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Stepping out of bounds, misusing power, and simply taking too much of our hard
earned money that taxes, permits, and in fee...and fees, and etc. I entered into
self-employment because I was exhausted from working my tail off, getting an
hourly wage and watching it disappear before I was even able to cash my check.
This thievery in my small construction business now gets even worse through
permits and fees and regulation. Of course if you make a little bit of money,
they'll find a way to get that too when you're done. Now our rental business is
faced with the same ongoing stealing of money through excessive permitting and
fees, now have which have doubled for all of our duplexes and multi-bedroom
properties. I wanna make myself clear—I'm not a rancher. I'm a farmer. A guy
once told me that you're either....you're one of the two. We do what we have to
do. We do a good job at it, and we make some money. I'm aware that there's
some challenging landlords who are only in it for the profit, who may not even
live in town. We all know who they are. Most of us know 'em by name. And I
realize that it hurts everybody when they do a crappy job. But a cap...on rental
properties is not the answer. The answer may be in finding a way to regulate the
bad seeds, so to speak, somehow. The cap rate is not different than a form of
communism. Make your rules, charge fees—reasonable fees—but eliminate the
power and the control that you got on this town right now....cause it's causing a
problem, and this is only the tip of the iceberg. Opportunities being taken away.
I've spoken with at least four people in the last year since the cap has gone
through and they wanna sell their house to me,because it needs work, and
I'm....'that's great, I think that's great. Sorry I can't buy it. I can't get a rental
permit.' And they get pissed. They get mad at me. I'm not....I just tell 'em, hey,
it's the cap rate. Nothin' I can do about it! So they're in the same situation some
of these other folks are in. Depending on the money,but they can't get it. Real
estate market here is being controlled and manipulated by the Council, and I
wonder, I really wonder, if the Council realizes what it destroys after it controls
something. Thanks. (applause)
Krapf: Good morning, I'm Gerhil Krapf. I'm the broker for Homes and Hearth. I just
wanna briefly underscore something Lorainne said and Gwen alluded to, which I
believe strongly. I've lived here since I was seven. I love this city. I've been a
renter myself when I went to the University of Iowa, and I think the underlying
implication that there's something wrong with renters is what I'm concerned abut.
There's something wrong with some property owners. (laughs) I don't think the
generalization is helpful. I understand that there are problems that we want to
correct, that preserve our neighborhoods, and I however agree with my
colleagues, who have suggested perhaps it would be possible to explore some of
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the current mechanisms we have in place to, for example, shut down a party that's
going, you know, crazy. Thank you for your time. (both talking)
Throgmorton: Thank you. For my benefit, would you state your name again, please?
Krapf: Gerhil (both talking) It's a German name. (both talking) You can call me G if
you want(laughs) it's easier! G-e-r-h-i-I.
Throgmorton: Thank you. Hello,Anna. Long time, no see!
Buss: Aren't you guys just lucky? (laughter) Well I've been in Iowa City a long time.
I've had a lot of careers. I will tell you that I have spent the last....50 of my close
to 70 buying rental property, as that was going to be my retirement, you see, like
the one lady whose property couldn't get sold, went down in value. I will tell you
that I have bought property. 402 Benton Street, it was owner-occupied. It was a
dump. When I bought it, I had to put in$75,000 to make it livable, and I did, and
I did that because, number one, I wanted to donate it to the City and burn it down
and I couldn't, because it had asphalt stuff in it. So instead, we just remodeled it.
At 922 Hudson there was a senior citizen that lived there, and she could no longer
afford to stay living in her own home because of the property taxes, and the
expenses it was going to take to put on a new roof, siding, and rewire the house
up to code. So, I bought it. My banker loves me. 903 Hudson, same thing. I
have bought numerous old houses, fixed them up. I am really kinda happy about
my tenant record because most of my tenants stay three to five years. I have one
house that I've had basically the same group for 12 years. Now this is my
retirement that you're messin'with. I take exception to it. A lot of the things the
City does doesn't work! That you wanna hire more City housing inspectors, well,
don't inspect some of the houses so often. It takes a lot. They walk through. I
have very few, as Stan can probably tell you, I have very few violations, and I am
the police in my neighborhood. I usually, if there is a problem, I'm usually there
before anybody else. But this neighborhood cap thing is ridiculous. First off, it's
more vindictive than anything. City's' a little upset because the State said you no
longer can cap how many people are in a house. At one point in time when I was
a property manager, I managed houses that had eight bedrooms,but we could
have three people. How bout that affordable housing thing? That doesn't work
very well. So you guys need to get your heads together. All of you should have
to own rental property. If you all had rental property and you had to deal what we
had to deal with 24/7, the changing regulations, every time you tum the wind
blows another direction. I think that you might see things a little bit different. I
can tell you that the City knows which managers and owners are bad!
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Concentrate on them—leave the rest of us alone! I don't think I've ever had a
really horrific, major violation. Ask Stan! We argue all the time. (laughter)
(both talking) I remind him of his mother(laughter) which can't be that bad
(laughter)but the problem here is, you know, I had four houses I had first right of
refusal on, and I canceled those because of this, and it's all in my neighborhood,
and I take pride in my neighborhood. You can come over,walk around. I'm over
there with all the tree huggers across the street that ripped all the trees out. You
know, it's real frustrating the mess that's over there, and yet you're worried about
some landlords and a moratorium? I have a real problem with it. So, you might
wanna think about it. Gee, go buy some rental property! Thank you (laughter)
(applause)
Throgmorton: So of course everyone does have a right to speak, but I did ask how many people
wanted to speak and, you know....I.....I think we're seein' more who want to.
