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2. Student Leadership Awards — Regina Elementary
Throgmorton: So I'd like Macey Howes, Paul Weiner, and Tayler Knight to come up. (talking in
background) Okay! All right, here we are! Are you feelin' pretty excited?
(laughs) Very good! So you're goin' to Regina Elementary, is that right? Pretty
good school. You know I went to St. Agnes Elementary in Louisville, Kentucky, a
long time ago. It too is a Catholic elementary school. So .... I kinda know what
it's like to be in such a fine institution. All right, so .... (mumbled) So we're gonna
begin by having you read your speeches, right, and I think we're gonna start with
Macey. All right? So, ready to roll?
Howes: Hello, my name is Macey Howes. I am very thankful that my teachers chose me
for the Outstanding Student Citizen Award. I think they chose me because when
my class is loud, I try to give them a friendly reminder to keep quiet. Another
reason I think they picked me is because I work hard to get my work done and I
make sure it is the best I can do before I tum it in on time. I would like to thank
my family, friends, and my teachers for helping me .... for helping me get to where
I am right now. Thank you and happy holidays. (applause)
Throgmorton: Very good! (applause continues) You warm come up (laughter, talking in
background) and turn around like your sister did (mumbled) Can you say your
name? (unable to hear) All right (laughter) You're gonna go to Regina
Elementary soon too, right? Very good! Okay. I think, Paul, you're next, so hold
on. Let me get over here on this side of you (mumbled)
Weiner: Okay. First of all I want to thank my teachers for nominating me for this award.
Though if I knew it came with this extra homework assignment, I might not have
been as happy (laughter) I was asked to say why I think they chose me for this
award. It might have been the bribes. Just kidding! (laughter) Seriously, I think
it may be because I try to help out a lot in class. For example, when friends need
help with homework or teachers need a volunteer to read aloud in class, answer
questions, and clean up. It's the right thing to do, and it's easy when I have nice
teachers and great friends at Regina. Thank you. (applause)
Throgmorton: All right! (applause continues) Are you thinking of possibly becoming an actor?
(laughter) No? Maybe? (laughter) Okay, well we'll see, huh? All right, and now
we go to Tayler. Tayler Knight, right? Go ahead, Tayler.
Knight: I think my teachers selected me for this award because I'm a good role model. I
help my community by taking care of flowers and also serving at my church. At
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school I participate in the monthly service projects. I am kind and supportive of
classmates. I am a hard working, organized, and responsible student. I play the
flute and participate in choir and art class. I am a confident in the sports I do, like
volleyball, softball, and especially dance. Thank you to my teachers for choosing
me for the Outstanding Student Citizen Award.
Throgmorton: All right! (applause) Very good! What an outstanding set of kids from Regina
Elementary. So, like I said, I'm gonna read your award.... document, and it ... it's
the same text for all of you, except for your names. So I'm gonna read the text
and you'll just insert your own names. (reads Student Leadership Awards)
(applause) All right! (applause continues) Tayler, that would be yours. And this
should be Paul's. It's not. Macey, that's yours. Congratulations, well done, and I
know you have very proud parents. There are two right there. I think there's
some others right there. Where are the other parents? Wave your hands (laughs)
All right! Well done! You have terrific kids here. Keep it up! Thank you. Now
all you have to do is just kind of walk back down that way. Thanks! (applause)
Taylor: Mayor, I would ask that you stay up front there for a moment, and Rockne, could
you please join him?
Throgmorton: Oh, am I gonna get a Student Leadership Award? (several talking and laughing)
Taylor: (mumbled) (several talking in background) So .... we have another special
recognition to make, uh, acknowledging that it is yours, Mayor, and Rockne's, uh,
last meeting. (laughs) I'm gonna have some tears here! (laughs) And that the
staff and Council would like to say thank you for your dedicated service over
these last few years, and I'm going to say just a few words briefly about each of
you. Uh, Rockne, uh, many of you know him as a lawyer in the community here.
Uh, he has resided in Iowa City since 1997, uh, when he came here to attend the
University of Iowa College of Law. He was elected to the at -large seat on the
Council, with a term that began in January of 16, with four of us here, which was
wonderful. And during his tenure on Council, he has relentlessly stood for
historic preservation; a walkable, bikeable city; local foods; and sustainability.
Uh, your rhetorical discussions will be missed! (laughter) And, Jim, what can I
say about Jim? Uh, Senator Bolkcom, uh, said it so well earlier, but I'll add just a
few personal notes here. Uh, he obviously is a retired University professor. He's
lived in many cities across the country, but has called Iowa City his home since
1986. That's a long time. He first served as a member of Iowa City's City
Council, uh, in the years 1993 to 1995. Then was elected and served from 2012
to 2016, and 2016 to 2020, serving as Mayor from 2016 until now. Through those
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years he has stood by his belief that Iowa City should, and in his own words that
we've heard many times, strive to become a just city, a city that is good on the
ground for all, both now and in the future, and your passion will be missed.
And .... now, let's see. (talking in background) (laughter) (unable to hear speaker,
away from mic) ....uh, it's a print of the Park Road bridge, which is very
beautiful and well be giving you each, uh, a print of that, of your own.
Cole: With an excellent bike trail, I might add (laughter)
Taylor: Exactly, you've talked about (several talking and laughing) Yes!
Tbrogmorton: So, uh, before you stop, I want to acknowledge that that is a photo of the Park
Road bridge, and it is .... designed the way it is because Susan and I, and five other
prior Council Members, voted to spend a little extra money to make sure that
there was a bridge that really matched Hancher Auditorium and .... and reinforced
its aesthetic value. So....
Taylor: So very .... very well planned and very appropriate, and for you, Rockne (noise on
mic) (laughter and several talking in background) We also in recognition of your
service we have a plaque. This, of course, is for the Mayor. It's got the gavel on
there, which he uses very proudly. Uh, this is for you, and .... thank you.
Throgmorton: Thanks! Thanks!
Taylor: And ... Rockne!
Cole: Thank you so much, Pauline.
Taylor: For you! As a Council Member.
Cole: Appreciate that (mumbled)
Throgmorton: Yeah, I'll treasure this for sure!
Taylor: And then.... there's more! There's more to come! (laughs) I'd, uh.... uh, like to
point out that Mayor Throgmorton has been added to our wall of mayors in the
back of the Council chambers (laughter) I'd like to call (talking and laughing in
background) (applause) The grand unveiling, yes! Thank you. (several talking)
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Throgmorton: All this reminds me of something I meant to say at the start of the meeting, and it
....just to acknowledge that it's the last .... the City Council's last meeting of 2019,
which will take us into, good grief, 2020. Who would have guessed, uh, but that's
a fact and .... it is, it has been acknowledged, both Rockne's and my last meeting as
Members of the City Council. I know that Rockne will have some sin ... some
things to say at the end of the meeting. I will too, but I just want to briefly
acknowledge .... um.....how honored I feel to have been able to serve the people of
Iowa City as a City Council Member for 10 -plus years and as Mayor for the last
four. It ... it is a great honor and I really appreciate it very much. Okay! So....
before I cry (laughter) we can move on, cause I think we're to .... at the Consent
Calendar, which is Items 3 through 8.
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3-8. Beginning of Consent Calendar (Items 3 — 8) — Consider adoption of the
Consent Calendar as presented or amended.
Throgmorton: I need a motion to approve Items 3 through 8, as amended, with a change in Items
6.e. and 6.£, as needed, naming new park in Peninsula the Emma J. Harvat Square
Park.
Salih: So move.
Taylor: Second.
Throgmorton: Moved by Salih, seconded by Taylor. Discussion?
Taylor: I just think it makes sense to do that (mumbled)
Throgmorton: Yeah, this is called Emma J. Harvat ... room, right? Yeah. Hall. Okay, any further
discussion?
Cole: Well maybe we just wanna elucidate a little bit for the public is that Karen Kubby
had reached out to the Council and indicated that former Mayor Emma Harvat
was very particular about the Emma J., and so we just wanted to make sure that
was reflected.
Teague: And she was actually the first female Mayor of Iowa City.
Cole: Yep!
Throgmorton: More than that. I think there was a bigger first, but I can't remember what it was.
You know, like first in the state or whatever, something like that. But... definitely
first in Iowa City. Okay, any further discussion? Hearing none, roll call please.
Motion carries 7-0. Could I have a motion to accept correspondence for Item 6.d.
please?
Mims: So moved.
Salih: Second.
Throgmorton: Moved by Mims, seconded by Salih. All in favor say aye. Opposed. Motion
carries.
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9. Community Comment (items not on the agenda)
Throgmorton: This is a moment when anybody would, uh, who would like to speak to us about
any topic that is not on the formal meeting agenda should please come out, come
up. State your name and please remember to sign your name in as well, and take
not more than, I don't know, three or four minutes to tell us what's on your mind.
Good evening. Nice to see ya again!
Barker: Thank you! I'm Lucy Barker. Also speaking for Salina McCarty. Houses into
Homes wants to thank the Council for granting our request for funding. The need
in the community has exceeded our expectations and a successful transition to an
organization with a full-time director will enable us to grow to meet the need. We
look forward to continuing to work with other agencies in the city to provide
beds, furniture, and other household items to those in greatest need. We did not
anticipate that the request would pit agencies who are all actively collaborating to
help their clients against each other. As I said, we look forward to continuing to
work with agencies and individuals throughout the city to provide beds and
furniture. We also look forward to providing our budget and financial
information. We would like to end on the following note. We think that the more
you learn about Houses into Homes, the more you will understand the community
need, and the more you will trust Houses into Homes. We intend to post more
information going forward about our operations and our impact. Most
importantly we welcome all members of the community to volunteer. No
invitation is required. We announce drop-off and delivery days on our web site
and all are welcome. As all in the community who work to provide for the
neediest know, the work is gratifying, edifying, and humbling. Thank you again
for granting our request.
Throgmorton: Thank you, Lucy. Good evening, Charlie.
Eastham: Good evening, Mr. Mayor, and .... I'll be sad to not see you in that seat starting in
January, as well as, uh, Councilman Cole. Um, but I'm very happy that you've
been there these many years. Uh, I'm appearing tonight, uh, again my name is
Charlie Eastham, 953 Canton Street. I'm a member of the Iowa City School
Board. Uh, but I .... I am, as I was reminded by the Board vice president when I
met with him early.... earlier this afternoon, to tell everyone that I'm appearing as
a single member of the Board and not as a board as a whole. Uh, I really
appreciated your decision earlier this evening in the work session to continue
funding for Houses into Homes, and I do that because, uh, half of the .... uh,
agency, the .... the referrals from agencies that Houses into Homes has responded
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to in the last year came from the Iowa City Community School District personnel.
Uh, and we must assume, I must assume anyway, that many, many, many of the,
uh, 400 -plus children who's living.... who've lived in houses that Houses into
Homes has furnished are, uh, students in the Iowa City Community School
District. And we all know that, uh, for students to succeed, it helps a great deal if
they have a stable, um, robust, and uh.... uh, happy home life. So I appreciate
your doing what the School District could not do, that is use public money to fund
an agency that's doing work that helps the school dis... the school system itself and
the children that are receiving the benefit of that agency's work. So thank you
very much.
Throgmorton: (several respond) Thank you, Charlie. Anyone else? Okay, not seeing anybody
else, I'm going to turn to Item 10, Planning and Zoning Matters.
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10. Planning and Zoning Matters
10.a. Annexation American Legion Road — A resolution to annex
approximately 35.29 acres of land located north of American Legion Road
and east of Eastbrook Street. (ANN19-01)
1. Public Hearing
Throgmorton: Uh, so I need to open a public hearing. (bangs gavel) Uh, but I see that staff
requests deferral of this resolution to January the 21st. So....
Dilkes: No, we're gonna .... we're gonna open the public hearing. We're gonna have the
public hearing (both talking)
Throgmorton: And then defer (both talking)
Dilkes: .....we're gonna close the public hearing and then were gonna defer it.
Throgmorton: Ah .... oh, I see. (both talking) Now I understand. All right. Danielle!
Sitzman: Thank you, Mayor, Council. Danielle Sitzman, NDS (mumbled) As, uh, Eleanor
pointed out, this evening this is the first of two agenda items that are related to
each other, an annexation and a rezoning. I'll walk you through the annexation
first and then come back to do the rezoning presentation for you. This is for a
parcel of land located east of Scott Boulevard, north of American Legion Road,
currently located in the county, uh, with the county zoning applied to it here
shown in yellow with an R. Um, but otherwise surrounded on three sides by the
city. Um, this application is to bring that parcel into the city through an
annexation. It is located within one of our fringe areas, um, and is intended to be
eventually part of the city. It would be assigned an interim zoning district at the
next, uh, agenda item. Um, then would have to go eventually through another
rezoning before development takes place. At this time they did not conduct a
good neighbor meeting. Uh, they could still make use of that opportunity before
the next rezoning, the one not yet on an agenda for you, and staff has encouraged
them to do that. We've also forwarded the application as necessary to other
entities, uh, for review as needed. So when we review an annexation request
there's several criteria that staff uses, um, three criteria in fact, uh, whether the
area, uh, falls under, um, an .... in an area adopted through a long-range planning
areas is appropriate for annexation, whether development in the area proposed for
annexation fulfills an identified need without imposing undue burdens on the City,
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and whether control of the area is in the City's best interest. So staff did review
this application and go through those, uh, criteria. It is located in a
comprehensively planned area within the City's intended growth area. It has had,
uh, future land use anticipated for it. Um, as I said it's surrounded by the City
development, um, so it's shown here in the kind of light green color on the screen
there. Um ..... development has proceeded around it in the past so this would be
infilling that kind of gap that was created by previous development, so we see that
as, uh, very much, uh, within the best interests of the City and not contributing to
an undue burden because it helps for a contiguous provision of, um, services
within the City, such as fire, police, water, and sanitary sewer. And also the City
has an interest in administering the zoning for that area. As I mentioned, we're at
the step, uh, highlighted in green, uh, or blue on the screen there, the annexation
stage. The next agenda item is the zoning to an interim zoning district. As I said
eventually this would have to be rezoned to a different zoning district to allow for
development, go through the platting process. Um, the Planning Commission,
um, did recommend a ... uh, adoption of this annexation at their, ub, meeting. Staff
did, um, include a condition in the kind of combined action that has to do with
annexation and rezoning, but basically acknowledging the compr.... the
comprehensive plan's affordable housing annexation policy and this application
would be fulfilling that policy....would be required to fulfill that policy. That
concludes my report on the annexation. I'm happy to answer questions about that.
