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Home My WebLink About2020-02-11 Council minutesr CITY OF IOWA CITY MEMORANDUM Date: February 11, 2020 To: Mayor and City Council From: Kellie Fruehling, City Clerk Re: Council Work Session, February 11, 2020, 7:00 PM Second Floor Ballroom, Iowa Memorial Union Council: Bergus (absent), Mims, Salih (absent), Taylor, Teague, Thomas, Weiner Staff: Fruin, Dilkes, Fruehling, Hightshoe, Laverman, Brotherton, Wilch (A summary from the University Iowa Student Government is attached.) the following student priorities: • Housing affordability and quality • Waste Management, composting in multifamily housing units • Expanding public transit options and bicycle infrastructure • Safety concerns (deadbolts on rental units, street lighting and snow removal) • Student perceptions of planned development at 12 E. Court Adjourn 8:42 p.m. �pjRs17'), 4 F 0 cy��FD f LD•ti/ University of Iowa Student Government STUDENT SENATE SESSION February 11', 2020 A.) Call to Order (7:00) B.) Quorum Call — Roll Call C.) Public Access (40 minutes) ✓ City Council, UISG, GPSG Joint Meeting ■ Discussion of student priorities - Senator Heid: In terms of waste management, I was really interested in the compost- ing in the multifamily housing units. I am interesting to see if there is any considera- tion for a place for people to take their compost to make a universal composting area. o Jane: In terms of composting or organic drop box site, we have one at the Iowa City landfill facility. The reason why we don't have a public drop site, is because of the concern for contamination. At the landfill we are able to con- trol the contamination. o Senator Heid: For students without the ability to travel and specific hours where drop box is not accessible, that's why I'm interested. Thank you for your response and I do know that contamination is a concern. o Jane: Again, we are very open to any ideas about what we can do for the pro- gram and how - Senator Barron: My question is on transit. Is there any way to help students who are low-income to go ride the bus for free or any way to include more route so I feel safer in the city? o Mayor: Your question is one that is being asked and we are doing a public transit audit and we are going to get the results by the summer. We are look- ing at a lot of o Kaser: I just wanted to highlight and echo her concern. Because I am in stu- dent orgs that do get out late and it is hard and dangerous to get home after the buses stop. - President Mills: Can Iowa City just pass an ordinance? o We do have an ordinance that requires certain statements that need to be made, but the law restricts our ability to dictate the relationship between ten- ant and landlord so that is the problem we run into. - Senator Verry: I know there has been rules changed where each unit needs to have its own locking system. I know there are many buildings are not secure, I was wondering if there is a place for us to report that? o So, the ordinance only covers individual units not the whole building. It de- pends on how the building is advertised and many are not advertised as se- cure. There is an app where you can you can report an issue. - Senator: I know there was something put in place for affordable housing but there are criteria that does not fit students is there something that you're doing in order to help students with affordable housing? o There are certain criteria that students can actually fit into, but it is more diffi- cult. Some of the ordinances are federally placed rather than city so there is no way to get around that. Dexter: I think the thing that I hear from my constituents is how is sidewalk and park- ing lot snow removal is monitored? o We respond on a complaint basis. It is a difficult thing to respond to because there are multiple steps to notify the landlord after the first time. We do have to give them 24hrs before we can go in and remove the snow. Also, if the snow is not there naturally, we cannot remove it. o One thing I might add in relationships to students who are responsible for their own snow removal. I think some students don't understand that they are responsible, and it needs to be communicated better. o As students I think it is really important to think about the snow and have a clear understanding of who is actually responsible for clearing the snow. Ulti- mately, I think being aware of what your responsibilities are and reading your contract when signing. o Something that I have been hearing a lot of having people checking the web- site. With the people that I I wanted to bring up lighting in some of the Iowa City areas. Is there anywhere for us to bring up these concerns? o We have been having a lot of conversation with the student governments. The lighting is by the utility company not by the city, but we are happy to work with them. The best thing to do is to contact Austin with the locations of con- cern so he can relay that