Williams: My name is Carl Williams and I'm here to talk about just a few things, very short.
Veterans, we have veterans who come in and out of this, urn, area and oftentimes
they're not in a position to buy. They need to be able to rent. They have families,
and they have children, and they wanna be in a neighborhood where it's safe, and
they don't wanna be in condos somewhere with 50 other people. So for them we
don't have enough rental properties, single-family rental properties, to begin with.
So by restricting this, you're making it even tougher for the veteran. Point blank.
I think also, again, because we don't have very many rental properties, and we
have so many people that come to....every realtor here saying that we don't
wanna make a decision on buying a house for the first year. Where ya gonna put
'em? They don't wanna be in condos. They have two or three children. They
want a single-family home. And they are good, good tenants. A lot of'em are
medical staff from the University that transfer in and out of here. That's all I got.
Please think about that. Thank you.
Throgmorton: Thank you, Carl. (applause)
Pretorius: Hi. My name's Adam Pretorius. I've lived in Iowa City since 97, and I had a very
pivotal change to my perspective on rentals, uh, in the early 2000s. I was actually
sitting in this room. Regenia Bailey was one of the Council Members at the time.
Somebody was pitching a development project, and they were wanting it to be
predominantly rentals, and though I had no involvement, I was there just to listen
for another issue, and I was listening to this and Regenia said something that
stuck with me, and I remember it ever since. The Council was arguing that
nobody wanted these rentals, and Regenia finally stood up and said, 'I'm a tenant.
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What do you think of me?" And I hadn't thought about that,because we're so
quick in the university town to judge that every tenant is going to be a college
student,but they're not. And I think it's very important to recognize that, and
know that not everyone is going to be a student. So maybe regulation would be
better than restrictions. I live in the Peninsula neighborhood, which as you can
see is outside of your rental cap zone. Of course your moratorium will affect
everyone, including our neighborhood. I'm actually the president of my
neighborhood, so I have an inside perspective of our association. That stat is for
that whole area. My neighborhood is actually about 52%rentals. I selfishly,
when the developer was building it, as a homeowner,wanted him to do just
homeowner-occupied units. Unfortunately I didn't get that choice,but I will say
that our community is successful because it's diverse, and it has a mixed variety of
demographics. We're gonna push inclusionary zoning and other sort of options.
Your Council seems to want to do more mixed demographics. So why are we
gonna restrict tenants? Let's take a minute to just look at kind of the micro-
economics and the demographic that we're in. This is a university town. Your
number one employer is University of Iowa. Your number two employer is
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. As a realtor, I would love for all of
them to buy. Unfortunately they're a very moving population. They're usually
only here a few years. Now sometimes they end up loving it and they'll stay
longer. But that population needs to have options to have housing,because we all
need housing, and homeowner-occupied is not always an ability for them. They
aren't able to get financing or long-term they're just not sure how long they'll be
here. Furthermore, I think,uh,it's very important to see what's going on in the
micro....in the macro-economics. Unfortunately, the newer generations,the
younger generations,believe it or not there's people younger than me prefer to
rent and not own, and that's their choice, and that demand has shifted demand for
the amount of rentals that we need. So caps don't work. Moratoriums don't work.
Again I'd love everyone to buy,but everyone doesn't buy. And so the only person
we're hurting at the end of the day is homeowners. Now I'm ashamed at myself,
last time this got brought up,that I didn't stand here and something. And I'm
disappointed that Council doesn't take more time to sit and talk to local economics
and real estate industry professionals before jumping to moratoriums and rental
caps. So I hope this time you will think about that and I for one would love to
meet with each one of you and go through some of these areas, including come
visit my neighborhood, which is over 50%rentals, and see that my businesses that
are in our neighborhood could not survive without that demographic. Something
that I selfishly didn't even notice,until I was forced to see this difference in
demographics. Thank you for your time.
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Throgmorton: Adam,thank you(applause) can I ask...I wanna ask you a quick question. What
neighborhood do you live in?
Pretorius: I live in the Peninsula neighborhood.
Throgmorton: That's what I thought you said(both talking)
Pretorius: ...planned development. Thank you.
Neuzil: Good morning, good afternoon to all you Council People. I will guarantee you
that my lineage in the County of Johnson County goes deeper than any one of you
guys up there on the Council. I (both talking)
Throgmorton: ...state your name please.
Neuzil: Oh! Keith Neuzil.
•
Throgmorton: Thank you.