Throgmorton: Okay, any questions for Danielle? Hearing none, thank you. Would anybody else
like to address this topic? Uh, seeing no one else, I .... need to ask the Council if
you are inclined to vote in accordance with the Planning and Zoning
Commission's recommendation to approve? (several responding) Yes, yes, yes,
yes. Okay. So I'm gonna close the public hearing and then defer, right? I'm
gonna close the public hearing. (bangs gavel) Could I have a motion to defer to
January the 21 st, 2020?
Mims: So moved.
Cole: Second.
Throgmorton: Moved by Mims, seconded by Cole. All in favor say aye. Opposed. Motion
carries.
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10.b. Rezoning American Legion Road — Ordinance conditionally rezoning
approximately 35.29 acres of land located north of American Legion Road
and east of Eastbrook Street from County Residential (R) zone to Interim
Development — Single Family Residential (ID -RS) zone. (REZ19-09)
1. Public Hearing
Throgmorton: I'll open the public hearing. (bangs gavel) Hi, Danielle!
Sitzman: (mumbled) again! So this is the second of the two applications. This is an
application by Allen Homes for a rezoning to apply the interim zoning district to
the land just discussed in the annexation. Approximately 35.29 acres. Um, the
applicant is exploring a development proposal currently for this land, so you
should expect to see, uh, another rezoning, uh, in the near .... in the near future.
The review criteria that staff uses for rezonings are, uh, two -fold, having to do
with comprehensive plan, uh, conformance and compatibility with the existing
neighborhood. As I mentioned, this land is, uh, subject to a future, uh, fixture, uh,
land use, uh, and comprehensive plan. Um, the interim zoning district is, uh,
compatible with the comprehensive plan anticipating eventual lower density,
single-family, uh, development in the area. Um .... looking ahead, the component
of the existing neighborhood is the street network, and looking ahead to the fixture
development and the need for roadway improvements eventually to American
Legion Road, which are actually already planned in the capital, City's capital
improvement plan. Staff has included a condition to secure necessary right-of-
way when this property is eventually platted. To facilitate construction of those
roadway improvements, a temporary construction easement is also necessary and
has been included as a condition of approval. The applicant has already signed
that necessary, um, temporary construction easement. Staff does acknowledge
that construction of the City's project may overlap with the development of the
subject property and has crafted the temporary construction easement for the
potential for both the developer and the City to use the easement cooperatively.
However, for clarification I just do wanna mention that the, um, temporary
construction easement will allow the applicant to grade for their project, but not
for the City's roadway project. And that's, uh, fairly standard. Um, this is just the
boundary of that fixture, uh, roadway project for American Legion Road. As I
mentioned, that's included in the City's, uh, roadway planning, uh, process. So
again we're at this first stage in annexation and rezoning to interim development,
considering eventually a future rezoning and then the platting process. Um, there
are two conditions, additional conditions, tied to the need for the right-of-way and
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the temporary construction easement that staff recommended and that have also
been forwarded to you again tonight by the Planning Commission for approval.
Happy to answer questions!
Throgmorton: I'm not hearing questions, but you know when I first looked at the map, I couldn't
read .... I couldn't read it clearly enough to determine whether there were roads,
streets, that would provide connection into the development, but I see that there
are at least two, I think three stubs, if you will. Is that correct or.....
Sitzman: Yeah. So for interim development, that's fairly low density. Anything that would
be allowed for the, under this .... this zoning district would be low density. We
don't actually anticipate any development to occur with the interim zoning
designation (both talking)
Throgmorton: No, I understand that. Yeah.
Sitzman: Yeah, it does have .... enough frontage for one if not several connections to
American Legion (both talking)
Throgmorton: Yeah, cause at first I was thinking (mumbled) build a lollipop kinda of thing going
back up that .... up one more.....up one road without any connections to, what is it,
Eastbrook on the right? On the east. Uh, but that's not the case, so I feel a lot
better (laughs) about that and.....I guess I'd .... I wish we already had a, uh, a
missing middle form based code.....in.... in the works or, uh.... uh, one that had
been adopted for the area around new Hoover Elementary, which this is adjacent
to. But that's probably not going to be the case. We'll see. But .... there it is.
So .... I guess those weren't questions really but, uh.....I had'em on my mind. Any
questions ... any more questions for Danielle?
Cole: And just for the public's benefit, I just wondered if you could just elaborate on the
developer satisfies the comprehensive plan's affordable housing annexation policy
as stated in a resolution. What does that mean?
Sitzman: Sure. So the comprehensive plan includes a policy that .... upon annexation, if
development includes 10 or more residential units, that they must provide 10, uh,
affordable housing at a certain rate, 10% for a .... a period of time. So those
requirements will need to be met, if they proceed with residential development.
Cole: Thank you.
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Thomas: Is this the first application (mumbled)
Sitzman: (several talking in background) For an annexation, yes. This made it to....
through the process. Yeah.
Taylor: Was there some, uh, information given about how many units they propose or are
possibly proposing?
Sitzman: That would be included in the next rezoning when they (both talking)
Taylor: ....actual plan (both talking)
Sitzman: Yeah, an interim.
Taylor: Thank you.
Throgmorton: So I guess I have a question for Eleanor. So we deferred the, um, the annexation
to the 20th of January in order to make it happen at the same date as the third
reading on this?
Dilkes: Correct. So you'll wanna vote on this one.
Throgmorton: Yeah. Okay. Any other questions for Danielle? Thank you. Anyone else want to
address this topic? Hey, John! Hi!
Yapp: Good evening, Mayor and Council. Uh, John Yapp with Allen Homes. Uh,
Mayor, to answer your question about the, uh, street network. Ub, there is one
street that abuts the property to the west, uh, Eastbrook Street. Uh, two streets
that abut the property to the east, and then to the south American Legion Road
frontage. Um ... and we are planning.... there's also a flood plain and a floodway
easement, um, but we are planning on street connectivity to the surrounding
properties. Uh, this is the first property, uh, since the annexation policy was
adopted, uh, that is being annexed and .... and we will fulfill the 10%, uh,
affordable housing requirement. Uh, we are still finalizing a development concept
plan. Um, and once .... once we are comforl .... comfortable with that, we do
intend to have a neighborhood meeting, uh, before the next rezoning. And with
that I'd be happy to take any questions.
Throgmorton: Okay. Any questions for John?
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Yapp: Thank you.
Throgmorton: Thanks! Nice seein' ya again. Anyone else? Okay. So seeing no one else, I need
to ask the Council if you're inclined to support this rezoning. (several responding)
Yeah, okay. So I'm gonna close the public hearing. (bangs gavel) Could I have a
motion for first consideration?
2. Consider an Ordinance (First Consideration)
Salih: Move.
Teague: Second.
Throgmorton: Moved by Salih, seconded by Teague. Discussion? Hearing none, roll call
please. Motion carries 7-0.
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10.c. Fringe Area Rezoning — Nursery Lane SE — Letter to the Johnson
County Planning and Zoning Commission in support of a rezoning from
County Agriculture (A) and County Residential (R) to County Residential
(R-3) for approximately 3.21 acres of property located in unincorporated
Johnson County at 4201 Nursery lane SE. (CZ19-03)
Throgmorton: Could I have a motion to approve please?
Mims: So moved.
Salih: Second.
Throgmorton: Moved by Mims, seconded by Salih. Discussion? Danielle!
Sitzman: Thank you, Mayor. So as you mentioned this is an application for 3.21 acres,
located generally south of the, uh, city on Sand Road, and along Nursery Lane SE.
Um, it falls within the fringe area B, outside the City's growth area. It's proposed
to .... for rezoning to single-family residential R-3. Um, and if approved the
applicant does intend to perform a boundary line adjustment and sell the property.
This is a map showing the limits of the growth boundary, showing the, uh,
existing property and the misalignment of the current parcel and the current
zonings, uh, designations in the county. So this is really kind of a clean-up on the
County's behalf, to apply the .... one zoning across basically what is all of this
property and to allow it to be sold, uh, with that cleaned up zoning applied to it.
This is an aerial image showing an overlay, um, of the parcel boundaries, uh, that
would be intended for sale. It is in the fringe area, uh, and subject to the fringe
area agreement which is a component of the City's comprehensive plan and helps
staff, um, evaluate such applications. Um, it .... the application is in compliance
with the County's comprehensive plan, or their future land use map. Um .... uh, as
I said, it's located in fringe area B, outside the City's growth area where, um,
generally the fringe area agreement prefers agricultural uses and restricts land
uses, uh, in that way. Staff did review this application, looking at the County's,
uh, future land use map and the fringe area agreement. The existing development,
like I said, is kind of straddling several parcels, um, and has a split zoning. Uh,
the County policy is to have only one zoning deseg.... designation per parcel or
lot. A residential use already exists in this area and the proposed zoning would
not allow for additional residential units. Um, this is a one-step process, um,
forwarding the recommendation from the City to the County, to go through their
land use development, uh, process. Um, although the proposed rezoning is not
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consistent with the policies currently outlined in the adopted fringe area
agreement, staff recommends approval of the rezoning for several reasons. Um,
the subject area is already partly zoned for residential uses. It contains an existing
single-family residential use. We don't believe further residential development of,
would ... would, uh, result from this, and the rezoning would create a single zoning
classification for existing development in that area, allowing for a more efficient
regulation by the County, and the County zoning ordinance states an intent to
eliminate, um, these, uh, instances of multiple zoning classifications. Uh, so at
their December 5th meeting, the Planning and Zoning Commission voted to
forward this to you with a recommendation of approval. Be happy to answer
questions.
Cole: I'm a little bit confused why are they seeking the residential if it's already
residential? So it's going to be no more residential (both talking)
Sitzman: They'd like to clean it up so that they can sell the property. Um .... with all of the
parcels under the same zoning.....the owners would.
Dilkes: Some of its agricultural.
Sitzman: I think this map might show the difference between the agricultural zoning and
the residential zoning currently.
Throgmorton: Any other questions for Danielle? I don't see any! Thank you. Would anybody
else like to address this topic? Okay. Seeing no one else, again I need to ask the
Council if you're inclined to vote with the Planning and Zoning Commission's
recommendations? (several responding)
Mims: This is just a motion, right?
Tbrogmorton: Oh, I was lookin' at the wrong thing, was I?
Salih: Already did the motion and (both talking)
Throgmorton: I'm sorry I was, excuse me, I was lookin' at the wrong item. Yeah. (several
talking) Yeah, sorry. What happened here? Yeah, sorry! We already have a
motion that's on the floor. So, Council discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say
aye. Opposed. Motion carries.
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10.e. Rezoning S. Gilbert St and Highland Ave — Ordinance conditionally
rezoning approximately 1.15 acres of land located at the northeast corner of
S. Gilbert Street and Highland Ave, from Intensive Commercial (CI -1) zone
to Riverfront Crossings — South Gilbert (RFC -SG) zone. (REZ19-11)
(Second consideration)
Throgmorton: This is second consideration and appri .... but the applicant has requested
expedited action. Could I have a motion to waive second consideration please?
Mims: I move that the rule requiring that ordinances must be considered on and voted on
for passage at two Council meetings prior to the meeting at which it is to be
finally passed be suspended, that the second consideration and vote be waived,
and that the ordinance be voted on for final passage at this time.
Taylor: Second.
Throgmorton: Moved by Mims, seconded by Taylor. Discussion?
Sitzman: Mayor, at the last meeting a question was asked about parking requirements. I
just wanted to bring some additional information to you at this meeting. This
slide shows both the conventional, um, zoning district parking requirements in
light blue, and the Riverfront Crossings alternate, uh, which would be the ones
that apply to this parcel as the rezoning is in place, alternate parking requirements.
You can see that the, uh, conventional zoning district has, uh, parking
requirements based on the pumps, as well as the square footage of the .... of the
retail space, and a bike requirement that's a percentage of the vehicle parking.
The Riverfront Crossings has a .... a lower requirement for parking (mumbled) one
per 300 -square feet (mumbled) per 500, does not anticipate additional parking
needs for the pumps. Also allows for some flexibility, if there were to be on -street
parking in a development, it exempts, uh, smaller developments from this
standard entirely. Also has bike parking requirements. In this case the bike
parking, um, well in this case they're only at the concept plan stage, so we're
working with estimates of square footages, but um .... with the Riverfront
Crossings zoning, approximately 14 vehicle spaces and five bike parking spaces
would be required. If it were not in a Riverfront Crossings district, uh, you can
see the parking would be much higher, almost 35 spaces total.
Throgmorton: But they propose to .... and have a much higher number of vehicle parking spaces,
right?
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Sitzman: They've shown it about 20 spaces.
Throgmorton: Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Council discussion? Uh, again we have a motion for
second consideration, to waive second consideration. So ... no discussion? Roll
call please. Motion carries 7-0.
Mims: Move final... adoption at this time.
Thomas: Second.
Throgmorton: Moved by Mims, seconded by Thomas. Discussion?
Mims: I think this just really cleans up that corner a lot. Uh, changes or reduces the
number of curb cuts, which will really help with traffic flow. Um, so I look
forward to seeing the new development.
Taylor: I echo that. I think the previous Kum n' Go developments have turned out very
nicely for the areas that they're in, and I look forward to this.
Throgmorton: I worry about access to my vet (laughter) I'm only kidding. My vet is located
right across the, what is it (several talking) whatever that small street is. Third
Avenue, not 3rd Street. Yeah. Oh well! We'll have to live with it. I'm only
kidding! Don't worry about it, anybody! (laughs) Okay (both talking)
Taylor: ...get some snacks (laughter)
Throgmorton: All right, so why .... we need, uh, a roll call right? Roll call please. Motion carries
7-0.
