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Home My WebLink About2019-10-15 TranscriptionPage 1 Council Present: Cole, Mims, Salih, Teague, Taylor, Thomas, Throgmorton Staff Present: Fruin, Monroe, Andrew, Dilkes, Fruehling, Hightshoe, Sitzman, Russett, Knoche, Havel, Sovers, Nagle-Gamm Others Present: Lenkaitis (UISG) Review of RFC Form Based Code changes recommended by Opticos, and discuss possible changes to the density bonus provisions and height allowances 1IP3, IP41: Throgmorton/ Okay, good evening everyone. So we're gonna begin Iowa City City Council's work session for Tuesday, October the 15th, and our first topic is to review the Riverfront Crossings District form based code changes recommended by Opticos, and to discuss possible changes to the density bonus provisions and height allowances. Geoff, I think you plan to say a few words at the start. Fruin/ Yeah, just do a quick introduction, hopefully most of the time with the work session is.... is spent, ub... uh, listening to your discussion. Um, the Riverfront Crossings, uh, form based code, um, was adopted in 2014. Uh, and urn ..... I .... I think we all thought it was going to be successful, but uh, we've had probably over $200 million worth of investment in the Riverfront Crossings area since that code was adopted. Uh, and as Council knows there's several additional projects in the .... in the various, uh, stages of legislative approvals. So with, um, 14, uh, buildings produced under the code earlier this year, uh, we thought it was a good time to assess, uh, the results that were bein' produced by the code, and so we, uh, tagged on a scope to Opticos' work. If you recall, Opticos is the consultant that's doing the form based code for us in the South District. Uh, they have extensive expertise in .... in urban form based codes as well. So we asked them to take a look at that as an independent third -party and give us some feedback. Um .... uh, they have completed that and that memo is in your information packet. Um, it's important to note that prior to them getting started, the staff held a focus group with the architects, engineers, and developers that were involved in, uh, many of those .... those first 14 projects. So we got a lot of feedback from them on what was workin' well, what wasn't, and .... and we pro ... provided that to the Opticos' team so that they would have some foundation of understanding of what the .... what the folks that, uh, have been working in the code felt, um, about, uh.... about it. Um .... uh, again, you've seen the Opticos' report. I think, uh, some takeaways that you can .... they have a summary up front and then it's more detailed, uh, later on in the memo. Uh, certain code standards are not necessarily... are not necessary to achieve quality buildings was .... was that first finding. And this is pretty technical stuff. They get into things like step -backs, facade competition, upper story height, roof design, etc. Those were some issues that they think we .... we either need to drop those code requirements or, uh, modify them in a way, uh, provide some ore administrative flexibility, um, to, uh, to work with those, um .... uh, again, certain code aspects. Um, the feeling was, and this was largely coming from those focus groups, is that, uh, some of those very specific standards may be limiting and .... and, uh, really This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 2 unnecessary and may not recognize different types of architecture, different scales of buildings and that sort of thing, and think staff would agree with a lot of this, that we found during design review that ... we would certainly like to have a little bit more flexibility, um, in working with some of these very specific code parameters that quite honestly in a lot of cases maybe the average person wouldn't even, uh, notice, uh, on... on a, uh, on a project. The second and third, uh, components of that, uh, memo, um, the summary piece, uh, we're .... I lump them together. It's either, uh, confusing content or, uh, just the general usability of the code, as they read it for the first time. Uh, and knowing that architects and engineers, many of whom are reading'em for the first or second time, just had trouble tracking some of that stuff. So there's some clean-up there that ... that we think, uh, needs to happen. Um, but there are some more substantive recommendations in there, like reducing the number of sub -districts, um, and combining some of those where there's very minor differences between, uh, some of them, and also clarification, uh, of the height bonuses, so it's very transparent on what, um, height allowances may be on a particular, uh, parcel of land. And then lastly, uh, they noted, um, the ... uh, kind of unique position that we're in in which we didn't, uh, rezone the entire district up front. And, uh, that's not .... that's not typical. Uh, typically when you, uh, would adopt a new, or work on a new zoning code, you would rezone the entire area to that and .... and thus you wouldn't have as many individual applications as you see. Um, we struggle with that because part of, uh, what we look to do in the rezoning is make sure that we have, um, required right-of-way, for example, for public improvement projects. So the easy example is along South Gilbert, when we've seen a lot of redevelopment, we've been requiring some dedication of right-of-way so we can make a future street improvement to ... to Gilbert, um, and without that rezoning, uh, we don't believe that we'd have the ability to....to do that as easily. So, urn .... I'd say for the most part Opticos' staff is .... is, or the Opticos' report is .... is fairly... speaks to fairly technical components of the code. Um, what we wanna do is give Council an opportunity to weight in. If there are some of these topics that they've identified that you wanna have a discussion on at a .... at a policy level, um, that's great, and I think if you can identify those today. You don't necessarily need to get through those discussions today, but tell us what those aspects are and then on the other items, we'll just put those into our .... our workload and we'll get to them probably some time in ... in 2020 would be our goal is for some, again, administrative, um .... uh, changes, um .... uh.....uh, that address the other comments. So that's part one. And then part two, uh, of the discussion tonight deals specifically with the height bonus provisions, and this wasn't anything that we asked Opticos to look at. We didn't ask them to judge whether height bonuses, uh, were .... were too generous or not generous enough or appropriate in this sub -district or not. Um .... uh, but we're prepared to have that discussion with you tonight. Um, we do have, um, a slide that.... that we can .... we can pull up, um, now if. ... Danielle, if you wanna go ahead and pull that up. Just to show ya what height bonuses we have awarded, uh, in the first four years, and so, um .... I'll walk through these really quickly, uh, and hopefully you can see them. The ones in yellow are you level two design review that, uh, the Council has approved. And, uh, I'll note that the first one, 316 Madison, was never built, um, so we approved a 15 - story, uh, building there, and as you know that, um, that did not, um, that did not, uh, happen. It's an eight -story building, which they were permitted by right. So really we've.... we've, uh, as .... as a Council, you've granted three height bonuses. Uh, Tate This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 3 Arms, which was a single story, uh, height bonus for historic preservation, and then you have two hotel height bonuses — The Rise, uh, they got seven stories of height bonus for the Hyatt Place Hotel, and the Hilton Garden Inn. Uh, so really the only significant... height bonus that's been granted to, uh, that .... that's added a lot of residential units would be The Rise. They got seven stories for the hotel, but that also allowed them to do a larger, um, apartment, uh, offering as well. Hilton Garden Inn does not have any residential units. Again, the Tate Apartments was one floor. Uh, and then the one right below that is the Breckenridge Apartments. This is one that the Council recently rezoned, uh, just south of the railroad tracks on Dubuque, uh, that .... that was just finished, uh, this summer. Uh, they had a level one request, which again does not go to Council, just goes to staff, and that was for one story, and they used the public art provision for that. That was an interesting case in that that one story didn't actually provide them a number of units. It had to do with the ... the grade of the, um, of the project and there was, uh, they have underground parking and there as enough of their underground parking exposed that it .... that it qualified as an above -ground story, uh, so they actually had to, uh, get a .... a height bonus floor awarded, um, to ... to allow them to proceed with what was their original concept that you saw at the rezoning stage. So to summarize, uh, we've had, uh, 13 floors of bonus height, uh, provided over four projects, and only one of those projects provided significant additional residential units. Uh, staff is here. We can ... we can answer, uh, more questions. We can go through the specific, uh, menu of options, uh, if you want to, when it comes to height bonuses, but again, we thought it was best that, uh, this .... you all kinda lead this discussion from here. Throgmorton/ Thanks, Geoff. You know, uh.... we're .... the density transfer and height bonus material's on this work session because I asked to have it put on, and .... and also because we had agreed to put it on our pending list anyhow. So it seemed like a good combination. So I .... I'd like to briefly summarize a little bit of what I put in the memo that I think all of you received yesterday, uh, the memo I sent to you yesterday. Uh, so in brief, uh, I completely agree with Geoff that almost all of the recommendation contained in Perez's memo sound, look very reasonable but they're of such a technical nature that we should defer to the staff about them and work their way through them. There's another point that I'd like to highlight that I understand Perez to be making, and that is that .... that the, um, Riverfront Crossings District master plan involved a great deal of public participation, but that was not true for the form based code that was adopted in 2014. There was some review, I mean we certainly had public hearing.... here at the Council level, but it did not involve the same degree of public participation as the Riverfront Crossings District master plan process involved. And then I would suggest this, and I just wanna put my values out front and then you all will do with it what you want, but if we want the district to achieve the objectives of the Riverfront Crossings District master plan and become a walkable, mixed-use neighborhood, then I would strongly urge the Council to reconsider the density transfer and height bonus provisions of the form based code, for two main reasons. First, circumstances have changed, and secondly, the Council's priorities now and I think probably in the next