Neuzil: I will guarantee it. My family, relatives, settled in Johnson County in 1848,
before the state of Iowa was the state of Iowa. So, I have a....a very big stake in
this,in Johnson County. All the people here have made a very, very legitimate
point on this whole thing. It's economics. It's investments. You know, you
guys...you guys talk....that, you know,the people that are renting, there's several
reasons they rent. They're here for a short time. We have a university here where
most people stay four,maybe five years. They turn over. Twenty-five percent of
the students leave every year,unless they go on to post,uh, education, uh,
master's degree, doctoral's,whatever it is. You need a....a.....a healthy rental
environment for these people. And in the news lately's been all this explaining
about,you know, student debt. Well, living is part of student debt. You....you
look around outside. I'm, every time I come downtown Iowa City I look around
and I look at all the new buildings. The high-rent district, I mean some of these
things from what I've heard from my attorney, sit and talkin'with him, 1,800,
2,000, $2,200....a month! Shit! I can buy a house and live comfortably makin' a
mortgage payment....at that. I mean it's economics, it's investment. You oughta
be happy that people wanna invest, and most of these landlords do take pride in
their houses. There are rules and regulations and ordinances on the books that
you guys can use to make the landlords stand up and be responsible! I...there's...
there's no issue about that. Also the...the traffic issue. You guys want, you know,
we talk about traffic. Traffic downtown in Iowa City. Traffic(mumbled) The
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people that are going to the University, going to Mercy Hospital, going to
University Hospital,workin'at the University—if they can live close, they're
either A)ridin'their bicycles,walking to work. To cut down on the traffic you
wanna limit and bring the people from further out, surrounding areas? I mean not
everybody can afford a house. I was poor. I know what it was. My first house
started out at$355 a month! That was....that was back when I was makin' $7.25
an hour. Working full time. That's....there's a lot in play here. You gotta keep
that in mind. Okay? It is....it.....it is what it is. We live in a university town. We
need rentals. We need good rentals,not high-end, I mean, I just cringe at this.
This whole thing, I mean it just....you guys drive,you guys do drive the market!
Whether you like it or not! By rules and regulations....you get that? So thank
you for your time. I've been here my 55 years, goin'on 56 years in Johnson
County, Iowa City. So I know, I've watched it all takin'place. Thank you.
Throgmorton: Thank you, Keith. (applause)
Carlson: My name is Nancy Carlson. And I have a different point of view. I would like to
talk to you about wha...I don't know, it's the missing middle. Everybody's been
talking about how important rental units are,that we need rental units. We also
need inexpensive houses that people my income can buy. Our inc...I, we have
lived in my house for 39 years. The first five years I lived in ignorant bliss. The
last 35 years I have been attempting to defend my neighborhood,because
basically everybody wants to come in and....and turn the units into rental units,
and they keep saying we need more rental units. What about the people who are
working income people who would like to live in Iowa City who don't want to
have to drive 30 or 35 miles and out....30 or 35 miles every day one-way to come
to work. What about them. We need to look at this group of people and realize
that we are totally ignoring them. I am one of them. It is very painful to listen to
you talk about the high-end and the low-end and forget about us in the middle
who work on a daily basis. I maybe one of the few people here of this income
level,because I am now retired. I work part-time. Basically most people who, of
my income level cannot afford to take off in the middle of the day to come to a
City Council meeting. Unlike most of these people who are real estate agents
who are ma...who are here because they are making a profit on the land, on the
buildings that they are....that they are selling, and they are looking at them as
investments. I'm looking at this as my home. That I worked very hard to buy and
to maintain. When we went through this before, a few years ago, I did a lot of
research. Penn State had a cap of 25%. Since the 90s. There were places in, uh,
Minnesota that had caps. This is not a unique experience, and from those things,
from those instances, it has shown....it showed that this had already worked in
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other places for a long period of time. Uh....as I said, I just think you need to
think about all the people who live in this thing, and the City Council has said
over and over again when we've come before us, we want to protect the housing
stock in your area, so that people can come in and buy cheaper housing and live
here. But that never happens! When I first moved, the end of the rental un...
rental housing was the 800 block of Jefferson. I live in the 1000 block of
Jefferson. It's now two blocks beyond me to the east. It just keeps going on and
on and on, and in the meantime middle class people who will live here and
probably work here all their life,have great deal of difficulty finding a place to
buy, if they want to live in this area. Thank you.
Throgmorton: Thank you,Nancy. Who else?
Bums: Jesse Burns. Uh, I....I've lived in this area for pretty much my whole life and, uh,
work in this community full-time since....oh, 1993 and, uh, I am a contractor,
realtor,uh, property owner, farmer,uh, musician, and I like to think I'm a good
listener too. But, uh, I....at one time I was a renter,when I was completing, uh,
business college at the University of Iowa and who knows, maybe I'll be a renter
again if I go back and get my MBA or maybe if my health, if somethin' changes
with my health, or age, or just a choice I wanna make,but I wanna have a choice!
And, uh....I'm not gonna, I was just plannin'to come here and listen,uh, so I'm
kinda wingin' it here and I've been following this, you know, in the media and
its.....and with, uh, emails and just out of curiosity. I....I currently don't own any
houses and duplexes,but I felt after hearing a lot of people speak today, wanted to
tell my story,urn, that's related. I did own some duplexes here in town and, uh, up
until pretty recently actually, and I'm gonna roll back the clock a little bit because
these duplexes were designed and built by myself, leased by myself with the help
of my son, uh, personally, and they were....they were good units. They were
large. They enhanced the neighborhood. Two-car garage, two spaces in the
driveway. I had some really....all good tenants of a variety of backgrounds.
Some were students, some were students and working, some were family, some
were retired, some worked at home, some were eng...engineers, I mean just a
variety of really good people. And through the course of time, you know....I....I
watched and had to deal with the regulations changing. I'm rolling back the clock
to the'no more than three unrelated' definition, which we had to live....I had to
live through for...for two years. It drastically affected who I could lease to, when
people would come inquire, and I still to this day do not understand how that was
not discrimination to define familial status. Um....and I'm still fascinated that it's
still up on the web site being defended. I....I'm.....you know having, I had to,
you know,turn people away because....wasn't my definition of a family.