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11. Rental Permit -Radon Testing — Ordinance amending title 17, entitled
"Building and Housing," chapter 5, entitled "Housing Code," to require
radon testing and mitigation in single-family and duplex rental units. (Pass
and adopt)
Throgmorton: I need a motion to pass and adopt please.
Salih: Move.
Mims: Second.
Throgmorton: Moved by Salih, seconded by Mims. Discussion? Would anybody in the
audience like to address this topic? We received some correspondence, Geoff, uh,
pertaining to this in our late handout, and then, I don't know, Susan and I received
an email, uh, pertaining to it, and the gist of it was, um.....uh..... mainly an
objection about requiring, uh, this radon testing be conducted only by licensed
radon specialists, radon testing specialists. Uh, and there were a couple other
objections, I guess, in what we got from .... I'm trying to find the .... the man's name
from, uh.....um..... hold on one second. In our late handout we got a .... uh, a note,
an email from Chris Villhauer for the Greater Iowa City Area Apartment
Association, also objecting that the new, uh.....uh, saying that it would be too....
it would be expensive; liscen.....licensed testers are few and far between, and
requiring this.... particular, uh, set of people to do testing would violate State law.
So I wonder if staff could respond to that.
Dilkes: Yep. There's no violation of State law. The State doesn't require radon testing.
The Stra.... State does provide, uh, the requirements for certification as a radon
tester, as well as a mitigator. Um, and .... they don't require, uh, a property owner
in order to test his or her own home does not have to be certified. Um,
interestingly enough they do require that, um, it has to be a third party who does
any mitigation. But the law's inapplicable to what we're doing here.
Throgmorton: Okay.
Frain: I think from ... uh (mumbled) legal issue aside there, the question is do you want
the property owners and the landlords to test their own units. That .... that doesn't
make a whole lot of sense for us. I think you need a third party to do that.
Otherwise you just don't have verification that the test was done properly or...or
necessarily even on site. Um, we, you know, the test itself is relatively
inexpensive, couple hundred dollars, and uh, this ordinance would require it once
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every eight years, so I don't think from a cost standpoint the test is .... is a .... a
burden, uh, an overly burdensome requirement.
Miens: I would entirely agree with staffs permission on that....er.... perspective on that.
When I was, you know, reading the original documentation and then reading these
letters, um, I think when you're talking about the health and safety of individuals,
um, who are, you know, choosing their housing. It .... it really needs to be done by
an independent third party, and the fact that we're not requiring it every single
year. Um, there may be a crunch the first time through, possibly, but after that I
don't think it should be a problem. So I'm totally supportive of staffs
recommendation.
Taylor: I agree with Susan, cause I think you .... you can't put a cost on the health of
individuals and .... and radon can be very, very dangerous, and uh, so I agree.
Teague: I did just kinda look up to see what it .... you know, what would it entail for the
owner to .... do the test themselves, and there are kits out there, but um, it's .... most
of the kits are required where you would, um, mail it back in and wait for the
results. And so I think just the sequence of what could be placed in the hands of
the (coughing) of the owners may not actually, urn .... it will probably be more
burdensome, uh, to some.... some owners. So I am supportive of definitely, uh,
havin' it done by a professional. That way we can verify, um, that the test has
been done, uh, appropriately.
Salih: I also believe that, you know, professional .... I just believe this is (mumbled) the
City because like, uh, a person like me, as immigrant, I really didn't know
anything about the radon until I bought my house and they tested and I don't know
what the heck is that, and after that they will explain me. For our .... for the people
who renting, like immigrants people who don't know about this, I guess by the
City doing that we are protecting them, and by doing it by like a certified person,
we are protecting them. They don't know this, and I .... I doubt .... I lived in many,
many, uh, I live in three difference, uh, apartment and one apartment and two
houses in the city, but I never ask about (mumbled) and I don't know that even,
until I bought the house. And this is will be applied to people who, just like me,
immigrants who don't know this, and our City thinks that we doing this, this is
really great. Uh, so we are protecting the people they don't know this and which
is great. Yeah.
Throgmorton: That's an excellent public health and safety point, that (coughing, difficult to hear
speaker) I never thought about, but it's really spot-on. I do wonder about a claim
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that Chris Villhauer makes about the .... the number of licensed testers being...
about the, they being few and far between. I think he .... says there're two or three
or something like that licensed testers in the area, but .... I don't have the text right
in front of me, so I don't remember exactly what he said. Geoff, do you .... or
Stan, do you have any sense of that?
Laverman: Yeah, Stan Laverman, Senior Housing Inspector. Uh, I don't have the exact
numbers in front of me, but private home inspectors, many of those are also
certified to test for radon. So .... I, it goes beyond, I think there's two or three
people that are specific radon testers, but licensed, uh, home inspector...
inspectors, private home inspectors can also test for it.
Fruin: You can pull up a map on the .... on the State web site of the licensed, uh,
providers. And it looks to me that there are .... six in the Iowa City, Coralville,
North Liberty area, and there's an additional four, uh, in the, um, Solon, Amana,
Swisher, you know kinda... next ring out. So I .... I, we don't see that as a problem.
Again we're testing one every, uh, once every eight years for these properties, and
they're not all coming due at once. It's not like our rental permits all come due on
a date specific. They're coming up throughout the year. Um, and some are on
two-year cycles. So, uh, certainly we don't think that's going to be a problem and
we're not gonna be punitive if it is a problem. If there's a ... a.....a genuine backlog
of people being able to test, we're doing to work with those property owners like
we would with other issues.
Throgmorton: Great! Any further Council discussion? Hearing none, roll call please. Motion
passes 7-0. Could I have a motion to accept correspondence from the Greater
Iowa City Apartment Association please?
Salih: Move.
Teague: Second.
Throgmorton: Moved by Salih, seconded by Teague. All in favor say aye. Opposed. Motion
carries.
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12. Repeal Rental Permit Moratorium — Ordinance repealing Ordinance No. 19-
4793, a temporary moratorium on new rental permits for single-family and
duplex units. (First Consideration)
Throgmorton: Could I have a motion for first consideration please?
Salih: Move.
Teague: Second.
Throgmorton: Moved by Salih, seconded by Teague. So I wanna say a little bit about this. Uh,
we .... we had an extensive discussion about it during our work session, but we're
gonna recapitulate some of that. I'm gonna ask Geoff to .... bring us up, us and the
audience up to date on actions that have taken place over the last .... two or three
weeks, and also, uh, I'll ask John Thomas to summarize what's in his memo, but
we've gotten.... recommendations from John, from Austin Wu for the Student
Associ... uh, Student Government, um, Sara Barron from the Affordable Housing
Coalition, and several individual residents, asking us not to adopt .... not to end the
moratorium, and there're recommendations about things that could be done to
address the .... issues that are of concern to them. So .... the question before us
ultimately will be do we see good reasons to keep the existing deadline for the
moratorium in place, or do we want to terminate it earlier, as called for in the
proposed ordinance? So, Geoff, could you help us out here?
Fruin: Yeah. I'll have Tracy Hightshoe come up and go through the list again with ya, as
she did during the work session, but just to set the stage for that, uh, a reminder
that when the State legislature, uh, enacted the familial status regulation, uh, the
City took .... we had a moratorium and we took several months to figure out what
our next steps would be. A lot of attention has been paid to the rental cap that
was put in place, and .... and later restricted. Uh, but there were a series of
changes that we made to the, uh, housing code and the zoning code, uh, that we
believe would also protect, uh, the City going forward. Uh, in addition, as Tracy
will mention, we hired staff and increased enforcement activity, and all those
provisions remain in place. They were not removed, uh, or preempted by the
State government. So with that I'll tum it over to Tracy Hightshoe with
Neighborhood and Development Services and she can walk you through that.
Hightshoe: Okay, I'm going to highlight the changes we've made through 2017 till today.
Um, we updated the rear setbacks in the central and downtown planning districts.
The setback is now proportional to the size of lot, but can't be less than 20 -feet.
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This was to support house -scale buildings in this district. We increased, um, it
wasn't on the slide I show, but we also increased side set -back for multi -family
and group living uses. That was to ensure a separation between the units for
privacy, uh, between abutting lots. We limited the number of bedrooms in
attached single-family and duplexes to four. That was to help control occupancy
for these higher density household living uses. We established.....um, minimum
bedroom size in multi -family. It increased from 70 -square feet to 100 -square feet.
Um, we counted the excessively large bedrooms had to be attached .... or counted
as two bedrooms. Urn ... we updated the private open space requirements for new
constructions and additions. Ub, also to receive a new rental permit you had to
comply with those regulations. We also, we had to adjust parking standards
because the old parking standards were by, uh, your familial status. So, I'm kinda
going from the memo that was in your packet, as well (mumbled) Um, so revised
parking standards for single-family and two-family uses. So one and two
bedroom units was one required parking space, plus one space for each adult
occupant above three. For units with three or more bedrooms, two parking spaces
plus one space for each adult occupant beyond three. And then you just passed
the front yard paving. So that was to address, um .... paving over your parking lot
in order to increase occupancy or make it more marketable, um, for tenants. The
housing code changes, we did hire a full-time staff member to proactively enforce
our house code nuisance, uh, violations. We increased a full-time inspector
because we went from every other year inspections to annual inspections for
single-family properties with more than four bedrooms; for multi -family
properties built before 1996; sorority, fraternity, and group housing, uh, single
room occupancy units. We also .... um.....point five FTE was provided to the
police offr... as a police officer to, um, to also help us with those neighborhood
nuisance violations that you see on the weekends or after 5:00 P.M. And then as
we mentioned, or I mentioned earlier, about the changes (mumbled) the space, the
bedrooms, uh, only 35% of your home can be occupied bed .... by bedrooms. Um,
we required interconnected smoke alarms for properties that add one or more
bedrooms. We set minimum requirements for shared living space. We require the
separate, um, the permanent separation between duplex units to address privacy
and safety. And we require deadbolt locks, and that was a concern of the ....the U
of I. And limited parking to the rear lot for single-family and duplex properties.
So that's a history of what's been done to date. All these are still viable. We're
still enforcing these. The only thing that changed was the State prohibited us
from using the rental permit cap that we .... we had adopted.
Throgmorton: Okay! Any questions for Tracy? Thank you. John, you wanna....
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Thomas: I'll try to ... briefly summarize, uh, the memo I sent out to Council. (clears throat)
And it....it really was trying to identify various ways we could, uh, achieve the
goals which were set forth when we put the moratorium in place, and they had to
do with ensuring diverse demographic and housing choices in the core
neighborhoods. Tracy, could you .... put up either one of those two, uh, slides.
Cole: With the density....
Thomas: Yeah. So this....this is a .... I think it's important to try to get an understanding of
what .... what is the area where achieving these goals is ... is, uh, at issue and of
concern. It's .... it's those areas, uh, really limited to the core neighborhoods of
Iowa City and it's in fact a little bit smaller than .... than the area shown by the
boundary area here. Um, some of these areas in the .... in the dark red are .... uh,
high density student rental and .... and those are areas that really are not of concern
because they're just essentially all serving that demographic. So .... so it's in these
other areas where there're relatively high percentages of, um .... student rental
where there's concerns about how do we, again, try to diversify that graph .... that
demographic and provide housing choices as we move forward. And, um, you
know I'm in full support of the .... the changes staff has made, uh, thus far. Uh...
however, there .... there was a recent permit issued in ..... in April of earlier this
year for an addition at, um, 938 E. Jefferson, which .... was converting a one -
bedroom, 830 -some odd square foot single-family home into a seven bedroom,
seven bath residence, and I think the intent of many of these things that Tracy
went through was to prevent that. Uh.... however, as you can see with that one
permit that was issued, uh, it .... it's not that difficult to achieve seven bedrooms
and seven baths in a single-family neighborhood in this area where we're trying
to, uh, address the .... and diversify the demographic and provide housing choices.
Sol....I feel .... uh, given .... how, urn .... with the lot sizes that we have on many
properties in the core neighborhoods that not .... this is not only an issue with
additions, it's an issue with, uh, certain properties, which are of a .... a lot size that
that kind of development would be possible. Uh, and in being possible, uh, it
would, one .... you know, work against our .... our goal of diversifying the
neighborhood demographic. It would also, uh, in a sense preempt some other
housing options, which would be more likely, uh, to .... to improve the diversity
and ... and the housing options. So it's... it's.... it's.... you know, it's .... it's regulatory
framework that .... that is .... that is not successfully achieving, uh, the
diversification. Also prevents us from, uh, truly beginning to try to diversify the
affordability and ... and demographic of the neighborhood. And, um .... I've done
some preliminary investigations. I think there are ways we can address this, uh,
looking at some of the other codes in the State of Iowa where .... where you have
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large universities — Ames, Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa — um, that I
think deserve looking at, as well as a number of other potential ways to, um,
resolve this issue and so .... L....I am, I would be asking that we, Council, to
support, um.....extending the moratorium until it naturally expires on March firth
.....fust, rather than ending it any sooner. I.....I will just mention one other, you
know, I .... I developed these policies with consultation of real....some real estate
professionals, uh, Austin Wu who is our student liaison, uh, and I did wanna
highlight one .... one goal that I'd stated, and that is that, um, the affordability for
housing for students is an issue in Iowa City. In fact in a recent survey that the
Student Government, uh, conducted, it was identified as one of the highest
priorities of the students to find ... uh, to have more affordable housing, and I ... I'm
in complete agreement with that. Uh, what .... what I noted to Austin when we
met was we need to identify where that's appropriate, and in those neighborhoods
where we are trying to diversify the demographic, I would say, uh, that that's not
an appropriate place but .... other areas within the University, uh, you know, the
areas around the University, I think, are ones that we need to be looking at, um, so
that we're not simply looking at increasing density. I think that's sort of been our
primary focus, and I would say that we need to ... while increasing density, also be
looking at how .... how do we make that higher density affordable. Uh, so those
are.... probably in terms of the question of. ... of what to do with the moratorium, I
think probably the highlights. Um, it's a fairly set of comprehensive policies, but
I think those are the key ones.
Throgmorton: So just for clarification, John, you'll be urging us to vote no on the motion tonight,
which would, uh, leave the existing moratorium of, uh, date of March the 1 st in
place?