information back to us. - Senator Muller: I wanted to know what is being done for bike safety and bike roads? o We are making lots of improvement and have a bike master plan for the city, and we are continuously making progress for making new bike paths. We would also love to hear about what you think. ■ Discussion of student perceptions of planned development at 12 E. Court - Senator Correa: My first question is, is the building going to actually built or are we just debating on whether or not to grant the height?? o It's whether to grant the height but also there is no guarantee that the building will actually be built. - Senator Harvey: What is the demographic that they are targeting? o This is going to be mostly marketed toward students and I know that they are going to build it to appeal to students. - Senator Haggerty: What sustainability requirements does this building meet? Also, how will a 15 -story luxury building will help with Iowa City's climate crisis? - Senator Doungkeo: Do we have a projection of how this will affect rent across Iowa City? o We don't require them to submit a market analysis and projection. But right now, we have seen really low vacancy rates so that is why rent has been so high. We are hoping that eventually if there is a large supply so rent will be able to decrease. - Senator Ariana: I do have a concern with the noise because Voxman is a music build - mg. o We are going to help as much as we can but there is not a lot we can do to minimize the effect of noise. - Senator Slater: You mentioned that there is nothing about sustainability in the pro- posal. Is there something the city can do to push more sustainability? o Yes, there is a bonus that the city can put onto the development to make it more sustainable. - Senator Hamstreet: What are the city's laws on this? Is there a conversation about how students don't want this and to not grant the building? o We will be at city hall on Tuesday and it is on the agenda. We would encour- age you to come in on Tuesday and voice your concern. I think it will be good - Senator Heid: I am from Iowa City and I've noticed that in the past 3 years there have been in influx of new development. Are these projects that are being proposed the fu - tare of Iowa City? o We learned that Iowa City does not actually have a lot of developments that tailor to students. There has been a national trend for these kinds of develop- ments to happen and it's just coming into our market. - Senator Koman: Is there any talk about controlling what is affordable housing? o I do believe that we need to relook at the affordability period. Just to make sure that is people actually want and if it works. - Senator Barron: I believe that this is going to push lower-income students outside of Iowa city because the more developments that are popping up, the more they are tak- ing away affordable housing for other students. ■ Open Forum - Senator Woolf. We have been working hard on medical amnesty. I want to hear about if this does pass, what do you think it will do to help the city? o We do support the law being passed for medical amnesty. I do want to high- light that if there is crime, alcohol related charges are not what we want. We are working on the SHOUT program and hoping that they will go to them if they do not feel comfortable with going to the police. We have been utilizing them more and more. o The City of Iowa City does have a lobbyist and we might work with them to push for that. - Senator Qi: Construction downtown, do you have oversite over the times of construc- tion. o Yes, we do have construction hours in the downtown area. l Oam to 6am is no construction. We will make some exceptions, but construction is allowed dur- ing 10am to 6am and it is hard to find that balance between making sure there are no - Senator Qi: Have you seen vacancies with the luxury buildings because students can't afford them? o There has been some appraisals and you can see that there are more vacancies around Iowa City. With the new buildings they fill up and people go away from the older buildings and fill up the new buildings. D.) Old Business J SSB#26: Inclusion of Transfer Student Liaison ■ Questions ■ Voting E.) New Business ✓ SSB#27: FY20 Operational Budget Reallocation ■ Presentation - We had to move some money around from line items that have not been used into items that need the money. ■ Questions - Senator Rodriguez: Is there any conversation about moving the airport shuttle to someone other than UISG? o Yes, we do want to change who is in charge of the airport shuttle, so it is no longer going to be UISG's responsibility. • Discussion - Senator Heid: I will be in support of this because I think it's great that we can reallo- cate money. In the future for operational budgets I think it is important to keep these things in mind so we don't have to have legislation reallocating funds. ■ Voting - Ayes have it F.) Announcements ✓ Herky's Hero