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Somebody else's, and I....I said calmly to an inspector one day, you know, that
was out on my(mumbled) I said, you know, me and my son and my girlfriend and
her two kids are not qualified to rent my unit. He put his head down and in kind
of a shameful...shamed manner and said....he heard me, and he said, well, I....I
think they're takin' a look at that. So.....I realize that is,that rule has since passed
and it went on to the parking thing. I....I started sellin' my units at that time. I
said, you know what? I'm not gonna participate in this. Um....and moved on, but
it was, you know, having to turn people away....because of a certain definition,
uh, I....I.....I do not, you know how I feel about that. So, and this seems to just
be an extension of all that and it went into the parking. Now it's gone into the
districts, and you know, I don't know where it's going to go next. So, no, I don't
own any homes or duplexes, but uh, I think we should just keep all in mind that
they're....there are good renters, there are bad renters. The majority of'em are
good. Just like there's good homeowners and there's bad homeowners, and the
majority of'em are good. And I think we can serve them all and do it in a manner
without all this, you know, I....I just don't think this is necessary. I think there's
enough rules on the books and you can....you can sure bet if I had a bad tenant in
one of my units, uh, one of those duplexes, I woulda got 'em out if they were doin'
somethin' detrimental to the unit. So I don't know who you think's easier to get
out—a....a bad homeowner or a bad tenant, but I....I think it's pretty clear who's
the easier, you know, to deal with (mumbled) make a change. So....anyway, that's
my personal story which I....which I'm, again, wasn't planning to speak and I'm
comfortable giving some of my personal side to this and my personal, uh, life
story and situation, and uh, I....I hope you all keep it in mind!
Throgmorton: Thank you, Jesse. (applause)
Varguson: Hello, everyone, my name is Terry Varguson. I'm a....life-long resident of Iowa
City, a realtor,property management company owner, and an investor...an
investor in Iowa City,just like most everyone else in this room. The...the concern
I have here is that....we seem to be coming out with reactionary responses to
decisions that are being made,uh, outside of the Iowa City limits and....you
know, for every action there's sometimes unintended consequences, and we've all
been concerned about affordable housing, even having a, you know, housing
available to people. Ya think just puffin' a flat stop on rental permits is gonna help
the cause? I...I'm thinkin'there're gonna be some victims in this, some unintended
victims, good people that are either aren't gonna be able to rent, people that won't
be able to convert some...something into a rental property and pay taxes and pay
the rental permit fees and abide by the rules because we have to. I'm....hoping
that you would at least consider a little more deliberation, a little more
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consideration than just what some of us feel is a knee-jerk punitive response.
Okay? There are, you have tools in your box right now with the Universal...with
the International Building Code standards. There's clear-cut space requirements
for people and bedrooms. I live in the College Green area, I always have(laughs)
okay? Things that I think were talkin' about here are College Green and north end
Goosetown. Right? That's the problem. And.... guys (sighs) you know,
you...you've got parking, you can apply parking requirements. You've already
passed rules that you can't pave the yards. These houses are closely located.
There's not really(laughs) a whole lot of room for people to add 10 parking
spaces. You know? There are reasonable balances to this discussion, and to just
arbitrarily say, 'No, I'm not going to give you any more rental permits;may not be
the most adult response that we could have in this situation, and for long-term,
and for those that are gonna be affected by this, I would hope that we would have
a little more...conversation about how to solve this rather than just, you know, put
a divide between the Council and the...the members of Iowa City. You know,
I....I think we can work together and I think we can find some solution to this,
other than maybe what we're looking at today. So, I thank ya! (applause)
Throgmorton: Okay, we've had about an hour's worth of commentary. Is there anybody else who
desperately needs to speak, to bring up any new point that we haven't already
heard? Okay, if not we have a motion on the floor, and I....I will invite the
Council to discuss what they want to do. But I'd like to make a couple points to
begin with. First I wanna thank you for sharing your views, especially the details
you've provided about, uh, your own experiences. Course most of you who spoke
were realtors, so that's one perspective. There are other perspectives we need to
take into account. You've made many points, which I'm sure we will consider
thoroughly in our discussion. I wanna remind you also this is an ordinance that
we're considering, so we have to do three votes on the ordinance. So this is first
consideration. I assume the next one, assuming it passes today, I don't know that
it will, uh....uh, I guess that means at our Tuesday night meeting we would have
second consideration, and then at our following meeting on the 21st, I guess, of
May, we would have third consideration, if there's a majority in favor each time.
So it's not as if this is the end of the discussion. All right. The other thing I
wanna draw your attention to is we need to be really clear about one thing. The
State has banned our use of rental caps and what we were doing was considering a
moratorium to give us time to come up with an alternative, now that that tool has
been taken away from us. So we're not....debating whether to continue the rental
cap, ad infinitum. We're considering whether to establish a moratorium to give us
time to come up with an alternative, and as we're....assuming this passes and goes
on and that kinda thing, surely we will engage in numerous conversations with
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realtors and others about what we wanna do in....in the form of an alternative.