Council differ from the Council's priorities back in 2014. So, in terms of changes in circumstances, I'd .... I'd point to .... we've now .... we now have two major new hotels completed and operating and so on that did not exist back then, and the Graduate Hotel is .... is a revamped version of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 4 the Sheraton and there are two other... there's one other boutique hotel that's nearing completion in The Chauncey. So there's a lot more hotel capacity than there used to be. The second circumstance .... change in circumstances is that... there.... there, we now have a large number of new housing units for students. That was not the case back then. A third is that there's now considerable uncertainty about the University's plans concerning future enrollments and concerning what it's going to do with second -year students, whether they'd be living on campus or not. And, we adopted a climate crisis resolution. So I think those are major changes in circumstances that need to be taken into account. And with that, I .... that's pretty much all I need to say. I gave you the memo. I'm sure you had a chance to take a look at it. And now we need to hear from you. So, what are your thoughts in terms of what Geoff has said and do we have questions, do you wanna.... give them, give the staff direction or what? Cole/ I guess I have one question and I guess I don't mean this rhetorically. In terms of the climate crisis piece of this, um, what part of the climate crisis piece would lead us to want lower density in this particular district, as opposed to higher density? So I ... and I'm just, what would be the reason for that? Throgmorton/ Well I'll provide a partial answer. I think the key thing has to do with the LEED provision of the height bonus section in the form based code. It's, in my judgment, quite ambiguous about what's actually required or what would warrant, I should say what would warrant a height bonus. Uh, and I think we should be .... providing height bonuses for major.... urn.... enhancements of energy efficiency, for any new building that gets a height bonus. All right. So that's one thing. The second is ... is with regard to density. Partially I'd say that taller buildings, above eight stories, are, uh, much more energy intensive to build than .... than shorter buildings are, and even if there are shorter buildings down there, um, in terms of new buildings, a .... a major, um, increase in density would still result. So ... it's not as if it's an'either or' kind of thing. Cole/ Okay. Okay, thanks! Mims/ Well I would say in regard to Opticos' memo, um, I ... I would agree I think kind of what Geoff was saying is a lot of this, and what you said, Jim, is a lot of this is pretty technical. I didn't see anything in particular as I looked through it, from a policy standpoint that I had issues with at this point. And so I think I would be comfortable with taking, um, those A, B, C, D .... or A, B, C sections and, um, essentially giving those to staff and saying... you folks take a look through 'ern and see what your thoughts are, where things can be, um, changed around, and I .... I would agree with a lot of what they said in terms of the difficulty of following and reading the code, and .... um, and I'm one of those people, I like charts and graphs and stuff, and I .... and I think their idea of getting rid of a lot of the text and replacing it where possible with .... with graphs and charts and stuff to make things easier for people to get all the information they need in one spot, um, would be very helpful. So ... I don't see most of that as, urn .... as policy issues, but more .... and there may be some, but most of it is really I think making the code more usable. Um, the question that I do have would be on part D and the rezoning, and .... and I fully understand and we talked a lot about that at Council when we did the original rezoning of 20 to 25 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 5 acres down there, that that .... area was specifically selected because we felt that there was not anything that the City needed if you will out of those properties, and so for the City to initiate that rezoning was fine. We didn't do things like, you know, east, uh, East Court Street because we wanted to reopen Capitol and as .... as Geoff just mentioned, um, the additional right-of-way along South Gilbert. I guess my question would be, at this point ....would there be a reasonable and feasible way of going ahead and the City initiating the rezoning of the rest of the area, and it might have to be a number of different rezonings because I understand there still are things that we want out of some of those properties. But ... would it be possible for staff to identify what it is we want, where is it that we need right-of-way, either like along South Gilbert or where is it that we are going to need right-of-way for other kinds of infrastructure, water lines, sewer lines, or whatever, um....and would it be reasonable or feasible for us to initiate those rezonings, with those conditions in there. Obviously we'd have to get the property owners to sign off on it. Maybe it's way too big a project. Fruin/ I think it's .... I think what we need to do as staff, you know, the .... the initial.... mass rezoning that we did was .... was four years ago, five years ago. Um, we just need to spend more time and look at the remaining properties and go through that analysis again, and then we could probably answer that a little bit better, but .... I think from a staff standpoint, we agree that in normal circumstances it's .... it's good to go ahead and rezone these. Um, there was just so much need down there for public improvements. So that's probably part ... part of our 2020 work plan, uh, with ... with the whole look at RFC is to go through and see if there's a second round, urn, of. ... of a larger rezoning that we could do. Mims/ And I realize with workload of staff that....may not be possible (laughs) Fruin/ It's not the top priority, but it's ... it's somethin' we need to do. Teague/ I know that you're wantin' to really get Council, um, take on, you know, everything that's been presented, and I guess from my perception, um, and I know the Mayor talked about needin' the, get in' the public input. I do think that that's somethin' that we have to do. As we're goin' through this .... so ... because one of the things that I've, since, you know, I'm a little new to Council within the past year, um ... when we're talkin' about like the bonuses and all that other, all those other items related to, um, how they can get height bonuses essentially, um, I think it's important for neighbors to know upfront, um, staff to know upfront, urn .... exactly what will be that max, um, and so I know that when Opticos was here, I believe it was in July, they talked about actually .... startin' with the end in mind, saying if it's going to be max of 15, it's upfront like this is what you can get and you can go down, um, from there, and so I believe that it's important that, um, we ... get to a place where I would encourage staff to kind of really think about this. How can we get to a place where ... um, we get the public involvement as well as staff and, um, all interested parties involvement to find out like .... what would be that max in this area and .... and include that in whatever's created. P&Z and Council bein' in the position to, um, always debate about the height. I don't think that's good for staff and developers, um, to have these conversations about that. I don't think that's good. And again, we have the, you know, the public and the, you know, the neighbors that's comin' and sayin' some say they This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 6 don't want it, some say they do want it, and so I .... I believe that now's a great opportunity for us to step back and to really figure out ... that what would be the max height in .... in certain areas, or uh, for each property. As far as, urn ... I heard Susan talk about, you know, um, maybe some.... some conditions and stuff like that. Uh, with whatever we create. I believe that the Council as well as, um .... I .... I believe that we should have the ability (noises on mic, difficult to hear) so I'm not sure how policy can be written with more concrete expectations. Also with allowing Council to come and say, hey, um, we want some, uh.... the ability to have conditions as well, um, whether we... it's somethin' that the City wants or Council wants or the neighbors present us somethin' we didn't think about when we were creatin' this....more of a concrete type of a, um, a situation. Um, and then there's also loopholes, um, within whatever may be created. So if we had, you know, the ability to do conditions as we do now, then whatever loophole we didn't think about, we'll be able to, you know, present it within some type of addition. As far as my values, uh, that I wanna express, I think that, uh, climate crisis is very important when we're lookin' at this. Um, if we're gonna be able to achieve what we are doin' here as a Council, we're gonna have to, um, be a little more progressive in what we require from, um, new development, um, from developers. As well as, um .... when we're talkin' about the .... you know, the percentage of houses, you know, for a height bonus. Um, again I've said time and time again how I'm, yes I believe that it is great, that our previous Council has made provisions for affordable housing to be a part of the Riverfront Crossin' area, and also the ... the fee in lieu of. I .....I kinda get that concept, um.....I struggle with that concept a little bit because.....you know, in fee in lieu of can definitely pay to keep someone out of ...you know, this .... this property, and so I do struggle with that, because what, you know, what are we tryin' to achieve. If we're really tryin' to achieve, um, that.... there'll be mixed-use units of affordability and market -rate of. ... of properties, then I think we have to be really careful of how we move forward with, you know, saying that someone can do a fee in lieu of housing. Um, I think there's a .... there could be a underlyin' message for, uh, some people. Um, just buy them out. They don't have to be here. Um, so I .... I.....would just tread very carefully of tryin' to reinstitute somethin' like that. The other thing, you know, we have a 10 -year where people have to, or whatever they agree to, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years. Well at some point, um, 40 years down the line, all of this will be filled. There won't be any more height bonuses and everybody would have met their, um .... they would of met their affordability period. And so that affordability period would be gone, and what do we expect is gonna happen to those affordable housings, or properties? They will not be there, and that doesn't mean to say that any landlord or .... is, um, bein' mean, they don't have a heart. It is (laughs) just numbers. You know? Um, they're gonna take it to market var...value, because that's what they can do. Many of them will, is my prediction. Now there could be some that keep it, um, whether they keep