Thomas: Correct, because I ... I do think we need that time to further investigate these issues,
uh, so that we can .... uh.... achieve a higher level of control in terms of the
outcome of any .... any permits, either for additions or new development. You
know, once the moratorium is lifted, new building permits can be issued. Uh, one
of ...one of the factors with, uh, the moratorium being in place is the only permits
that can be issued are for those that already have a rental permit. Once that, the
moratorium is lifted, uh, houses can be demolished and new issues, new permits
issued, uh, for any new construction, assuming there are no other impediments to
that demolition. (several talking)
Throgmorton: Okay. That (both talking)
Salih: I wanna ask John question.
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Throgmorton: Sure! Sorry.
Salih: You know, like when you say this .... we talking about three months now? Leave it
for three months.
Throgmorton: There are four more meetings between now and March the 1 st, that are currently
scheduled.
Salih: March 1 st, we talk about two months leave the ... this on, right (several talking)
you saying more people will come up and buy houses or just start building, have a
building permit and everything. Don't you think they gonna do the same thing on
March 1 st or Mach 2nd?
Thomas: It just gives us more time to .... to make (both talking)
Salih: To do what?
Thomas: .... to .... to make revisions to our zoning code so that seven bedrooms and seven
bathrooms may no longer be an option.
Fruin: Just to clarify the timing. This will take three readings. So if you were to move
forward and not collapse, this would pass on January 21 st. So you really .... you
really would be preserving about two meetings. (several talking)
Throgmorton: Or there could be a special meeting instead of just collapsing the second and third
readings. Right? But it's a pretty tight time table. Rockne?
Dilkes: I'd also just note that with zoning code changes we have to take it through the
Planning and Zoning Commission.
Throgmorton: Right.
Taylor: That's... that's one reason I think it's ... it's kind of regrettable we didn't start having
these kinds of conversations much earlier, uh, in ... in the year even, like last
spring, uh, because it is (coughing, difficult to hear speaker) uh, even if we were
to keep the moratorium in place, which by the way I'm in favor of keeping it, uh,
it would give staff time to, uh, rewrite some of the codes, or add that as far as the
boarding housing kinds of rules, the bedroom, uh, size and number, uh, but as
you'd said, that would then take three readings. So we're ... we're gettiin' into the
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spring. So there is kind of a sense of urgen ... urgency in it, which I think, uh, I
think also just for the public trust issue. We set guidelines or state things and
have .... have deadlines. We need to stick to that. We can't just keep .... we can't
change it (several talking)
Cole: ....terms of the March 1 st (both talking)
Throgmorton:.....and we would not (both talking) March 1st is the deadline.
Taylor: Right!
Throgmorton: We must not go beyond that (both talking)
Taylor: ....I'm in favor of not repealing it but keeping the March 1 st deadline.
Teague: Rockne, you asked, um .... Geoff a question earlier about other things that were,
you know, the City has already done. Um, is there some .... some of those that we
can (both talking)
Cole: .....well I mean that was one of the things that I had asked. I think Geoff had
used a really good metaphor in terms of sort of the .... the regulatory dial, you
know. They tried to get it just right, you know, sort of the Goldilocks in terms of
the parking, the open space, and those sorts of things. Um, but I .... I wanted a ... a,
essentially a work session, obviously it'll be with the next Council, but really in
terms of are there some things .... and in one of the emails I emailed Geoff, I said
were there some things that we can do .... but staff for policy reasons decided not
to do, um, for affordability issues or those sorts of things. So my start up premise
was is that we would have the authority to consider some of these things, but you
know for whatever reason there was a policy recommendation not to. So for
example like the sprinkler systems. Um, I understand that that's something we
can do, but there's a recommendation not to do. That's just an example. Um,
but ... but in my own view, the functional impact of what we're talking about. I
think Susan brought up a good point, you know, at our previous meeting is that to
vote yes we would still have the three meetings. So we're really only talking
about, um, one more month for a little bit more time. As Eleanor points out, as a
practical matter that may not be enough time to make any changes that will affect,
um, you know the zoning permits going forward, um, but I do think there needs to
be a work session on that, so that we can talk about that (mumbled), and by the
way .... by the way, by the way, some of those things may .... in terms of that
regulatory dial, maybe have been set too rightly. I mean maybe there are some
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things that we could say, hey, maybe we're a little bit too onerous on. Now I like
the recommendations that staff has given us, but so I wouldn't assume that
necessarily there couldn't be some tweaks that maybe favor, um, some landlords
as far as that goes. So that's that particular issue. In terms of my own view, you
know I think this has always been cast as a rental versus non -rental, and I've never
really looked at that as the right way to look at it. I mean to me the challenge we
have is density associated, especially with some of the more historic structures,
that was never intended for that level of density. I mean that.... that's, and the
challenges, and the health and safety challenges with that, um, and so I just want a
little bit more time and I think it'd be helpful for a future Council to have a little
bit more time to assess some of those, and to maybe give some impact as far as
that goes. In terms of the affordability issue, I do think that it's important that we
elucidate a little bit why there is this connection to affordability. Um, for
example, for some of our non -profits. We used to be able to control unrelated
occupancy to no more than three, right, is my understanding. That regulatory tool
was taken away from us. As a result of that, directly related to the affordability,
so for example if Housing Fellowship wanted to buy a home. When you put
seven, eight students, each paying $500 a month in one house, that makes it
nearly impossible for a middle-income, or a lower-income family, to buy in our
core neighborhoods, as well as for non -profits, that would have the resource, so
we could get in a good, long -tern Section 8 renter in some of the neighborhoods.
So it is a real issue that we need to evaluate, and I think, you know, will we solve
everything by March 1 st? Probably not, but when we're talking about just
essentially another month for a little bit more time, um, and maybe it will be some
of these things that will have to go into effect, at a later time, um, but I think we
should do that. So I am going to be voting no, um, so the future Council will have
that opportunity, at least weigh in and have a little bit more of an extended
discussion.
Throgmorton: Can we hold on for a second? With your permission, I'd like to see if anybody in
the audience would like to say anything to us about this, cause, you know, give
them a chance to weigh in. Go ahead please. Please state your name, write it
down as you're doin'.
Ayati: My name is Bruce Ayati. I live, uh, in the Northside neighborhood. Um .... so that
bridge, that lovely bridge, I have the privilege of overlooking. As did, uh, my
neighbor, Vicky Solursh, who unfortunately for health reasons is living out of
state. Uh, Vicky had, you know, wasn't able to care for herself very well and as a
consequence that house is not in very good condition. When you drive right
across the bridge you look up, there's the blue and white one — that's mine. A
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black and white one — that's Mcky's. Uh, currently there is water damage, uh, in
the, uh.....uh.... balcony area overlooking the sun deck. Uh, there, uh, are
basically holes in the basement from water damage. Um, someone needs to get in
there and fix it. Uh, I'm not sure. I was told one thing when I asked John, but
when I .... when I, uh, talked to Stan, the current, the parking spot in front, doesn't
fit that nine -foot offset. So I have an offer on this house, and is accepted pending
my ability to get a rental permit. I live next door, I share a driveway. I do not
want to put 10 students in that house. Um, that house needs a steward. I am
willing, I'm not a very wealthy man, but I have means — I'm a faculty member — to
put what I have in terms of time — I can swing a hammer, into fixing that house. I
have until February 7th to get a rental permit. Otherwise it goes on the market,
for someone else. Um .... these policies have side effects. You have side effects
like mine, which are very concrete and I can come and tell you, but how many
people are being nudged to not take care of things because of this? Playing
defense, sorry (mumbled) sports analogy, but you can't score points, or at least not
very many points, playing defense all the time. You need people who care about
this neighborhood to step up and take care of these homes. I live next to this
home. I love that home. I was there when Vicky was there for the last, you know,
12 years of her meaningful life. Um, if this doesn't ... this doesn't get repealed, I
have to back off. The only other people who've looked at it are people who look a
lot to me like they're lookin' for a .... frat, fraternity overflow house. And that's
probably what's going to happen, and if that happens to me, because you know,
you know, the fraternities are all in that area, I'll probably have to do the same
thing. I can't live next to a fraternity! And then the dominoes begin to fall. So
you have a .... you're setting up something and I understand the impetus behind it,
because I live in this neighborhood. But you have unintended consequences when
you have very, very heavy-handed, one -size -fits -all, large footprint policies, like a
moratorium. And you .... you say, well, we need more time, but you've had so
much time and you're not gonna.... you're not gonna come up, I'm sorry, you're not
gonna come up with anything in that extra month. In fact if anything I'm, you
know, I'm bettin' that if. ... if, I'm betting it's going to be extended, the moratorium.
Because, you know (several talking)
Throgmorton:.... won't be extended.
Ayati: Okay, but... regardless.... at that point .... you know, this .... this one particular
property's gone, and it would be kinda.... kinda sad to see a, you know,
particularly this property, where it sits, what it looks like, you know. Because
of ...because of this kind of, you know.... There's gotta be other ways to do this,
other than getting in the way of people who are trying to do the right thing.
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Because if you block a little person like me trying to do the right thing, right next
door to his house, all you leave .... are people who can buy something and hold on
to it until the right Council comes and they can do whatever they want with it.
That's all. Thank you.
Throgmorton: Thanks, Bruce. Anyone else? Hi, Jen.
Wagner: Hi, thanks. I'm Jenn Wagner. Um, I'm Bruce and Becky's neighbor. I live across
the street, and I'm here in support of them, because I wanted you to hear another
voice from someone in the neighborhood. Um, like .... like Bruce and I, we both
own a house that's a hundred years old. Both of us have put an inordinate amount
of.... of work. My .... my husband is a handyman thankfully. He does most of the
work himself. But, um, we .... we both recognize how much work it takes to ... to
fix up these old houses. The house that Bruce wants to purchase, he wants to
ultimately have his parents live next door. And so we just wanted to put a .... an
example for you because you keep bringing up this seven house .... or this seven
bedroom, seven bathroom place, but the flip side of it is that there's an ancient old
house, that's falling apart, and you have this man here that ... and his wife, that
want to fix it up and there's.... it's a shared driveway. It's a shared garage. There's
not a lot of. ... he can reach out one window and touch the .... touch the next
building. There's not a lot of people that would want to buy this particular house.
Except for the people he saw look at it. And that freaked us all out. Um, so again
I'm here in support of them. Um, my family's in support of them. Um .... when I
hear the big picture. _.issues about the moratorium, sure there's some logic that I
absolutely support, but there, like Bruce said, there's things that ... that slip through
the cracks, and I would like to think that maybe as you move forward, perhaps
you could put a caveat in place where you could have staff work with someone
like Bruce, or other families that may be in a position to help a .... an ancient, old
house that's falling apart next door and they wanna do something about it. Um,
maybe .... maybe before you extend your moratorium, maybe there's just
something that he can do before this falls apart and he .... he's no longer, I mean
the bank is working with him. He has the loan. It's February, what? February 7th
is his deadline! So .... anyway, thank you all very much for listening. Um...
appreciate your time.
Throgmorton: Thanks, Jen. Just to be clear, we're not extending the moratorium. The
moratorium was established something like eight months ago. It expires on
March the 1 st. So all we're considering is whether to accelerate the termination of
the moratorium. I can see how it has consequences, but there's a meaningful
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difference that matters to us. (unable to hear person speaking from audience)
Anyone else want to address this? Hey, Thomas, hi!
Agran: You ready for a third version of that same (laughter) Um, so I'm Thomas Agran,
uh, I live in the Northside neighborhood in a UniverCity program home. Uh, I'm
involved in the Northside Neighborhood Association and I've also been, uh, the
Northside representative for the HPC for the last six years. Uh, my wife and I
recently bought the house directly next door to us. It was built in 1910 and has
easily a half -century of deferred maintenance. So we're redoing the entire house —
new kitchen, bath, plumbing, total restoration, new roof and everything. Uh,
including adding the historic porch back onto the front of the house, um, both
because it will look nice, I think, and also because it helps build community. The
goal is to take the house from non-contributing status to contributing, which I say
in both the City -oriented sense of that phrase and also the community -oriented
sense of that phrase. We want to invest in our neighborhood just like other people
that you're hearing from. Uh, whenever it is that you repeal the moratorium and
I'm in favor of doing it sooner, uh, we'll be applying for a permit for this house to
help finance the restoration of the property. Uh, similarly we are not adding
bedrooms, nor will we be adding parking, given the walkability of the
neighborhood. I'm fixing it up myself, so we are in effect small-scale developers.
Development comes in many forms, not just from the big boys who are focused
on maximizing profit over all else that our City planning documents encourage.
You can just look south of Burlington if you wanna.... think about that. The way
the moratorium and, um, rental caps .... or moratorium stands, it rewards long-time
slum lords of Iowa City, uh, assigning huge value to the permits themselves and
essentially ensuring that the properties remain rentals (mumbled) while
preventing a new landlord like myself with priorities of preservation, community,
long -tern tenants, and affordable housing from investing in my neighborhood.
Take for example two properties that neighbor.... that neighbor us to our north.
There's a once historic house at 518 N. Van Buren Street, three basement
apartments, two ground floor apartments, a third code violating apartment on the
second floor and attic. The landlord and contractors park trucks all over the grass
regularly. The back yard's been graveled over. Every other yard in our alley has
been paved over for that matter, uh, including recently some paving in the City
right-of-way, um, so that the landlord can locate a dumpster there. Um ... the
property floods regularly. They always tell the tenants, cause I witnessed a
conversation. Said, oh, it never floods, and then those tenants are forced to move
out, uh, consistently every spring. Uh, we've watched it for the last seven years.
The most recent batch started to (mumbled) the University and sensing a threat to
their permit, given the strike system, um, the company paid them off and
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relocated everybody. Um, this is the kind of investor, or property owner, that gets
to have a permit in the Northside. Uh, another property is 332 N. Van Buren.