The last thing I wanna say is that when the State was considering its proposed
preemption of our ability to establish a rental cap ordinance and so on, we
proposed four specific amendments through our lobbyists, four specific
amendments to that bill. Uh, at least one of which addressed the first topic that,
uh, first claim that was made by the first person who spoke. I don't remember
what all the four were, Geoff, and maybe at some point in our discussion you can
identify what those were, but it's'really in a sense irrelevant because we're go...
we're considering whether to enter into a process of coming up with an alternative
to the rental cap. Okay. Did I state that clearly enough and legally enough,
Eleanor, and...yeah. Okay. Okay, good deal, so, uh, Council Members, uh, do
you have....uh, comments you want to make before we....uh, vote on this, uh, on
this motion?
Cole: I would like to make a comment. And I echo the Mayor's comments about thank
you for sharing your vision with us. You know any time there's a community
conflict, you always try to go back and dissect what could of we all done
differently to avoid where we are here. Urn, clearly I think that there's been some
miscommunication in terms of both the Council, as well as, you know, us more
effectively explaining the rationale for this policy. Um, you know and as I go
back and look at it, um, you know, clearly I think we both need to sort of self-
identify in terms of different things that we could of done differently, so I'll start
at least with me, as a....as a Councilperson. One thing we all have in common is
that we love Iowa City, and I think the question we all have is is how do we get to
making sure our neighborhoods remain healthy neighborhoods for our first-time
homeowners, while at the same time keeping a robust rental market. So we're
trying to keep both of those things into consideration. It's clear in our, uh,use of
the rental cap,urn, we did not do enough outreach. It would have been nice if we
could have had a shared solution at the outset, so we would not have a,urn, a ban,
um, so certainly I think that's something that we could of done differently, but by
the same token, um, I thank you for all the comments that you've made,but you
know we are here to work and serve you, and we can more effectively do that if
you reach out to us, if you make public comments during our meetings. Our goal
from the get-go was for this policy to be a living, breathing document, and that's
something that we wanted to get right,because we understood that we don't have
a lot of support in the legislature in terms of some of the things that we wanna do,
and so moving forward, I share, um, the gentleman back there who had made the
comment about deliberation. The Mayor's right. This is not a ban. We do not
have the authority to do a ban.All this gives us is time, and I'm hoping that if
we're able to get a majority to support this, that during this time we can come
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together with a shared solution that is gonna meet both of our goals. Urn, and I
think one thing I wanna make very clear is this is not anti-renter. I agree with you
there are number of wonderful renters, and there's a number of wonderful
homeowners and....not so wonderful homeowners. That....that's humanity, urn,
but we wanna have a solution that's gonna work for everyone, so at least in terms
of where I'm coming from, we just want more time, urn, we do not have the
authority to be able to do the rental cap. Urn, this gives us time to have a solution
that hopefully is gonna work for everyone.
Thomas: Yeah, I....too, uh, thank everyone for coming and speaking, and urn, really view
this as perhaps the first in what would be an extended conversation about how to
address some of the issues that have been raised. I know I'm very sympathetic to,
uh, you know, some of the comments and scenarios that have been described.
You know, Lorainne, your....your situation, uh, is....is representative of a number
of people who kind of basically did the right thing, um, and found in the end that,
you know, as....as the neighborhood around them changed, um, and it came time
for them to sell the property that there was....a reduction in the value of the
property as a result of the rental cap. So I'm concerned about that type of
scenario. I'm also concerned about, uh, the, what I would consider to be the lack
of space in the area that we're talking about, which I think is important to keep in
mind. This is the core of Iowa City. This....this moratorium does not apply to the
rest of Iowa City. It only applies to those areas that exceed the percentage of
rental cap....of 30%. It's difficult for long-term renters to find rents,places to rent
in that area, from what I can see, because it's the short-term renter, uh,
aggregating rents that out compete both homeowners looking for a place to live
long-term and renters, hoping to find a place to live long-term. So how do we
solve that, those....those two questions, uh, you know I think what we'll....what
we'll be seeing over the next period of time is coming together and seeing if we
can't address some of the un....perhaps you could call them unintended
consequences of our current, you know, the current rental cap concept. Urn, so
....again, I...I, we'd...(mumbled)kind of hoped that perhaps we could have had
this conversation without the State intervention. Urn, you know now, you know,
the moratorium will provide us with an opportunity to....to have that
conversation. I would of rather not had the moratorium, but, you know, that....
that's, the State acted. We need to kind of create the space for that to happen,
without the situation radically changing on the ground.
Mims: I would agree with an awful lot of what has been said right now. I think we have,
um, I think we have improvements to make. I think we,um, I think people have
done a great job of explaining unique situations, which we need to try to find, urn,
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a way to address. Urn, I have a daughter who has a rental property in town.
She's...she's one of those, you know, people that you talk about. She came here,
she bought a house, she left, and she's like, you know what, if I can afford it, I
wanna keep it and, you know,be able to build equity in that and have it for a long
time. Urn, so I....and I manage it for her(laughs) so....got calls last night at
movies (laughing)uh, but....so I understand that and I understand the....the
situation, you know, with elderly people who live in these core neighborhoods,
and the pressures that they're under in terms of who is willing to buy and who's
not willing to buy and what....what those values are. And I think it's what John
alluded to, I think is...is a concern, and I don't know how we...we get around this
is the highest value on a lot of these houses in that core neighborhood is for
student housing, urn, because you can rent'em out, you know, per bedroom, and
so it doesn't....it doesn't help with those opportunities necessarily for the families.
