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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010-03-01 TranscriptionMarch 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 1 March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session 6:55 P.M. Council Present: Bailey, Champion, Dickens, Hayek, Mims, Wilburn, Wright Staff Present: Helling, Karr, Dilkes, Fosse, Hightshoe, Lewis, O'Brien, Moran, Rackis, Elias, Morris, Hart, Long, Davidson Others Present: Shipley, UISG Council Appointments: Hayek/ We've got a number of them to make tonight...which is good! Bailey/ Yeah! Yes! Hayek/ First commission is the Airport Commission. We'll just take these in the order in which they appear in the packet. This is for a...one vacancy for afour-year term. Got three applicants. (several talking) Wright/ I could go along with Steve. (several talking) Bailey/ I'm fine with that. Hayek/ Okay. All right, Mr. Crane. Next I believe is, uh, Civil Service Commission. One vacancy, one applicant. It's the current chair. (several talking) Next Historic Preservation. We've got a ton of'em here! Wright/ Got some really good people here. Bailey/ Yeah, and it's a really nice...nice choice this year. Wright/ I...would like to speak for a couple of those, if I may, uh, Jim Ponto has been, has done three three-year terms on HPC. He's done a terrific job, but I think Kent Ackerson, who is also a resident of Brown Street, um, would have a lot to offer, and uh, a different perspective, if nothing else. Bailey/ Jim has done a great job, but I do think it would be nice to... Champion/ What's nice about him though, he's also applied for the Brown Street represent (mumbled) so it'd be nice to put him down there. I agree with you -he's very qualified! Wright/ Kent Ackerson? Champion/ Yeah. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 2 Wright/ He's... Champion/ He's applied for at-large and the Brown Street. Bailey/ Right. Wright/ Oh, you're right! He has. I somehow managed to overlook that.. Champion/ So, I thought since Jim has already had...he's currently serving his third three-year term, I thought Kent would be a perfect fit down there (mumbled) Wright/ Um, you know though the, uh, we have Alicia Trimble, who's the at-large rep right now who's asked for the, uh, second appointment. Champion/ Yes! Wright/ And I think she'd do a terrific job. Champion/ Yes! But I'm talking...yeah, Iagree. I think she should...should stay on. Wright/ Right. Champion/ But rather... Wright/ But she's applied for at-large. Champion/ Right, at-large. Hayek/ We've only got space for one. Bailey/ One at-large. Wright/ I was suggesting Kent for Brown Street, Alicia for at-large. Champion/ Oh! Duh! (laughter) Because...yeah, okay. I got it now. Wright/ And then there's only one applicant for the Summit Street position, who I think also will be very good. We have (several talking) preponderance of terrific applicants. Champion/ Yeah, really good. Okay, well... Bailey/Iagree with those! Champion/ Yeah. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 3 Hayek/ So the proposal's, uh, Ms. Trimble for at-large, Mr. Downing for Summit Street, and Mr. Ackerson for Brown Street? Wright/ Yes. And, a round of thanks for Jim Ponto for his service. Bailey/ Yeah, do you ever send letters, recognizing that kind of long-term service. That might be a nice gesture for Jim. Hayek/ Follow up with me on that. What do the rest of you think about the slate? (several commenting) Okay. Next I believe is Police Citizens Review Board, one vacancy, three applicants. Bailey/ Let's get some gender balance on this board. I would like to suggest Royceann. Champion/ (several talking) yes, I agree. Wright/ Yeah, that's...something we don't always take into account. We need to remember to do that. Bailey/ And Abby, or Abigail (mumbled) Hayek/ Is there support (mumbled) (several commenting) Okay. Ms. Porter for PCRB. And last.. . Bailey/ And I'd say the same thing here. Hayek/ Telecomm. Bailey/ ...appoint Dawn. I think Dawn would be... do a good j ob. I've worked with her in other volunteer capacities and she's a hard worker. Champion/ ...um, they only have one vacancy (mumbled) just serving his first three-year term, and it's been our...not our policy, but we generally have (noise on mic) and then we start looking for new people after that. Bailey/ I don't know if that's a... Hayek/ I think they're both qualified, but I...I tend to agree with your proposal there, Connie. Mims/ Yeah, I think if somebody wants to re-up and is doing a good job, they should be given the opportunity (mumbled) Bailey/ I don't have a problem with that. I was just trying to get some more women around the table and see different (both talking) Wright/ Dawn would do a good job, but I do appreciate reappointing somebody (both talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 4 Bailey/ That's fine. I mean, sometimes we don't have the...we don't have a lot of applications for this commission. So it was good to see two. Hayek/ Yeah. Okay, do we have (several commenting) Hoerschelman? Okay. Is that it? Okay, next is agenda items. Agenda Items: ITEM 21. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ADOPTING AN UNSUCCESSFUL OR DELAYED PROJECTS POLICY FOR CDBG AND HOME PROJECTS AND RESCINDING RESOLUTION N0.04-68. Champion/ Well, the one I have a question about is item 21, is, uh, CDBG funds that were...have not been used (mumbled) supposed to be used. I don't want to approve that until I know what those projects... Karr/ Connie, do you have your microphone on? Champion/ Oh, no! (noise on mic) Karr/ I picked up some of them, but not all of them. Hayek/ Well, we have staff here tonight. (mumbled) Champion/ I'd like to know what funds have not been utilized, and what they were originally granted for. Hightshoe/ (away from mic) fellowship? Champion/ I'm talking about... Karr/ Tracy, wear your microphone, thanks! Mims/ Well, but they're talking about changing whole policy, so it's not necessarily going to be (several talking) what's on the table now (several talking) is my reading... Champion/ I understand that. Hightshoe/ There's nothing specifically right now. It's just to guide our decisions as we go. Champion/ Oh, okay. All right. That's fine. That answers my question. (several talking) Hayek/ What was the, um, there were three nay votes at HCDC on this issue. Can you summarize what (noise on mic) concern was? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council worx session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 5 Hightshoe/ There were six people at the HCDC meeting that night, um, three wanted to approve the site. The three that didn't... Hayek/ No, no, no! I'm talking about the policy, the delayed...yeah. Hightshoe/ Sorry, um... Wright/ We're really stuck on that one. Hayek/ (laughter) Hightshoe/ Who were they? Hayek/ No (several talking) what were their concerns. Bailey/ I mean, I read these minutes and I understood some of the concerns, but I didn't fully under... get a full flavor of the discussion. Hightshoe/ Um, the three that...that voted not in favor of it, they liked the stricter language; however, they...I think two of the three were willing to modify one part about the application, you have to apply immediately right after. Um, I think a couple wanted a revision of that. Like use the existing policy and just revise a section of that paragraph. And then others on the committee favored that HCDC is an advisory body and they should get...they should see if there's any extenuating circumstances and then forward a recommendation based on what they hear what the problems are. Uh, and then three who didn't, or wanted more formal, uh, more of a set policy of when it triggered to go to Council, make a recommendation. Mims/Now this change in policy does not impact the requirement for them to apply in the next cycle for other funding, is that correct? Hightshoe/ It would give them leeway or flexibility, um, so let's say what they identified at the application, um, that funding source is no longer available, that funding source has ran out of money, um, they've been advised to wait due to terms or interest rate or...or the availability of funds. That gives a chance to look at the reasons why and make a recommendation based on those reasons. Um, there's a whole host of reasons. I can't foresee every problem that might come up. Mims/ Right. Hightshoe/ But it gives them the flexibility to look at it and say, okay, this is what happened, this is why, will the project proceed or will it not. Mims/ I guess I...I'd have to go back and look at that policy again. I...I guess part of my concern is in reading those minutes, and they were lengthy and there's a lot of discussion, and I appreciate their time, is it sounds like there's some real issues and concerns on some This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 6 of the tax credit availability that would affect some of the housing, uh, opportunities for some of the agencies that are...some of the organizations that are doing this, and if...if those tax credit opportunities aren't going to be there, and that's going to hold some of this stuff up on a longer term basis, I guess I'm concerned about, um, having this money just sitting out there and not being allocated. I'd rather see it coming to the Council and us making a decision on the recapture of it, or being required to recapture and then reapplying for it, um, I don't know. There's a lot up in the air in this whole area right now, and we're going to talk about the whole housing issue a little bit tonight. I think at this point I would not support the change. Hayek/ If there are more questions for Tracy, now's the time to ask her. If you need more information for tomorrow night's discussion...(mumbled) Hightshoe/ I will say that we have had to return funds to the Home program. We have two years to commit, and you have five years to spend down funds. We will be bringing any issue, if we perceive there's a problem with making either one of those, um, a problem (mumbled) because we need time if a project's not going to proceed, we need enough time to bring it back and reallocate (mumbled) you only have two years to commit, so staff is very aware of that and we'll always bring that issue back, if there's concerns. Wilburn/ And there's been times in the past when staff has brought issues with policy, credits, percentages, and funding to the Council. Um...for guidance in terms of what to do, correct? Yeah. Hayek/ And could you estimate what fraction of applica... or applications bump up against the existing timeline, and...and Hightshoe/ Almost all low-income housing tax credits will bump up against that deadline, because of the complexity of funding that's involved. You apply in January for these funds. You don't have site locations because most...um, sellers will not hold land based on you securing all your financing, waiting months or a year, um, so they have to find lots and so that...may depend on when the state's offering that, that financing tax credit allocation. So if you were given the funds July 1st or you're getting approval July 1st, then you have to have site control, you have to do an analysis, you have to pay a lot of funds, um, there's a lot of variables that go into that, and it depends on when the IDD has their application round. So a lot of times for aloes-income housing tax credit, that is a very tight schedule that a lot of people won't make. Um...so... Bailey/ And I know we're going to talk about this more tomorrow, but that would be my concern about not giving some flexibility to the policy. We're talking about very complex projects. Champion/ Flexibility can be there by bringing it back to us, isn't that true? Hayek/ Anything else for Tracy? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 7 ITEM 10. APPROVING PLANS, SPECIFICATION, FORM OF CONTRACT, AND ESTIMATE OF COST FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE EAST SIDE RECYCLING CENTER PROJECT, ESTABLISHING AMOUNT OF BID SECURITY TO ACCOMPANY EACH BID, DIRECTING CITY CLERK TO PUBLISH NOTICE TO BIDDERS, AND FIXING TIME AND PLACE FOR RECEIPT OF BIDS. Champion/ And then I wanted to talk a little bit about the Farmers Market and selling alcohol. Hayek/ That's actually a specific agenda item tonight, so hang in there! Champion/ Oh! Oh, right, there it is, right there! Helling/ A couple of things, um, number one, (mumbled) if you have any questions in regard to the East Side Recycling Center, and Kumi is here. Kumi can be here tomorrow night Dave can't. So if you have questions about, you know, uh, the operation and that, this would be the time to...to present those to Dave. And then also, uh, Kevin will not be here for the budget. Uh, Lee Lewis is here. Again, if you have questions that we may need to do some research on before tomorrow night, it'd be good to get them on the table tonight to give us time to get an answer, if you have anything that...you want to bring up. ITEM 14. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ADOPTING THE ANNUAL BUDGET FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 2011. ITEM 15. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE THREE-YEAR FINANCIAL PLAN FOR THE CITY OF IOWA CITY, IOWA, AND THE FIVE-YEAR CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS PROGRAM. Hayek/ I wouldn't mind hearing, uh, from Leigh or from Kevin at some point sort of a, a briefer synopsis of this synopsis, you know, how are we doing today in terms of, uh, what we projected. I mean, I see the individual line items (mumbled) um, are there any real areas of concern. Are we off so far that, to make (mumbled) worried, that kind of thing. It doesn't have to be (mumbled) Helling/ Okay, but you're not talking specifically about the...the public hearing and the FY11 budget? Hayek/ No, correct. I'm talking... Helling/ Yeah, we can schedule something (mumbled) (both talking) Hayek/ Any other, uh, agenda items? ITEM 7. APPROVING THE IOWA CITY HOUSING AUTHORITY'S FIVE (5) YEAR PLAN FOR 2010-2015 AND THE ANNUAL PLAN FOR FISCAL YEAR 2010. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 8 ITEM 8. ADOPTING THE AMENDED IOWA CITY HOUSING AUTHORITY HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER (HCV) ADMINISTRATIVE PLAN. ITEM 9. ADOPTING THE AMENDED IOWA CITY HOUSING AUTHORITY PUBLIC HOUSING ADMISSIONS AND CONTINUED OCCUPANCY POLICY (ACOP). Mims/ I have a question I guess, um...and I apologize. I get my stuff electronically and when I downloaded it, it divided my whole packet in half, and so I didn't realize until kind of last minute that I only had half of my packet... on my computer. So when I...looking at this later today in trying to finalize preparation realized what I was missing, um, will we...I'm looking at like basically item number 7, um, approving the Housing Authority's five-year plan. I guess what I'm trying to determine is how...how different is this, how separate is this from what was already done in City Steps, um...I guess I'm just looking at it from the timeframe of getting this like on 3:00 Thursday afternoon and looking, trying to look at it over the weekend and not having a whole lot of time to really digest it and discuss it and then trying to approve it on Tuesday. So...if you can help me, I'd appreciate it. Rackis/ Well, as...as planning documents go, uh, strategic planning documents, um, our five- year plan is, um, not much. The...the actual planning document, uh, for the City is City Steps. Mims/ Okay. Rackis/ And uh, our five-year plan, if you look at it, when you take out the, uh, capital funds spreadsheet, and you take out everything else that HUD wants us to put in there, which is about a 30, 40-page document, it's actually two pages, and uh, the much of it references back to City Steps. Mims/ Okay. Rackis/ So that...that's really your planning document, and the housing component in City Steps is really what we're looking at. Mims/ Okay. Thanks, Steve. Hayek/ Are you referring to the five-year plan or the updates, which are separate... separate items? Mims/ I haven't gotten through those. Hayek/ Okay. (laughter) Mims/ Cause I didn't realize I was missing half my packet! (laughter) Unfortunately! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council worx session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 9 Rackis/ Just...uh, real quick, the annual plan is a reporting document. So, uh, the arinual...the five-year plan you're supposed to lay out your strategy of how you're going to accomplish your goals and then the annual plan isn't a plan, it's a report. Mims/ Right. Rackis/ So, every year we'll come back and report. Mims/ And I got that, thanks. ITEM 25. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ADOPTING AN ASSESSMENT SCHEDULE OF UNPAID MOWING, CLEAN-UP OF PROPERTY, SNOW REMOVAL, SIDEWALK REPAIR, AND STOP BOX REPAIR CHARGES AND DIRECTING THE CLERK TO CERTIFY THE SAME TO THE JOHNSON COUNTY TREASURER FOR COLLECTION IN THE SAME MANNER AS PROPERTY TAXES. Wilburn/ And, Dale, everything's set to go with staff for, um, items 25, uh, item 25 related to snow, uh, snow, sidewalk, removal...the... Helling/ Yeah. Hayek/ ... in terms of the two that we pulled from the list? Wilburn/ Right. Bailey/ We got updates tonight, so... Hayek/ Yeah, there's new information... Karr/ There's quite a bit more information you'll get tomorrow night that came in late this afternoon. I just haven't had a chance to copy it. Hayek/ Any other, uh, agenda items? Champion/ Marian, would it be possible to copy those before we leave tonight? Mims/ (laughter) only if we take a long break! Karr/ If you take a long break, yes. Champion/ Thanks! Hayek/ Okay. Sounds like we've exhausted the agenda items. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council worx session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 10 ITEM 22. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AMENDING RESOLUTION NO. 97-326 ESTABLISHING A PUBLIC ART PROGRAM AND RESOLUTION NO. 02-72 SETTING THE ANNUAL ALLOCATION, TO SET A NEW ANNUAL ALLOCATION OF $14,750 FOR PUBLIC ART. Wright/ Just, I did have one question, um, that I'd forgotten; I just happened to notice it. Item 22 for the Public Art Commission. I need a memory refresher. Last year when we cut that budget back, they had $14,000 and change remaining. Is that correct? Is this still some of that carry-over money? Or is this a new $14,000? Davidson/ No, it's the carry-over. Wright/ It's still the carry-over money. Thank you. Helling/ There was more than the 14,000. That's what was left should carry you through two years at least. Davidson/ Yeah, it's actually...there was enough to carry us through three years at that...at that level. Wright/ Thank you. Davidson/ And at that point we'll just bring the program back to you and see what you want to do with it. Hayek/ So in that sense, this item simply tracks what the decision we made (mumbled) Davidson/ That's correct. Hayek/ Any other items? Okay. Going once, going twice. Why don't we move on to the Farmers Market. Parks and Rec Commission recommendations. Mike. Farmers Market -Parks &Rec Commission Recommendation (#16): Moran/ Mr. Mayor, nice to see everybody. Uh, as a result of... of last year's, uh, history, uh, we did put a web site up with a...a survey market, uh, or survey tool for the market. I've got the results of that. I gave you the link to that, it's 39 pages long if you want some reading material to put you to sleep you can certainly do that. I'll leave that for you, as well. Uh, as a result of that, uh, we took, uh, surveys for about two months and we received over 600 responses for that. So because of that, then we came forth with these recommendations, and I gave them to you in a memo, uh, I'll just highlight'em real quick and then give you some more information and I'll take some questions. The first one is, was fairly obvious that everybody wanted the market to start earlier on Wednesdays at 5:00, so we decided to move the market up from 5:00 to 7:00 just on Wednesdays. Uh, it was previously from 5:30 to 7:30. Um, we wanted to do some expansion areas, uh, so what we're off, uh, offering to do is on Saturdays, uh, close down Washington Street from This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City laity Louncii worx session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 11 Gilbert Street to Van Buren Street and that'll offer some opportunities for vendors to move outdoors if they want to and just expand it a little bit more and get some more people maybe off of our waiting list, uh, so that people can have a sort of a T-approach to the market. Everything underneath Chauncey Swan, and then come out on...on, uh, Washington Street. It's also become quite a safety hazard; when Washington Street was open and people were parking over at the north lot and walking across the street and doing all those kinds of things, so I think it'll really help, uh, the safety flow and the traffic flow on...on Saturdays as well. Um, the other big hang up was free parking on Saturdays. Uh, so we went to the Transportation Services and...and, uh, they shot us a deal. If you want to we have to pay for it, but we just pass that along to the vendors to be able to offer, uh, people in the Chauncey Swan ramp and the Recreation Center ramp free parking on Saturdays. On Wednesdays they already have free parking because it's after 5:00, but on Saturdays if you offer that opportunity during the hours of the market, as well, uh, and then that way it didn't really cost us anything. We just pass that cost on to the vendors, and they were the ones that really wanted that too, because that was the big complaint that they had from everybody is they had to pay parking. So, uh, we would like to offer that up, and then, uh, the last part of that was we wanted to increase the number of vendors, and one way we thought we could do that would be to have alcohol sales, and alcohol sales is a little different. It's not really alcohol because according to Farmers Market regulations there's...there's, uh, three things that happen with the wine, uh, the wine, they have to go through and request permission to sell it...our market through the Iowa Alcohol Beverages Division. So they go through that process in order to do that, and then they notify us and they give'em a permit to...to sell at the Farmers Market. Uh, the...the licensing for, uh, samples, they cannot give more...out more than a 1-ounce sample, and usually if... if you've done this before, it's not a 1-ounce sample. It's quite a bit less than that, and it's restricted to just the area of their stall. So they can't carry it around. They just have to sample on site and then get rid of the little, uh, glass that they have. Um, and then beer can only be sampled at the Farmers Market. It cannot be sold. So if...if, uh, a manufacturer or distributor wants to come in, uh, that's a local, they can sample it, but they can't sell it, uh, at the Farmers Market. And then distilled spirits, uh, cannot be sold or sampled at market. So really what we're talking about is just wine, uh, for all intents and purposes. There's not going to be much else that we have with that. So, the resolution, this has to be done by resolution or by change of ordinance, and so the ordinance basically allows two things. It allows us to move outside of the Chauncey Swan parking ramp because by ordinance right now we're limited to just that area, and then it allows us to do the alcohol sales, or the wine sales, for all intents and purposes. Wright/ Does that... Wilburn/ ... l-ounce, is that part of the State permit... Moran/ Yes. Wilburn/ ...okay, because I didn't see it in...okay. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Crty c;ouncii worx session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 12 Bailey/ I have a question... Wright/ ...liability for, um, the vendors in terms of legal age? Moran/ Uh, yeah, because they'd have to be licensed just like a...a bar would, or anybody else, so they're response...responsible for the distribution of that sample. Wilburn/ And they would be subject toasting? That's...that's part of the license. Yeah. Bailey/ I'm going to ask anon-alcoholic question (laughter) um, just in...so much is increasing the number of vendors, we talked at one time about that mix, not going over to a sort of craft or artist market. Are you still going to try to maintain that percentage? Moran/ Yeah, we have a...we have a 30% retainage to where we don't want to have more than 30% of craft vendors, so that it becomes a craft fair, because a true farmers market, now the only time when that gets skewed a little bit is if people call in and don't want to show up or they can't come in, and then we go to the waiting list. So that may give us a few more craft vendors because they're higher on the waiting list. But otherwise we try to maintain a 30% ratio between craft vendors and market (both talking) Champion/ I like that mix though. It's... Bailey/ It's a good mix, but we do want a...I believe we want a farmers market, and not a craft market, or an arts... Moran/ Yeah, we'll maintain that regardless of where we expand or not. Bailey/ Good! Hayek/ So all these restrictions and hoops you've described, those are all the province of State law? Moran/ Uh, yeah, they'd have to get a license through the Alcohol Beverages Division and then they notify us that they've been approved to sell at the Farmers Market. Bailey/ What other farmers market have, um, wine sales? Moran/ Uh, Cedar Rapids has wine sales; Davenport has wine sales; and Des Moines. Bailey/ Okay. And have there been any... Karr/ Des Moines is also. Bailey/ Um, any...I'm sure you talked to them. Any concerns, any issues that they... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City C;ouncit worx session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 13 Moran/ Uh, they say they patrol themselves, and people are reasonable and, you know, the sample size is not large enough and somebody's not going to sit there and have four or five samples, you know, they're going to move along, so uh, the vendors pretty much know how to control that...that flow. Bailey/ Sure. Dilkes/ I just want to add one...one clarification. We've talked about this in the context of wine. When we amended the ordinance, we used the term 'alcohol' only because if beer becomes an issue we don't want to have to amend it again, but we haven't...at least my office and Marian's office have addressed the wine licensing issues, not the beer specifically, but that would be done in the event that somebody wanted to sample beer. Hayek/ Any other questions? Wright/ No, I think these, uh, recommendations are terrific (several talking) out onto Washington Street. Love the idea of free parking. Bailey/ Love starting at 5:00 on Wednesdays. I'm not surprised that there was a lot of support for that. It's good. (several talking and laughing) Champion/ We still allow them to park over here on Saturday mornings, do we...okay. Bailey/ I see people doing that. Hayek/ Great, thanks, Mike! Next item is the multi-use parking facility on the former St. Pat's Parish Hall site. Multi Use Parking Facility -Former St Pat's Parish Hall Site (#26): Davidson/ Mr. Mayor, Members of Council...uh, this is a project that, uh, I think you're all familiar with. Uh, we're at the point now of wanting to distribute a request for proposals to private developers. It's on your agenda tomorrow evening. Uh, this is a really exciting project, part of our economic development initiative that we're undergoing at the City now while we're waiting for the, uh, economy to recover a little bit, and uh, one that we think has the potential to be, uh, a really great project on a couple of different levels, uh, really, really quickly, uh, the...the elements of the project remain the same as the direction you've given us, uh, that was former City Council. Susan and Terry are new, uh, but...but that the former City Council gave us -approximately 600 structured parking space, 25,000 to 35,000 square feet of privately developed commercial space, and...a fluid number but...but right now we're saying 25 to 40 units of privately developed, excuse me, workforce residential housing, and specifically with a portion reserved for low and moderate-income housing, and like to just really quickly step through the RFP if we could. The RFP was originally drafted, uh, by a staff committee, um, there's several of us from the Planning Department, and also Chris O'Brien, uh, from Parking, and uh, and then the City Attorney's office as well. Um, what we've done since that time is...is in This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City (:ouncii work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 14 my discussions with private developers who were interested in the project, uh, TIF kept coming up, so what we've decided to do is do the ground work now to allow TIF to...to be used. We're not advocating it, but if a developer gives us a proposal that includes TIF, we will have gone through a process that by State law, uh, allows us to proceed and establish an urban renewal area and use, uh, TIF funds, and the TIF funds would potentially be used on the low, moderate income housing element of the project, and possibly the commercial element of the project, if it was a commercial use that you as a City Council deemed was worthy of an incentive like that, um, such as we've done for the grocery store, uh, downtown and...and with the Hieronymus Square project that was proposed, hotel, those were things that were deemed worthy commercial uses that were deemed worthy of...of, uh, use of TIF. Ultimately that will be your decision if we get a proposal. Um, what we want to do is stay in the parking business. That's the business we're in. So we want to operate the, uh, own and operate the...the parking element of the structure. Uh, we want to have a structure built along the lines of the Court Street Transportation Center or Tower Place in terms of how it fits in to downtown, um, and that's where the commercial space and the housing element of the project come in. Uh, those are not really our businesses. In Tower Place we did build the commercial spaces, sell them as commercial condos. They went very, very well. Uh, and in a year we were sold out. That's about 37,000 square feet, so approximately the same amount that we'd be talking about with this. Um, but we feel that appropriately that is something that the private sector can... can develop, uh, in a partnership with us and so that's the purpose of this RFP. What we want to have result in is two commercial, or two condominium spaces -one the housing, one the commercial - um, that is owned and operated privately under a condominium regime, with us. We have a similar type arrangement in Tower Place. We'll work out the details of that with whomever we end up working with. Um, and we want that to be a profitable enterprise for that individual. This property has...has been, has been tax-exempt for at least eighty years. Not sure what it was before then, but for at least eighty years it's been a...it was a Catholic school for most of that time, uh, and has been, had the parish hall on it, which we now own, and so we feel that being able to do our project plus, uh, establish some...some property tax paying property, uh, would be a great thing for the property. Real quickly let's just walk through, you know, this is...this is eventually going to be a $25 to $35 million project with...which the City is going to fund and build. So let's just real quickly walk through the...the RFP, uh, we've gone through the description, uh, already. Parking component, as we...as we mentioned, 600 spaces. We want this to be a catalyst for further develop, future...further development in the area, uh, there are people that have paid into parking impact fees, which we used to purchase the property, that they will then be able to park at this facility. That's the way the parking impact fee ordinance is to work. Commercial and residential components, as I mentioned, we...we have put in the RFP our desire to have at least 20% of the units reserved for persons, uh, at 80% of median...80% of county median income, or below, with a preference of 60%. But we have structured this so that we can get proposals that may or may not, um, a developer can come in with no low/moderate income housing if they wish, and they'll be evaluated along with the other proposals we get. If that's the only proposal we get, then that will, you know, look good, and...and so we've built that flexibility, uh, into it as well. In terms of the commercial component, um, again, we...we want the commercial component to serve the purpose of making the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council worx session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 15 building look more like a commercial building and less like a parking ramp, as it does in Tower Place. Um, functionally if...what the private sector proposes there. If they come in with a single large user, we will attempt to accommodate that. If they want to break it into smaller spaces, I've had discussions with, uh, in terms of things like live/work units. There was at least one person who was interested in a live/work unit, where you'd own the unit, live in part of it, operate the...the rest of it as your commercial business. So we're hoping to get some good, creative proposals. Um, as I mentioned, we will finance the construction of the building. We're prepared to do that. And then we have structured the agreement such that, again, we wanted to have creativity in the proposals that we receive, in terms of ultimately what we're paid for, for the space. We don't want to limit being paid as much as we possibly can for the space, and that'll be part of the proposals, but in no event will the purchase price be less than the actual construction costs of the building. So...that's...that's the lowest it will possibly be. We will cover our costs, uh, of construction. We've built in some walk...walk-away options, and...and by the way, the reason we've...the timing is the way it is is that in several of the developers that we've met with, they've said, well, I'm interested in the project if you build it this way, but if you build it this way, I'm not interested in it. So, we will attempt to build something that somebody wants to own and operate. They will be a partner with us in designing it, but we do have some walk-away options, and if during those points, uh, decisions made by either the City or the...the private individual that, listen, we just can't work this out, we're going to walk away. Then at that point we would attempt to find someone else to...to work with us, uh, on the project. Um, we have then, uh, some...some specific requirements for getting the proposals, as well as how we will, uh, evaluate them. Uh, developer experience and capability, financial strength, uh, market and economic viability of the proposal, fiscal benefit to the City, consistency with our planning documents, which you have, uh, adopted, and just the overall appropriateness and compatibility of the proposals with the character that we're trying to establish in this area. So, that's...that's the essence of the...of the RFP, uh, we...we do have quite a bit of interest. Uh, we have a list of approximately 12 or 15 people who have asked to receive the RFP so, uh, what we're hopeful to, uh, get some great proposals. So, any questions about what you're being asked to approve tomorrow evening? Bailey/ No, but I have some general questions. Is this the first time that we've considered using TIF for residential? Davidson/ Uh, low/moderate income...do we... Bailey/ I'm just curious... Davidson/ It is allowable by State law, Regenia. Bailey/ I do know that, but I mean, have we ever done it? Davidson/ (mumbled) Bailey/ Okay. All right. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City (:ouncit worx session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page t6 Champion/ But we could use it for the commercial space. Bailey/ Right, but I mean...I think it's exciting that we're actually considering using it, um, for the residential, because that's another question I have about evaluation of the proposals, um, where is that...I mean, we have fiscal benefit to the City and its residents. We don't have sort of general benefit, I mean, there may be a proposal that this looks more appealing for...it's, the way it's going to use the commercial...will that come into consideration when we evaluate the proposals? Davidson/ Yes. I mean, I feel like we built, you know, we wanted to have some objective criteria. Bailey/ Sure. Davidson/ So we've got that, but we also wanted to have enough flexibility. We, you know, hopefully we're going to see some proposals that maybe we can't even imagine exactly what (mumbled) Bailey/ I hope so. Davidson/ We did want to leave ourselves, you know, I didn't want to have an evaluation form that results in a score at the, you know, you want to build enough so that we can actually select the proposal we want. Bailey/ And then we talked about contemplated...contemplated that restrictions on alcohol and tobacco uses may be included. Have we talked much about that? Davidson/ We...we have talked about it, and worded it this way because we didn't have anything more definitive at this point. Um, you know, as long as the Sanctuary is in operation, Sanctuary Restaurant, with the ordinance that you have about liquor establishments, that's going to pretty much solve not having any liquor establishments in this, at least another bar in this building, because it's (both talking) it's, right, restaurant you could have, but a bar is within 500 feet, uh, of other bars. So... Dilkes/ I think we wanted to be particularly cautious given, um, the issues that we have about, uh, making sure that that was something we were...that people knew we were thinking about. Bailey/ Right, and I think it's good to include that. I just wondered what...what was the thinking and how far it...had it gone. Dilkes/ Just...some of the information that...that we thought about was in the (mumbled) ground transportation center those leased units are...we have specific lease provisions that do not allow alcohol and tobacco, um... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council worx session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 17 Bailey/ Okay, thanks. I think this is...I'm so excited to see this moving ahead. (several talking) One of the most exciting things. (several talking) Dickens/ Estimated costs are...various? Davidson/ Right now, Terry, I mean, and it's really ballpark, but we're thinking between $25 and $30 million, and of course the positive thing is all elements of this structure will be revenue-producing, so it will produce revenue after it's built. Dickens/ So if we have to spend more, that plan, or (mumbled) Davidson/ Right, right, the parking...the portions will be, um, financed differently in that the parking element we will finance from the parking revenue bonds the way we always do parking facilities, the other part of it will be another financing, uh, mechanism, but uh, the Finance Director is comfortable with what we're proposing to do, and our ability to do it. Dickens/ What's the timeframe for completion? Davidson/ Uh, good question (mumbled) um...we are...hoping to have...the first thing we will do is get the consultant team put together once the developer's on board and hope to complete schematic design by October. Schematic design is taking it from this general concept to what we plan to build. Then we'll need about six months to complete construction drawings, actually go out to bid on the project, so we would hope to be underway...it is...it is a type of project with a deep foundation system, so you...where you can't actually begin construction in the winter, uh, but we'll just have to see. Otherwise we would hope to begin construction in the spring, a year from now approximately, um, and we think probably an 18 month, 18 to 24 month construction. Ifll be a substantial project. (several agreeing) Dickens/ This falls into the...is this in the riverfront area or is it... Davidson/ Riverfront Crossings, yeah, kind of on the edge and...and in kind of a transition area, Terry, between downtown and Riverfront Crossings, but clearly will impact both, we feel. Shipley/ The Telluride Building just went up on that other corner, right? Davidson/ Right across the street. Shipley/ Is the commercial real estate there still vacant? Davidson/ Uh, last I knew. Shipley/ Okay. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 1 s Davidson/ But I'm not certain. Bailey/ Do we anticipate...go ahead. No, go ahead. Dilkes/ A couple things I wanted to clarify, um, the...in this request for proposals, we're...we tell the potential developers that we're contemplating incentives for low income housing, or low to moderate income housing. We are not at this point contemplating incentives for the commercial. Um, and the decision making we went through for that is that at this point in time, we are not identifying something that the City wants to incent. Um, for instance, we're not saying you have to have a grocery store. We're not saying you have to have a hotel. We're not saying, but those incentives may in the future be available to a particular business that we might want to incent in that commercial space. Davidson/ If we were able to attract a single large, for example, office user, that might be something that they would request TIF funds for some aspect of the project, and again, we would bring that project to you. You'd look at the wage rates, number of points, all the things we normally look at, and make a decision at that point. Bailey/ Is this in the district, or would we have to... Davidson/ It's on the edge of a district. We will be expanding the district to include the area. Dilkes/ And that's important to remember also is that this requires a significant legislative process, after we review these RFPs we have to create, or expand, an urban renewal area. We have to put the TIF ordinance into place, etc., so it's going to take some time. Hayek/ These, uh, the...the goals in terms of number of residential units and commercial square footage, are these hard and fast parameters, uh, or once we get into this with our partner and decide to go with more commercial space or more residential, or vice versa. Davidson/ We want our (both talking) partner to believe they're hard and fast (laughter and several talking). Clearly every (several talking) everything's up for negotiation! For example, in the residential units, we want to focus on a certain type of person to live in this building, a market that we don't feel is being met right now. We feel that's best met with efficiencies, one bedrooms, and maybe some two bedrooms, but not anything larger in terms of three, four, five bedrooms. But if our development partner wants to try and convince us of how our goals can be met with modifying that configuration on the number of bedrooms per unit, we'll sit down and negotiate. Bailey/ Do we anticipate any green or environmental elements to this building? Davidson/ I would certainly hope so. I would certainly hope that the architect we hire...we have (mumbled) under consideration, both of them are very much involved in not just the LEED certification process, but in... in environmental type building in general. So we would definitely hope to incorporate that into the structure. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 19 Bailey/ Good. Wilburn/ Just as an FYI, in terms of...potential sources out there for the residential component, the workforce housing. The Metro Coalition, we did have a meeting on Friday and at least as of Friday, there was still a...a House File, uh, 2322 related to, uh, workforce housing assistance grant program. Creating it doesn't put any money in it, but it just...establishes policy, uh, I guess planting a seed for an opportunity in the future, or funding, so there may be...if it goes through, if it gets signed, maybe this might be at that point, by the time this is finished, there might be, uh, funding available for those type of...those type of things. Mims/ Jeff, is there a specific definition for workforce residential housing? Davidson/ No. There's kind of awide-ranging definition. Um, it...you know, it can be identified in that 60% to 150% of county median income, that...that's basically the definition that we've given it in this...in this document, and then you saw the income range that that included, Susan, with the, um... Wilburn/ 36,480 to 91,200 (both talking) Davidson/ For atwo-person household, yeah, so...uh, you know, it's definitely not, uh, just housing for low income. I mean, it's housing for what I guess I'd use the term even more middle income. Wilburn/ That range actually includes, uh, we're not talking coordinators or principals, but that range, um, includes every teacher in the Iowa City Community School District. Davidson/ Yeah, and you know, it may include not the individual working part-time at the store, but the manager of the store, for example, in terms of that...that income level. Mims/ Thank you. Champion/ It covers a lot of people. Wilburn/ I also know that, uh, even below the floor there, below the 36...was it 36, uh, 36,480, I know that last year, um, 25 of the new teacher hires made slightly less than the bottom level. Davidson/ One more thing about the residential (mumbled) is an important point is that we had originally proposed, and I think in our last discussion with you we had proposed condominium units for the owner-occupied condominium units for the residential. You know, since that time the economy has done what it's done and the mortgage market for this income level has really tightened up. And I've talked to some people who have developed very successful projects in Des Moines, kind of similar to what we're trying to do here, down in the East Village area. Toured a couple of them even, and they were originally proposed as owner-occupied condo projects. They've since become rental This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 20 projects, successful rental projects, but we...we have changed this to give the developer the flexibility, of either doing all of one, all of...either all condo, all rental, or even some mix, even though there's some difficulties in that. We decided to give that flexibility just so they can respond to the market forces. Wright/ And I appreciated that because the...opportunity to have the rentals in there does allow for folks at the 60% of median income to have a good shot at getting into one of those apartments where ownership might be a little iffy in this economy. Bailey/ Uh-huh. Davidson/ This is part of our overall strategy for downtown is to get folks living downtown that aren't there currently -this is part of that strategy. Wright/ Yeah. Davidson/ Any other questions? Dilkes/ I...I just have to make one point about condos. We, just...we talk about condos versus rentals, but just remember they're all going to be condos, because they're going to be separately owned. The question is whether they're going to be owner-occupied or rental. Davidson/ If it's all rental, it would be a condo unit of rental apartments, right? Dilkes/ No, it would probably be separate condo units that were rented out. (several talking) Hayek/ Either way it's a residential tax treatment. Bailey/ But either way it's a tax...property tax increase for this property, so... Davidson/ Any other questions? (several commenting) Hayek/ We've had great experiences with both Tower Place and Court Street, and uh...(several talking) Yeah, it's a lot of work! (several talking) Davidson/ Thanks very much to the City Attorney's office and the...working with the bond council, uh, I was very happy to hand that off to (mumbled) (laughter) Hayek/ Okay. Davidson/ Finance Director was also a great... great help as well. Shall we move on, Mr. Mayor? Hayek/ Let's move on. Inclusionary zoning and scattered site housing. Inclusionary Zoning & Scattered Site Housing (IP3): This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 21 Davidson/ I'm going to ask Steve Long to, uh, join me here. Um, boy, this issue...on your agenda this evening has already got a lot of buzz, even before we're...we're talking about it. Uh, a former mayor, um, once referred to affordable housing as the issue with no resolution in terms of all the various things to either do or not do. Uh, what we're going to do this evening is talk about just one portion of the affordable housing issue, and that is the notion of an inclusionary zoning ordinance, and what we've done is try and put together a discussion piece this evening. If you'll allow us to just sort of very briefly, uh, go through and highlight some of what we consider to be the important points. The...the goal this evening is to determine if there's a majority of the City Council that would like to commence a process that might lead us to an inclusionary zoning ordinance, uh, being interested in...being introduced into...into our code. Um, and this is a very substantial undertaking, and I think we're all aware that, and it is certainly an undertaking with great merit. If... if that's something you decide to do, but it is something that would probably require us to, it would be a large enough process that to do it right, and... and we're sure you would want to do it right, it would require us to reorder some priorities in the urban planning division, certainly to just make sure we were getting to what you felt was most important first. Um, it would be an undertaking that I think would become basically a city-wide forum on the issue, uh, following that city-wide forum process, uh, we would then take it to the Housing and Community Development, uh, Commission and the Planning and Zoning Commission. It does need to go through that legislative process of P&Z before it comes to you because it would be an ordinance change. For that reason we'd want to take it through that legislative process. The...the reason this is on your agenda now is because JCCOG had a committee, and at the end of the information that you had, and of course all of you have served on JCCOG at one time or another, JCCOG has had two committees, the first one was a committee of elected officials, and Amy Correia was the representative on that committee, and following the conclusion of that committee's activities, no entity participated, no JCCOG entity indicated that they wished to move forward with an inclusionary zoning ordinance. And...what Amy asked is if this could be put on your pending list of work session items to determine if Iowa City wanted to. And that's...that's basically, we've gotten to it finally, and uh, and that's why it's here on your agenda this evening. Um, so by the end of the discussion we hope to determine if there's a majority that wants to go forward, and if there is not, uh, there are some other things...there's an existing JCCOG committee. We have some members in the audience, uh, this evening, uh, who are meeting quarterly, and Steve is Iowa City's representative on that committee, um, who is meeting quarterly, and will continue to research issues, bring things to you if they feel it has merit for consideration, uh, as a City Council body. So it's...it's not as though we'll just forget about everything dealing with inclusionary zoning if you don't want to proceed with something at this point. You'll continue to receive information about the issue. Um, I...I did bother taking a paragraph to actually define what we're talking about, the notion of inclusionary zoning is that you, um, seek to put things in an ordinance, uh, to basically counter what otherwise might be exclusionary practices in... in your zoning ordinance, and I gave a little history about how following World War II, uh, there were subdivisions established that did...and there were lawsuits about exclusionary zoning practices, establishing the zoning ordinance to keep out specific types of...of housing from...from a community, and...and inclusionary zoning This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 22 would do the reverse, would try and ensure that a full range of housing was represented (noise on mic) depending on how you structured the ordinance, maybe in each individual, uh, new neighborhood. The...the...there are a number of different ways you can go about inclusionary zoning, and I...I provided several examples, uh, the one that's most familiar is when there's deed restrictions based on a particular percentage. The research that we have done, it looked like 10 to 30% in...and there's over 200 of these, um, throughout the country. It was typically in the range of 10 to 30%, uh, was...was required of any developer to be established for low and moderate-incomed households, and of course you have to define low and moderate income and there are varying ways of doing that, although typically around here we use what percentages... Long/ 80% of median income. Davidson/ 80% of median income, or..or lower, and so again you have that specific, for various household size, specific dollar amounts established. Um, the comprehensive plan does include language, uh, indicating that, uh, a mix of housing types and a mix of income levels in neighborhoods is something that is positive for the community. (away from mic) and you adopted City Steps, uh, this year, you had some discussion of the notion of that document being consistent or inconsistent in terms of having an inclusionary zoning provision, uh, with it. Um, one of the things that at least proponents of, um, inclusionary zoning will say is that it... it helps fight large concentrations of low income housing in single areas, and this is something that, uh, and of course a couple of you have served on the School Board, um, for the School District it's a big issue. And in their redistricting committee that's...that's ongoing right now, is something that they've had to grapple with, and certain parts of Iowa City where there are concentrations of lower income kids and what that does then to the elementary schools in that area. Um, there are many different things that can happen with inclusionary zoning ordinances. I mean, even the issue of mandatory...of voluntary versus mandatory. You can have voluntary things that then give developers certain incentives, density bonuses or something like that. Um, that is a way that:..that you can proceed rather than mandating a certain...a certain percentage. Um, you can allow the affordable housing to be built off-site in a neighborhood that's next door, may defeat the purpose a little bit of trying to integrate each individual neighborhood, but that's something that can be done. Uh, fees can be paid, again, for housing that's built elsewhere. Um, that's something that can be done in terms of your policy. Um, requiring that inclusionary housing units are indistinguishable in terms of their design. Um, I think personally that's an important provision. Typically means clustering in larger buildings that are basically designed to look like the big houses, but in fact it's afour-unit building. Uh, that sort of thing. Price restrictions are another thing; very controversial, I mean, not that there won't be plenty of controversy associated with this anyway, but if price restrictions was something, uh, that we decided to put forward in terms of guaranteeing, um, there wouldn't be inflation, uh, that would