it it doesn't make them an angle, whether they don't, it doesn't mean they're the devil. Um, I think it's just somethin' that as a Council we have to look at ... most of the developers and the landlords will not keep the affordable units after the affordability period. So I ... I do think that we need to look at that very carefully and figure out how can we have, um, perpetuity, did I say that right? (laughs) (several responding) Throgmorton/ It's an interesting word! (laughs) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 7 Teague/ I just have to spit it out! (laughs) Um, hous.... you know, affordable housing forever. Again I think that, um, there are ways that we can partner with other agencies and I'm gonna mess up the name, Johnson County Housing Coalition (both talking) Trust Fund. think there's ways that we can, you know, reach out to them to help us meet some of those, uh, goals. But nevertheless, I wanted to just give staff and, um, some of what you've asked us to do is just give us your thoughts and opinions. Cole/ So I'm gonna do a Kingsley and agree and disagree with some points that have (both talking) Teague/ Go right ahead! Cole/ ....love that. Thank you, Kingsley, for that! (laughs) Um, so I'm gonna agree and disagree with one thing you said. You said that there are people in the public that support and some that are against some of what ... what has been happening in Riverfront Crossing and generally related to height. At least as far as I've been able to observe in terms of who comes up to the podium, and in terms of as it's expressed in public opinion pieces in these sorts of things, I have not seen a lot of public robust opposition to what is currently being done in the Riverfront Crossing District. So that's where I'm disagreeing with you a little bit. I think you were trying to be fair in saying some people agree, some people disagree, but at least as far as I can tell, I have not observed that. Now certainly I think there has been some private grumbling about what we're seeing there, but it has not manifested itself in significant oppositions saying that it should be changed. Now if you're watching out there and you don't like what's happening there, I encourage people to speak out, and I say that because I think our role as I see it is to administer this plan consistently with what its initial objectives were, um, and of course to put our views in, but I view .... I view us as almost guardians of that plan, unless and until we observe significant structural problems with what's going on, I mean are projects being built, or two, unless there's significant public outcry to cause us to push the pause button and say, do we need to reconsider this. Um, as far as I can tell so far, we have $200 million of investment already done, and on the horizon we have upwards of $200 to $250 million in the pipeline. So in terms of the economics of what has been originally designed, I'm very pleased in terms of this plan coming to fruition. So I think we should be very cautious about making any changes, unless and until we think that there are significant public defects with this plan. Um, with Mayor I'm totally in agreement that the hotel issue does need to be reevaluated. I would agree that the staff, and I think reaching out to Josh Schamberger and various members of the public, we do seem to in terms of our hotel capacity be reaching a .... certainly a .... a significant number of hotels, and I think what has made Mr. Schamberger's comments particularly persuasive is that it's been data - driven. I mean he's been looking at the numbers, I know staff is looking at the numbers, to the extent that there are developers that do want to add additional hotel space, I think that should be more market driven, but I think any change that we make should be vetted through staff, and then of course to signal to the public, if there are members of the public think we don't have enough, think we should take that into consideration, and related to what the Mayor said, I also think we do need to evaluate whether there are additional This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 8 green incentives that we can place, um, in terms of what we're doing there. Um, the final thought, I think to what Susan said, I'm gonna agree on something and I'm not gonna disagree with anything she's said so far, um, the clarity and usability — certainly I think we wanna make this as user-friendly as we can, and so I think for staff to go and review the technical recommendations to make it simpler, both for the public as well as the developers to understand, I mean that's... that's sort of a 'duh.' In terms of final recommendation, um, one of the Opticos, as far as I can tell, is to confer more administrative authority to our staff. I think that that is something that possibly we should look at, but before we do that, I think it's important that we signal to the public, uh, that we do wanna confer more authority to staff and that the public weigh in, because of course one of the things about doing that is we lose to some degree the public oversight, um, in terms of the zoning process. Um, to Susan's point, relating to, uh, possibly looking at the district as a whole, assuming we can navigate the complexities of, you know, do we need any public right-of-way, um, I would just defer to staff as far as that goes, but I think the .... the final comment is, is that....L....I do think that it's very important that we're only three weeks away from an election, um, I wanna spend some time on it to give some guidance to staff, but I also think it's important to wait for the results of that election and making sure that we're not, you know, putting staff time in something that there may be a zig, um, to our zag, and I just think it's important that we proceed cautiously before we make any significant direction to staff, um, on that particular issue. So that's where I'm comin' down. Throgmorton/ If I could make one point, Rockne. Cole/ Yes! Throgmorton/ Uh, there's a distinction between the plan and the code. Cole/ Yes! Throgmorton/ The plan was adopted in 2013, the code in 2014, and I would suggest that the, uh, code greatly enhanced the densities called for by the plan. Cole/ Yeah. Throgmorton/ ...almost double. Cole/ Yep. Throgmorton/ All right, so .... it's a distinction that matters, it seems to me. Cole/ The only rejoinder to that would be though is did the same consulting company that did the plan, did they also do our code? Was it the same consulting firm or was it a different one (both talking) Frain/ No. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 9 Throgmorton/ No. Cole/ Okay. Throgmorton/Sorry, Maz! Salih/ Okay! For me in terms of Optico.... Opticos, the report is I thinks is good, good to go, but talking about the density transfer and the height bonus, and I .... I really agree with the Mayor about the hotels and ... there is a lot number, lot number of student housing being there, and we need to talk about that, and also for the climate crisis adoption, it need to be one of them since we declare the City like, uh, climate action crisis here. That's why we need to add this somehow for ...for the height bonus. But to talk about what, uh, I agree with Bruce about affordable housing. I thinks, uh, like why we are making change for this, for the density transfer and height bonus, we need also to look at the affordable housing piece to it, and we need to really review, uh, what we mean by affordable and what we need to see there, because as he said, he just, you know, we need something that affordable for... forever, permanent, and uh, also, you know, I just think even if affordable for me, I ... I just think like furnish apartment that affordable is still not affordable. And maybe we need to look into that. Because for example if we need a family to live there, that means they have to rent by room, two bedroom apartment would be two room. Each room will be around, uh, like more than 700 and the, this is will put like two bedroom apartment furnished become like more than $1,500. Uh, I don't know how can we look into that, but we need an ideas for that. For me it's like really fee in lieu is the way to go, but if we can figure out another like way to make it permanent affordability, in the same time we have to look into like furnishing. There is many, many student housing there, and I don't wanna see this area only just for students. We need also the City resident, uh, to live there too. This is really beautiful part of the City, close by the downtown, and, uh, I wanna see also family able to find, you know, some places there to live. So, just, uh, I hope we can making the affordable housing changing why we are doing this as well. That my recommendation. Taylor/ I agree with the .... the Mayor's concern that, uh, the comp plan received, uh, plenty of time and consideration, but the form based code didn't receive as much attention, and now it is causing us some... some headaches, and so it is important I think at some point that we do revisit that, as .... as soon as we can. And to Rockne's point about the, uh, public robots, um, and not hearing negative things about the heighth of building and what's going in Riverfront Crossings, uh, you and I obviously run in different circles. Uh, I ... I've got some senior years on your and I obviously hang out in the senior community, the Senior Center, senior exercise class, senior potlucks, and everywhere, almost every week somebody comes up to me, uh, someone who's been in the community a long time and says, 'What is going on, uh, with those .... those buildings in the Riverfront Crossings areal So I think you're hearing from different folks than I am, cause I'm hearing the other side of that, um, and then I would like to weigh in on the bonuses, since that does go along with the heighth of things and I have questioned this all along is .... is why we set a maximum heighth and then have provisions for additional This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 10 height that .... that suits the surrounding area. Uh, I think I've previously made it clear that I'm not a fan of...of bonuses that are given for things that I believe should have been standard in the first place for the development, uh, but instead are disguised as, uh, providing public benefit for the quality and character of the neighborhood. Uh, one prime example of that is the height bonus for, uh, leadership and enviromnental design, said to be designed to meet high standards with regard to energy efficiency and environmental stewardship. Of course it's admirable and an important standard to have (clears throat) but with all the talk about the urgency of our need for climate action, I believe this should be what all developers should strive for without even being given a bonus for it. They really should be thinking about this, uh, as they're designing the buildings, and (laughs) as a healthcare provider. Now you'll have to bear with me on this, uh, I like to look at it this way. I also love food, so, uh.... uh, you go to the doctor and you're told that, uh, it's in your best interest, uh, of your health to .... to lose some weight, and in order to do that