Um, this property has multiple curb cuts. It just poured concrete over the whole
back yard and anywhere there wasn't concrete, they freshly graveled. Insult to
injury, they pulled down a mature healthy oak tree the other day just like other
slum lords in my neighborhood because they create a "maintenance issue." And
so I really urge you to give that property at 332 N. Van Buren a look, um, to see,
to look at the new paving, which I was told meets code and ask yourself if this
kind of weak, uh, equation on open space is actually working for the
neighborhood. Um, so I hope you'll repeal the moratorium, but it's essentially you
aggressively .... aggressively add to, uh, and pursue code violations and incentive
changes. Incentive removing concrete, incentive landscaping or interior, exterior
restoration work as a way to remove strikes from code violations. Create a
parking improvement district, disincentive car ownership through code, It's the
most walkable neighborhood probably in all of Iowa. Stop approving egress
basement windows, which is one of the primary things that we do on the Historic
Preservation Commission, because all they end up doing is pricing smaller
households out of the neighborhood. Uh, there are lots of people who wanna live
in the Northside, but do not want to own and who are not looking for seven
bedroom properties, which I know you know, and so the problem to me isn't so
much with renting. It's with extractive slum lords, poor property management,
enforcement, and incentives. That's where I wanna see, as a resident of the
Northside, your attention focused. Rentals are not, um, antithetical to healthy
neighborhoods, uh, and, you know, stability and long-term residents are the result
of affordability, good stewardship of properties, and landlords who are seeking a
return on investment in terms of the vitality of their neighborhood, not their bank
accounts. So I hope that you will repeal the moratorium. Thanks!
Throgmorton: Anyone else? Hi, Nancy.
Carlson: Good evening. I'm Nancy Carlson. Uh.... what is a house? We intuitively know
in our gut. When we are shown or told about a building that varies from that
concept we instantly say no, that is not a house. It has to do with proportions.
Proportions of private living space, bedrooms, and bathrooms, to communal
living space where you eat, cook, live, and to unin.... uninhabitable space, which
deals with the functioning of the house — the furnace, the laundry, the storage.
When the proportions of these types of usage are in balance, we say, yes, this is a
house. When they aren't, we are uncomfortable and believe we are being
hoodwinked. It calls into question our intelligence. The structure at 938 Jefferson
is 3,408 -square feet. Of that bedrooms compose.... 1,044 -square feet, which
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would be appropriately one-third of the footage. However, when you add 400 -
square feet for private bathrooms, the footage increases to 4.....1,504 -square feet
for private space. 1,704 -square feet would be half the house. That leaves us
1,904 -square feet. So we could obtain at least a balance between private space
and communal space, but the communal space comes to 700 -square feet, and the
uninhabitable area used for the functioning of the structure is 1,204 -square feet.
The proportions of these areas are totally out of balance. They go against
everything we intuititely.....intuitively know constitute a house, and yet the City
tells us this is a house. This is a very uncomfortable position because it negates
our intrinsic understanding of what a house is. It allows manipulation of
structures that are travesties of houses to be built in our neighborhoods. The
suggestions I sent to the City Council dealt with attempting to balance the areas
devoted to the three functions of a house. Changing the square footage of
bedrooms to include a private bath for a percentage of area devoted to private
space would certainly help. A comment was made by a staff member that by
adding a door to .... door from the bathroom to a hallway, it would no longer be a
private bathroom. Since the fact that bathrooms have a toilet, sink, and tub,
including two doors would be an extremely difficult achievement. And would a
tenant be willing to allow access to what they feel is their bathroom? It may be
advantageous to look at the amount of footage required for communal space
versus bedrooms. In requiring 100 -square feet per bedroom.....is requiring 100 -
square feet per bedroom sufficient to achieve a balance of. ... communal space to
private space? Or .... each of the three functions in a structure can be .... can
comprise no more than a third of the finished floor space. These regulations
would apply only to structures.... labeled houses or duplexes, not, uh, group
homes or rooming houses. I am not looking for pie in the sky, but a sensible
solution which would achieve a balanced structure to keep the goal of the RNS-12
zone and help achieve your goals set at the beginning of the moratorium. Please
help us in our commitment to our neighborhood. Thank you.
Throgmorton: Thank you, Nancy. Hi, Austin.
Wu: Hello there! Uh, Austin Wu, UISG City Liaison. Um, initially I was going to
make some comments about, uh, potential solutions, uh, but I'm not sure where
they fall on this.....uh, on (mumbled) illegal, plausible continuum. So I'll save
those for later. Uh, first I'd like to thank Councilor Thomas for reaching out to
me, and uh, plugging in that necessity for affordability in student housing. Um,
what I've seen in my short time in this town is that this issue of the rental cap and
the permit, the moratorium, is that this issue extends far beyond the issuance of
rental permits. And, uh... the (mumbled) issues and other adjacent issues affect it
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as well, such as, um, parking, the cost of housing, and as well as the influence of,
uh.... the influence of landlords in, uh, the local housing market. So, um, first
with parking. Parking is a significant driver of housing costs. Both in the space
taken up for service parking, as well as the construction of garages and
underground facilities for new housing. Urn .... ways, meth .... ways or methods to,
uh, reduce....the space needed for parking by, um, reduce .... the space needed for
parking. Anyway, uh, I think would not only go forward towards reducing the
spa .... uh, reducing the City's carbon emissions, as seen in our climate goals, but
also in reducing housing costs, both in new construction and existing facilities.
And then secondly, I would like to mention the necessity to break up landlord
power in Iowa City. Uh, when problematic behaviors are brought up regarding
rental housing, such as the failure to clear snow or ice off of sidewalks, the
acquisition of property en masse at the expense of other community members,
poor upkeep, and they neglect the properties to the point of irreversible decay, uh,
it is usually with the properties owned by some of the largest landlords in this city.
Uh, integral to sustainable and equitable housing market over the long-term is
reining in the influence and footprint of some of these, uh, some of these property
management companies and landlords to (mumbled) leave unnamed here.
Thanks!
Throgmorton: Thank you, Austin. Anyone else? Good evening.
Barron: Hi! Uh, Sara Barron, Affordable Housing Coalition. Um, I just want to
emphasize that, um, our board intends to, um, respond to the, um, proposal
provided by, uh, Council Member Thomas about potentially keeping the rental
moratorium in place. Um, and really just identify some of the, um, potential
benefits of the whole suggestion that he provided, um, which included incentives
for, um, development of other types of housing and more affordable housing.
Um, whether the moratorium is ended earlier or kept in place until March, um, we
really wanna indicate that we are interested in discussing incentives for the
neighborhood, and though we see, um, the potential for ending the moratorium
before those incentives are discussed in more detail, that that could have an
impact on people's decisions about real estate investments, um, that, um.....that
our main interest is just simply in discussing those affordable housing
improvements in the area, not so much about when precisely the rental
moratorium should be ended. I just wanted to clarify that. I'm not sure that I did,
but (mumbled)
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Salih: But .... but, Sara, what do you think you can do in two months, cause you know
that the....the time that we gonna end it is the end of -of, if we started today, that
means we gonna be finished on the end of January, right?
Barron: Right, and so that's what I'm trying to say, that we included .... we considered a
proposal from Council Member Thomas that included both keeping the rental
moratorium in place and discussing, um, other incentives to promote affordable
housing in the neighborhood. Right? That was kind of what we considered, and
what we're most interested in about that proposal is the incentives to stimulate
more affordable housing production, not necessarily when the rental moratorium
is ended. So you know we can see some reasons why you might want to keep it
in place, but we're more interested in the other components, beyond just ending it
or not ending it early.
Salih: I just think that .... I don't know. This is not (mumbled) maybe after, later for
discussion, right?
Barron: Okay. Thanks.
Salih: Thanks!
Throgmorton: Anyone else? Okay. Thank you. Uh, now we can turn to Council discussion.
Mims: I would (both talking)
Throgmorton: Feel free!
Mims: I would, as I said before, I would like to see us move forward, um, with the first
vote. We still have the opportunity to defer it at a later time, if we see that there
are things in front of us that we really think could make an impact and that we
could get done before, uh, the moratorium expired, so we could stop that process,
try and get those things done, let the moratorium expire as .... as is planned right
now on March 1 st. I think there are, um, certainly as we've heard tonight some
compelling issues for individuals, um, by letting this go till the very end, and
while we've got some interesting proposals from Council Member Thomas and
some other members of the community, one, the question of getting any of those
things done .... one, doing .... doing an actual analysis of those, determining what is
legal, what is (mumbled) you know, what makes sense, what would work in this
community, and trying to get them done by the first of March is very questionable
as is, and certainly if it's a zoning issue, it's not gonna get done by the first of
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March by the time it has to go through P&Z and everything else. So my
recommendation would be that .... in this first vote, we go ahead and vote to end
the moratorium. We have three votes, so we can always defer later on if we feel
like we really need to, and secondly what I would like to see, and this piggybacks
on what you said, Rockne. We've got the holidays coming up, but I think staff has
some.... some emails and memos in front of them. If staff thinks it's possible, I
would like for our second meeting in January to... just because I don't think with
the holiday we can do anything in the first meeting, to have a real kind of detailed
response from staff of what they think is workable. I .... exchanged some emails
with Eleanor on some of these ideas that had come up, what did she think was
legal at first blush, what's not. Um .... then based on that response from staff, we
could decide whether we feel it's worth, uh, going ahead and keeping the
moratorium in place. I mean I'd be open to doing it at the first regular meeting in
January, but I think with the holidays that puts an awful lot of pressure on staff.
Throgmorton: What would you think about, uh, instructing staff to do that, but perhaps having
two Council Members participate in discussions?
Mims: No, I think (both talking) No, because I think Council needs to talk about it all
together, um .... I .... I think if any individual Council Members have ideas that they
want to share with staff or have them explore, then I think that's all fine. But I
think .... I think that Council needs to sit together as a team and talk about things in
detail, and not have one or two that are .... that have a certain perspective or a
different perspective .... sitting in with the staff.
Throgmorton: Okay. So (both talking)
Mims: I think they're professional and capable to have that discussion on their own.
Throgmorton: But you would agree (both talking)
Cole: ...well I ..... well I haven't stated that, but I think in terms of two Councilors,
because individual Councilors express views (both talking)
Throgmorton: Okay.
Cole: So I would agree that anything that, any work session should be the Council as a
whole.
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Mims: Before we go further I'd be interested in giving Geoff a chance (laughs) to
respond to me .... dumping stuff on them.
Frain: Yeah, um, just to .... let you know what's coming up here, obviously between now
and the next meeting there's not really gonna be an opportunity for us to do a
whole lot. Um, you're then into budget. Your first work session, remember we're
startin' early at 3:00. We're gonna have the CIP work session. I think....I don't
think you're gonna warm add up probably a whole lot to that .... uh, to that first
agenda. Certainly could, um, and so that puts us at that second meeting in
January. The .... the bigger question to me is .... I think you need to be clear on...
on where you want staff to focus. We've given you our recommendation. We
think what we .... where we've kind of landed is the right spot. So, um, and ... and
based on the concerns that we've heard, particularly looking at....at the Jefferson
property, you're really looking at those interior space allocations, how big
bedrooms, how big, uh, common space, how do you make all those calculations.
Those are .... those are ..... I don't know, I mean I can tell ya, we can .... we can
increase those sizes. We can decrease the percentages. We're not gonna be any
more confident than we are with our current numbers. So I just don't know what
you think that .... that we can offer you. Um, especially, uh.... given .... the other
demands on our.....on our times right now. I mean we've .... we've done the
research. We've looked at other codes. Um.....I.... I'm just not sure exactly how
to (laughs) how to ..... how to respond to the conversation as a whole I'm hearing.
If you wanna prevent that 738 Jefferson ... or I'm sorry, 938 E. Jefferson, um, we
can tell ya how, you know (laughs) we can give you some strategies on how to
prevent it. But we're also gonna tell ya, there's gonna be some probably
significant unintended consequences for .... for doing that. Um .... and the last
thing I'll remind you of is we just have a lot going on right now, particularly our
Planning staff. And .... we prioritize this because we had that .... we had a
moratorium period, so we spent a lot of time on it. Um, really over the last two or
three years, we have spent a significant amount of time on these core
neighborhood issues. I'm not saying we've got it perfect and I'm not saying there's
more work to be done, but there's a lot of other planning matters that need our
attention. Um, and those are all gonna suffer, um, if we keep pushing some of
these issues to the front of the line, and I've given some of you the example. It's
probably six or seven months ago, if not longer, that you all asked us to initiate a
planning study of the Northside Marketplace area. We don't .... we don't even have
a contract for that yet, because there's.... it's.... it's down on the list a little bit. So
I .... I know I sound like I'm just giving you all the reasons why we can't do this,
but the reality is is we have to prioritize and I think .... what I sense here is
that.... we're.... we're.....lettin' perfect be the enemy of good here. I think we've
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got a good set of solutions that we've recommended. Time'll tell, based on the...
the .... the type of development we see after the moratorium goes away. But I don't
know that these minor tweaks that you can do, that .... that you .... that we think we
can do to perhaps prevent another 938 Jefferson aren't gonna do much, you know,
aren't going .... are going to give us any more certainty, uh, going forward than
what we already offered ya.
Cole: I may be mis.... did we have, I mean we put the moratorium in place. Did .... I
don't remember having a work session though in terms of like an update in terms
of the general direction that staff was going, in terms of the recommendation.
Did .... did we have a work session where they sorta weighed in?
Fruin: Uh, well... during the establishment of the moratorium, you know, we set our goals
and we talked about exactly what we hoped would come of. ... of the discussions.
Then we had, uh, a couple of mee.... staff had a couple of meetings with the, uh,
landlord association and the realtor association. I think I informally updated ya
after .... after those meetings just to kinda let you know the path that we were
going down, but I don't recall the Council (several talking)
Cole: ....work session, so I don't know if I can speak, Jim, is that okay?
Throgmorton: Go ahead!
Cole: Okay. So I think to that point, I mean, I think I see Stan there and Jeff and
our .... our enforcement staff. This is an incredibly technical area. I get it. In
terms of parking requirements, sizes of bedrooms. It's very technical. However,
um, I also think it's the type of thing in terms of parking requirements, these sorts
of things. It's not so technical from a 10,000 -foot policy perspective that the
Council can at least weigh in, including I think some of the recommendations
we've got, how that smaller developers may be affected, as far as that goes. So at
least in terms of where I'm at, we originally had set a deadline of. ... of March 1st.