make the unit not affordable, uh, as again something that, uh, is controversial because, uh, a key incentive for homeownership is that appreciation in value. Um, so I...in the middle of your memo there's kind of an oversimplified summary. Advocates for affordable housing contend that inclusionary zoning produces needed affordable housing, and creates income integrated neighborhoods. Detractors contend that it's an indirect tax on developers This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 23 which will discourage them from building. Uh, and...and that's kind of, as I say, an oversimplified summary of the issues. Uh, we do attach, uh, from...and I apologize. We couldn't find it online again so it's a copy of a copy of a copy, but information about some of the other places, and you can see in looking forward, uh, looking through this information that there are other communities not all that dissimilar to Iowa City who do have inclusionary zoning ordinances. We do also highlight scattered site policy, and this is something that's come up quite frequently, or relatively frequently in terms of your consideration of affordable housing, uh, projects and scattered site policy is something that can be quickly addressed in the inclusionary zoning ordinance. Matt chaired the committee from a few years ago that resulted in a lot of good information being produced, but no official adopted-by-ordinance policy in terms of, uh, you gave us some guidance, but it is guidance, in terms of evaluating projects, and in fact the, excuse me, the next item on your agenda is an item relating, uh, specifically to that guidance about where affordable housing is located in the community. Um, certainly one of the controversies is this notion of introducing affordable housing in neighborhoods and there being the perception at least, and there'll be a lot of testimony as to whether or not it's accurate or a misguided perception of what the introduction of affordable housing does to property values in a neighborhood, and that is something that will be vetted thoroughly if you decide to go forward (coughing) of this. You did receive a petition in your February 16 packets, specifically addressing this issue. It was not anything that the City, at that point particularly, had anything to do with, but it was a concern expressed by, uh, a neighborhood with petition attached, uh, and it was a proposal for introducing affordable housing, four units, into a specific neighborhood. Uh, I cited the subdivision on the, in west Iowa City that was under consideration about six months ago, what came up as an issue, and the developer felt very strongly about not integrating affordable units into the neighborhood. Um, we certainly have examples in this community of how it can work. We certainly have older neighborhoods -the Manville Heights neighborhood even - certain parts of the Manville Heights neighborhood. The Longfellow neighborhood where I've lived, where Connie lives. Uh, a great example of how, uh, a whole range of income levels can be, uh, introduced into a neighborhood. We have some new neighborhoods as well. Windsor Ridge is an example. Uh, the Peninsula neighborhood certainly where we're trying to introduce, uh, a range of... of housing types and income levels. Um, the...we've already covered the JCCOG committee, so I guess to conclude, uh, what we want to do is have enough discussion tonight to determine if there's a majority of you that wish to go forward with this. We don't need to actually hammer out the details of what it would be tonight. That would be done (several talking) but if there are things that in moving forward you want to take off the table, please take them off the table, and we will indicate in moving forward that, uh, certain things have been taken off the table in terms of what you, uh, might want to do. Uh, I did...I did highlight sort of the process that we would follow in bringing this back to you, but...but if you have any specific discussion about that, let's talk about that as well. Steve, did you have anything to add at this point? (laughter) Wilburn/ I think there's, uh, there's one other...there's a...you gave a history of how this ended up in front of us tonight, but there's one step before that, if I may, um, it came from JCCOG, but Iowa City Council had conversations, many conversations, related to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 24 housing before. There was, um, came up with the concept of the study, and then there was, uh, a majority of Council wanted that take to JCCOG because they felt housing issues would affect other entities. And so that's how it...so it's really kind of a progression if those cities are not interested in it, and that answered our question as to whether or not they would be interested, and so now... Davidson/ Yeah, and Ross...Ross brings up a good point, even goes back to my days on JCCOG, where this was put forth as something that should be handled as a regional issue, that one community should not have an ordinance and other communities not, that it was something appropriately handled by JCCOG as a regional issue. Now we do have the benefit of both the initial committee and the ongoing committee, in terms of how far that's gotten us. Obviously not far in terms of anyone adopting an inclusionary zoning ordinance. I'm not aware that any of the other communities are considering it. Hayek/ Okay, Jeff, thanks for that very comprehensive and thoughtful introduction, and we open it up. Mims/ My thought, I guess at this point is, and certainly we talked about inclusionary zoning when we were campaigning in the fall, and um, while I'm interested in considering it, it seems to me that... at this point we're almost putting the cart before the horse. It seems like we have a lot of other housing issues to talk about and consider, um, that are...that are really broad, and in terms of looking at where we want to get to, um, I guess I'm not ready to take up inclusionary zoning yet. I want, I mean, I look back at some of the things that have been done, I mean, the scattered site housing commission that you worked on, Matt, I'd like to see the results of that and have us talk about it and... and review that. Um, maybe it was in your information here, Jeff, there was a 2007 Metro Area Affordable Housing Market analysis, I mean, to kind of see that and be able to talk about it as a Council, okay? To...you know, maybe even at some point have a joint meeting with School Board and talk about what they're doing. Obviously anything that we're doing now is going to come in after they've already done their redistricting, but what kind of things we do in the next year or so might then impact what they're wanting to do, um, and you made a comment near the very beginning that...that concerns me in talking about reordering what you're doing in the Planning department, and I think we've got some really high priorities there right now that, um, I would not want to see pushed off the table in the next six months as you're really doing some stuff with...with Towncrest and Moss Green and some things that I think are really vital and important, um, and I think we have more background work to do before I personally, uh, want to start digging into inclusionary zoning. And having said that, I will say, I'm not...I have not formed a decision on it. I'm not saying I'm for it. I'm not saying I'm against it. I think...I think there are a lot of, um...I think there are a lot of valid reasons to do it, but as I said when I was campaigning, if I were to ultimately support it, I will not support it on the financial backs of our developers. I think it has to be structured in a way that the community is paying for it, not the developers themselves. I don't think it's fair to put any one business organization, have them bear the financial responsibility, um, for how we do something that's that big in the community. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 25 Champion/ That was all very well said, Susan. Mims/ Thank you. Champion/ Um, and I agree with you. I love the idea that, cause I live in a mixed neighborhood, I grew up in a mixed neighborhood, I've always lived in a mixed neighborhood, but I can't ask a developer to build what I want him to build. Um, I also would not want to do, um, required inclusionary housing units in areas of town that are already saturated. So, then we have to get a map out and decide where we want to put this ordinance. Um, I think...I agree with you. I think there's a lot of other questions that have to be answered before we...before we tackle this. Wilburn/ Back up just a minute...uh, cause some of the buzz I, um, I mean, you hear from people in favor of... of inclusionary zoning, scattered site, uh, both pro and con on both of it, uh, there was a little buzz about, uh, you know the City shouldn't, uh, determine where housing, um, goes, and I think part of it is education process for the community. We do zoning in this town, and that means you tell, you direct, dictate, where the community, through the Council, feels that it's appropriate for houses, commercial. We don't, uh, so that, uh...wouldn't happen in town, but we don't have a hog confinement factory next to a school, or you know, a single residence area. So, the notion that we don't dictate or guide the market on what goes where is, uh, kind of a false presumption. We do that, and there are consequences because of that. Some of them are financial; have to challenge you a little bit on that. Some of them are financial consequences that occur. We...we set the rules and the developers play by them. Um, and in some cases we have the rules and some developers play by them and some residents will disagree with that, and...we're in a position where I would hope, uh, we would try not to change the rules while...that someone's already followed the process that we have...in place. Whether you're for inclusionary zoning or not, and whether you're for the scattered site housing or not, I think one of the things that we as a group would need to decide, um... if you're going to say that this community shouldn't, and this is community-wide. If you're going to say that the community should...not have...um, low income or low to moderate income housing clustered or grouped, concentrated in one area, not only should... if... if that's what you're going to say, you also need to be able to say that we're willing to approve, uh, that type of housing in other parts of...of the community. You can't say it can't be here and then not approve it to be, uh, put in other areas of town. So, um, you know, I fully appreciate wanting to sort through sort of the mechanisms to once that decision happens how we're going to get it to happen. I fully appreciate that, uh, and I...just because of how the housing issues have evolved, one of the mechanisms, one of the tools that I'm willing to approve, is the inclusionary zoning. But I think, uh, because we do zoning in this community... you've got to resolve that fundamentally in your mind, resolve do you want concentrations of low to moderate income housing happening, or not, and you need to answer it, and then whatever the answer you need to be willing to allow certain types of housing to be developed, somewhere in the community. Wright/ I think bringing up the fact that we already use zoning to indicate to developers what can be done and what cannot be done in certain areas, or in certain manners, is...is an This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City (:ouncil worx session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 26 important point to bear in mind, uh, as is concentration of... of lower income housing. We've, um, seen that that creates tensions in a community, let's say, when you...when you do have a concentration in a particular area. Um...and I think an inclusionary ordinance, whether it was mandatory or done by the use of incentives, might be a way to ensure that we don't have these concentrations appearing throughout the community in the future, but more that we have lower income housing is...is spread throughout the community. We have diverse housing stock, and we have more diverse neighborhoods. Um, you know, the Longfellow neighborhood is not...not a terribly diverse neighborhood anymore, but once upon a time it was exceptionally diverse, because you have big houses on Summit Street and right behind them on either side of...on Clark and on Governor Street, you had much more modest homes. And that's the model that we've gotten away from. I think that's a model that, uh, actually offers a lot in terms of quality of life. It gives us the, uh, the ability to scatter, you know, taking the, um, notion of scattered site housing and applying it in the community. Um, I think mentioning the schools, I think that's an important point to bring up, the schools have some serious concerns about, um, the numbers of free and reduced lunches at certain schools being particularly high. Others being particularly on the low side. An inclusionary zoning ordinance would help address some of these issues. And, you know, I don't know how Planning department might be interested in...in reorganizing themselves to take this on, but I do think this is a time when the issue of inclusionary zoning and scattered site housing does need our attention, uh, and I do think it's something we should go forward with. Bailey/ I agree with you. I think the timing, and I appreciate the fact that, you know, these studies, I mean, some of us have been looking at this for a while, and I appreciate the fact that you would want to read them and consider them, but I do think the timing is right to move forward on this. I think the Longfellow neighborhood, some of our older neighborhoods, are good examples of something that worked, something that made this community appealing and unique, a great quality of life. I mean, for me...I know that this sounds so strange, but the income range is the compelling...is acompelling argument. I mean, when Ross mentioned that this covers most of our teachers in our district, I mean, we're the City of Literature, but there's no writer...who could afford to live in the City of Literature? I mean, you just couldn't, um, just don't make that much. I, and so I think, we look at this income range and we have to consider that these are people around us every day, and...and that there seems to be a trend in this country of thinking that somehow low income is a catching disease or something. That's...that's not the case. These are our neighbors, and...and we're trying to build strong neighborhoods, and I don't think we do that by building sort of homogenous, all big houses, all small houses, these sorts of things. I mean, Windsor Ridge is a...is a wonderful example of something that's working. So I think the time is now to move forward on this. I mean, my inclination would be to...to move on a mandatory, but I would be interested in talking about a voluntary, anything that moves us a little bit more forward, I mean, I think we're pricing our future out of the market. Young professionals do not live here. They live in North Liberty and they commute in. Now, as somebody who spends a lot of time in the car, likes to spend a lot of time in the car, once you have kids, once you have busy schedules, that's...that's no quality of life for anybody. So, I think...I think we have to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council worx session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 27 consider what kind of community we really want to build here, and this would move us at least in the direction of a lot of things I've heard all of you say, so I think the time is now! Champion/ I think there's got to be a difference, um, between what people think is low income housing and moderate housing. Affordable housing doesn't have to be low income. Bailey/ Right! Ross said it. Champion/ Yeah, right, I mean... (several talking) Wright/ We're not talking about... exclusively Section 8 housing. We're not talking about exclusively any type of housing. We're talking about a real mix! Bailey/ Right! Making Iowa City accessible to live in actually, not just commute to to work. Hayek/ I've been involved in this for...for years, and I'm not sure whether I've spent more time on... more time in my Council position or an the scattered site committee, and it was probably pretty close. Um, and I've always had an interest in... in looking at ways of inventing a greater variety of housing choice in our developments, and I remain interested in that, but I...I agree that we should...I think we should pursue a broader analysis of...of our housing policy. Um, I think it's a good time to do this. It's been pointed out before, the School District is in considerable flux right now, and they're going through one of the most arduous processes encountered in probably decades. Um, you have, we have crime issues which, uh, we're committed to looking at, uh, I know other cities are...are looking at whether, and what extent there is a connection between some of the subsidized housing programs, uh, and... and crime. I think we ought to consider doing that. Uh, I think the scattered...one thing the scattered site committee didn't do much of was, uh, look at...looking at the impact on...on our service providers in town. We heard from them through that process, but the actual marching orders we got from the City Council at the time were just to look at concentrations of assisted housing, not some of these impact issues so much. Um, the, you know, the next item on...on our agenda tonight, uh, ties into this four and a half, five year old map that was the result of that scattered site process, which shows different census tracts and data from that. That's an outdated map already. Um, and we're going to have to look at that, and in any event, the...what came from scattered site was never truly adopted by the Council. It sort of...a soft adoption of part of it, um, we've got a lot of issues, uh, on... on the table. Um, and probably some I haven't even mentioned. So I'm...I am open to...considering, uh, some sort of zoning policy, but as part of a broader analysis. Um, and I'm...I'm as aware as anybody of the potential for discussion to go in a zillion directions, um, cause I was part of the scattered site committee (laughter) that was a constant temptation, but...but I think the issues facing Iowa City, uh, are such that we need to look at these broader issues. Dickens/ And it's gotta be something that, uh, the other communities around us are, you know, if we start looking at it, we need to feel the other communities out, because if we do it ourselves, I think we're doing a disservice to our city because people move to other cities. If you put mandatory...ordinances in, it'll make developers look at other places. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council worx session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 28 Bailey/ Right, but if you (several talking) $40,000 a year and you work in Iowa City, and you're currently living in North Liberty, wouldn't you want to come here? I mean... Dickens/ Well, I'd like to see most of the new places that are being built, like Windsor Ridge and those, have been doing a little more mix... Bailey/ Right. Dickens/ ... on their own, without ordinances. Bailey/ Well, maybe we should (several talking) Champion/ ...wasn't quite on their own! (laughter) Bailey/ (several talking) to move ahead on is what...what motivates that kind of mix. Dickens/ Right. We, and I think we need to talk to developers. What...you know, what will scare them away and what will...make them build what we would like to see. Shipley/ How many new housing starts do we have, and how many potential projects are there on the...I can't imagine...is it a lot? Davidson/ It's been slow. Shipley/ Yeah. Exactly. Davidson/ Everybody knows it's been slow for the last year to 18 months, but uh, you know, we keep being hopeful, but...unless the banks kind of (mumbled) Wright/ One of the points that...if the...the two newer Councilors haven't seen this 2007 affordable housing market analysis. One of the points get hammered home again and again and again, is what we need is affordable housing. We're short on affordable housing. We're...we're very short on affordable housing. Champion/ Maybe we can provide incentives for affordable housing. Bailey/ Well, maybe we should talk about, I mean, maybe that's... Champion/ We did talk about smaller lots (both talking) Bailey/ ...forward on though, I mean, developing something that...that actually puts a process in place that is...provides strong incentives. Wright/ Yeah. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 29 Wilburn/ And I don't want to ignore what the other communities...are thinking, but we...that's...that's where we've come from. We started talking about it, and then...for the very reason of wanting to hear their input, went to them...and we paid for the study, and there's no...there's no movement, no interest there. So, and...at least in terms of...being on the forefront of potential changes, um, there are other examples of policies where the conversation didn't start in other communities. The issue was brought to them, nothing. Iowa City enacted them, and then they followed suit, based on, uh, based on, uh, decisions that Iowa City has made. And I think, you know, the other thing that, uh, comes to mind for me in terms of...um...you know, that community, um, city choosing to zone and um, you know, uh, consequences for, uh, for... for developers, I mean, it's not putting out a consequence where there's a financial burden out there to do it. There are, you look for reasons for public good, um, there are other areas where we mandate require. We set out the rules and then builders, developers, they operate within it, our building code. There, those are examples and some of the examples are safety reasons, uh... um, you know, the um... um... in terms of, uh, you know, you hear stories in some of the larger cities where decks on...on buildings weren't secured or that they...their codes were a little loose or (mumbled) and um, you know, decks, fire escapes are falling out, collapsing people, you know, there are fire...fire codes and...and all those have financial consequences. So you'd look for what the public good is, um, Michael held up the document that talked about affordable housing. That's the public good that we're trying to address, and it's not being addressed by the market. In aggregate, it's not being addressed, and so what is...that's the public good. What could, should we do about that? So... Mims/ I guess what I would come back to too, I mean, I guess couple different points that people have made, when I talked earlier about the idea that I would not support for example inclusionary zoning program that basically put the 100% of the cost on the developers, I'm not saying they won't have some cost. I understand. We make zoning changes and...and that affects property owners and developers, etc., but if we, for example, were to say, you know, 30% of the units in any new development have to be affordable, I mean, I'd want to see a developer run the numbers for me or...or something more objective than say, you know, that isn't necessarily fair to put all of those costs back on a developer. Somehow as a society we have to help cover those costs through incentives or, you know, some other way. Like Jeff mentioned possibly allowing higher density so they can get more units in. To me that is all the details of getting to inclusionary zoning, which I'm not unwilling to talk about. I still think we're getting the cart before the horse, if we start it right now, is my concern. As Matt said, and I think there's just a lot of other issues that we need to talk about. What I'd like to do is, you know, maybe set ourselves a goal of four months, six months, and say, you know, we're going to try to get through some of these other discussions and make sure we are back to this point no later than that, to decide are we or are we not going to have a really serious discussion about inclusionary zoning, and I think we'll get there. I think around this table the majority of us want to have that discussion. Personally I'm just not ready for it yet. The other thing that I think would be interesting at this point in time, and again, I don't think it should preclude us in terms of moving on inclusionary zoning, but I think with the position that the School District finds itself in right now, I think if we worked through this we might This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council worx session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 30 find ourselves a very strong ally in the School District, in terms of approaching Coralville and North Liberty. And saying, look, you know, we have just gone through this tremendous, or maybe are still going through this, tremendous redistricting process. We are going to see ourselves repeating this problem every two to five years if some zoning adjustments aren't made in those communities, as well, and what an assistance it would be to the School District long term if all of the communities in the School District did something along this same line so we can try to avoid the concentration of low income housing and thus the free and reduced lunch kids all in these, you know, pockets, which end up in only certain elementary schools, so I...I think there's, again, I'm not against the conversation. I want to have the conversation, um, I tend to agree with Matt. I think...I think we've got some other things to talk about first. Champion/ I think the other thing that we can think about is the market itself right now might help developers to look at building affordable housing. I don't mean low income. I mean affordable housing, rather than big McDonald's mansions because there's a lot of them on the market right now, and so the market itself may help affordable housing be built. Um, if there's land available to build it on. Land is so expensive it's hard to have affordable housing in Iowa City, so that's certainly one of the things we need to look at when we talk to developers is some kind of incentive, because land is really expensive! Mims/ But that comes back also to what Jeff was saying about maybe increased densities in some of those areas, is one option. Davidson/ And since Connie brought the issue up, I did want to mention, uh, Mike actually was the one who included the attachment, or was...it's not actually an attachment, but was following the memo you received from the informal housing group of Johnson County, Iowa, their May 2008 report. This was a...this was a really great process. If you look at the people who participated in this, of course we have one esteemed member with us this evening, um, it's a very impressive cross section...it's a very impressive cross-section of, oh, and Marian too. Um, two representatives this evening, excuse me (several talking) and uh, a very impressive cross section here, and a lot of good information about some of what Susan was touching on, and Connie, of the affordable housing issues in general, and of course, it jumps right off the page, number 16, in terms of inclusionary housing, uh, the individuals and organization represented by our group disagree on the fundamental merits of inclusionary housing programs, and that was the conclusion after a lot of really good deliberation by this group. So, uh, again, just kind of points up the difficulty of working through, uh, this issue. There is, however, a lot of really good information that this, uh, group put together, and this attachment, I thank Mike for providing that. Champion/ It's, um, you know, we're not ignoring it. I mean, the...the grant we're doing with the University on returning rental properties to homeownership is to get some, uh, affordable housing, so, um, I...I'm not against inclusionary zoning either. I would like to do it with incentives or some other way to...to get it done, rather than mandated. Um, I think it's important that it...that it be handled, but the economy itself may help us handle it. It actually might! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 31 Davidson/ Well, Mr. Mayor, would you help me count some votes here, and I guess provide a little direction in terms of if there are things on or off the table if there does happen to be a maj ority. Hayek/ Well, I mean, the specific tasks before us tonight is to decide whether or not on inclusionary zoning there's a majority that want to proceed with that, and I'm sensing three votes in favor of that. Regenia, Ross, Mike. Do I have that right? Okay. Um, so it does not appear that there is a majority to pursue that...that item. Um, where that leaves us is something we need to...to decide, um, there may be a sufficient number of people who want to pursue some of these broader housing issues. Mims/ Definitely! Hayek/ If that's the case, then we need to decide a course of conduct on that. Davidson/ Yeah, and probably I assume the City Attorney...Attorney will mention to us that the agenda item this evening is the inclusionary zoning issue, so if you get too far afield in discussing other affordable housing issues, we'll have to probably bring that back for discussion on another eve...another evening, but...but certainly to the degree that we can, uh, let's have additional discussion in terms of anything you'd like staff to pursue certainly. You do have the existing JCCOG committee. You have the representative right here, uh, and...and there are some...a couple of other people in the audience as well that are...are part of that committee, so um, if you do want to mention anything for that group. Bailey/ Are there representatives from the School District on that committee? Rackis/ Lane Plugge. Bailey/ I think perhaps pursuing Susan's idea of talking to the...I think the time, once again, I think we should be doing something. Rackis/ Actually we will be, correct me if I'm wrong, some of the members here, but we are going to be discussion inclusionary zoning in that group in the next...well, it keeps getting pushed back, to be honest (laughter). Bailey/ It's a topic that seems to have that quality about it. Mims/ That's why I'd like to set a deadline for our discussions, to... Bailey/ That is something...the discussion that you indicated with the School District could begin with JCCOG task force or group, and I don't know if others are interested in providing that direction. (several responding) I think that would be helpful. Dickens/ Where can we get the scattered plan that Matt had done and...and the book that Mike has (several talking). This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 32 Bailey/ ...tonight's agenda was thick! (laughter) Dickens/ Are there copies...good! Davidson/ The final...the final report memo from the first JCCOG (mumbled) had elected officials on it is a nice summary of that, and basically the points are pulled right out of that. It's a little bit more succinct in terms of...we'll try and (several talking) Mims/ Okay, that'd be great! Hayek/ So we...we need to figure out how, you know, give some direction to staff here and probably set this for another work session, um, but in the meantime give some direction as to what we'd like to see to have at least a semblance of preparation in advance of... Davidson/ Well, and certainly if you'd, I mean, the group discussing it right now is the JCCOG committee, so probably any direction you give us we'll forward to that committee, just to get the broader regional discussion of it. But if you have anything specific...be happy to have that brought forward. Wright/ (mumbled) discussion will be that they have to meet! And talk about it! (several talking) Yeah, but there should be a meeting in March, shouldn't there? Rackis/ April, May. Wright/ April... okay. (person speaking away from mic) Rackis/ We meet every quarter, but the issue of inclusionary zoning has been brought up frequently and keep pushing it back, so I could ask to bring it up to the forefront. Wright/ That would be a good start. (several talking) Yeah, conversation with the schools and see. Bailey/ Yeah. Champion/ Would that group be the one to come with, I mean, to come up with some ideas of what kind of incentives we could do to get inclusionary zoning done without an ordinance? Rackis/ Yes, we could give them suggestions. Champion/ I think that'd be a really good thing for them to come up with. The other, um...are we going to talk about housing issues that we want to discuss? Mims/ I think we need to. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City c:ouncii worx session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 33 Hayek/ I think we should get them on the table if we're...if we're going to prepare for an upcoming work session. Champion/ Well, one of the reasons I pointed out that I was not for inclusionary zoning at this time, and there are areas in town that I would not even want to any more...any more, uh, low income...low income housing. So, that's the thing I really want to talk about. I want to avoid these pockets that we have all these problems in now. Davidson/ You're going to be talking about that some with this next item. (several talking) The map that Matt referred to, that identifies those pockets... Champion/ Yes, I know. Mims/ Well, I think that's a whole discussion, separate from the next agenda item, is...is relooking at that map, that you indicated is...I'm not sure how old, and if that's outdated.. . Hayek/ Pushing five years, and it's based on even older data I think. Mims/ Then...it would sound like that's something that we ought to be... Hayek/ Is that right, I mean... Mims/ Okay. Wright/ That would be a good thing to have updated. Wilburn/ Well, and one of those sources is the School District's map on locations of where, a more recent map of where families, households are actually (mumbled) Rackis/ I can talk about that next, but there was a fair share index that we developed to create that map, and then it was tweaked (mumbled) discuss that. Hayek/ The, um, scattered site process resulted in a map of... of assisted housing everywhere, including Section 8. Can we...can we get another such (several talking) Mims/ That would be very helpful! Rackis/ We just updated it in January. So I have copies here that I was going to hand out at the next item. Mims/ Okay. Hayek/ Does it exclude anything, or is it inclusive of everything? Rackis/ Well, it does not include vouchers, because they change every day. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council worx session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 34 Hayek/ I know, and...I think I've seen that, and I guess my question would be could we get a snapshot point in time location of that? Even...even acknowledgeable that it does (several talking) Rackis/ I could ask...I'm sure we can! Hayek/ Yeah, I mean, I think that would help. (mumbled) Rackis/ It's not in map form, but if, under my, uh, with the annual report, there's a snapshot of all, um, of the neighborhood associations and by city that would fit on that page, but there's another page that would be included in item 7 that, um, shows...and again, what I did, I broke it down by city, so there's, uh, Coralville, North Liberty, Lone Tree, but then by every neighborhood association, lists the number of vouchers by neighborhood association and then, uh, a breakdown of which ones have, uh, families with minor children, which households do not have any minors, and uh, I've also provided that list to the School District. That's one reason why I developed it, so that is in your...your packet. So it's not a map, but it breaks it down. Hayek/ Could it be plotted though, I mean, because the balance of the information is plotted, and just so that we're looking at something that's consistent, it would be helpful for me to have that. Rackis/ Just so we're clear, it's a snapshot of January 28, 2010, because like everybody else in the community, come August, there'll be a 20 to 25% change as...as, you know, people sort of do that en masse change in... in August. Wright/ Those numbers Steve was talking about are on page, starting on page 4 of the annual report. Rackis/ Yeah, and then there's a, uh, another like a page and a half that...that shows everything, and...and then the breakdown of, um, households without minor children is 58%; households with minor children is 42, so that gives you some sense of the discussion going on with the School District, as well. Wright/ Um, and going into whenever we start our discussions up again, I'm guessing it's not going to be for a little while yet, um, do you happen to know, Jeff, if there's any data... from communities that have enacted inclusionary zoning, as to... effects on development in general, did their development slow down, did it alter development patterns significantly? Davidson/ Um, we would want to get a handle on that, Mike. (both talking) Probably what we'd want to do is, you know, there's some communities in here like Madison and Boulder and Gainesville, Florida... Wright/ Right. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 35 Davidson/ ...that are similar to ours that we'd probably want to just check with them directly and.. . Wright/ Yeah, and those are exactly the ones I had in mind! Thank you. Hayek/ What...what are our options on, um, on...services and crime? Those are two things I had mentioned, uh, earlier. Um, when we looked at a scattered site process, when we heard from some of the service agencies and they told us anecdotally what they felt the impacts were to their respective organizations, but nothing to really quantify them, not really sure that you can quantify the impact on that sector, but that'd be something I...I would have some interest in thinking about. Davidson/ So, crime statistics as... Hayek/ No, well...talking more of impact on social service providers, impact of...of either a concentration or sheer number of subsidized units on...on a given service provider within the community. Bailey/ You know, we shouldn't be really, I mean, I understand that you've been dealing with this a lot, and so in your head, but I mean, it's all very clear, but um (laughter) when we talk about subsidized versus what we're talking about here, I think...I think we need to...one of the things that we could do is agree on language, so we all know what we're talking...I mean, especially for those of you who are experts in this, I mean, so when you talk about subsidized, we're talking about lower than 60%, correct? Hayek/ Well, you raise a very good point, and when we started the scatted site process, we did define that and we had a definition of assisted housing is any house...I'm kind of butchering this, but any housing created, acquired, maintained, or sustained with some sort of public dollar. Bailey/ You know, a definition sheet when we go into this discussion might be very helpful for all of us, because we're all at different places in our understanding and our language, and so...I...I need to know what you mean, cause you've dealt with it for so long -when we talk about this. That would be...that would be something I would call for. I mean, and we could agree upon the definitions. I don't care how they're developed. Champion/ It's important that people understand our definitions, because (both talking) Mims/ I think that brings up a really good point, Regenia, because you know on the one hand we might be talking about things that, you know, that are subsidized in some way, and yet when we talk about inclusionary zoning, we may in our minds be thinking we're talking about stuff that's not subsidized at all, but is hopefully just at fair market value, going to be built in a way that it is affordable for people maybe without any public dollars (both talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council worx session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 36 Bailey/ ...the workforce housing that you asked about earlier. Mims/ Right, and so I think that's a really good point. Bailey/ So that would help, I think. At least it would help me. Rackis/ (mumbled) on the boundaries, because the School District boundaries go outside the City limits, and if you look at some of the School District maps, for free and reduced numbers, a lot of the free and reduced numbers are actually outside the City limits, and we don't have any control. Our...we can only...our dollars in the City. Bailey/ We can only govern what we have control over. Champion/ We're only interested in the City limits! (laughter) (several talking) Rackis/ ...date and information crosses boundaries (several talking) Wilburn/ On the other hand, it may be helpful to have that perspective for awareness that....it does exist elsewhere. Champion/ Oh, I know! Mims/ Plus, if we're going to try and have that conversation through JCCOG with say Coralville and North Liberty and the School District, if we've got it we might as well put it all together. If...if that's reasonable to do. Hayek/ I mean, if we're pushing for some sort of regional response, we need regional data. Um... Bailey/ But I... you know, we've been around this before. I don't want to wait for regional response before we, I mean...we could actually lead! Wright/ I was just going to say, we could just come out and say, this is where we're going! Bailey/ Yeah! Yeah! Mims/ I agree, but I just think with the School District (both talking) good time...it's a good time to have another conversation, I think, with the other (both talking) Bailey/ ...understand that part of the impact in this area is because of things that are outside the boundaries that, yeah, that's... Davidson/ Well, we have the venue for that discussion already. JCCOG. What I think we'll do is, subject to any further comments you have, is, uh, just kind of put together a summary of sort of what was decided and where we're going to go from here on out, and we'll try and get that in the next info packet. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council worx session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 .City Council Work Session Page 37 Bailey/ (mumbled) Hayek/ Yeah, I think that's...I think that's the best (mumbled) Bailey/ We don't have a timeline though! Mims/ Yeah, I mean, can...can we at this point, or do we maybe look at that next time and try and set a timeline? I mean, I think I'm like Regenia (both talking) Bailey/ ...before we talked about this (both talking) I'm talking about next year's snowfall! (laughter) Wright/ You want to say September? Bailey/ Yeah, I'm talking about a new snow removal budget cycle. (laughter) Davidson/ And remember, those of you on JCCOG, if...if there's some direction you want to give that committee in terms of by October we would like to have this issue discussed and a report back to us, do that! You have the ability to do that at JCCOG. Hayek/ Would that follow from our next meeting, when we are discussing these items that have been tossed out? Davidson/ Well, maybe when we get the summary back to you, Matt, you can, those...six of you who are on JCCOG can take that with you to the next JCCOG meeting and say, hey, we have a list of issues here that we'd really like to have you de...address by this point in time, so that we can individually as a community discuss them. That sound reasonable? I mean, I really want to take advantage of that committee, it gives the regional perspective, it's set up and working, and ready to go! (several talking and laughing) Rackis/ And it is a broad based (mumbled) I mean, there's Board of Realtors, Home Builder's, School District, every community represented in the metro area, so... Davidson/ Does that sound...the way to proceed? Mims/ Yeah, and I think we need to obviously get it on our agenda to come back and discuss, and I think maybe that's one thing we look at when we get to our summary of pending work sessions issues, because we have an April that I don't know how we're going to accomplish at this point, so (laughter) so maybe when we get to that we can figure out how and where we're going to add this to our work load. Hayek/ Okay. Anything else on this? Davidson/ Not unless you do! (laughter) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 38 Hayek/ Do you want to take a break now? We've got a lot of people here for the next... Bailey/ I know, but... Wright/ Can we just take like afive-minute (several talking) Hayek/ Take afive-minute break. (BREAD Proposed Affordable Rental Housing Site 2500 Muscatine Avenue (IPS): Long/ What I'll do is talk a little bit about the project, and then talk about why we're here. The Housing Fellowship is proposing...well, about a year ago, I'll step back. About a year ago, City Council approved $220,000 in Home and CDBG funds to acquire land to construct up to eleven housing units. And, they found...they found the location at 2500 Muscatine Avenue and there's enough land there to construct six two-bedroom units. And just to give you an idea...this is a, well, six two-bedroom units at that location, and also more importantly, 14 homes in North Liberty, so they are working to scatter their projects throughout the metropolitan area. With this particular project, um, all of the two-bedroom homes will have...are geared towards persons at 60, at least all of them will be below 60% of median income. I just wanted to put that out there to show you what income that is. And the rents, don't pay too much attention to these rents. They're not exactly the home rents, and without getting into all the...the HUD language. They will be less than that two-bedroom number there. And, with that number, keep in mind you also have to back out, if the tenant pays utilities, which they will be, so it'll probably be...$75 to $80 less than that number, so just to give you an idea of what...what we're talking about here for housing. And it's going to be...they don't have, they don't want to put too much into the schematics, so I don't have any drawings until it's been approved. But it's either going to be duplexes or townhomes at this location. This is the proposed location. I'm sure most of you are familiar with this site. Uh, it's...right next to Memory Garden Cemetery and Hy-Vee, and CVS is across the street. There is immediately adjacent to the west, there is a, uh, three buildings, with a total of 27 apartments. Those are market-rate apartments. They're not assisted units. And, Autumn Park, which is a...HUD calls it project-based, elderly assisted housing. We don't have any of our Home funds in it, or CDBG funds, but it's HUD funds. I believe it's 64 units, and then the other, the Housing Authority, they have 20 units up on, near Scott and Court Street, that's been labeled ICHA. And this is in census tract 14, block group 2. Just keep that in mind; we'll be talking about that number quite a bit (laughter). There's an aerial view of...just give you another, better idea. And what's currently there, is a former dentist office. Hayek/ A lot of teeth pulled in that office! (laughter) Long/ They have moved, and the Housing Fellowship does have a... an accepted purchase offer on the property, and it's contingent on...well, your approval, and the environmental review process, which we will do afterwards. So, this is why we're here! You look at...it's up in the, uh, I don't have a pointer, but if you look at 14, up...to the east, and your right...and 2 is the...cluster. (mumbled) pointer (laughter) (mumbled) fancy laser This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City council worx session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 39 pointer! So right here, it's the area that is not shaded. So...step back, when the Housing Fellowship applied for these funds, in our application guide... guideline, we state, in November 2005 City Council reached consensus on identifying areas of the community where the development of Home and/or CDBG assisted rental housing would be encouraged. As the attached map shows, census tract 14, block group 2, is not an area that was identified as underserved of affordable housing opportunities, and requires you to review the location. So, if it was across the street, by CVS, we wouldn't be here tonight, but based on this, uh, information that was put together in 2000...2003, 2004, uh, 2004 or 2005, um, that's why we're here. The site is zoned multi-family. So it's appropriately zoned. And, is in an area that we...we encourage affordable housing to be built, because it's with access to public transportation, grocery stores, schools, and uh, other areas within walking distance. This particular block group, um, has 713, well... in 2000 had 713 units, and we can estimate...it's hard to estimate. We didn't do the estimate, but not too many units have been constructed in that census tract block group since then because it's a pretty developed area. And of that number, 87 or 12% of the units have been publicly assisted with our funds, CDBG, Home, or project-based. And if you take out Autumn Park, which is 64 units, or 77% of those, um, we're down to, I believe it's 3% of the block group, including the 20 public housing units. And I...I say that, take out elderly only because when this map was first proposed to City Council, there were some parts of the area of... of the census tract block groups that were...changed (mumbled) initially you...we were not allowed to develop in census tract 105 (mumbled) and that...that census tract was skewed a bit because there is a 30- unit...37 unit elderly housing development that was financed with...partially financed with Home funds, and that was...that switched to that (mumbled) um, so it's just one of the reasons we took that out, and because of the issue with the (mumbled) with the, uh, schools. We just back that up, because it does not have an impact on schools. So I guess we're here to answer questions and also there are a number of members of the Board of Directors from the Housing Fellowship here and a couple staff members if you want more detailed information about Fellowship or the project. Apparently (mumbled) and manage, um, 116 housing units in Iowa City (unable to hear person away from mic) used to have some units in Coralville. They were...there's still four, I'm sorry. I believe 16 of them were destroyed by the flood, but they still have four there. Wright/ And this is the map we were just talking about a few minutes ago that's on the outdated side, is that correct? Long/ I would agree with that. Champion/ You know, these...this is (coughing, unable to hear) is putting more subsidized housing. I'm going to use that term rather than affordable housing, cause I think there's a big difference, into the east side schools, which have their hands full right now, and I am not going to support this project, or any more...any more projects on the east side of town for subsidized housing, and in some of the areas in town that have an oversaturation. I think it's a very unhealthy situation we're creating, and I feel very strongly about it. I...I've said that for several years. I didn't vote on the funding for the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 40 past two years because of my involvement with Shelter House, so now I can vote, and I'm going to say no. Wilburn/ Wasn't the big...I'm trying to remember...I believe the one...the consensus for that policy came from the Council...I believe the big focus was on census tract 18. Is that correct? Long/ Correct. Initially census tract 181 was identified for additional affordable housing opportunities, based on the fair share matrix...and that was swapped to where we were told not to put anything there, but according to this matrix that was developed, and again, it was never approved. None of this has ever been... it's not a policy. It's a guideline. It was swapped, as well as 172, which is where Twain. That also was identified for additional affordable housing opportunities, based on the fair share matrix that was developed and then that was shifted, and so... Wright/ And we're talking here at the...142, which is as you said, if we...if the Autumn Park apartments were not there, would be an area, uh, identified for additional affordable housing, is that right? Long/ It's below the average. Wright/ Below average, if you could move the Autumn Park apartment complex for senior citizens. Bailey/ It's six units. Okay, so how... Long/ It's two bedrooms. Bailey/ Six two-bedroom; so what's the potential, what's a maximum impact that it could have on the School District, and is that Lucas? Long/ That is Lucas. Wright/ And what's the, uh... Bailey/ How many kids...potentially in that...six unit? Long/ Uh, I'd have to...(both talking) Bailey/ ...how many kids fit in atwo-bedroom unit? I don't know. Hayek/ Yeah, if you want to bring somebody (several talking) Hightshoe/ Maryann, can you get that? About how many kids you think in the six...the six homes would have. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 41 Long/ Five to eight (several talking) Bailey/Okay. Champion/ Lucas is one of those schools in trouble. Bailey/ Well, no, it's...I understand you can't say what ages, but I mean, I'm just talking about how many people will actually live here and potentially what...what is the impact on the schools. Okay. Long/ Lucas I believe is at...38. Tracy has the numbers here, just a minute. We...(mumbled) Hightshoe/ Oh, I have the districts across Iowa. (several talking) Lucas might bus from a different area, outside of Iowa City, into Lucas where it might (several talking) free and reduced lunch... Wright/ Yeah, they... Bailey/ They bus outside....just east of our boundary. Long/ They go...I can...I did pull up the map from the School District and of the 159...kids on free and reduced lunch, 80 in the elementary school anyway were from, uh, manufactured housing parks outside of Iowa City limits. So over half. Champion/ They're still there! Long/ They are, but it's something beyond our control. Mims/ What does the...what...fairly lengthy discussions in their minutes talked about, again, this tax credit applications and...and this memo indicates that the Housing Fellowship...Housing Fellowship will include the six-unit, 2500 Muscatine Avenue property, as part of the scattered site, low income housing tax credit application that also includes 14 homes in North Liberty. How is that going to impact, I mean, is this going to get built or if they're not doing tax credit applications right now because nobody's buying them...what are we looking at in terms of...that... Long/ The likelihood... Mims/ Yeah. Long/ It's hard to predict. They aren't...the application, I'm not sure the Iowa Finance Authority has set the application date for the next round, um, I know there was just a...an application recently that was submitted so...um, it's hard to predict what's going to happen. It...a lot does depend on the national economy and whether investors are purchasing tax credits. I haven't heard yet that they're...I do know that their current project has tax credits secured. I...I don't... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 42 Hightshoe/ The program (mumbled) whether they're viable. So I think a couple of years ago the per dollar (mumbled) on a dollar tax credit, um, you could generate enough equity for 80- cents on the dollar, and last year it's went down to like 62-cents on the dollar, 65, so you can still apply and get awarded credits. It's how...how successful and how viable your project will be. Dickens/ What is the maximum number of people per unit...that's allowed...what's going to be built here? Hightshoe/ Well, it's atwo-bedroom. So...I mean, if you're a related household (several talking) Long/ ...um, three, is it three or four? (mumbled) Wright/ Was it three or...I... Long/ For related...it's different. Is it two per bedroom? Dilkes/ As...as...one family as many...if they have ten kids. Bailey/ Ten kids could go two bedrooms. Dilkes/ Yeah. I mean, I'm just... Hightshoe/ ...the Housing Fellowship what's the average number of... Dilkes/ The limit...the limit is on...is on unrelated persons, yeah. (several talking) I think that's three. Wright/ So does the Fellowship have any guidelines as to how many people can be in a unit? Long/ I don't know. You'd have to ask... Bailey/Can we get somebody from the Fellowship up here? Wright/ Do you want to come up to the table? (several talking) Dennis/ I'm Maryann Dennis. Can you hear me? (several responding) Um, well, Eleanor, aren't there...there are limits based on square footage and how many...and why you (mumbled) occupants for a rental permit, so depending upon the square footage, I mean, we're not going to put ten people in two bedrooms! Cause I don't think there's...there will be enough square footage in that home to allow ten people. Dilkes/ I...I only know about the zoning restrictions, and family...there's no restriction on the size of a family. There's a restriction on unrelated persons. In terms of the rental permit requirements, I...I'd have to look at those. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 43 Dennis/ Okay. But I...I believe that's...that's true. Anyway, we generally say we go along with HUD's definition, which sounds a little bit goofy, but typically one and a half persons per bedroom. (several talking and laughing) Hayek/ Do people have other questions for Maryann while she's up here? I'm sure we'll ask something as soon as you get back to your seat! Dennis/ I'll come back. Thanks! Hightshoe/ We did want to put this map of subsidized housing...this map does include the City Homes, City assisted project based. It doesn't include Section 8, however; all of these housing units, except for our Section 202, which is the elderly, most likely yellow dots, except Section 8. So...when we go to map the Section 8, it could be duplicated because we're already...it's assisted housing unit that provides...will accept Section 8 tenants. Um, if you look at the map, when we looked at the scattered site and what concentration, on the west side is 248 and 16 units, so when you're talking about concentrations in a very small area, that's a lot of units. So we just wanted to provide this as a reference we can look at when we were discussing scattered site issues about where they are right now. Bailey/ If we... Dilkes/ I'm sorry (mumbled) if we're...if your decision is going to hinge on how many people you can put in this bedroom, we're going to have to get you the answer on that, because I'm not aware of the rental restriction. Maryann may be completely right, but... Bailey/ (mumbled) idea of the impact on the schools, and... and I'm comfortable with that range. I'm fine. I didn't need a lot of detail. I don't know what Terry... Dickens/ I just wanted to know how many total people are going to be in that one area. Bailey/ And...and so...if...if we don't approve this, is that linked to the success or the viability of the North Liberty project? Are these...are these joined, um... Hightshoe/ It'd be one application. Bailey/ They're one application. So, this puts the other project at risk, potentially or...or... Hightshoe/ You'd have to ask the Housing Fellowship (both talking) about the liability. Dennis/ For low income housing tax credit application, you need...more than 14 units to have a viable... Bailey/ Okay. So this puts the other... Dennis/ ...site is not approved, and (mumbled) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 44 Bailey/ Uh-huh. Okay. Dickens/ The location of this, does that affect how we're moving forward on the Towncrest redevelopment, and will that...or is this on the...since it's on the north side of the street, that's...is that not in the district that we're looking at? Hayek/ It's across the street from the actual footprint of (several talking) Dickens/ Which we haven't really... Wright/ If it were across the street, we wouldn't need to even sign off from it. We'd just go ahead.. . Champion/ Yeah, but we would still have to approve the funding. Hightshoe/ ...already provided funding.. . Hayek/ (several talking) Eleanor raises a good point. If...if anyone is going to make a decision based on presumed numbers of individuals in a unit, and...because she's not...she doesn't have her hand on that information, and...then we need to do something about that. Dickens/ Just for information, how many people will potentially be in the area. Hayek/ Okay. Long/ Just for your information, I did check with the Housing Authority today and...36% of the Housing Fellowship (coughing) have a voucher. So that was lower than I anticipated, actually. Wright/ 36% of... Long/ Their 116...which is something we encourage actually. Hayek/ Are there other questions for (mumbled) or staff? Wilburn/ Just a comment, it was helpful, um...I don't necessarily agree with the, uh, the direct linkage with, um, any given development going into an area, dictating that that's going to be a, uh, high crime area, but for folks that have the concern about the type of housing that is going in, it was helpful to have you pull out the elderly figure to highlight that it...we're talking about, uh, 3% to 4% it would (mumbled) so that was helpful information to have. So just a comment. Mims/ Are all the little dots on the map, if they don't have a number, are they 1? (unable to hear person away from mic) Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City council worx session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 45 Hightshoe/ To be honest, I mean, we...when we ran these, you know, two units looked huge, but... Mims/ That's fine. You can fit the number in! Hightshoe/ And our 16 and 248 seemed to be the same size (both talking) Mims/ That's okay! (laughter) Long/ And since...I will say, since the, um...discussion in 2004 and 5, there have been a number of developments in the areas that, uh, were shaded (mumbled) it has helped to scatter throughout. I know it's made it more difficult for housing providers to find available, suited land that's...available land and properly zoned. Um, so it has been a challenge, but this is a piece of land that is properly zoned and (coughing) history in Iowa City of finding difficult multi-fam...having difficulty finding multi-family zoned land. Oh, I should say...this isn't (mumbled) Longfellow Manor. This is a duplex in Longfellow Manor that was done...I think it's already done five or six years ago, but um, rental housing. It is part of a larger development (mumbled) we were talking about earlier, mixed, but... Hayek/ Okay, any other questions for staff or the Housing Fellowship? Thank you. This is on, uh, approval tomorrow night (several talking) oh, no, you're right! You're right. It's not. (several talking) Long/ No, we've...I thought I made that clear earlier. Sorry (several talking) okay. Hayek/ (mumbled) need to make a decision here. Champion/ ...all consider the problems we're having on the east side, and I think we (coughing) more discussion on subsidized housing and what we're going to do about it. Wright/ Well, I'm not willing to write off the entire east side of Iowa City, Connie, um, our problems have been...more concentrated on the southeast side, which is, you know, an area that I wouldn't want to put, uh, any other development. This is...if, you know, from a geographer's standpoint maybe east-central, I don't know, um... Champion/ They go to Lucas School. Wright/ They do go to Lucas School, which is...38 free and reduced lunch...free and reduced lunch does not mean anything other than...there's an income disparity going on there. It doesn't necessarily indicate lots and lots and lots of Section 8 vouchers or anything else. Um, the fact that this census tract is skewed by the Autumn Park apartments, in terms of the...the low income factor, um, I think is significant...that...in addition, if it were across the street...this wouldn't even be coming to us for discussion. I...I don't think this is a particularly bad site. It's actually a good one in terms of location. There's a grocery store, pharmacy, uh, school, doctors' offices, etc., um... and again, one of the things we This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City t..;ouncii worx session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 46 do know, excuse me, is that there's still a need in Iowa City for, um...affordable housing. The Housing Fellowship is...has a track record as being a pretty responsible steward of their properties. (both talking) Champion/ ..talking about affordable housing or subsidized housing? Wright/ I'm talking about affordable housing. Champion/ This is subsidized housing. Wright/ We don't have our definitions straight on this, Connie. It could...we don't have our dictionary! Um...given the...the overall...numbers in that census block, I don't think this is going to cause any particular problems. We're talking about some two-bedroom units, six two-bedroom units going in there, um...what, 3%...only 3% of the residential units in this tract and block group have been publicly assisted for non-elderly rental households. That's a pretty small percentage. So I...I don't have any problem with this going forward. Wilburn/ I support it going forward for the reasons you just stated. Mims/ I think I'm with Connie on this one. I...it's real tough one. I think as we've talked about the map is outdated, um, I think, yes, if it was across the street we wouldn't be talking about it, but again, that whole...southeast side. I guess what I come back to is, I mean, I remember being on the School District from 96 to 99, and we were complaining back then to the City about what was happening on the southeast side, and it kept happening and it kept happening, and until we kind of really stop and look at this, and I think tonight maybe we're really starting to have that discussion, saying, hey, we've got to really stop and look at what we're doing, how it's affecting the schools, inclusionary zoning or not, whatever, um...this being on a busy street concerns me too. Um, that's the other thing, I mean, you're talking right on a very busy street, if you're talking kids and stuff there. Um, it's...I don't think I'm going to support it. I'm not going to support it. Hayek/ I, uh, I agree that this...the location map is old, it's based on even older data, um, the...this creates a very frustrating process for those involved, um, but that's the reality of current city...what was it? Guidance, was that your term? (several talking and laughing) Um... Wilburn/ It was not adopt, um, it's not an ordinance, uh, I don't even think it was a resolu... Long/ No, it was not. Wilburn/ It was not a resolution. The focus at the time was...there was concern by a majority of Council on census tract 18, and um, it was to, um, my recollection...that map was a guide to try and encourage some type of scattering to occur. We just heard from staff that some of that scattering has occurred, and for areas that are not in the shaded areas, it comes back to Council. So that's not a proscription or a prohibition, and I...I don't, you know, again, I go back to the conversations before...we need to be prepared to say where This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City C;ouncii worx session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 47 housing is going to be, and I don't...I don't, you know...they went through the process, they're following the guidelines, they've got an application in for some potential support, uh, it's addressing, uh, an issue, uh, that, uh, there is public good within that...I mean, otherwise we're going to have an ongoing...defacto moratorium on building. Bailey/ That's what concerns me. I'm sorry. Hayek/ I...I was going to say is...not withstanding this older data and the...the soft policy, if you can call it, that needs to be clarified and...and hopefully we're at a point where we're...where we're going to revisit these issues as an entire Council, I'm not comfortable with...with this site. Um, given...given the School District challenges in that area, given the fact that it's across the street from an area where...we're revitalizing, um, I don't want to approve this at this time. Uh, I think it's...I think it's more appropriate to let the School District process play out and... and let our process of re-envisioning the area, uh, across the street, which will impact the whole area, uh, play out as well. Bailey/ Here's the concern, you know, as our process plays out people still need housing and I think Ross is right. We're really doing, I mean, this is effectively a moratorium on building housing. So we better be prepared to move a little bit more quickly than I just heard a few minutes ago, or... or we're not going to move forward on providing housing for people who need it in our community, and that's...that's concerning. I understand that there are some big issues, and I understand all those kinds of things, but...this seems to fit criteria; they bring it forward; it's a...it's a good project; it's close, well, it has all the amenities. There's potentially eight to ten kids impacting the school district, okay, maybe that's not small. Maybe that's large, I don't know, but we're just slowing this down because we won't make a policy. We have soft policies. We have guidance. We really do need to ramp this up if this is the way these discussions are going to continue to go, because...we grant these funds, they can't spend the funds because...we won't give 'em sites. Long/ We are in the middle of an allocation process, actually March 25th... Bailey/ Right! Long/ ...be making recommendations to you to approve in April. Champion /And that's why I want to make myself clear. I know I'm only one vote, uh, but we've got to find some other solution then...then these particular...this particular neighborhood. I know that land is more affordable there, but we're creating problems for ourselves, and problems for the City, and perceived problems for...by a lot of people. Bailey/ Without... Champion/ I'm not willing to do it anymore! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 48 Bailey/ Right, but without some kind of inclusionary, um, incentives or mandates, it's going to be hard to get the scattered site that we need (both talking) Champion/ ...I'm willing to look at incentives! I mean, I've been a great supporter of...of low- income housing, and... and people with low incomes, but I think we've got our limit in certain areas of town, and I'm not willing to support it here. Bailey/ But perhaps then we shouldn't...then we shouldn't have, um, a CDBG or a Home fund cycle, until we know what's possible to fund within those cycles. That's the... Champion/ ...east Iowa City (several talking) Long/ Most of west Iowa City is excluded actually...according to this map, and then Finkbine is in there. We can't develop Finkbine. The Airport's in there. (several talking) Just to point out some of the issues of this map. Bailey/ I mean, I just think that we need to get some answers before we continue these funding processes that become this kind of odd little dance that...I mean, nobody's happy. We're not happy with this. Housing Fellowship isn't happy with this, I mean, I think we need to make some decisions and provide some clear direction, sooner rather than later. Mims/ I could argue the opposite side of that, is I think going back like I say when I was on the School Board from 96 to 99, and I think the Council maybe started looking at it back then. I know as a School Board we were very concerned back then about what was happening on the southeast side, and no decisions were made by the City and so in the past 13 years we've gotten all of this done on the southeast side, that has gotten all of these issues we've been talking about for the last few months, and... so I think at some point you have to say, wait a minute! We've got to stop and not approve things in those areas and does that hurry us up to make some decisions? Maybe it does, and that forces us (both talking) Bailey/ Then let's make a policy then that, I mean, instead of this kind of discussion. Let's just, you know, put a policy (both talking) Mims/ But also this comes to us because it's not in one of those areas, you know, one of those areas (both talking) Bailey/ But what's influencing Connie's decision it sounds like is not only the location of east, but also the school district it's in. So...maybe we, I mean, all I'm suggesting is we need to provide clearer guidance to the people who are applying for funds, and working very hard to find property. I mean, I'm not saying...I just think we need to be clearer. Wilburn/ There's another factor too in terms of, I mean, it was brought up, you know, in terms of where kids are bussed to, but there's another factor that regardless of the School District's process and what they decide, where lines are going to go and how they're going to allocate resources to bus whomever, um, more and more schools are being, elementaries This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council worts session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 49 in particular, designated schools in need of assistance, and they're allowed to transfer wherever, and that's something despite the School District's process, a school has that identification, peopled be allowed to transfer...I'm forgetting the exact nature of where they're allowed to transfer, but...but uh, the School District's acknowledging that that's not something they're going to know because you don't know how people are going to react once that school receives the school in need of assistance, so how far off are we going to push this decision is...