So we have a lot of complicated issues here, and I also agree with what has been
said in terms of this, what we're doing is not something new. The rental cap is in
place,with its flaws, and because of the State legislation,we need to make some
changes obviously,but we need some time to do that. My goal would be that we
do come together, we have those conversations that I wish we had had rather than
it going to the State, and that we try and do that in a timeframe that would allow
us to get something done in considerably less than the 10 months that we have in
the ordinance. But I bet that's going to take all of us trying to work together and
have some discussions, but at this point I will support the moratorium.
Taylor: I would also echo a lot of things that have been said, including what John said. I
would of appreciated, uh, this conversation a year ago when, uh, I think it was
Terry had mentioned, uh, the unintended, uh, consequences of actions, and....and
of course the rental cap was put into place as a result of the limiting the number of
related,unrelated in buildings, and it certainly would of helped at that time to
have this room full of people, um, sharing your opinions on this, uh, topic. It
would of saved a lot of time, uh, and the anxiety at this point in time, and as, uh,
Susan had said, at the time before it went to the State, um....uh, Terry, you also
mentioned needing a little more conversation on how to solve this, and we
certainly would of appreciated that, and as Jim had mentioned, we do have, urn,
the two more, uh, times to....to think about this, but uh, I would be in...in favor of
the moratorium.
Teague: So I appreciate everybody corrin' out, of course, and sharin' your perspectives.
Urn, one thing I will say is....um, I think that a lot of Iowa City came out, urn,
very clearly in this room(mumbled) residents sayin'....people havin' the ability to
do with their properties what they want to do, as well as the ability to occupy and
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obtain properties. I think, you know, this was a decision before me(laughs) so at
this point, I think it's the transitional period that is appropriate for the Council to,
urn, you know,hold to the moratorium, urn,just to allow some time,but I don't
think that I'm willing to agree to 10 months. I think that has been very clear that
there are people out there affected by this. Um, 10 months I understand can allow
more time,but I'm more in favor of a five-month, urn, October 1st,um, type of a
stipulation. This would allow, I think the City, to figure out whatever options
there are. Uh, it's gonna be limited. There's not gonna be a lot of options, and I
think movin' forward with the decision so I will support it if we will decrease the
amount of months.
Salih: Uh, also as Bruce said, I wasn't here when they have this ordinance. Uh, I was
just like you in the audience, and just (unable to understand) I be renting for the
past 21 years. The(light applause, unable to hear speaker) the...maybe 18, I will
be one year out of 22 year being in the United State, I'm a home...I will be home
owner. I'm home owner right now, but I will be one year as a home owner. That
said, if I was (unable to understand) permit, I would oppose it. I would say...the
rental cap I mean. I will oppose it because I been looking for houses for long
time. Sometime we find houses, sometimes we not. And I know that (unable to
understand) indirect because....especially renter who look like me,renter who as
immigrant came to this, to Iowa City to make Iowa City home. They really
cannot find...now this. I have a friend, I was helping her reach out to (unable to
understand) three bedroom in Iowa City because she doesn't want to go to
Coralville. There is many in Coralville,but she couldn't find anything in Iowa
City, even in downtown area or somewhere,because she wanna keep her kids
going to Shimek Elementary School (unable to understand) and since you know
we been really looking for that and I see that three-bedroom become like, I guess
it's really expensive, and maybe if we have more renter, that's will drive the
market down a little bit. Uh, I....I, but the problem is now I'm sitting here. I'm
not on that audience. I have to listen to everyone. I have to listen to the people
who are in favor and I have to listen to the people who don't like it. So, I just
need time to come up with my decision,because now I hear you all and I almost
convinced by everyone what they said, but I need to hear the other side of, the
people who really don't want renter. Renter are good by the way! You know, I
really don't think renter will make like I talk about this in many topic that they
saying the neighborhood is depleted its ability is because they want more(unable
to understand) I understhat that, but not a lot people can afford to be a home
owner. I was one of them for 22 years. I couldn't afford to be home owner, but I
was a good renter. My neighbor liked me and I just move because I....time I just
wanted this house, that why I move. Anyway, I really just need time to (unable to
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understand) what Bruce said, five months.You said five months right? Five
months. So I really...especially the Mayor said today well we not talking about
(unable to understand)we are just need time. Yes, we need time,but I need
shorter time. So there is a lot people and I wish if we can (unable to understand)
you know houses (unable to understand) but I just....so I will support it if it's less
time than it....than 10 months.
Throgmorton: Okay, so I wanna ask Geoff.....you remember a few minutes ago I said that we
had proposed four amendments to the State legislation that banned the rental cap.
I wanna ask Geoff to describe each of those four,just so everybody in the room
knows what we tried to do at the State level. Geoff?