Um, we .... by statute! I think probably Eleanor could confirm this, even if we
wanted to, we would probably get sued the next day, and we would lose, because
we did not have the statutory authority to extend any moratorium beyond March
1st. Um .... so that was our original deadline, um, I am gonna be supportive of....
I'm gonna actually vote no, um, to allow us that initial time. Um, we do have a
tight scheduling window, but I think ultimately we should have had some sort of
work session to weigh in on this a little bit. And I think that the Council needs
that. I think to Thomas' points, he brought up very good points (mumbled) uh,
challenges, some of the problems. There may be some additional tweaks that can
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be made, um, but I think the Council should be able to weigh in on. So that's
gonna be at least my position.
Teague: So I think, um, the Mayor, he asked if we would, you know, delay of the vote to
allow people from the community and whomever to weigh in, and with actionable
types of, uh, solutions for meetin' the goals that the Council had set forth. Um,
Councilman Thomas, thank you so much. I think that you have, you know, kinda
cited some things that you think will kinda meet those goals. One of the .... and
there's other community members that have, you know, kinda chimed in, uh, with
some possible solutions, but some of. ... some of 'em aren't really specific enough
to get to the next point. When we look at what staff presented today as far as like
all the things that they've been doin' over the years, to kind of meet the goals that
we have with, you know, for the neighborhood, um, do we turn the dial up, or do
we turn the dial down? That is a question, um, that I think can still be asked.
Some of the things that is in Councilman Thomas, uh, you know it's long-term,
short-term, and that type stuff. I think, you know, we are here five meetin'.....
five meetins' away, is that what I gather? Well today included. (several
responding) From the end of the moratorium. I believe that .... we need to kinda
set an urgency for a solution. Um, Susan, uh....uh, Councilman Mims, just talked
about .... we can delay it. If we find someone comes with a solution, you know, on
the 24th and we're at the last final vote, we can delay it if it makes sense to allow
a little more time for that to play out however. So I think if we don't have the
urgency by voting yes tonight, then when March 1 st comes around, or the last
vote in Feb.... February, we'll be kinda where we are today. So for me I'm gonna
vote yes, but it really is to create this sense of urgency, so that if anyone has
anything that they wanna put on the table for this, and it's unfortunate that we
didn't think to have a, um, you know, kind of a memo and a work session or, you
know, a discussion and a work session just to get an update so that we can kinda,
urn .... discuss this. So I will vote for it, and I think, again, it's really to create that
sense of urgency for whomever has somethin', um, that they wanna bring forth. I
think, again, I....you know, when I read, um, some of the things that, uh, John
talks about, I think that there are some possible ways to put this in action.
Potentially. But I think that's workin' with staff and whomever else to try to figure
out how will this work. So .... again, I'm gonna vote yes, but I really think it's to
create this huge sense of urgency and I am hopeful that potentially, um, whatever
the change might be, that can help reach some of the, uh, Council goals will take
place between now and then. Obviously there are people that want to see
somethin' different within this neighborhood, but we can't also just hold the
neighborhood, you know, at....at bay, if we don't have actionable things that we
can set forth.
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Salih: You wanna (both talking)
Throgmorton: So .... so you're.... you're gonna vote yes on the motion to repeal the temporary
moratorium.
Teague: Yes.
Throgmorton: Pretty much like Susan suggested, right?
Teague: Right.
Throgmorton: And thinking, well it could be .... a future vote could be deferred if (both talking)
Teague: Absolutely!
Throgmorton: .... someone's come up with better approach. We need to be clear that we can't
expect the staff to come up on its own with abetter approach. The staff has
already worked on this for months and months and months and months, and
they've come up with what they think is the best .... uh, set of approaches... they
can possibly come up with, given the constraints imposed by the State legislature.
So my hope was that some members of the public would propose some ideas that
were, uh, outside the box that the staff was thinking of. And I don't mean that
critically of the staff, but outside that box, and that we could then say, oh, okay!
Well that's somethin' we need to look more carefully at. We have time to do it if
we get on it right now. But Geoffs right about, you know, there's no time in the
next two weeks really cause .... cause of the way human beings work around the
holiday season. And also he's right that the Council's gonna be really busy and
theirs brains are gonna be fried by dealin' with the budget and the capital
improvements plan, the strategic plan and electing a mayor and a mayor pro tem
and stuff like that. So it's had to see how there is enough time to process some
particular idea, and what we have before us is a whole set of (mumbled)
possibilities coming from, I don't know, seven or eight different sources. So,
somebody would have to sort through that and say, hey, here's one! (laughs) Or
here are two things that .... I think have potential merit. We gotta get on it, but the
constraints are intense. So, you know, I .... I'm feelin' like we are, uh, pretty much
....pretty much trapped by the March 1 st moratorium, by the other demands on
the staff, the other demands on the Council, the fact that the Planning and Zoning
Commission would have to be involved and that kind of thing. But, if somebody
can work more thoroughly on one or two specific ideas and bring'em to the
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Council at the second meeting in January and say, hey, how bout this (laughs) uh,
then you can, like you said Susan, either you could defer action on (mumbled)
moratorium.
Salih: I just wanna say.....you know, I believe the staff did whatever they can, just as our
Mayor said, and um.....when I just think about the people in Des Moines and they
are focusing on us as Iowa City, if we .... and they maybe this will make them
happy or not gonna come up with something else for us, but if we keep this and
the session will start in Des Moines soon, and maybe they just would like to come
up with something even aggressive you know than this. Uh, I ... I believe (unable
to understand) to really vote to end it today, but I wanna give (mumbled) to the
whole Council. Whether you end it today or you end it on the .... March 1 st, two
of you are not gonna be here next meeting. And we never know how the vote will
go. That's maybe completely....if we end it today, maybe the ... when the Council
come it would change or if we end it. If we make it go maybe it will change.
That's why I really recommend to defer it to next meeting.
Throgmorton: We .... we cannot ... end it tonight. This is first reading (several talking)
Salih: I understand! I understand! (unable to understand) and ending it tonight. That
what I meant. I know it take three week. We talk about it. It take like three
meeting to do it, but I mean like .... uh, I .... I just prefer to wait for .... and also
(mumbled) if we can defer it to January meeting, and between now and then let
the other people who come out and said no, don't do it until March, bring us some
idea, because we know that our staff .... is (mumbled) use all the ideas that they
can have and because (unable to understand) and all the busy time that the
Council will be, I just want to see somebody from the public, come and tell us you
should do this, this is work, and that's why we wanna continue, uh, I ... I really just
prefer to defer it again to January meeting. Uh, wait for the .... the other Council
to join, and we go from there. At that moment, if we have, uh, three, like four
vote (unable to understand) if not we will continue, but at least we gonna give
another like 15 days for the people who think this is should be (unable to
understand) on that day and .... that's what I think!
Mims: The only thing ... I just, as a quick response, Maz, to that. The reason I would
disagree is the new Council Members will still get their opportunity to vote. I
mean if we vote tonight and we vote yes in the majority to end the moratorium,
the new Councilors will still get a chance to vote in two of. ... in two votes, okay,
cause we have to do three readings. Secondly, if we defer it again, then from
what we've heard tonight, we have individuals with deadlines in early February
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that will lose out. So there is concrete damage that will occur to specific property
owners and potential purchases, and yet we don't know if there is any particular
benefit to deferring. And so I, again, I would encourage that we vote yes tonight.
If we hear some revelations or action that we feel we could really get done that it's
worth deferring or just letting it expire on March 1st, we still have that option.
But if not, we could still get it done before February I st, to keep some options
open for individuals who really wanna preserve some great old houses right next
to their own.
Throgmorton: Yeah.
Salih: I just think (unable to understand) end it on the 21 st of January or February 1 st. If
we defer it. And I still warm give those people chance, and uh, I .... I just wanna
see how the vote will go. Before I can say what I wanna do.
Throgmorton: Okay, we need to hear the thoughts of, uh, two other Councilpersons, in terms of
how you're gonna vote, but I ... I wanna, well, go ahead. You say what you're
gonna do.
Taylor: I was just gonna say that, uh, recently, uh, in the last month or so, we've heard a
lot about process in the Council and following process, and part of a process
is .... is setting something, setting dates for something and then sticking to that and
following that, and I go back again to the whole public trust thing. They.....they
trust us that we're going, we're setting this date for March (noises on mic) take
suggestions up until then, and also with all due respect, Mayor, I think, uh,
Council Member John Thomas offered several suggestions. He gave it a lot of
thought and did some research and did offer some suggestions in .... in that time
period that we gave him to come up with some suggestions. And I think, okay,
if. ... if nothing comes up between now and March and .... and then I....and with all
due respect to .... to the folks that are looking at those properties, uh, I ... I would
hope .... maybe there was something that we could do to, uh, to help them, uh....
(both talking)
Mims: (mumbled)
Taylor: ....I doubt if the dates there. So I apologize for that, but I just think you know if
you have the process in place you need to stick to it.
Dilkes: I .... I'd say just one thing to clarify the record. It was very clear when we put the
moratorium in place, in fact it resulted from a Council split at the time, that .... if
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possible we would end the moratorium early. So I think the record really (several
talking in background) to be clear about that.
Throgmorton: Yeah, there's no trickery going on here. (several talking) That was clearly stated.
Dilkes: So I don't (several talking)
Mims: ....maybe Maz. So....
Salih: Yeah. I want six months (several talking)
Throgmorton: Would any other Council Member want to address this? I think I'm hearing
(several talking) So John, you're clear about what you're gonna do.
Thomas: Yeah, and I just wanna say that I, you know, as I mentioned during the work
session, uh, I .... I, based on my research to this point, I think there are a couple of,
uh, elements that we could explore, based on, uh, readings of the Cedar Falls and
Ames code, which.... would not allow a seven bedroom, seven bath house to be
built, or to be the result of an addition. So I .... I prepared the memo essentially to
try to lay out a whole range of issues, um, that I think we need to pay attention to.
The one that's most pressing with respect to time has to do with .... trying to
constrain what's possible, urn ..... short of seven bedrooms, seven baths, and ... and
from what I saw on the Ames and Cedar Falls zoning, uh, you know, they would
not allow that. And so I .... I don't see this as being .... as I tried to frame my
memo, there are short and long-term issues here, some of which pertain precisely
to, uh, you know, the scenarios we were learning about, which would be to try to
incentivize improvements. I don't know if you recall that one, but um .... that, uh,
there .... these houses often do require considerable work and we need to reward
those people who, uh, elect to take on those challenges, without them doing the
work and then the City coming in and saying, well you improved the property.
Now I'm going to reassess you for having made those improvements, and this is
something many cities do in historic areas where, uh, houses have been neglected
and .... and the cost of improvements are significant. Uh, so I don't view this as
being a long, drawn out.....yes, if we were to look at all the issues, that .... that's a
lot, but I think in terms of the, um, the question of the moratorium, it .... it's a very
limited scope of investigation.
Throgmorton: Okay, so just to be clear. If the motion is defeated .... uh, which would keep the
March Ist deadline in place, it would be incumbent on advocates to do what they
can to strengthen one or more proposals.... in order to persuade other Council
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Members to support them, or if that can't be done then of course the March 1 st
deadline would come and the moratorium would expire. Uh, so it ... it's really
important to do that, if ...if the motion is defeated.
Mims: I would say, Jim, it's important to do that, even if the motion is not (both talking)
Throgmorton: Well you know I .... yeah, I agree. So I'm persuaded by your earlier argument. I'm
gonna vote yes on the motion, because I think it would be better to .... keep a sense
of motion moving ahead, knowing that it could be stopped, the motion to, uh,
terminate (several talking) could be stopped on the (mumbled) whatever the first
meeting is in January, it could be stopped on the third.....
Mims: Right!
Throgmorton:...... meeting, or the third vote (mumbled) January. In either case, it will be
necessary for advocates to strengthen one or more proposals. Um, so .... I think
that's where we're at.
Salih: I just wanna say something. It's clear to me now, three people, without me count,
three people (unable to understand) continue and what I, my understanding from
Geoff, if, uh, the end it is felt and the continue there (unable to understand) right?
Mims: If we vote it down there's not another vote.
Salih: There is not another vote, but if we ... vote it yes it will continue, right? No, hold
on. Let me put my thought together.
Throgmorton: Sure!
Salih: If now we said .... we are not going to end it, we don't need to have three different
meeting, right? It just done. But if we vote it no, we gonna have three meeting.
Tbrogmorton: It'd be tonight's vote and one of the (several talking)
Salih: ....you know if I .... if I voted yes to continue, this is ... this is will continue and we
are not going to have any another meeting. And I really .... I really want to end it
now, but I want the other Council to be in next meeting. That's why I'm propose
again to defer it. You guys wanna defer it or you wanna continue?
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Mims: I'm not sure that the .... I'm not sure I'm understanding the way you're explaining
it. I'm not clear. The way you're understanding it, the way you're explaining it,
I'm not sure that you're (both talking)
Salih: ....explain it again.
Mims: The way .... the way I'm understanding it, Maz, is if we vote yes, that is the first of
three votes to end the moratorium early. And so we would have to have two more
votes, which the new Councilors.... could vote on, and we could defer either one
of those if we so chose. If we vote no on the motion in front of us, then it's done
and the moratorium will stay in place until March 1 st, and there's no option to
reconsider.
Salih: Yes, and .... and I don't want that to happen.
Mims: ...so you need to vote yes tonight....
Thomas: Well, one....one.... for me this, if ...if there aren't the votes to .... to let it play out
till March, urn .... you know, I would .... I would support Maza's suggestion of, uh,
deferring. We could always collapse the readings, you know.
Mims: Yeah, but we never .... we don't usually ever collapse readings on anything that's
been controversial. That's been the history of this Council for the 10 years that
I've been on here. We do not collapse when it's been controversial. To me it
makes more sense to vote yes tonight, knowing that we might want to defer the
second or third reading to give more time, which might mean that we end up at
March 1 st before the moratorium expires (several talking)
Salih: You don't have enough support for that, Susan. Then it is better to defer it than
make it, you know (several talking)
Throgmorton: The thing is, it .... (both talking)
Dilkes: If I could just offer a clarification.
