MINUTES OF THE JOINT MEETING OF THE CORALVILLE CITY COUNCIL, IOWA CITY CITY COUNCIL, IOWA CITY SCHOOL BOARD, JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, AND NORTH LIBERTY CITY COUNCIL
JANUARY 10, 2007
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
15 in 5 Program (Johnson County)........................................................................................... 1
Joint Communications Center (Johnson County)........................................................................ 2
Alcohol Task Force (Johnson County)...................................................................................... 2
Joint Legislative Meeting Update (Johnson County).................................................................. 3
Follow-up Housing Summit (Andy Johnson, Executive Director, Housing Trust Fund of Johnson County) 4
Inclusionary Zoning/Housing (City of Iowa City)....................................................................... 5
Future of Joint Meetings/Scheduling (City of Iowa City)............................................................ 7
SILO update (Iowa City Community School District)................................................................ 9
City High Student Government Position on Court Street and 4th Avenue Stop Sign (Iowa City Community School District)....................................................................................................................................... 9
Date and Time of Next Meeting............................................................................................ 10
Inquires from the Public........................................................................................................ 10
Chairperson Harney called the joint meeting to order in the Iowa City Public Library at 4:05 p.m. Coralville City Council members present were: Tom Gill, Henry Herwig, John Lundell, and John Weihe. Also present: Coralville Mayor Jim Fausett. Iowa City City Council members present were: Connie Champion, Amy Correia, Bob Elliott, and Dee Vanderhoef. Also present: Iowa City Mayor Ross Wilburn. Iowa City School Board members present: Toni Cilek, Elizabeth Crooks, Patti Fields, Janet Leff, and Aletia Morgan. Johnson County Board of Supervisors members present were: Pat Harney, Larry Meyers, Terrence Neuzil, Sally Stutsman, and Rod Sullivan. North Liberty City Council members present were: Gerry Kuhl.
Other City and County officials and staff present were: Coralville City Manager Kelly Hayworth, Iowa City Manager Steve Atkins, Iowa City Assistant City Manager Dale Helling, Iowa City Attorney Eleanor Dilkes, Iowa City Clerk Marian Karr, Iowa City Planning and Community Development Director Karin Franklin, Iowa City School District Superintendent Lane Plugge, Johnson County Board of Supervisors Executive Assistant Mike Sullivan, Johnson County Council of Governments Executive Director Jeff Davidson, North Liberty City Assistant City Administrator Tracy Mulcahey, North Liberty City Administrator Brian James, and County Auditor’s Office Administrative Secretary Casie Kadlec.
Johnson County Supervisor Rod Sullivan said that 15 in 5 is a program Cedar Rapids used to solicit ideas for important projects to the area. From a survey they chose 15 ideas that they felt it would be possible to accomplish in five years. R. Sullivan said that he likes the idea of soliciting feedback from the community and wondered if others had interest in pursuing a similar initiative in Johnson County. Iowa City City Council Member Amy Correia asked if the program was coordinated by the Chamber of Commerce. R. Sullivan said it was a collaborative effort with the Chamber, the Cedar Rapids Foundation, and the City Council. Correia said that it would be important to have staff support for such a project. Iowa City Mayor Ross Wilburn asked if the program would be countywide in terms of the ideas or regional. R. Sullivan suggested that it be regional. He proposed that if people are interested, they could go back and report to their individual bodies and decide if this is something worth pursuing. Johnson County Supervisor Terrence Neuzil said that there might be three or five things that they can all agree are important projects for collaboration. North Liberty City Council Member Gerry Kuhl thought they would also want to include communities like Solon, Lone Tree, and Oxford. R. Sullivan agreed.
Johnson County Council of Governments (JCCOG) Executive Director Jeff Davidson said that about a year ago the City of Iowa City and Johnson County had a private consultant recommend that in lieu of the three public safety answering points, they should have one communications center. JCCOG was asked to evaluate whether this was a good idea and get into the specifics of doing it. They issued a final report in December to go with a single center. Any other public safety entity in Johnson County would be a contracting entity, similar to the system that Coralville and North Liberty uses now. JCCOG has approved implementing the system and are now pursuing a legislative change for funding. They have a plan B if that money falls through. They are also looking for a site for the center and are forming the 28E organization that will be the Joint Communications Center. JCCOG is preparing an RFQ so that by July 1, 2007, they can have a design consultant hired. The goal is to have the system designed during FY 08 and then construct the facility during 2009. Davidson said that everyone seems to be on board with the project. R. Sullivan said they are in a difficult position because they aren’t sure if the legislature will pass the funding legislation, yet all of the entities are doing budget planning right now. Davidson said they are going to talk about this at an upcoming subcommittee meeting. Most immediately, they need to give direction to the three Cities and the County for their FY 08 budgets for the design expenses. They hope to do this in the next two weeks to one month.