you need to start eating less food. Uh, but you love pizza, and he tells you that the maximum number of slices, uh, you can have are two slices. So you go home and you order a pizza, you have the two slices, but then you tell yourself that you deserve a bonus because you walked 10,000 steps that day, and then you think you need another bonus because you did 10 sit-ups. So before you know it you've eaten half of the pizza. So you.... you've now shattered your doctor's plans for your good health. Or, uh, parents'll appreciate this since Halloween is coming up, uh, your .... your children have this big bag of treats from Halloween. They spread it all out on the floor, which they always do, and warm dig in and you tell them they can have four pieces or they'll spoil their supper. But they tell you that they made their beds, picked up their rooms, and got an A at school. So before you know it, they've had at least six pieces of candy and of course do not feel like eating supper. So what's the moral, how does this connect to height bonuses? Well, I believe, uh, if you set a standard and stick to it, don't keep adding on to it. That's all I have to say. Thomas/ Well I .... my involvement with this ... this zoning and the ... and the master plan does go back to Planning and Zoning. I served on the commission when this came through, and I was an enthusiastic supporter of the master plan and then when the regulating plan came before us, you know, and as Opticos noted, um, you know, I went through the regulating plan, it seemed fine, and then sort of at the very end of the report, or document, is the ....the bonus height provision, and .... the bonus height provision did basically as....as Jim said, double the allowable density pretty much across all the subdistricts. And I think its always important to try to remember that.... the... the.... the development scenarios that were developed in the ... in the master plan were based on a market analysis of commercial and ... and residential demand anticipated in .... in this area over the next .... let's say 20 years. So it was .... it was a really market driven concept. Had really.... it wasn't well what should the heights of the buildings be. It was really the heights of the buildings should be tied to that market demand. And that's what's basically reflected in the base building heights. So ... to .... to suddenly double it without any .... uh.... you know, rationale for it with respect to what the demand for that extra building height (mumbled) I felt was really quite questionable. Um, so I didn't support it, and I .... I must say in not supporting it I didn't realize how that might play out, I mean there ... you know, there are certain sites which really can take advantage of the bonus heights, uh, in ways that I certainly hadn't This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 11 anticipated. So I .... I appreciate how Jim has framed this because in a sense, you know, what .... what it does is it...it sort of points at the bonus heights as being the concern, and part of it is I think driven by, you know, circumstances that we've seen that have begun to address some of the bonus height.... bonus height provisions, um .... so that's one aspect of it, but I would also say that, you know, most of my thinking on this, up until relatively recently, has been driven more by urban planning, uh, principles. That's really how the plan was developed. It's my training. It's how we ... you know, on Planning and Zoning tend to, um, consider these things. Uh, but what I've done .... really begun to appreciate is ... is .... is the relationship of what I might call equity and climate to these same .... the same considerations. Jim touched on it, uh, with respect to the cost per square foot for building taller buildings. They are more expensive to build! It's not just taller. It's not just providing more capacity. It's more expensive. Uh, and the same goes for the land. When you allow this .... this very, you know, this potential of a south Downtown District piece of property to either be eight stories or 15 stories, um, there's a big difference in the value of that piece of land, as to which way it might go, which also speaks to the, you know, we've talked about wanting to take the uncertainty out of our process. Well that's a big piece of uncertainty right there is what's the value of this piece of property, and so it.....it creates a certain amount of speculation in .... in the market. Um, you know, I just did a quick look at some properties that have sold, uh, since .... you know, since the, uh, zoning was approved. Uh, 13 S. Madison, which, you know, is on the list here (mumbled) 316, sorry, S. Madison, um .... that property in 2014 sold for $1.9 million. It's a 12,000 square foot lot, so the cost per square foot was $158. That's.... that's a high price just to start a project without even starting construction. Uh, another example, uh, at the south end of the district is, um .... 912 S. Dubuque. So that's the Clark project next to Tate Arms. Um, that sold .... and I'm getting this from the Assessor website, in 2014 for $625,000. It's.... 15,600 -square feet, so the cost per square foot for that property was $40 a square foot. So these .... these things make a difference, and um .... you couple the ... the cost of the land, the cost of construction, uh, we are baking into these larger projects a higher cost. Uh, and so .... so that's a concern. And then with respect to climate, you know, as we've noted, the, um .... our standards for that are .... are really.... really need to be, uh, revised and .... and better articulated. It seems to me that would be a great task for our new Climate Action ... uh, Commission to .... to look at. Um, and you know, we've talked about, I think we're all aware of how buildings need to be more energy efficient, but in ... in and of themselves in terns of heating and cooling, but some of the other factors that I'm seeing being folded into that conversation has to do with the, uh, the .... the materials used to build the structures themselves and how much energy they require to fabricate. Um, one way it's talked about is embodied carbon, what is the embodied carbon in those materials, uh, so .... so that's an issue. Um, taller buildings typically require materials of higher carbon content. And then lastly, um, what I'm seeing in .... in documents like Vancouver's and elsewhere is that .... the question of solar access is coming up. So where you have.... buildings, how is that building affecting the solar rights of adjacent properties. I think I brought this up before. Um .... you know, I think that is a really important issue. You know, how .... how one piece of property affects the ....the solar access and rights of the nearby properties. And of course the taller you go, the more potential impact those buildings have on the adjacent properties. Um .... so .... so for all those reasons, to me it seems very reasonable to .... to really put a pause on .... on This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 12 the, um, the bonus heights, and on the affordable housing issue, I think, you know, you can see where I ..... I see that going, and .... and I would also say that I feel we put too much emphasis on ... on the set-aside, the inclusionary zoning piece, and not enough on what will the rents be in the building itself, you know, that .... I like the term 'attainable housing,' you know, that we have workforce housing that I feel hasn't really been, uh, addressed very well in the projects that we've seen thus far. So the idea of. ... forget about the 10 or 15% that's inclusionary and that we may lose in 10 years anyway. What are the rents going to be for the building as a whole? Uh, so .... so that's.... that's my take, and I .... I, you know, I liked all the details, um.....many of the .... the details, you know, we have noticed and have come up on other projects, and I think we've agreed that, um, there needs to be some changes. I think an important piece of this is that review process, you know, if we're gonna create thresholds where, um, certain projects if they've, you know (mumbled) the way I would see this is if we ... if projects are submitted and they fall under the by right .... um, size, you know, it's a more administrative process, but if they start looking for bonus heights, if we still allow them in certain ways, that requires a more rigorous analysis. And .... and that's the other piece, I don't feel we've had, um, as a Council enough .... I haven't felt I've had enus ... enough information to adequately assess the impacts of these projects.....these bigger projects. Throgmorton/ Well, folks, I think this has been a very fruitful discussion. I'm wonder if....Geoff, I wonder if you or maybe Danielle or Anne or any .... any other key staff per ....person has any questions you wanna redirect to us that might help you in moving ahead. Fruin/ Um, let me just summarize a little bit of what I've heard and then, urn .... try to offer a couple of clarifications or reminders. Um, it seems like there's consensus for .... for staff to work with the Opticos report and we'll prioritize that, with everything else, and that'll probably be somethin', um, that the new Council, after January, will take up, uh, most likely even later into .... into 2020, with some of the other things we have going on right now. Uh, the attention seems to be focused on the height bonus, no surprise. Um, one thing I'd like to, uh, point out on the height bonuses, um, and it's on .... I copied the code section, uh, if you're looking at the memo that I ... that I have. So at the bottom of the first page of that memo, um, it gives you the, uh, allowed height of bonus. So I've heard a couple of times, we've .... we've doubled the effective density. I don't think that's... that's necessarily, um, the case. There are a couple of subdistricts that go from eight stories to 15, with the height bonus, uh, but there are districts that only go to 12 stories, eight stories, five stories, and then we have two smaller subdistricts, um, that don't allow height bonuses at all. So I think when you get in ... we're not ... we're not here to have the detailed policy discussions, but when you get into those, or maybe as you prep for those, I'd really zero in, and I can help you with some maps and, um, on where those height bonuses are, uh, because they're not equally available throughout the district, and I think you have to understand those .... those nuances a little bit. And that's part of the policy of it — are they too high in some areas, maybe too low in the others, and then, um, I think it's good to look at the menu, um, of options that .... that you .... that we have in the code now and say we prioritize this, we don't prioritize this. Urn .... but you also have to know that, uh, it doesn't matter what you put in there, if they're not really incentives anyway. Um, you k now, we've only had the .... the projects that you see up there, and really I would say the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 13 hotel piece has probably been the only, you know, the only one that .... that is .... that folks have really