Throgmorton: Yeah.
Dilkes: If you wanna keep as many options open as you can, you will vote yes.
Salih: Yes.
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Throgmorton: That's the way it seems to me, as well. I mean I don't see what we get from
deferring tonight (several talking) Yeah.
Dilkes: Unless you really wanna kill .... the whole idea of ending the moratorium early.
Throgmorton: And even if one wanted, even if one voted tonight and it passed, the Council still
could choose to defer later on on a specific vote, if it .... if it (several talking)
Yeah. Okay, I .... I think we're pretty clear on this (laughs) I hope that's the case
anyhow. It, uh.... so if we vote yes .... all that does is move it forward to the
meeting in, first meeting in January. There's another vote. If that vote is yes, it
moves forward to the second meeting in January. If that vote is yes, it passes, the
moratorium goes away. If it, if the vote is no during the first meeting in January,
then that motion's dead. If it votes no, if the vote is no in the second meeting in
January, the motion is dead.
Salih: I understand that, Jim. But .... I .... I don't want to vote tonight, really! If there is
an option like that, I will do it, but there is no option, because I really want the
people to have .... one more, two week to decide. So we can start ending it next
week, next meeting I mean. And now .... if you guys, if you three .... like three of
you said no, you are three, and if I said yes with those people because I wanna
give people more time instead of give them only two week, we gonna give them
till March. You understand where I'm coming from? That's why I would like to
propose to defer it, so next meeting .... I wanna vote no on it, next meeting, after I
give people like chance to come up with ideas.
Dilkes: Can I make a suggestion? The motion to defer takes priority of the motions on
the floor. So do you wanna see what happens with the motion to defer, put it on
the floor, vote on it, and then you can move on to a yes or (both talking)
Throgmorton: Fair enough! So what we would need (mumbled) Maz, excuse me (laughs) is a
mo .... for you to say that you move that we defer action on this motion till the first
meeting in January.
Salih: Yes, I move to defer this action to the first meeting of January.
Throgmorton: Okay. Is there a second?
Cole: I'd second the motion.
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Throgmorton: Seconded by Cole. Okay, so now we're going to discuss that, that motion (several
talking)
Dilkes: Let's be clear about what we're voting on. If you vote, um, to defer, then we're
done. If you vote no to deferral, then you're moving on to a yes or no vote
(mumbled)
Salih: Sure.
Throgmorton: I'm sorry, say that again.
Dilkes: If you vote yes to defer, we're done with this item for the night. It's deferred.
Throgmorton: Yeah.
Dilkes: If you vote no to defer, then you're moving on to vote, a vote of yes or no on the
mor .... on the ordinance.
Throgmorton: Yeah. Okay..
Teague: I do have a comment. Again, I think, urn .... and I hear what you're sayin', as far as
allowin' the other Councilors, and .... and I (both talking)
Salih: Not only that. Allowing people (both talking)
Teague: Oh absolutely! Absolutely! I ... again, for me, I believe that if we vote yes tonight,
it would create this sense of urgency, for solutions to be, you know, discovered,
talked about with staff. John had some great things that I think can be explored,
but it does create a sense of urgency. So, um, and with the option of still bein'
able to defer later, so tonight I'm gonna not support the deferment, but .... if people
come with solutions, um, then .... and it's viable solutions, that will compel me to
defer, I will defer at a later date. So tonight I will (both talking)
Throgmorton: Bruce ... Bruce, and all of us, the problem is, I don't think there are four votes in
favor of. ... voting.....uh, against tonight. There's not ..... there are not four votes in
favor of voting (both talking)
Teague: So .... okay so.....
Salih: That's why I wanted to defer it!
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Mims:
Teague:
Salih:
Teague:
Salih:
Teague:
Well .... (several talking)
Yes, so one thing .... so let me just make sure. So if the deferral don't happen, then
you're gonna vote no potentially.
I'm gonna (mumbled)
You're gonna vote to keep the moratorium until March 1 st.
I wanna give people chance.
Okay, so I'm gonna support the, urn ..... I'm gonna support the deferral.
Throgmorton: All right, I ... any other, any other comments on the motion to defer to the first
meeting in January? I don't think it's the best solution, but I think it's the only
way we're going to get to four.
Cole: I'd support that.
Throgmorton: Me too. I think I just counted four, so .... yeah, uh.... so we should proceed to a
roll call. (several talking) Voice vote, okay. So all in favor of deferring this item
to the January, first meeting in January say aye. All opposed say... same sign.
Motion carries 5-2 it sounds like to me. I .... I didn't hear ya, John, but (both
talking)
Thomas: (mumbled)
Throgmorton: Yeah. Okay. Motion carries 5-2. Alrighty! That was easy.
Fruin: Can we just clarify, uh (laughter) with all that. Is there anything that you're
expecting of staff for the next meeting? On this topic.
Throgmorton: I think it would be helpful if the staff could go through what we have received up
till now from John, from.... Sara, from Austin, from a few other residents, and
exclude items that are illegal or .... um.....we've already.... we're already doing.
(talking in background) Get them off the table, and then hopefully other Council
Members will focus attention on one or two possible actions.
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Salih: And can I just add that if you could reach out to the Northside (mumbled)
association so they, if they have something they can bring it, and also if you reach
out to Affordable Housing Coalition, if they have something so they can bring it
during that time.
Mims: I mean I think those people are already well aware. I don't think it's worth staffs
time, I mean John's been (several talking)
Salih: Just reminder (unable to understand) it's only one association (laughs) If you can
do that, that will be great.
Thomas: (both talking) I'm happy to meet with.....Eleanor, if you'd like to meet and look at
some of the .... these potential opportunities. Geoff, uh, you know, so we can look
at them more carefully.
Dilkes: Can I ... can I clarify one thing? There are a number of ...of suggestions that have
been made that are more incentive, policy, etc. Those are long-term things that
are not gonna happen anyway in this ... in this period.... can't, I would suggest
maybe we focus on the regulatory, um, proposals that have been made (both
talking)
Thomas: Yeah (several responding)
Salih: Yeah. I think that's true.
Throgmorton: Okay, could I have a motion to accept correspondence from several named
individuals, which I won't name?
Mims: So moved.
Salih: Second.
Throgmorton: Moved by Mims, seconded by Salih. All in favor say aye. Opposed. Motion
carries.
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14. Community Comment
Throgmorton: Austin, did you want to say anything?
Wu: So this week, uh, hello again! Austin Wu, UISG City Liaison. Um, this week,
um, is the last week of the fall 2019 semester, which means it's finals. So, uh,
good luck to everyone and congratulations to all students who are graduating this
year. Uh, but also I'd like to say a couple words to the retiring City Council
Members. So, Mayor Throgmorton and Councilor Cole, uh, thank you for your
service and it's been an honor to work with you the past year and a half. Uh, I
remember the very first City Council meeting I actually it was .... I attended here,
actually the first City Council meeting I was at, I had ever been to, um, over
Thanksgiving break of 2017. Uh, I think it's fitting that both the first and last City
Council meetings, uh, in your presence have involved the rental permits and the
impact zone, and (laughs) that issue. Uh, it was, I think it was the first
consideration for the rental caps. But, uh, I think it's fitting that the issue was
sandwiched.... from both ends. So that's all I have. Thanks!
Throgmorton: Yeah, that's a tricky topic (laughter) Thanks, Austin.
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15. City Council Information
Throgmorton: We could start with somebody, let me think now. Who's that person gonna be?
It's like drawing at random here, uh..... sorry. Yeah, so let's start with John and
move to the right.
Thomas: Uh, so ... I don't have any .... any other information other than, um .... it's been great
fun working with you and Rockne, and uh, miss you both. Um (clears throat) uh,
yeah, you both .... both have done great work and um, you know, Jim, I will
certainly miss working with you, but I think maybe miss walking home (laughter)
at least as much, I guess I should say. Uh, I .... I doubt that there will be many
times on Council when two Councilors walk home from .... from their, uh, our
formal meeting. So, uh, anyway. Certainly enjoyed working with you and
(mumbled) conversation, and Rockne, um, I don't know who's gonna carry the
torch on community (laughter) We'll all take a stab at it.
Cole: We'll see!
Thomas: Uh, love your oratory. Suppose we'll.....perhaps you'll have a soap box down at
Black Hawk Mini Park, I don't know (laughter)
Cole: I'll need somewhere to talk (mumbled) platform!
Mims: Well usually at this time we talk about certain things that we've been doing or that
are coming up, etc., but given that this is the last night, um, for the two of you,
just want to say, um, you know, congratulations on a chance to have served the
community, you know, on the City Council. A lot of people try it and don't get
that opportunity. So congratulations and thank you. I think we've probably all,
um, learned a lot from each other. We've agreed, we've disagreed, um, we've
tried to keep it pretty professional and respectful, I think, most of the time, and
just wish you the best! Thanks for your time!
Tbrogmorton: Pauline?
Taylor: I echo sentiments, and of course I gave my comments earlier in the ... with the
presentation. So, uh, I'll just .... I'll move along here. Uh, Jim had mentioned the,
um, quarter, uh, Visitors Bureau luncheon, uh, earlier and the Bravo Awards and,
uh, it was a wonderful.... wonderful luncheon and great crowd, and of course all
the awardees were well deserved, but I was especially happy to see Angie Jordan,
uh, receive her award. She's done so much for the South District Neighborhood
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Association. So congratulations to her. Um, John failed to mention last Friday,
December 13th — yes, Friday the 13th — uh, he and I were sworn in, thank you
very much, Kellie, for being so professional and .... and getting that accomplished
for us before the State deadline of. ... of being sworn in. And then, uh, recently,
this Monday, uh, I had the pleasure of, uh, attending the, uh, staff soup luncheon
that was benefit of the Severson Challenge, uh, for those of you who don't know
about that it's a .... um, challenge that's done every year between the surrounding
municipalities — Coralville, North Liberty, and Iowa City, as well as the Board of
Supervisors, uh, to, uh, benefit, uh, non -profits in the area, and each .... each group
is challenged to raise more than they did the year before. Uh, but I ... .I was
pleased, I was sitting at a table with, uh, some employees and .... and they said, oh
yeah, it'd be great to win the award this year, to do better than we did last year,
but .... but they just enjoy the opportunity to be able to ... to help people out and to
donate, and that just warmed my heart and I thought I .... I know we work with a
great bunch of people, but to hear them say that and .... and that it wasn't all about
winning, it was just in participating. That .... that was really great. So kudos to...
to all of our employees, and hopefully we'll do well and hopefully we win. I'm
recalling that back in the day, and I don't know if he still does it, that, uh, Terry
Dickens, since he was a jeweler had, uh, volunteered to polish.... polish the
trophy, so maybe if we win maybe we can get him to do that for us again this year
(noises on mic) (laughter) Hello, Terry, if you're watching there, but we miss you.
Uh.... so, uh, then just on a final note, just happy holidays to everybody, whether
it's Hanukkah or Christmas or Kwanzaa and of course Happy New Year and of
course good luck to the Hawkeyes at the Holiday Bowl!
Teague: Great. Um, a few things happened. I attended the Johnson County, um,
Empowerment Early Childhood, um, Zero to Five, um, it's the .... it's actually, it
was one of their board meetings, where they open it up to the public, and that was,
uh, just interestin' to hear some things that are happening, um, with the,
throughout the state. Um, they had a guest speaker from Des Moines come in and
that was very insightful. I did get to go to the Bravo Awards, and I think many of
the Councilors here today, um, and that was phenomenal to see all of the
awardees, so congrats to all of them, and I would also echo a special congrats to
our South District Ambassador, Angie Jordan. Um, I attended the Oakdale
Community, um .... choir, which was awesome and amazin'! It was my first time,
uh, attending. I had been invited before, you know how .... you go to some things
and some things you just don't, um ....... go to, either you're busy or you need
somebody to actually say come, come. And so I went, and it was phenomenal.
Um, it was very powerful because you had people from the Iowa City and
surrounding community along with inmates singin' in this choir, and it was very,
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very, urn .... it was amazin'. That's all I can tell you, um, and then I did get a
chance to speak at the Chamber Leadership Program, um, it was government day
and that happened at the Coralville City Hall, and that was phenomenal just to be
thereto talk to all of the, I'll call 'ern 'graduates,' uh, from that program. I .... I
saved the last, uh, the best for last, and is really to tell Councilor Cole and Mayor
Jim Throgmorton, thank you for all that you've done. Um, I think that, you know,
bein' a Councilor, um, people don't realize some of the .... some of the thought
processes that you have to go through to make the decisions. Um, you make it
look easy. You really do. I've been up here 14 months and I can tell you that
when I've reached out to either one of you or you've done it, uh, in reverse, um,
the .... the time that you've taken with me as an individual to kinda help me
understand it all, um, and even challenge my thought processes, uh, both for the,
you know, with the yays and the nays on .... on the decisions that are bein' made, I
appreciate that, and so thank you, and I know the sacrifices that you've made, not
only, um, to be a part of the community and navigate with the community, but
also with your personal families. So I appreciate that and thank you for all that
you've done, and I wish you the best in all of your new endeavors.
Cole: Thank you so much, Bruce.
Salih: Yeah, I just wanna report that we had, uh, meeting at the Center for Worker
Justice where we give the Mayor award for all his services. And speaking about
that, I just wanna start by thanking both of you. Uh, and uh, I really like to
mention that .... like both of you are really.... become a very involved with the
whole community, especially the immigrants community, and when it come to
Jim, I guess for the first time I see immigrants people know who the Mayor of
Iowa City. Really! They know by name, you know, maybe like .... and they
remember your name. They know your face because you been very involved.