Iowa City City Council Member Dee Vanderhoef asked if there is any countywide interest in proposing a keg ordinance in Johnson County. She said that everyone would have to talk about it in their own councils. They haven’t discussed this in Iowa City for a number of years. She suggested that this would be a way to address the binge drinking that happens at large keg parties. She encouraged people to discuss the idea with their entities and come back and look at it at the next joint meeting. Stutsman asked if there is any interest in passing a statewide keg ordinance. Vanderhoef said that she has not heard any interest in that, but she has noticed in the paper that there are a couple of counties including Jones County that has passed such an ordinance. Neuzil said that the County doesn’t normally supercede the wishes of the other entities, but they can pass something and then any dissenting counties would have the right to rescind it. Correia said that when a keg is purchased, it is registered at that time. Vanderhoef said that moves the responsibility of the location and the serving of the alcohol to a name on the keg. They learned a number of years ago that a lot of this information is already taken by the establishment that sells the kegs because there is a deposit on the keg so that people will bring it back. She said that this would mean that keeping track would not be too onerous on the businesses.
Neuzil noted that most of the business community, including the large grocery store chains are in support of a key ordinance, as is the Sheriff’s Association and the County Attorneys. Iowa City City Council Member Connie Champion said that Iowa City didn't pass it because people would buy kegs anywhere but in Iowa City. She said that it really needs to include all of the surrounding communities. Coralville City Council Member John Lundell would like to see Johnson County be one of those 50. Harney said that legislators recommended that each county pass their own ordinance, and if enough of them pass one, then the legislature might take up the torch and do a statewide ordinance. Kuhl said that North Liberty tried to pass a drink ordinance special this fall that was defeated on the second round. He thought there would be some interest in that. Champion said that Iowa City already has one. Coralville Mayor Jim Fausett said that Coralville does not have one.
Sherry Christopher said she has been trying to enforce her rights under the ADA. She said that she has a disability that requires a service dog. Her disability cannot be controlled. She said she is walking a time bomb and needs her rights enforced. She was just harassed again last night on the bus for having a service dog, which has been going for over six years, and she has no enforcement. She has been coming to the City and the County, and Johnson County said that they are modifying their policy to allow her service dog on the ambulance. She said that Senator Tom Harkin said that she does not need the dog in the ambulance because the dog is simply to alert her when she is having a seizure. Christopher said that she has a new policy for ambulances to allow service animals. She thought that since all of the entities were here today, this would be a good time to change the policy. Christopher offered copies of the proposal.
Neuzil said that when they got together with the Iowa State Association of Counties (ISAC) and the cities, it seems that coordinated efforts are working really well. Their legislators are now in positions of power that they never had, so this is the opportunity to move forward. They need to coordinate their efforts now on whatever issues they choose, whether it is property taxes or something else. He asked how they could coordinate better. Champion said that Iowa City and Coralville have talked about the way condominiums are taxed. This is something that affects the school boards and the counties and is a major loss of revenue. She suggested that they support a resolution for proper taxation of rental property. Neuzil suggested they meet in the fall with their list of priorities to determine which ones might be State issues. Vanderhoef agreed. She said that when they put together legislative for the League of Cities, they certainly talk to ISAC. She said that code changes are often mentioned. She thought that if they had a briefing paper with talking points, that would help everyone be on the same page and encourage the issue to be taken up by the State. She said there are other communities that are talking about communication centers as well and how to put them together. So, Iowa’s could potentially be the model that is out there. Vanderhoef mentioned that the League has weekly updates, so they can get information out there really fast, but isn't sure if ISAC does. Stutsman said that ISAC also has weekly updates. Iowa City City Council Member Bob Elliott said that it would nice to call various members together with the mayors to hammer out some ideas that would be an issue countywide. He thought this group might be too large. Harney said he doesn’t have a problem doing that. Vanderhoef asked how they can get this information out there. She thought something on the JCCOG site would help.
Johnson County Housing Trust Fund Executive Director Andy Johnson said that on November 14, 2006, they had a regional housing summit for Johnson County in collaboration with the Iowa City Housing Authority and a number of other partners. They had over 100 community leaders present including 11 elected officials. There was a keynote speaker from the Silicon Valley Leadership Group President. They have a housing action council as part of their group and have experienced building collaboration around housing issues. He talked about motivating grassroots support. In building consensus, they use the 95/5 principle. They assume that there are 5% of the issues that they are not going to agree on which should be put aside to concentrate on the 95% that can be agreed upon. Also, using the principle of low-hanging fruit, they should begin with some projects that are easy to build relationships.