Fruin: Sure. And if I could back up just a....a little bit. Uh, when we passed the
ordinance, we tried our best to anticipate, urn, certain situations that might be
problematic and we introduced a number of sections into the ordinance. Um,
from military service to professors on sabbatical, um, to owning one side of the
duplox...duplex and renting out the other—those were all exemptions in the rental
cap. We tried our best but when we passed that, for those of you who were at the
Council table, I think we were pretty clear that we thought we were going to have
to....to tweak this as we got some local experience here, because,uh, it was really
untested here in our community. Um, when the legislation was introduced, uh,
this winter, uh, late winter, uh, we were completely blindsided. We had no idea
that legislation was coming. Uh, we found out I think the day before it was going
to a subcommittee. Um, and uh...uh, I reached out and....and tried to have some
conversations to say,hey, can we....can we one, press pause. That was my first
request. I said can we just press pause on this and talk about it locally for, until
January 1st. It was clear I think from the get-go that they, uh, the....the folks
behind the bill had the legislative support to pass it. That was pretty clear to us
from the street. Um, but I requested, I said can we.....can we hold off until next
session, uh, it's the same legislature. Uh, even at the time I made the request the
bill was funnel-proof, uh, meaning it was already at an elevated status for next
session. I said let us talk and try to figure out a solution to this and if we can't
come to a promise over those period of months, then, um, you'll have the same
votes to pass that through. So that was my, kind of our first position was just let's
delay, let's talk and see what happens. Uh, and importantly, let's talk here in Iowa
City and....and not in Des Moines. Um, after the delay wasn't successful, we
threw out a couple of other, um, ways to limit the current rental cap, uh, so we
talked to....we offered to limit it to just our historic districts,which is a much
smaller area than shown, uh, in the green there. Uh, those areas are already
subject to higher, uh, regulatory oversight by the City and uh,have been identified
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by the City as specific areas, uh,that, uh....um, we're interested in....in
preserving at a higher level. Urn, we also expressed flexibility in....in raising cap
percentages and looking at, uh, additional exclusions. So is 30% the problem?
Should we be going up a little bit? Urn, none of those, uh, seemed to draw the
interest of the folks behind the bill. Urn....we ultimately, uh, offered a....a
legislation, or an amendment to the legislation that was introduced by, urn, our
Representative Mary Mascher and that had the four, urn, amendments that....that
you, urn, that you're askin' about, Mayor. Uh, the first amendment was a hardship
one. So we heard some of the economic, uh, hardship examples that we heard
here today that, urn, we wanted to try to address. So we...we had an economic
hardship provision in there. Uh, which, uh, stated that if the property had been
publicly listed for sale for 12 months and received no offers from perspective
owner-occupants equal to or greater than the most recent assessed value of the
property, uh, then you could get a rental permit. Urn, if it was contiguous to all
other rental properties, again I believe the example that, uh, Mr. Lehman brought
up. In that case we would....the amendment would have allowed for a rental
permit. Urn, if the property owner was to be occupied by one or more immediate
family members, we offered that in the amendment. Urn, that would take care of
the situation in which a....a, urn, family member wanted to purchase a home and
allow a son or daughter attending the University to occupy that home along with
other occupants. That was included in there. And then we had one, uh,to speak
to some examples we heard on....on somebody that, uh, may have had a disability
or due to age was no longer able to, urn, move, or....no.....no longer able to
function within that property and required an immediate move. In that case they
would be granted a rental permit. We tried our best to respond to those concerns
through....all.....all the concerns that have....have, were voiced to us, uh,through
that amendment,but at the end of the day, the feedback that we got was there was
no compromise on rental caps and....and, uh, if....if rental caps is any part of the
solution, there was....there was no compromise. So that leads us to where we're
at today. Again, not seeing this legislation come forward and focusing really our
time in the last few months on how do we strike a compromise. Now we gotta
figure out what to do next, and urn, that's, again, why we're asking for the
moratorium today.
Cole: Geoff, in terms of the time, um....I agree with Maz and Bruce in the sense of
trying to get it done in five months,but I don't wanna unnecessarily bind
ourselves. How did we arrive at the 10 month as opposed to the five? I mean is it
(both talking)how tight a schedule would that be?
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Fruin: Well I would say we....we set it at 10 months, urn, but that doesn't mean we can't
come back to you in eight months or nine months. We're not required to go to the
end of that moratorium period. Um, but, uh, we....we set it at what we thought
was a reasonable period of time for us to do research, for us to do outreach, for us
to have public meetings and get feedback on it. Uh, ultimately,uh, you're gonna
need to adopt it through....and multiple public meetings. Urn, it....it takes time
and....and each time is....is, it gets more difficult, right, and familial status is used
across the country. That is the most common regulation that college towns use
across the country. That was taken. We had to research and there's a much
smaller sub-set of....of solutions that college towns employ. Penn State, East
Lansing, Minnesota—some of them were mentioned tonight. Those are
communities that use some form of rental caps. We studied the alternatives. We
felt that was the best. We offered that. Now that's off the table. So now we're at
a smaller sub-set. I'm not sure there's a whole lot we can learn from other
communities frankly. Uh, we're probably going to be inventing regulations
ourselves, and....and.....and that's gonna require a little bit more time. Could we
do it in five months? Sure, we can....we can get you something, uh, in five
months. It's not gonna be as well thought out. You're not gonna have as much
time for outreach. There's probably gonna be greater unintended consequences.
Um, if that's the trade-off that you want,that's fine. The other thing I wanna make
sure that you know of is...is you know the workload of the staff that's currently
going to be doing this. That's our Planning staff. Uh, our Neighborhood
Development Services. We have to....we have to be willing to,um, sacrifice our
progress on other initiatives that you've started so that we can look at this issue.