Uh, you have been just .... I admire you being reaching out to all the community,
and uh, this is ... this is was really amazing, and uh.... uh, everyone (unable to
understand) you are leaving, uh, as well as (mumbled) get award from various
immigrant organizations, which is, uh, you know, they are following you very
close and I didn't see that happening before, which is great, and I hope our next
mayor will be doing, follow your footstep in that, and Rockne, you almost been
(unable to understand) deciding now whether (unable to understand) (laughter)
uh, because you been like really well known for those like Center for Worker
Justice (unable to understand) refugees and, you know, Congolese and (unable to
understand) community, which is ... beside of course the amazing job that both of
you doing at the Council level, and I don't wanna repeat all the thing that people
said, but I (unable to understand) and I would like just to highlight those. Okay,
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reporting where we been on the ... I haven't had a chance to go to Des Moines for
the mobile home, you know, legislative and uh, a lot people (unable to
understand) people from different mobile home community, they show up there
and I guess they are working on this and this is really great. Uh, also.... nothing
else, but I wanna remind everyone about the.... Thursday at 4:00 we gonna have
two new Council Members swearing in and everybody is invited to come and just
(unable to understand) historical, you know, uh, moment for them. And .... other
than that, nothing coming up in my agenda. Thank you.
Cole: Well I guess I'll give a small update on the Mobile Home Task Force. We are
gonna do essentially a conference call this Thursday at 11:00 and we are gonna
follow up with some of the people from Rock USA. Um, that is something I think
I'm going to continue to be involved with. I did want to give you an update on
that. Um, so this is my final opportunity to address the community of Iowa City,
as well as the Council table. Um, as a politician, uh, so I do have the floor, and I
promise I'll be short. Um, you know, my first memory of the City of Iowa City
was for like a lot of people throughout the state of Iowa was through Hawkeye
football games. Uh, my grandfather had season tickets to the Iowa Hawkeyes
since the 40s, and so every fall we'd have the opportunity to go to the City of
Iowa City, and a lot of times what we would do is we would go to City Park, get
the roast beef sandwiches from the Amana, and walk our way up to the stadium.
On the calmer days we would go to the old quadrangle cafeteria, and I just
thought that was the coolest thing to be able to go to the quadrangle cafeteria, get
some food and go to the game. And then drive home. You know, of course we
always hoped to get a Hawkeye, uh, sweatshirt and just sort of soak up this
beautiful city, that really does represent our state as a whole, and you know
growing up as a kid in the 80s, never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I'd
have the opportunity, um, to not only live in the city of Iowa City, I mean
sometimes you forget, you know, some of the controversies we've had that people
have moved here, whether it's the Kinnick House or other ones. For a lot of
people this is like coming to Disney World, right? This is exciting. When you
come to Iowa City, it's different than other places, even other college towns, and I
think sometimes in the day-to-day, when we live here every single day, on our ped
mall, we sort of forget how truly, to quote Bruce, awesome and amazing the City
of Iowa City as .... is, and never in my wildest dream did I ever think that I would
have an opportunity to serve, you know Susan mentions a lot of people try to
serve on the Council. It really is a true honor, uh, to be able to serve here. You
know, one of the things that I love about Iowa City is everyone is so smart. And
they keep you on your toes, and if they think you are wrong, they will let you
know, but they will do it in such an eloquent and persuasive way that you just,
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you're just amazed at how smart and intelligent they are, and I'm glad that Thomas
Agran was actually able to speak tonight, because when I think of people writing,
I just think oh my gosh, Thomas you are so smart! He almost persuaded me
tonight, but .... but not quite. Uh, so it has been a real pleasure, and I think really,
um, people always ask me about the challenges. It has been challenging to
balance a full-time practice, as well as Council service, but it also has been ... for
me it's always been very enjoyable. You know, after a long day at work, dealing
with federal judges, federal prosecutors, to be able to come here and decide the
future of the Iowa City, um, with our staff, I mean, and the technical expertise.
You know one of the things before I got in Council, you know, when you .... when
you're in the public you get one view of how the City works, and so I sort of
wanted to match up whether my view sort of comported with what actually
happened on the inside. And when I got that view, I think the public should just
be amazed at how talented and skillful our staff are in terms of the day-to-day
things that they do, that you never see. You know a lot of times they joke about,
you know, what happens underneath our streets, you know, we're gonna support
whatever staff recommends (laughs) uh, all the different things that go into
making this city truly work, and that takes people at the council table, that takes
our community members. I always viewed our community members as a partner
in .... in really making good decisions. And our non -profits. I mean people like
Sara Barron and .... and our Affordable Housing. I think a lot of what we have
achieved in affordable housing is not really what we've done, but it's the technical
expertise that our staff has had, coupled with this infrastructure that we have in
the non-profit community. So we have Laura and Janice coming on board. I'm
really pleased that I think we're going to be able to keep forward in some of those
initiatives. I'm hoping we can get a community garden.... maybe John'll be the
community garden advocate, right? We actually tried to get one up in Reno Park,
you know, six years ago. We didn't get there, but now we got one. So maybe that
will be John's role. Um, but it really has been a pleasure. Um, I'm gonna sort of
for (mumbled) for a little while, and uh, let the Council sort of take shape and I
won't even weigh in too often. So I think the new Council sort of needs a fresh
start, develop their policy, and so I just really wanna thank the City of Iowa City
and all of you for making every single one of my meetings a true honor and joy,
and particularly the Mayor. Um, I have learned so much from Jim Throgmorton,
you know, one of the things I was joking about, uh, before we actually got here, I
said you know I think I have a few redeeming characteristics. But you know you
probably wouldn't want four or five Rockne Coles up here, right (laughs) You...
you need a Susan, you need a Jim, you need a Pauline, you need, you know, you
need a Bruce, you need a Maz, you need really a team of people that bring
something unique and I think for the Mayor, you've really helped our community
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navigate some incredibly difficult issues. Um, you've always said it in a calm
and respectful way, uh, you've been a big mentor to me and I've really appreciated
that. I .... I (mumbled) I do have a bigger personality (mumbled) little bit, and I
think I've really learned a lot from you in terms of how really to effectively
promote the issues that you care about. So looking forward to your continued
leadership in a different capacity and, um, you know, here's to a new Council, and
new opportunities for this community. Thank you very much! (applause)
Throgmorton: Oh, gosh, I guess it's my turn. Uh.... I first got on this Council in .... late
November, no, mid-November of 1993. And served for two years and two
months after that, and now in this eight-year term, have, uh, along with Susan,
participated in 200 or more meetings, and as Mayor, 100 or more meetings. Um,
it's a challenge bein' a mayor (laughs) I'll tell ya. It's .... tryin' to ... manage our
meetings are really hard. But nonetheless, uh, 100 or so meetings, and .... I had a
wonderful meeting this, uh, earlier this afternoon with senior staff, you know,
Geoff and Eleanor and Simon, Ashley, Chief Matherly, Kellie, uh.... uh, it .... they
are so good. You don't have .... well you do, you have a good idea of how lucky
you are. They are just so good at their jobs. And they work really hard. So....
always remember that, even though you might disagree about this or that with any
one of them, uh, they're.... they're really good. But I don't have any notes in front
of me. I know some of you make fun of me for taking extensive notes. I don't
have any, so I gotta wing it here. Um .... Maz.....uh, it has been a great pleasure
getting to know you, and dancing with you! Good grief at that, the Sudanese
Association event, nor was it the (both talking) Oh that was so much fun, to
suddenly be up there dancin' around, uh, to the Congolese music I guess it was.
What a treat that was, and you know that you've inspired me to read that book
about, uh, about (mumbled) which I have finished. It's a long book, but it is....
really an eye-opener for me. I .... and it's only one book, but I feel like I've learned
so much more about the Sud ... or Sudanese population than I ever could possibly
know and you gave me a pathway into that. And, uh, you have so much passion
that you bring to bear on your work, and you know, sparks fly, and.... sometimes
as a result of that passion, and so be it! You know, it, uh, as Rockne said .... uh,
it ... in effect in the end it's about working together as a team, and sometimes you
need somebody with a lot of sparks to give ya a kick in the butt to .... to actually
focus attention and get somethin' done. Okay, and then other people might
disagree and then you have the sparks, okay? But it's been really a treat working
with you on that. Bruce, it's been fun getting to know you, and I think in
particular of one wonderful event that you and I participated in at the Mayor's
Innovation Project in ... where was that (several talking) Washington. Yeah,
Washington, D.C. So, urn .... uh, at....at one point I walked over to one of the
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organizers, who is now the mayor of Madison, Wisconsin, and said would it be
okay if I ask Bruce Teague, new Council Member, to sing, uh, because he's really
good, and they .... she laughed and .... and agreed it'd be okay. So I introduced
Bruce and he sang'You Are My Sunshine.' My only sunshine! You make me
happy when skies are gray. You did it perfectly, like you're very good at, and
then you segued into some other song, I don't remember what it was, and you
know, you have such a joyous spirit. It's pretty contagious. So .... it's been great
experiencing that. And Nurse Nancy (laughter) um, this is a private joke sort of,
uh, Pauline and John and I took part in some event organized from some
professors at Kirkwood, and in that event we were asked to sort of self -identify
ourselves. John identified himself as .... (talking in background) The Green Man!
(several talking and laughing) The Green Man, uh.... yeah, Pauline identified
herself as Nurse Nancy, and I identified myself as Red Hawk, after the red hawks
that sail high and see far. Kind of pretentious, but there you are. (laughs) And,
you know, so it was really fun to do that with you, and see your .... lively spirit
itself, and watching you change in the way you take notes too is, you k now,
um... uh, when you first got here on this Council you didn't have any notes and
then gradually you started taking more and more and you came in with notes
(mumbled) you know had prepared much more. Now you prepare really
thoroughly and it's like.....over a period of time you've learned how to do that
really, uh, jack up your game so to speak. And I love your granddaughter. As
Geoff knows, she colors in our mayor meetings, meetings with the mayor pro tem,
and Geoff has all the right gear. Brings out the colored pencils, brings out the
paper and .... and there she goes. She has a great time. So it's been a real joy.
Susan, again, sparks flying, you know! We certainly had difficulties in the earlier
days of, uh, of this (mumbled) group of Councilpeople, um, but I think in
retrospect that was really very productive because it....it kept us engaged with,
uh, major concerns you have, which have to do with the financial stability of the
City, which have to do with connections with the development community, which
have to do with other things that you care about a lot, and all that great work
you've been doin' on the behavioral health access center or whatever it eventually
will be called, and I .... I think it's really crucial to have that kind of conflict in
order to see, uh, where differences lie and see ways in which to kind of navigate
those differences or maybe reconcile them, you know, in certain kinda ways, and I
think we've done that. So it's been really fun goin' through that process with you.
Uh.... John, I'm tired of walking home with you. I don't think I'll do that anymore
(laughter) You know it's good exercise and everything, but sometimes it's eight
degrees outside (laughter) and sometimes there's a lot of ice and snow and not so
much fun, and sometimes it's raining really hard and .... I'm done with it! (laughs)
But you're absolutely right. (mumbled) having been privy to these conversations,
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but we always just kinda walk home, same pace and try to avoid getting hit by
cars and stuff, and then it's .... and we had lots of conversations for, I don't know,
two or three years before you got on the Council too and it's really been a pleasure
and uh, obviously are simpatico about a lot of things, and not so much on some
other things, but.... perfect, I mean that's the way it should be. Rockne! You
should play football. I'm serious!
Cole: (laughs)
Throgmorton: You should be a, you know, a 65" (mumbled) you should be the Gronk on (both
talking) you know, you're.... you're a big solid guy with clear values, and like John
says, you are, uh, at heart an orator, and you bring it to bear when your passion is
there. You wear it on your sleeve big time and I'm happy to hear you say you
think you've learned something from being in this experience, cause I see a
difference, and I think it's probably been really good for ya. But ya gotta lot of
rock solid moral principles, and you bring'em to bear, and that's really crucial.
Bravo to you. Yeah, so I don't know, that's enough probably, but if anybody's
watching on television, I wanna say just how much I have enjoyed and benefited
from serving you as the Mayor of Iowa City for the past four years. It's been a
great experience and a deep honor for me personally. I'll never forget it, even
though I tell everybody the last four years has gone ... just like that (snaps fingers)
Okay, I'm done! (applause)
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16. Report on Items from City Staff.
a. City Manager
Throgmorton: Geoff?
Fruin: Just on behalf of staff, thank you, uh, to both of you. Uh, not only for your
leadership but for genuinely caring about the well-being of staff, uh, that ... that
means a lot, and you both would, uh, frequently ask, you know, how are staff
doin' and...and, uh, you know, at these meetings and other forums, uh, express
your appreciation for .... for their hard work and that ... that means a lot. So thank
you. Um, for me personally, uh, you're part of the Council that hired me and
that's something that I'll certainly never forget, and I want to thank you for that
opportunity. It's something that I will be forever grateful for, uh and my family
will be as well. Um, it's a pleasure, and then last thing I wanna mention just
staring up at the strategic plan goals, it's really been the strategic plan goals for...
for your entire term and I hope you're as proud as I am of the accomplishments
that the City has, uh, been able to,um, achieve, uh, under your leadership, and
what's... what's even better about those individual accomplishments that we could
rattle off is that the way you did it set the foundation for us to continue to build on
those seven goals going forward, and that speaks volumes to just how you
approached those issues. So, uh, thank you and, uh, hopefully you'll continue to
see some of that good work continue in the future here.
Monroe: I agree completely with Geoffs comments but I wanted to just say thank you very
much for your service, your time, um, you've done a very fine job. Both of you.
Thank you.
b. City Attorney
Dilkes: Um, I agree with Geoffs comments as well. You've certainly made me feel my
age on occasion (laughs) make my brain work really hard to accomplish some of
the things that you want to accomplish, but they say that's a good thing when
you're advancing in age, to (laughs) make your brain work. So, um, I thank you
both for your service. I wish you well and, um. .... (mumbled)
C. City Clerk
Fruehling: This is what happens when you're last. Um, ditto to everything that staff has said.
Um, thank you very much for making the transition.... smoother for me, um, I had
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big shoes to fill. I'm still workin' on it so ... I appreciate everything you both have
done.
Salih: Yeah! Kellie said something (several talking and laughing)
Throgmorton: Very good. Austin, thanks to you too. It's been a pleasure serving with you, and
with Charlotte, and I'm sure she'll do great in the coming year, and all the other
student liaison who came before you, it's been an extraordinary set of
undergraduates who've been working with us.
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