Johnson said that there were also local panels that identified low-hanging fruit in Johnson County. Suggestions included education and information about housing and greater opportunities for rehabilitating existing housing. Breakout groups discussed these possibilities and others as well as necessary resources for addressing the issues. He thought the attendance indicated a sincere interest by community leaders across the spectrum to find areas of common ground in housing issues. Another result is that topics included thinking of housing as an integral part of economic development. They need to have available housing to the employees they hope to attract. There was consensus on addressing affordable housing as a region. There was also interest in defining what affordable housing is so there is a need for education across the community on this. There is also a need for collaboration because this project cannot be done by any one sector alone. They concluded housing, as well as having the wages to afford the housing, should be significant parts of the discussion. Every single group identified education and information as a place to start. Every group agreed that involving all sectors of the community is important.
Johnson explained that the plan is to have the Housing Trust Fund convene a group to consider recommendation of the summit. The Housing Trust Fund was a key leader in the organizing and planning of the Housing Summit. They are a good choice for because they are regional, leverage new sources of funding, and address the full continuum of housing needs without representing a specific constituency. Finally, they are a collaborative link among various member of the community. Johnson listed projects that the Housing Trust Fund has funded. Johnson said they are seeking stable funding for the State Housing Trust Fund that has been the main source of funding so far, but it does not have a dedicated source of revenue. They are hopeful that in this legislative session they will obtain that source of revenue as a percentage of the State’s portion of the Real Estate Transfer Tax. That is new money that comes into that area. He said they would certainly welcome the support of the County and the community for that. He said that the group does have a funding request from the Housing Trust Fund. He said that he hopes they have established themselves as a powerful partner in the community. Funding that would be received from the cities would be added to their revolving load fund and made available for projects in the community.
Iowa City Planning and Community Development Director Karin Franklin said that she has been asked to talk to the group about a regulatory tool in housing. The goals of looking into inclusionary zoning/housing are to increase the supply of affordable units and to disperse this supply throughout the community. There are a number of factors including a threshold for applicability, that is, what is going to be the trigger mechanism to require an entity to provide these units. That can be residential, commercial, or industrial development. Typically, it occurs with residential development. It can occur with new projects, conversions, or substantial remodelings. These things are all reflections of ordinances that are already in place nationally. The number of units that are involved in a development can be a trigger. Five to ten units is a common trigger in the reviewed ordinances. Public approval of projects could also be a trigger.
Franklin said that the next factor is the income groups being served. Are they looking at ownership, rental, or both? What percent of median income will be they addressing? It can be anywhere from 50% to 110% of median. That can range from people who are of low moderate income to those who are living in workforce housing. The percent of units that might be required to be affordable is usually 10 to 20% of the total development. A factor that has to come into play, whether they have them built concurrent with the market rate or after a certain amount of market rate, is design capability. They should definitely not be able to look at a house and say that that is an affordable unit. Sustainability is an issue as well. Keeping the units affordable over time can be done through resale agreements, rent restrictions, or land trusts. There are alternatives to on-site productions like off-site production, but they would need to be careful about the concentration of affordable units. There are often incentives like a per-unit payment, tax increment financing, density bonuses, or waving utility tack-on fees that are built in that sweeten the pot for the developer. Franklin noted that any ordinance should include some exemption for hardship with criteria for what defines hardship. There are incentive-based voluntary programs and mandatory programs. The mandatory programs have generally not been very effective.
Franklin said that there have been legal issues with inclusionary zoning. Generally speaking, courts are already held in fair housing cases and fair share cases if there is a legitimate governmental interest in promoting affordable housing through regulation. The regulations need to be based on stated public policy, asserting the need for affordable housing in the specific community. The need for affordable housing needs to be documented with empirical evidence for the locality. Adoption of any applicable ordinances needs to be applicable to all similar projects in order for it to be defensible. The decisions about it should not be made on an ad hoc basis.
Franklin said that right now Iowa City has put out a request for proposals for an affordable housing market analysis. This is the first step that the City has taken to get the empirical data to identify the problem, to identify the issue such that if there is ever any regulation that is adopted, it has the empirical basis. As part of the RFP, the City has asked that data be gathered for all of the metro area which includes Iowa City, Coralville, Tiffin, North Liberty, and University Heights. Franklin said that if any of the communities wish to use the data once they have collected it, it will be something that can be used in an aggregated form or individually. Franklin said that there was sentiment on the part of the council to offer this to other entities in terms of a topic to be talked about. Franklin explained that this came about in the summit that the affordable housing issue has no corporate boundaries so that a regional approach was a way to approach the issue. Franklin noted that it has been brought before the JCCOG Board.