used. We've got one story for historic preservation, one for, uh, public art, and the other project wasn't built, so we never really .... know what would of came of that building. Uh, so we can put .... and I certainly expected you to talk about the climate crisis. You'll see that in our 100 -day report too that we need to do that, but if we put really strict bonus, uh, incentives in there, people just may choose not to use them anyway. So you have to ... you kind of have to scale things to .... to where the market's gonna respond, you know, class A office space — that's something that we really wanted to push with this code. We put a bonus in there for class A office. Clearly the market's not ready, even with that bonus the market has not been ready to ... to produce that class A office. So you kinda have to .... to.....to think and this is gonna require some, uh, external outreach from staff to ... to the .... to the community. What are those incentives that would really be meaningful, urn .... uh, you know, same goes for affordable, uh, the affordable housing provision. We can make it strict, we can make it go in perpetuity, or 25% or 30% or certain rents, but as long as you still have this as an elective bonus option, um, people may not choose to do that. So ... uh.... as I've heard you talk, um, my takeaways on the height bonus is .... is, uh, certainly, uh, look for ways to adjust it to emphasize the climate crisis and affordable housing, um, hotels and perhaps, um, the bonus is allowable for student housing, given the, uh.... uh, amount of student housing that we've seen built, and given the University's potential plans, maybe de-emphasized or removed altogether, that's.... in terms of consistency among your comments, that's what I've heard. There's other provisions that, again, we may suggest tweaking or removing, you know, class A office again is ... is one that I think needs some, uh, discussion. Uh.... but if. ... if I'm .... if I'm capturing that correctly, staff can go back and we can .... we can, uh, begin to work on this piece of it, and with a .... with a focus of trying to ensure that bonuses, urn .... uh, responding to the climate crisis and affordable housing above all other things, and at some point return to the Council with .... with, uh, some suggestions. I think ultimately we'll need to have more work sessions like this to determine the level of height bonus that you're .... that you're willing to .... (both talking) Throgmorton/ Geoff, I think you've gotten the sense of the Council on that. Uh, I would suggest a couple other tweaks to it, and, uh, I'd like to know if the other Council Members agree. One is I would recommend a vigorous public engagement process with regard to the height bonuses so that the public knows what heights are ultimately permitted by whatever comes out of this revisiting of the height bonuses. And the other thing is to keep in mind the .... the core objective of the Riverfront Crossings District master plan, namely to create a walkable, mixed-use neighborhood, cause.... cause.... some buildings undermine that kind of neighborhood, others enhance it, and .... I just think that objective oughts be in mind. Any other comments or, uh, advice to Geoff? Cole/ Yeah, I would agree with the public piece of it. I think that's really important. The only other comment I would have, I .... that has to be a knowable, um, question that we can get answered, which is this question of energy efficiency and density. There may be varying, um, scientific opinions in terms of that, but to the extent that that's not too, um, energy intensive for staff. I'd at least like to get that data, cause I may be 100% wrong and that This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 14 we should not be having this height, vis-a-vis carbon reduction emissions, but I would like that sort of information, uh, for purposes of the discussion. (both talking) Throgmorton/ Just for clarification, Rockne, when you're sayin' density in the aggregate (both talking) Cole/ Yeah (both talking) Throgmorton/ ...or density as in .... height and composition of (both talking) Cole/ ...I would say in particular related to taller buildings, the impact on the carbon emission. Yeah, so I would say related to carbon emission, because I think that that would be helpful, because your argument is is that the higher buildings take more energy to build, and presumably to operate, because they are bigger, but then to what degree is that offset by increased density in that particular parcel. So that's my only .... and I may be wrong on that, I mean that .... but it strikes me that that should be something we should be able to get more information on. Um, I would say in terms of the mixed-use piece of it though, Mayor. Um, one thing I am noticing is that it doesn't seem like we've had a lot of,um, commercial, uh, development in terms of first and second floors, and to some degree that's probably in response to all the empty commercial we see, and we did the change, one of our first acts in 2015 was to change commercial over here, over in the parking lot for Augusta Place, but it does strike me that that is a concern that there doesn't seem to be almost any first floor commercial. So we may wanna tweak that a little bit, or um, at least evaluate what's happening there, because it does seem to be almost purely residential and that's somethin' we might wanna (both talking) Throgmorton/ On that point, Rockne... Cole/ Yeah. Throgmorton/ ...uh... uh, it seems like a completely valid point to me. Cole/ Yeah. Throgmorton/ But I .... I wonder what's going on in Coralville. When I drive on, what is that street, uh, Fifth Avenue, is that the one (mumbled) yeah, that has all those relatively new, well new, large apartment buildings. Most of their first floors, uh.....uh.....offices or whatever are filled! Mims/ Rents are a lot lower than in Iowa City. Throgmorton/ So I'm simply wondering why that was. (both talking) Mims/ I've got friends who looked all over Iowa City to open a retail spot and when they looked at what they could find and what the rents were, they wanted to be in Iowa City and they ended up on Fifth Street in Coralville because they could get the kind of space they This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 15 wanted for a significantly lower rent. (several talking in background) The comment I would, uh.... follow up with you, Rockne, with your comments on the, getting information, if that's possible and .... and maybe Martha Norbeck would be a good source. I don't know on ... on some of this in terms of the height of the buildings and .... and your comments, Jim, about the energy it takes to build them. The question though that I would or information I think related to that that's really important is when you do start looking at these taller buildings, and when I say taller I mean you're going tall enough that you're doing a lot of glass and steel, you know, that type of construction. So you're really looking at a .... a type of construction that's an 80, 100 -plus year building, and so when you look at that and... and the density that you get, you know, and how many units do you get and how much energy and how much energy it takes to build it, but also the fact that you're not rebuilding it every 50 years, and .... and I think that also .... so I think that would be interesting information, because.....I don't know, common sense tells me that if you're .... if you're goin' that much taller, and you've got that, potentially that much more longevity in a building, that .... that potential additional energy cost of building it, which I don't know how much that is, may be off -set. Secondly when you have land that is expensive because of its proximity to downtown, it would seem to me it makes more sense to build more dense on that property because really then your .... your cost per square foot may be higher with the land, but how much is it related to the actual number of units. So if you're building, you know, 100 units versus 25 or 30 units, you know, is that cost per square foot of the land really higher per unit or is it ... does it end up being lower. I mean obviously the land .... yes, if somebody knows they can build a 15 -story building, they're willing to pay more for that plot of land than if they can only build a five -story building, but is the cost per square foot as related to the units more expensive. Thomas/ My point there was just that .... if I .... if I own this piece of land down there .... when do I sell it? It was at that point in time I was focusing on that, yeah, if I see, well, if I just wait I might, maybe my property will be part of a 15 -story building project and that's a whole lot money .... more money for me so I'll just wait for that project. So that's more the issue, you know, look at, um, the Hieronymus property. How lo ... how long that was vacant. It wasn't vacant because we were in .... you know, a city that had a hollowed out downtown. It was waiting for the project, right? Mims/ Yeah and they hit some economic issues too. Throgmorton/ Yeah, all sorts of complications. Thomas/ Yeah, um .... a .... a couple of other things I, since we're on the topic of the Riverfront Crossings, you know, and the focus was on ... on the Opticos' review, but, you know, Jim, you mentioned parks and, you know, that aspect of the .... the.....the, you know, the sense of network of green streets and parks and so forth. I think we've fallen short on that aspect of it. Um, you know, I hope we can .... revisit that, you know, that that's something that we pay more attention to. I'm really pleased that we're now looking at the transportation piece because I think that's going to have a significant impact on land value too. All of a sudden you can live at the south end of the .... of the Riverfront Crossings District and get to downtown in five minutes on a bus? That suddenly makes This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 16 that part of the district far more, um, appealing, I think. Uh, so ... so there's the open space, um, and then another question I had was could TIF be used? You know we've typically used it to finance, to help finance projects, but it's also used to finance the public realm. You know the .... the enhancements that serve a public benefit, and I don't know if we've ... if there's ever been conversation as to how we might.... direct that increment to moving and advancing our public realm improvements, uh, in addition to .... private projects. Throgmorton/ I'd like to pick up on Rockne's point, only to ask, to suggest that we direct this question about .... the energy efficiency of higher density and taller buildings, direct it to our new commission, and ask (both talking) Cole/ ...yep! I agree with that. Throgmorton/ So maybe if staff can make sure that happens. Okay, any other comment? Okay, if not we'll move ahead to .... to our clarification of agenda items. Fruin/ Can I just .... before we .... before we move on I just wanna make sure expectations on turn- around are .... are well known. This is not something that we plan to come back to....to you on in .... in 2019. We'll take this feedback, but this would be a 2020 exercise. Is everybody comfortable with that? (several responding) Clarification of Agenda Items: Throgmorton/ (both talking) Go ahead! 