And the shorter the time period, the more sacrifices that we're gonna make on
those other(both talking)
Mims: I'd say that...I mean I think I was the first one that said I would like to see it done
in less than 10 months. I don't agree with five though. I think that is too short
and I think it....it, I mean we're not even gonna get started until the first of June
by the time we have the three readings. So then you're saying June, July,August,
September, October. You've got people who may be gone for the summer. You
can't get the same kind of input, I don't think, during the summer. You know, at
our last meeting we added another, an 11th major item, to our Planning staff, and
in the memo regarding that one Geoff even said in adding that one it's going to
affect deadlines. So I don't think five months,um, is a reasonable amount of time.
I definitely would like to see it done in less than 10, but I would rather pass the
ordinance for 10 months and then work hard with staff and with scheduling and
see what we can do, and....and I'll just reiterate. I'm....and the bulk of our
audience is realtors, and I think Geoff made it really clear, and I'm....I'm really
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disappointed. I didn't say as much the first time but I will now. I'm really
disappointed that as a community and with all of us caring, and I do believe
everybody here cares about this community,that there was not more of an effort
to have discussion with the City and try and work something out prior to just
taking this to the State and then no interest in any local discussion, urn, in trying
to work something out and maybe put the....put it off for a year. But(unable to
hear person speaking from audience)
Throgmorton: No!
Mims: No. (several talking from audience) I'll be around after the meeting but now
we're done with public input.
Salih: What about if we just said by the end of, before the end of the year? We need
something. (several talking)
Throgmorton: Hold on for a second. We have a motion on the floor. If we wanna debate the
length, we should have an....a proposed amendment to the motion, and....and so,
uh, yeah so...rather than just go off on whatever topic. So before we do that, if
you would, I'd like to express my own views about this. Uh, first of all I've been a
renter in the affected area for 10 years. I've been a landlord in the affected area
for 10 years. I've been a property owner in the affected area for about 10 years.
So I think I have a pretty strong, clear view of what it's like to be in each of those
roles. Moreover,when I was a renter....I.....I rented under two different
landlords. One was very good, the other was not very good. And the
consequences were pretty clear in terms of the structure I lived in. So and I think
I know the core of this city pretty darn well, and there are a lot of people out there
with a lot of different views, and a lot of property owners who really strongly
support the rental cap,but the rental cap's goin' away. We cannot use it. So we
will work over a period of time to come up with an alternative solution to that. So
I'm gonna support the moratorium as proposed, but (mumbled) Bruce, would you
like to propose an amendment to the ordinance?
Teague: I would. I....I think the options that we're gonna be given are very limited. I
don't think they're gonna be great, and I think that, urn,you know....and I get the
staff time. I....I do get that. Urn, am I willin' to go six months? I might be willin'
to go six months,but at 10 months, I am sorry—I think that's too long.
Throgmorton: Okay,propose(both talking)
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Teague: So I propose that, urn....for the ordinance that is, urn, bein'proposed today, that
we just change the date until November 1st. So it would be a six-month instead
of a 10-month(several talking)
Dilkes: ...formal amendment?
Teague: Yes.
Throgmorton: Is there a second to that amendment?
Salih: I second it.
Throgmorton: Okay, discussion?
Mims: I'd like to know how you're counting, because I....I just wanna be clear, if you're
going to November 1st, we aren't even going to have this done until the middle of
May, and so if you say starting June, you're June, July,August, September,
October—that's five months.
Throgmorton: Do you really mean six months from date of adoption?
Teague: Yeah, so I said six months so it would go to November 1st.
Mims: No, that would be about (both talking)
Salih: December....
Teague: Oh,because November 1st would be (mumbled) I'll go with December 1st.
Throgmorton: Okay, so you review that motion (both talking)
Teague: Yes (both taliong)
Salih: Yes, second the motion.
Throgmorton: All right, so discussion on that? I don't support the idea. I think we need to have
the moratorium as proposed and if staff can, and us, and we, can accomplish what
we need to do before 10 months is up, great!
Mims: I agree.
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Thomas: I would certainly like it to be done sooner,but urn, I'm...I would prefer to have,
keep it as it is and work with....you know, expeditiously as we can, and see where
we end up.
Cole: I would agree. I think let's get this right and have a lot of time, I mean we don't
have unlimited time and we want to get it done as quickly as we can, but we really
do need to maximize the public input. Urn,hopefully we can get it done quicker
though.
Throgmorton: Any further discussion? Hearing none, roll call please.
Dilkes: Voice vote.
Throgmorton: Voice vote. All in favor of the motion, Bruce's motion to, uh, get it done by
December the 1st say aye. How many ayes?
Salih: Aye, two aye.
Throgmorton: Were there any others? All opposed say aye. Uh, motion is defeated 2-5. So we
have a....a motion on the floor, uh, about adopting a 10-month moratorium, and
this is,urn, a roll call, is it not? Roll call please. Motion carries 7-0. Could I
have a motion to accept correspondence please?
Cole: So moved.
Thomas: Second.
Throgmorton: Moved by Cole, seconded by Thomas. All in favor say aye. Uh, opposed.
Motion carries. Okay, so this is just first consideration. We'll turn to it on this
corning Tuesday night.
Teague: May 7th.
Throgmorton: May 7th, yeah, thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
special formal meeting of May 1, 2019.