(several talking) Hayek/ You raise a very good point, and um, you know, the timing's unfortunate on this in one respect, uh, because we're...we had a discussion at the last bullet point about broader issues and the lack of the City's (mumbled) potentially affecting this issue, but...but this shows you that, you know, the...the status quo forces us to make these ad hoc decisions, which uh, isn't the best way to do it! And so if that compels us to get our acts in gear and...and push these discussions and come up with clear policy to replace the existing set of policies, um, then...then I think that's a good thing. Long/ Or to even have a policy. Bailey/ Yes, we don't have (several talking and laughing) Hayek/ Well, we have something, right? And...and, uh... Bailey/ We have these discussions. Hightshoe/ But you also have to look...if we're trying to encourage affordable housing near...near things, near schools, near banks, near grocery stores...what I'm hearing from this conversation is you're pushing to the periphery of town where there's no services. Bailey/ Right. (both talking) Hightshoe/ ... so it's really hard to give direction to affordable housing providers when you're not considering zoning of land that's appropriately zoned, or you're not including...or very high priced, or even like in the census tract 1. Looks like we have a ton of land, um, however, a lot of that's (mumbled) Long/ It's single ownership, and a lot of it's in the conservation easement. It will never be developed. Hayek/ (several talking) Long/ ...school district boundaries or census tract boundaries, we've been told for five years that census tract (mumbled) people feel it's, I mean, these are the mixed messages that developers are getting...we're getting. It'd be just helpful to have...(several talking) Hightshoe/ ...two years (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 50 Long/ We send it back to Hud -- that's... Hightshoe/ And we have an allocation round of a million four coming up, if you guys...eliminate the whole east part of town, or you eliminate...it's just...it's now very difficult to get any housing anywhere, um... Bailey/ Right. Hightshoe/ And just as a reminder, we've subsidized, based on this map, 5% of the private housing market, or 5% of the total rental housing units, so 5%...private market there's limited government subsidized dollars. The private market that...that you have dictates a lot of where affordable housing is. You're going to have affordable rental housing when you have places that have, um, single family ranches, three bedrooms that are affordable. Um, that is a private market. We can try to work on that and get affordable housing other places, but you got to remember, we're only subsidizing 5% of the rental market in Iowa City. And that's throughout...and half of that's elderly units, when you look at this map. So just things to consider. Hayek/ Well, we need to reach a decision (mumbled) where are the rest of you? Dickens/ I guess I feel a little bit the same way Connie does, that the east side has been a little bit targeted, and with that property being potentially close to the Towncrest area, that I just have trouble right now supporting it, until we can get the rest of the east side with some type of direction, and I think it is time, you know. Six months or a year from now it may be a good place, but right now I just can't support it. Wright/ Better be moving a lot faster than six months to a year on some of this stuff! Bailey/ Yeah! Hayek/ Okay, I'm... Hightshoe/ The Housing Fellowships only... already had one year, so they have one more year to (mumbled) so you're talking about a policy (several talking) Bailey/ I bet they'll be looking for land in another community. Long/ They can't use our money in other communities. Bailey/ Well, they...had North Liberty, oh, yeah (several talking) I don't think these projects will probably go forward. Hayek/ Okay, I count three yes's and four no's. (several commenting) Long/ Be prepared in April...we'll come to you in April with suggestions for funding and we'll talk about... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 51 Bailey/ We'll do this again? Long/ Uh-huh (laughter) Hayek/ Funding round (mumbled) Okay. Wright/ Thank you, guys! (several talking) Information Packet Discussion: Hayek/ Thank you for your presentation. Info packet discussion, we'll start with the February 18 packet. (noise on mic) Dale, for your reference, that budget item I mentioned earlier was really IP3 off of this packet. Anything on the Info Packet, uh, from February 18? Anything from the Info Packet, uh, February 25? (several talking) We have (mumbled). Wright/ I'm sorry? Hayek/ The pending, uh, work session issues is (mumbled). Okay. Council time? Council Time: Wright/ One thing I really do think we need to address, this was covered in the Gazette last week, and I've been hearing some complaints for quite a while, our, uh, regulations on taxis. Bailey/ I would like to... Wright/ ...in Iowa City. Bailey/ Yeah, I would like to look at that. Wright/ We need to have a pretty good over...review, excuse me, of our policies and consider doing some updates. We're a little backwards in the way we do some of our cabs. Karr/ Do you want me to provide some information, or do you just want to add it to your pending list and schedule it? Wright/ I'd like to add it to the pending list and schedule it. Bailey/ We did a lot of work, how long ago was that? Karr/ 07. Bailey/ 07. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 52 Champion/ It was three years ago? Wright/ Wasn't since I've been on Council! We need to meter these cabs, kids! Bailey/ We had an ordinance in 07 to do that. It was, but it's removed. Wright/ Yeah. Bailey/ I mean, maybe... Karr/ We proposed it in 06. It went into effect in 07. Wright/ Yeah. Bailey/ Well, I think looking at that original ordinance that was proposed would be a good thing to include as background information. (several talking) Dickens/ From the sound of the gouging that's going on in certain cases, that... Bailey/ Marian did a good job with that ordinance being very...yeah, many things were addressed, and I think if we can dig that out I think maybe the time... Wright/ Yeah, we got nailed $21 to go seven blocks. Karr/ We added an extensive complaint policy into the ordinance. We have yet had one complaint filed. Wright/ I don't think anybody knows about it. I didn't! Karr/ Um, we receive a number of calls. We transfer them over to PD and we do...nobody wants to do it. Wright/ Yeah. Let's schedule this one. Mims/ I know when I went to Des Moines a couple of weeks ago, Josh Schaumberger from CVB was talking about that they...he is hearing a lot from the Marriott that the Marriott is getting a lot of complaints, um, of guests staying there who, you know, maybe have taken a cab from the Marriott downtown and it was $7, $11, whatever, and they take a cab from downtown back to the Marriott and it's $25 or $30, and...you know type of thing, and so they (laughter) so I would agree. I think we need to look (several talking) Hayek/ Okay. Do you need any more direction from us on that? Other Council items? Mims/ Um...maybe this comes up with pending work items, but we need to...and I'm not sure when JCCOG is going to get a meeting set for the subcommittee to work on the ECICOG funding, but I don't want to have that meeting called before we've had some sort of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 53 discussion, so I have some kind of direction from this group, as to what my negotiating authority is (laughter). Champion/ Didn't we tell you? (laughter) Mims/ No, you didn't! I just know what the Council had said -they're not paying anything! So before I go into that meeting, we need to have some sort of discussion about (several talking and laughing) Hayek/ Yeah, when is that meeting again? Mims/ It's not set! Hayek/ All right. Mims/ And that's my concern, I don't.. . Hayek/ We should take this up at our next work session (several talking) get it done. Mims/ Okay, get it done at our next work session (several talking) I just don't want to go in negotiate something I think is good and come back and you guys all tell me I'm crazy so... (laughter) Champion/ We wouldn't say it that way! Bailey/ It could happen regardless if we discuss it in a work session or not! (laughter) Hayek/ Anything else? Mims/ Um, well, no, I'll wait. Hayek/ Uh, I've got a couple items, one small, one relatively small. Um, first, I don't know if this is public information yet, but I got an email from This Old House, um, that we've been, uh, chosen to the third annual list of This Old House's 'Best Old House Neighborhoods.' Wright/ Oh, for the Longfellow Neighborhood. Hayek/ Longfellow Neighborhood. (several talking) That's out? All right, well, it wasn't with me and now I've got the memo. I'll give that to Marian. (several talking) Bailey/ No, that should go on our web site too, yeah. Hayek/ Anyway, I'll give that to Marian. Uh, second thing is this, uh, and I've talked to Members of the Council, uh, about the possibility of...of, uh, of going 21 in...in town, and I'd like to propose that we consider a 21-ordinance as a council, um, and uh, I asked This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 54 staff about this, and if there's sufficient interest from the Council, we can have staff prepare an ordinance for discussion purposes. I think it's time we do this. Dickens/ I think I'd be interested. I...I, when I was running for election...I...was kind of wavering in between...one of the problems was that I said any time we put a 21- ordinance up they're going to, students are going to mobilize. And try to defeat it. But after taking to a lot of bar owners that are unable to regulate within their own bars. We've given them five years to try to regulate themselves, and it's just not happening. Once somebody's in the bar, they have a hard time regulating. If you go to the 21 it seems to. My only concern is, where do those people go under 21? Are we creating more problems with house parties, but...there's a lot of discussion to go on with that, so... Hayek/ We can (both talking) Dickens/ But I think we need to look at least look at it. Wright/ Yep! I'm with it. Champion/ I'm totally for it. I have never been for it. But I figure I've given those bars 12 years to help take care of this problem, and now I feel like you, that they say they can't do it. Well, I don't believe that. They don't want to do it, so therefore I'm going to help them do it by making the bars 21. Wright/ Yep, that's going to take care of a lot of situations. Champion /I thought I'd never be willing to do this, but I am totally willing now. (several talking) make Ross happy! Bailey/ Since I know there's a majority to move forward on this I would also ask us to, um, request from staff some kind of guidance, or some kind of ideas for addressing the underage and where they go, because they go two doors down from me, so I would (laughter) I would like...I think we need to... Dickens/ That's the other (several talking) Wright/ That also gets into our upcoming discussion on nuisance properties. Bailey/ And the whole concept that we're doing this University...I think we need to...talking about...talking about things on the macro level, we need to have some suggestions from staff about how they're going to address house parties and what we're going to do with this, and if we're going to...so... Dilkes/ I'm going to interject at this point. You know, we probably should just give staff direction to put it on the agenda, and leave it at that, given the public interest in this item. (several talking) We don't want to have a lot of discussion about...tonight. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 55 Bailey/ When we discuss it I would also like to see that component if there's.. . Dilkes/ If there's direction from the Council to do that, we can certainly do that. Hayek/ (several talking) appears to be. Jeff, you're... Shipley/ I was...when would you want to have this discussion? Hayek/ Uh, we've turned to staff for that. Shipley/ There's a lot of people (mumbled) students go home. Champion/ We would not do that (several talking) Wright/ That would be dirty! Bailey/ I was kidding! (laughter) Shipley/ (several talking) this issue and they didn't seem to care, so... Hayek/ Jeff, I'm mindful of that. My intention, and I.. . Wright/ Marian is making slashing motions across her neck! Hayek/ That we bring this up soon during the school year. Bailey/ So we're looking at April, rather than next school year. Dilkes/ I can have an agenda on the next, or an ordinance on the next agenda. Hayek/ That would allow for discussion. (several talking) Helling/ Just for clarification do you want that schedule for your work session as well, or do you want to take it all up... Champion/ I would put it right on the agenda. Helling/ Well, it'll be on the agenda. (both talking) Dickens/ A work session just a little bit maybe! Dilkes/ I think it'll be on the agenda, the work session anyway, because under agenda items. Helling/ Under agenda items, but we...we can (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 56 Champion/ I mean, seriously, I've been dealing with this for 12 years. Wright/ I'd be fine with discussing it (several talking) yeah, we do want it on a work session. Helling/ We'll put it on a work session, as well. Hayek/ Any other, uh, items for Council time? (mumbled) Budget priorities. Set to vote tomorrow night. Okay, pending work session issues, IPS. Pending Work Sessions (IP6): Bailey/ I have a... Karr/ It's really IP6 I think. Bailey/ I have a question, um, and I think that this was on the list at one time, but maybe...I don't remember. We were going to talk about boards and commissions, in view of the gender balance legislation, and we were going to have a discussion about if we would like to require it of all of our boards, not just the (mumbled). Karr/ I'm working on a proposal... Bailey/ It's just no longer on the pending, and I just wanted to...I'm in no rush. I just wanted to see it reflected that that discussion's coming up. Mims/ Didn't we also have a little bit of discussion related to that, in terms of if we were going to look at them, relative to budgeting? Bailey/ I think that would be great! Mims/ I mean, in terms of do we...need all of them? Seems like when we were talking about budget at one point, it seems like that came up in terms of staff time. Bailey/ I've always been interested in doing that, um... Mims/ Kind of a whole review of... (several talking) Bailey/ But, just as long as we have it on the list. Helling/ (mumbled) Bailey/ I don't think there's any rush. The law doesn't go into... Wright/ We have more pressing issues. Just as long as that...as long as that's out there (both talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 57 Bailey/ ...that was my whole point, let's just not lose track of it. Wright/ A placeholder. Bailey/ Right, and that's what I thought this was for, so... Mims/ While we're talking about that.. . Karr/ Well, the reason...let me pull it out. We really did have some time sensitive issues with that. We wanted to implement it sooner rather than later, so let me pull it out for you. And we'll put it, we'll talk about it and put it on the pending list. But I'll put a date with it. Mims/ I'm just curious as we're talking here, how many meetings do we have in...we have two in April. Are we going to get through all of these in April? Hayek/ I think you'll (several talking) Wright/ Some of these may not take all that much time, too. Hayek/ (several talking) Mims/ Okay. Helling/ You always have the option of scheduling an extra work session just to deal with some of these (mumbled) Mims/ Well, and that...I guess that kind of skips down, if I might, to our meeting schedule. Um...the fact that we do have a lot of these things and I know when you had had the meeting you mentioned...with, um, Moss Green Developers, you had mentioned to me, Dale, that in...part of that meeting in trying to help them get going, if we can, might be necessary if the Council agreed to either a special meeting or condensed readings and that sort of thing, um, and certainly if we're going to try and move forward on the alcohol and the 21 issue and that... and we want to give students to have their input and stuff before school is out, that could possibly require an extra meeting. I don't know where we're at agenda...meeting wise, I mean... Bailey/ ...an extra week in April (mumbled) (both talking) literally in the month. Karr/ I'm familiar a little bit with the Moss Green and timelines, um, and we have discussed, um, that potential, but I think also, um, when we prepare the memo on the 21 we can include a timeline for you, and that'll assist you in that. The Moss Green there is some timeline issues that kick in depending on some other things. I think we'll know a lot more by your next meeting, your second meeting in March we'll know a lot more about those things you mentioned and can take a look at the schedule. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010. March 1, 2010 City Council Work Session Page 5s Mims/ Okay. Thank you. Karr/ Because in addition to that, you also have your City Manager interview scheduled April 9th that may or may not... Hayek/ The manager search firm interview. Karr/ Yes, thank you. May or may not (several talking and laughing) we may be able also to take a look at...some scheduling around that, as well. I think we'll know a lot of those things...next time. Mims/ Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. Hayek/ Anything else on pending, uh, pending work session issues? Bailey/ Didn't we add some stuff tonight? Hayek/ Yes, we certainly did. Mims/ (several talking) Upcoming Community Events/Council Invitations Hayek/ Okay, anything else on that? (several talking and laughing) Upcoming community events, uh, and Council invitations. I got a couple things I'm going to forward to Marian. I don't think they require any discussions tonight. They're more solicitations than anything else. Mims/ Is anybody, just out of curiosity, is anybody going to that...thing on the 4th, uh, Teaching to the Levees? 3:00 to 5:00 on the 4th, which would be, what? Thursday this week. Wright/ No, I can't do that. Wilburn/ (mumbled) meeting. Mims/ It looked kind of interesting, I don't know.. . Hayek/ I can't make it either on Thursday afternoon. So, if, uh (several talking and laughing) Mims/ I'll look at my schedule and see what I can do. Hayek/ Any other Council invitations or upcoming community events? (several talking) Mims/ One of us will try and go to that. Hayek/ All right. Anything else? All right, uh, last, discussion of meeting schedule. We (mumbled). See you tomorrow night. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session meeting of March 1, 2010.