8.e. Amending Budgeted Position - Transportation Services Resolution amending the budgeted positions in the Transportation Services Department by deleting one .75 FTE Operations Specialist — Transportation Services position and adding one full- time Operations Supervisor—Transportation Services position and amending the Administrative, Confidential, and Executive pay plan by deleting the position Operations Specialist- Transportation Services, grade 24. Salih/ I just, uh, I wanna ask Geoff about the 8.c., amending budget position for Transportation Service. Uh... is that .... this is just one person or more than one person, because I see the price that ... that, like how much it cost (both talking) Fruin/ It's one person. Darian can explain, uh, what the goal is here. Nagle-Gamm/ Hi there, Darian Nagle-Gamm, Transportation Services. So this, um, is relating to an Operations Specialist position, which is our evening coverage, um, which, uh, was recently vacated, which prompted a review of the position. Um, it's just one position. Um, we had, um, one Operations Specialist during the evening hours and the rest of our administrative staff is an Operations Supervisor, and, uh, due to that vacation of the position we've really taken a look at, um, the position as a whole and have determined that we think that the City and the department would benefit from having an Operations This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 17 Supervisor in the evening position. The specialist more or less functioned as an answer point and helped us put out those fires, um, that we need to in the evening but really wasn't able to, um, by right of the position, wasn't able to, um, do a lot of the administrative things that we needed from the position. Um, dealing with the administrative tasks, facilitating projects, and really directing the staff as a supervisor would. Sothis, um .... not only would allow them to ... to handle those tasks, um, related to the position. It would also (mumbled) excuse me, enable them to function on a full-time basis with us, which'll allow for better collaboration between the daytime staff and the nighttime staff because we are basically about 24/7, um, say for a few hours in the evening and .... and there was a, there was sort of a gap and a discontinuity between our daytime and our evening staff. So that's another reason, um, we were looking at making this a full-time potential position, under an Operations Supervisor role. Salih/ Great! And my other question is, this is will conclude our third position that we need to convert or.... Fruin/ No. This is already a permanent position. We're just adding hours to a permanent position. Salih/ Okay and uh, are we still having another position that we're gonna (both talking) Fruin/ No, no ... we've converted the three hourly positions already, uh, we had, uh, Animal Services, Engineering, and Senior Center. Salih/ Okay but one of them was one position, there is two position and you gonna still hire another (mumbled) I just, maybe I'm wrong. Fruin/ The Engineering position was filled with two half .... half --time, hourlies... Salih/ Oh, okay. Fruin/ ....and, uh, we're moving to one full-time, permanent. Salih/ Sure, and when we discuss this in the beginning we said, yeah we are moving those three positions, we agreed to make those three position permanent and you told them and to me I still wanna highlight that we chosen the position that have least like few people, one or two people, and that's really, you know ... just don't make me happy, because we try to give people as much people as we can health insurance. That's what it mean, you know... reason for doing this and out of 37 position, 37 people, we converting only like four or five, uh, people to be permanent positions so they can have some health insurance. My question is, why ...(mumbled) also remind me if I'm wrong, why we said we need three position (mumbled) uh, with the budget for next year would like you to come up .... we ..... we need to revisit this again, the rest of them. Fruin/ Correct. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 18 Salih/ We still gonna do that? Fruin/ Yes. So part of our budget presentation, we'll list out the cost of converting the remaining positions and you all can decide if you wanna do that. Um, my.....I won't go into all the details, but my decision on those three positions, uh, were largely due to current staffing in those positions. So the Engineering position, again, we had two hourly positions that filled the full day. One of those was already vacant. Uh, and then with the Senior Center, we had that po.... that hourly position was also vacant, uh, so it's .... it allowed us to move quicker on that, on that particular one and then Animal Services, um, that was probably where we had the most urgent need, um, to get a permanent staff there, just from.. just for operational support purposes, that's where, uh, I saw the most value, and we coupled that with a reclassification. So there was kind of a larger shift of positions and responsibilities in Animal Services and we felt that that was better done sooner rather than later. But....but yeah, the Council clearly directed to have this, uh, the rest of the positions discussed during the budget and we'll be prepared to do that. Salih/ Sure, yeah, I'm glad is happening and I'm glad it's coming back later. Yeah, thank you! Throgmorton/ I'd like to mention Item 10.d., which is in the late handout. I don't know if you had a chance to look at it, but it's an email from Jamie McCoy on behalf of Citizens Climate Lobby, I think, requesting that we adopt a resolution endorsing the Bipartisan Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividends Act, which is a piece of legislation in Congress, active in Congress right now. Uh, and he provided a lot of background information about that, you know, details about, uh, the content of the legislation, or the bill that, uh, the EICD bill. I think I've said before, I don't see how we can achieve our 2050 goal without sound legislation at the national level and .... and this thing has, I think it has legs. I've been trackin' it for two years now and there are something like 70, uh, supporters who have signed on as co-sponsors in the House. It's a bipartisan bill. There's been a .... a, it's.... it's sort of a marriage of earlier bills, one of which was put together by former Secretary of Treasurer.... Secretary of the Treasury, George Schultz and other conservative economists. So .... my sense is that this really has legs, and what, uh, Citizens Climate lobby is trying to do is .... is mobilize support for it, and I know that Jamie has asked the County Board of Supervisors to adopt a similar resolution. Uh, so, uh, I simply wonder if you agree that we should adopt a resolution that is based very close to the model resolution that he provides, but we could probably just tweak it a little bit, uh, to make it, uh, directly related to, uh, to what we've already done. Cole/ Sounds good to me! Mims/ Well I guess I would suggest that given that this came in the late handouts and I certainly haven't had a chance to look at it or look at the link, I'd like us to maybe talk about this at our next meeting, just to ... give us a chance really to look at it in more detail before making a decision. I'm inclined to agree, uh, with doing it, and I know Jamie's called me and I haven't had a chance to talk to him about it, but I would just like a little more chance to read, time to review it before actually making a decision. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 19 Teague/ I think there's a lot to it, um, and I think that's a fair request. I ... I did have a little chance to go through it, um .... and .... and the things you're talkin' about as far as it havin' legs, I was a little worried about the socioeconomic, uh, aspect (laughs) that it, you know, that it could have on, um .... uh.....the financials of a certain.... certain individuals, but um, after learning more and readin' some literature, which Jamie has provided, um, I'm .... I'm comfortable with, um, with movin' forward with this, but I would agree, more time to just digest it a little more would be great. 12.b. Rezoning at 305 and 315 E. Prentiss Street and 625 S. Gilbert Street Ordinance conditionally rezoning approximately 1.6 acres of land located at 305 and 315 East Prentiss Street and 625 South Gilbert Street, from Intensive Commercial (CI -1) and Community Commercial (CC -2) to Riverfront Crossings — Central Crossings (RFC - CX). (REZ19-07). Throgmorton/ I ... if y'all agree then, uh, I'll just ask staff to put this on our agenda, work session agenda for next, uh, for the November .... (mumbled) (several talking) yeah, so we can all have the same information (several talking in background) Okay, good deal! Anything else on the agenda? I think I wanna mention Item 12.b., which is setting a public ... no, I'm sorry, it's the rezoning for Prentiss Street, and all I wanna refer to is .... urn .... well, two things actually but what I .... first thing I wanna refer to is, uh.... uh, an email that Martha Norbeck sent us, concerning re -imagining transportation in Iowa City. And ... I ....I doubt that we could actu.... we can act on it, because it's .... it would be changing the rules in mid -stream for that particular project. But it ... there's .... there's substantive interest there, uh.... are you, do y'all recognize what I'm referring to here? This thing from Martha? It really had to do with the bicycles and whatever (several talking) Thomas/ Well the parking requirement is ... I don't know what it is, uh, that was a question that I had for the project was what is the parking requirement that's generating.... the, uh, supply we're providing there. Is it X number... stalls per unit? Do we.... Mims/ Ratio per bed, I think, isn't it? Sitzman/ (mumbled) Sitzman, NDS. So the parking requirements for vehicles is based on bedroom counts (mumbled) of parking stalls per bedroom. Thomas/ Is it different in Central Crossings than in the South Downtown District? Sitzman/ Um, no I believe they're fairly similar.... similar throughout the Riverfront Crossings. So less than elsewhere in town, except for in the immediate Downtown. Throgmorton/ Well again I doubt that we can ... alter the rules mid -stream for this particular project, but if we're looking ahead and ask ourselves how much parking must we require from new buildings, uh, at least in the Riverfront Crossings District. There's some pretty interesting suggestions in what Martha's provided us. Cole/ I think that's going to be a huge issue. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 20 Throgmorton/ Okay. I ... another related question, we .... am I correct that we have not received a signed CZA for that.... Dilkes/ Uh, we are expecting it. I don't know that they've received it yet. We were told today that we would be receiving it either before 5:00, I don't think that happened, or maybe they're gonna bring it to the meeting. Throgmorton/ I see Anne was here and she's not here now, so maybe (laughs) maybe she went to get it or something, I don't know. Sitzman/ We had not received it electronically before 5:00 P.M., so if they're going to turn it in, we'd expect to see it in person. Throgmorton/ Okay. Dilkes/ There were some last minute discussions. Um, if it does happen we will give you the red line version of the (mumbled) Throgmorton/ Okay. Uh, shall we move ahead to the information packet. So the first one there's hardly anything in it. Any comments on the October 3rd packet? How bout the October 10th? Teague/ I think I have one question about the January 2nd organizational meeting. It starts at 8:00 A.M. What is the time commitment there? Mims/ Depends on how long it takes us to elect a mayor and mayor pro tem and to agree upon, uh, assignments to committees. Teague/ Okay. I just wanted to.... Mims/ It's been anywhere from five minutes to maybe an hour and a half. Teague/ Okay. All right. Thank you! Cole/ It's not January 1 st, Bruce (laughs) Mims/ Make sure it's on your calendar (several talking and laughing) Throgmorton/ All right, IP #8 has to do with KXIC radio interviews. I would like to volunteer for two of those interviews, unless people say, no, Jim, one's enough. So, uh... the first would be for November the 6th .... and the second would be for the, the last one, December the 18th. Mims/ I'll take November 13th. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 21 Thomas/ I'd like the 20th. Taylor/ I'll take December 4th. Fruehling/ ...November 27th and December l Ith.... are left. Cole/ I could do December I Ith. Teague/ What's left? Fruehling/ November 27th. Taylor/ Who had the 13th? Mims/I did. Taylor/ Oh, Susan! Okay, oh I thought you were the 20th. Teague/ Um, so November 27th. Maz, do you... Fruehling/ (both talking) ...around the holiday (several talking) Teague/ Okay, I can do the 27th. Taylor/ There we go! Okay! Throgmorton/ I'd like to ask about IP 912, which has to do with the Census. I wonder ifAshley could summarize for us the advice the Census Bureau is giving us about this internet- based thing. Monroe/ Okay. Uh, this year is, or I should say 2020 will be the first U.S. Census conducted, uh, using on-line platform to allow people to submit their Census information. So, uh, residents will be able to submit through their personal computers, mobile devices, tablets, um, and so when people submit, uh, their information is encrypted and the U.S. Census Bureau has its own, uh, department of technicians that is specializing in keeping our data secure. Uh, they've got a lot of different firewalls and .... and in addition there's a legal obligation by the Census Bureau to keep everything secure. So, Census takers, so the people out in the neighborhoods, um, going and visiting addresses that have not yet responded to the Census, they'll be using cell phone devices to submit any given Census information. So, um, they'll use their .... the mobile devices provided by the Census Bureau to record information and so when it's submitted, that information becomes encrypted. Uh, after it's submitted by the Census taker, the information is deleted from that device. So there's.... there's not necessarily a risk of information being stored on the Census taker's device. Um, if there was to be a .... a concern over a lost device before that information's submitted to the Census Bureau, they have the ability to, um, pull any information off of that device so it's not gonna be in the hands of any other person. Um, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 22 the Census Bureau also wants to remind us not to .... respond to emails that are claiming to be from the Census Bureau. Um, they will not .... if they do have Census emails that are going out, they, the Census Bureau is communicating through email; however, they will not be asking you for your social security number, your bank accounts, your credit card information, or for money or donations. Um, don't open attachments from people who claim to be the Census Bureau. Uh, lastly the URL, the Census Bureau is going to be providing information to our residents. About mid-March they'll start sending information to each address with information about how to respond to the Census. Their URL will be secure. You'll look for that https, uh, to make sure it's a secure site when you're going to the address they give you, and uh, people can respond in that way. So the City'll be communicating, uh, more and more about the Census as we get closer to the Census date. So probably you'll see a lot of information come the beginning of the year and ... and onward. So if people have questions about the validity of requests being made, uh, about any kind of Census information, they can always contact us, they can visit our icgov.org/census, uh, web site. So our information matches all the other communities in our area, um, we're taking great care to make sure that we're coordinating as a region for, uh, viable and accurate Census information. Is that ... is that good summary? Throgmorton/ It is. Thank you so much. Monroe/ Very good! Throgmorton/ On a related point, I would like to observe that it's my understanding that a substantial number of scam phone calls are coming from somebody claiming to be Social Security. I know I have one. Yeah. So it's really important (laughs) not to respond, not to phone back, uh, just, uh, I don't know (mumbled) (laughs) Teague/ I do wonder if the .... School District could kinda be alerted of. ... of this and they can share it with their students and it can be a point of conversation they could have with their parents. Monroe/ The School District, uh, and our Complete Count Census Committee are working together, so we'll make sure that efforts are coordinated. Uh, the Census Bureau has just recently been taking, um, great.... making great effort to incorporate some educational component with the Census Bureau and our school districts, so, uh, hopefully more and more schools take them up on that offer and provide additional information. Teague/ Thank you! Throgmorton/ Okay, any other items on that.... information packet? Taylor/ IP 13, I'd like to thank Austin and Charlotte, you can send our thanks and you were probably part of this too, the, uh.... uh, rental study guide, uh, cause I know it must have taken a lot of work to compile all of the survey results, and uh, certainly easy to see which units continue to cause the most headaches for renters, and I .... I've said before, it's sad to see that because it can leave a bad impression on .... on these students and ... of Iowa This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 23 City! This is the impression they leave with of Iowa City are these landlords that have treated them poorly. Uh.... uh, couple of items stood out, uh, one that always stands out of course and we recently received correspondence regarding the, uh, withholding of the security deposits. Uh, 25% reported receiving none of their deposit back. That .... that's very alarming. That can be a lot of money for .... for a student, especially one that's graduating, getting out with student debt, and I myself was a victim of this, over 40 years ago. That was a long time ago. So this has been going on for a long time, uh, and it needs to be discouraged somehow, strongly discouraged. We need to let these, uh, landlords know that ... that this is not an option, this is not right. Um..... Mims/ It needs to happen at the State level. State (both talking) State of Kansas (both talking) No, State of Kansas has some of the best laws on the books about renter, landlord, um, I mean I dealt with that with my sons at the University of Kansas, and it was great, and they actually have advocates out there too that you can call and they help inform you of the rules and, I mean with theirs it's really nice. If you don't do a walk-through, if the... if the renter and the landlord, or landlord representative, don't do a walk-through and do a check -off of an inspection within three days of moving in, landlords cannot keep any part of your deposit, no matter what the condition of the apartment. I mean so it requires them to take some time, but it has to be done jointly, and both parties have to sign off on it. And it makes a huge difference. And there's a number of other things but it's done at the State level in Kansas and it's very helpful and it'd be nice if we could get our State legislature to do something (both talking) Taylor/ That might be something then, that's a good point, Susan, that, uh, we can add to our lobbyist list to .... to look for and encourage, strongly encourage, at the State level, uh, cause that is ... it is a big deal. Teague/ I think right now when you're.... when we're talkin' about the ... the mobile homes, and how that spike went up. I think now would be a great opportunity to, you know, share some of the stories that we're havin' here with legislators and tryin' to see, uh, throughout the state, other cities and municipalities wanted to, you know, join board on that. Taylor/ The other item that stood out, uh, in light of all our climate action discussions, it was concerning that, uh, 35.8% reported that recycling was not provided in their dwelling, and I think this percent will need to increase if we as a community, uh, will try to be achieving our .... our climate action goals. Lenkaitis/ Yeah, thank you so much for pointing out those, um, statistics. I was also going to do the same, so thank you for, uh, startin' me off there. In the move -in checklist, there are, um, members of Student Government who are lobbying for that at the State level, so hopefully that's something we can accomplish in the next year. Um, and if I could I'd also like to share, I don't know if any of you had a chance to look through some of the comments that students submitted, but I think... that's, um, you know, actually hearing their own stories is something that's very, um, important and so, uh, invaluable, and so I just wanted to read, um, a few that just stood out to me, if I could real quick. Um, so this student's apartment company did not clean their apartment prior to move -in, as they This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 24 stated that they would in our lease. There was dirt, dust, and grime everywhere, and light fixtures were burnt out. Um .... another student said they're very inconsiderate, overall lack of communication and consideration for the renter. You're just a number with a bank account to them. Um .... when we moved in one of our toilets didn't work. They did not come to fix it for six weeks. There were also safety hazards when we moved in. Our fume hood on our stove was hanging by a piece of duct tape. And, I mean, it goes on and on. There's lots of complaints about snow removal and, you know, icy sidewalks and, um, but yeah, if you hadn't had a chance I'd recommend looking through these comments cause it's .... it's kind of horrifying when you see the conditions that students have to live in, but yeah, thank you for pointing that out, and hopefully we can keep these things in mind moving forward. Salih/ Yeah, I was (mumbled) to talk about the same thing, but I guess you guys cover it all, but I just wanna say, this is not only affecting the student. A lot resident come to the Center for Worker Justice and tell us the same thing, and you know, this is like everywhere and as Susan said, this is not something that we can do here, and if it can be changed at the State level it would be great, but uh, for meanwhile I guess we encourage some people to go on because they have like a lot, there was like two months deposit because their credit wasn't good. That's why they ask them to do two months and that's a lot money. Uh, we encourage them to go and do a small claim in court. They did and they recover their money, and also, uh, you know, the Legal Aid, uh, Iowa City Legal Aid also like great on that too. You know (mumbled) for now at least to use those kind of two things, uh, until we (mumbled) change the law. Throgmorton/ Would the rest of you agree that we would like, uh.... um, to direct staff to treat this as a legislative priority? Salih/ Yes (several responding) Throgmorton/ ...in terms of, uh, seeing what can be done, you know, cause we know chances are not very good that the legislature would adopt it, but.... still I think there's, I would say there's value in stating it's one of our legislative objectives to support our students and other renters in having a, basically fair relationship with their landlords, especially with regard to the condition of the unit before they move in and the condition after they move in, or, you know, after they ...when they're departing. Cole/ In a little ray of hope though too, and I'll get to it when we give an update on our Mobile Home Task Force, State Senator Walz indicated there are some issues that he thinks in terms of that context of the mobile homes that we may be able to get some movement on, so (mumbled) intended to say the procedural protections seem to be more favorable. So .... maybe we're not totally tilting at windmills on this. I think it is good to just sort of lodge it because you never know, maybe two to three, um, sessions down the road it will get through. Salih/ Sure. I wanna go through ... IP7. I just would like to thank the staff for reaching out to Kirkwood and, uh, I thinks this is great, asking about social security but it's not required This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 25 to, even if you don't have it you still can be able to take the English classes. This is really awesome. And also I would like to ask about IP 11, if the City Manager can tell us like, uh, how do you think this is, would affect Iowa City, for the .... the letter from article, where is it? (several talking in background) Yeah, it is from (mumbled) I guess, uh, from the City Manager (both talking) Fruin/ It's, uh, this is, uh, a publication from ICMA, which is our professional association in the city management industry. Um, we just thought that this was, uh, well one it references Iowa City in the opening statement, uh, so they do scans of news articles to see which cities are working on .... on different topics and since we were highlighted in kind of a national publication, we shared it with ya. Uh, but .... but hopefully you see some of those survey results and they ... you know, part of what we .... we do this is to make sure you know you're not alone in your .... in your climate efforts. Um, you know, it can feel at times you might be, if you don't see, um, immediately, you know, cities immediately surrounding you taking the same action, but if you just broaden your perspective a little bit and look at what's going on throughout the country, particularly in university towns, you'll quickly realize that, uh, we have a lot of partners in our climate action efforts. So this article and, um, the one from Moody's is trying to paint that picture, whereas, you know, um, this is a .... a really a, uh, a national issue that's bein' looked at from many different angles, um, throughout the country. Taylor/ IP 14, the ICAD annual report, uh, reading through it I was pleased to see that there's a section on, uh, inclusiveness, and that they are, uh, seeking to attract, uh, underrepresented candidates for employment, uh, as well as to connect minorities to internship programs and I think that's.... that's a really (both talking) Salih/ I agree, it was really interesting article (both talking) Taylor/ ...good to see. Yeah. Throgmorton/ Any other items? Thomas/ Uh, IP9, I did .... I did make it to the tree planting event at Horace Mann this morning. It was a wonderful event. Um, it was .... it was triggered by Earl May's 100th anniversary, and so they paid for the .... the trees and did the installation. They did a wonderful job. Uh, City Channel 4 was there as well, so there will be a .... a piece generated by that. I think the star of the show, aside from the trees, which were really nice specimens, were the kindergartners who came out, uh, and uh, kind of participated, or observed the planting, and um, they were just wonderful. So it was, uh.... all in all a really wonderful way to spend a beautiful fall morning. Council updates on assigned board, commissions, and committees: Throgmorton/ Okay, moving on to the last item, Council updates on assigned boards, commissions, and committees. Uh, we can start with John and move to the left. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 26 Thomas/ Uh, nothing to report. Cole/ Um, we just concluded another with the City of Literature, the City of Literature Book Festival. I think the City can be very proud in terms of what was achieved, with John Kenyon, really, really great things. Um, I don't know if this counts, but the Mobile Home Task Force, we're continuing to meet on that. And I'm very pleased with the progress we're making in a relatively short period of time. Essentially what the committee is doing is is we ... and by the way we've been getting some great input from Johnson County, um, from North Liberty, um, we have task force members from the City of Coralville, is that the task force committee is gonna essentially give a set of recommendations for each municipality to go back and consider, based upon their own individual unique circumstances. So, you know, one of the things the Councilman Botchway had done a lot on when he was here was this concept of the diversity checklist that we're going through things to sort of update that, and so really what we're looking at with our mobile home policy is sort of look at what are maybe some issues that maybe have been overlooked and with the tools that we have, what are some things proactively we can do, both at the non-profit, with the City, um, with the County, and what are more regional approaches that we can take, so sort of stay tuned for that, and we're gonna get a nice, substantive report, um, for this Council and for future Councils to review. So I'm very proud of the process we're going to make, or that we have made, and we look ... we're looking to get final draft report. We pretty much have the draft report almost done. We're gonna get that out in November. So we hope to drop that at least an information packet and it's going to be some good, substantive review, um, in light of what's been happening. One kernel of information we've been looking at with, um, some of the legal clinic, um, some of the land values in terms of what the assessed value is and what the purchase price is. And we're seeing purchase prices double the assessed value. So there's a significant spike in terms of what the assessed value is and we're going to try to process sort of what that's going to mean in terms of future policy, um, but those numbers really do jump off the page and of course we'll attach those, uh, in an appendix, um, for further Council review. But we'll be gettin' that out shortly. Throgmorton/ Great! Salih/ Yeah, um.....we haven't met but the (unable to understand) I don't have anything else. Teague/ We did have our joint government, our joint entities meeting yesterday, um, and that was here at City Hall. Um, I know that there was a good thing we learned about North Liberty, which was very excitin' that they're gonna be usin' Yellow Cab, um....um, to subsidize, uh, for their transportation needs for individuals within their community. So that was very excitin' to hear, because we know that's been a challenge for the North Liberty, with them not havin' any type of public transportation. So that's very excitin' to hear. I know that, um, we've talked about one topic today that I do think in the future we would probably wanna consider puttin' it on the ... the agenda, and that would be the legislative priority for renter law, um, at the State level. So that might be somethin' that we consider. And the other thing that, uh, Maz suggested yesterday, but I also thought that that would have to be a Council decision, if we wanted to maybe put it on the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019. Page 27 agenda, and that would be affordable housing. Um, be a topic just, and I'm not sure how that would exactly look, what would be the topic, but um, if it would be, um, maybe havin', um, Johnson County Trust, um.... Salih/ Housing Trust Fund? Teague/ Housin' Trust Fund come and talk or somethin' like....or havin' (mumbled) or givin' some.... but.... but definitely havin' a topic of discussion on affordable housing. So.... Cole/ ....joint meetings, Bruce? Teague/ For the joint meeting, just informational, um, so .... yeah! I think that, uh, we had a great time yesterday and next meetin' will be January 13th, and that'll be at the North Liberty City Hall. Taylor/ Uh, Rockne did a good job of, uh, talking about the, uh, Affordable Housing Coalition Mobile Home Task Force. Uh, as he said we did, uh, this meeting review a draft of the final report, which listed the goals and consideration of what municipalities can do, which is why as he mentioned, you might be wondering well why is he going to include that in an information packet, but it is something and it'd be an opportunity for, uh, the different municipalities, North Liberty, Coralville, Iowa City, uh, Shueyville, Swisher, they were all represented, uh, to discuss what, uh, can be done to .... to protect the ... this very vulnerable group of, uh, our community members. So it will be important to take a look at that. To be continued! Mims/ Um, the Access Center (laughs) we had a name (several talking and laughing) We don't have a name anymore. Matt may have mentioned that yesterday. I couldn't make it to the joint meeting. Cole/ Don't say that word, we can't say that word, right? (several talking in background) Mims/ I know, the name's gone, so we're looking for a new one. There's a trademark issue. They supposedly had done some research but ..... it came back and bit 'em! (laughs) So .... lookin' for a new name (several talking) And also, uh, related to that, um, working on the 28E agreements and I know, um, I've got a meeting with staff to do some review on the 28E agreement, uh, near the end of the month. So those things are moving forward. Throgmorton/ Very good. Okay, I think we're done with our work session. I have nothin' to say with regard to this. We'll get back together at 7:00. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 15, 2019.