Wilburn said that some members of the Iowa City City Council are putting out an RFP to look at this so that they can begin talking about and what they may consider doing as a matter of regulation if they don't feel that the market is responding to providing affordable housing. He said that frequently when they have conversations like this that have a regional tone to them, there are some Council members who are not willing to proceed or at least want to know first what others in the area would be willing to consider. Wilburn said that it would be helpful if the Iowa City City Council could get an idea on whether other communities would be interested in receiving data that is compiled or possibly even considering regulation as a tool to provide workforce housing if it is shown empirically that there is a greater need being that the market is not responding. Wilburn asked that those that are interested follow up with him or other Iowa City City Council members privately. He said that there are times that they as a Council will come up with an ordinance or regulation that some Council members wish to proceed with, and the question always comes up that they don't think that Iowa City should do this if others aren't interested. He said that this would help them know so that if there are members of the Council who wish to have that answered can adjust their vote or make decisions accordingly.
Wilburn said that the Council had a question about the usefulness of this venue and this meeting. He said that about a year ago there were some on the Council who felt that given the success with the joint communications facility, JCCOG might be a more effective venue rather than having this additional meeting. He asked if they are getting out of this meeting what they would like to see.
Harney said that they get a lot of good ideas out of this meeting. He said that he likes to get the feedback from all of the entities. He said that JCCOG should be used for specific projects, such as the joint communications center. R. Sullivan said that one thing that is interesting regarding JCCOG is that everybody except the mayor of Iowa City sits on the JCCOG Board, whereas Coralville has just two representatives, Johnson County has two, North Liberty has one and University Heights has one. R. Sullivan said that sometimes the Iowa City City Council might feel like they're more up to speed on things that happen at JCCOG than other entities because they haven't had as many people present. R. Sullivan said that could be remedied internally by those who attend JCCOG doing a better job reporting on what happens.
Iowa City Community School Board Member Patty Fields said that it is helpful for them to have face to face meetings. She said that they don't often do that and the School Board tends to be a little out of the loop. She said that they like to be able to express the things that are happening in their realm and learn the things that are happening at the cities.
Fausett said that the tone of the two groups is different. He said that the joint meetings are more information sharing and collegial discussion. He said that JCCOG tends to have some very important votes where it can get very tense. Coralville City Council Member John Weihe said that this is the first meeting that he has been at for along time. He said that he does appreciate the communication with the School Board at this meeting. He said that most of the other things they do through the cities are more formal and JCCOG does fine with that. He said that any big issues that are community wide should be discussed at these meetings but they don't need to keep scheduling meetings just to have meetings. Coralville City Council Member Tom Gill said that it is great to have the meetings but they need to look at the staff to attend these meetings. He said that if they have something to talk about they should talk about it but to bring all of the staff just to have a meeting is partially a waste of time.
Stutsman said that her frustration is that they have things on the agenda and then they are on the agendas of future meetings also. She said that it doesn't seem like there is any follow through on a lot of the proposals. Stutsman said that everyone agreed that the 15 in 5 was a good idea, but she asked where it will go from here. She said that it seems like this group needs a staff person or point person to shepherd ideas along.
Fausett asked if the School Board could be included formally or informally in JCCOG. Davidson said that the Superintendent is an ad hoc member of the JCCOG Board. When he is in attendance he sits at the Board but is not a voting member. Elliott said that it appears that they have not been felt to be as active as other members of JCCOG. He said that he would like to find a way to change that because what happens with the schools is vitally important to all entities. He said that if they could do that they could have the meeting on an as needed basis. He said that he agrees with Gill that they don’t need another meeting. Davidson said that if there is a desire to change the status of any Board member on JCCOG that is a decision of the Board and he would be happy to schedule that for a meeting.
Neuzil said that to meet for an hour four times a year seems like valuable communication with each other. He said that they've just generated five or six unique ideas that they didn't have an hour ago. He said that it isn't too much trouble to do that four times a year. Neuzil said that they might need to create some subcommittees so that they can do some of the work that comes out of their ideas. He said that being elected officials they might be able to go beyond what a staff member can. He said that it would just be a matter of organizing and trying to do that. Neuzil said that he would like to keep meeting.
Vanderhoef agreed with Neuzil and said that the other thing she noticed at the meeting today, and in past meetings, is that there are members of the public present. She said that members of public are here because of the agenda and things that they want to find out about. She said that there is a bit of transparency that goes throughout the community. She said that there were a number of people who were interested in the housing issues. Vanderhoef said that the other thing that struck her is that they don't have a mechanism to bring an issue that they would like to have the community talk about. She said that she doesn't know how to do that, but they could brainstorm some possibilities.
Champion said that this group is growing and maturing. She said that they haven't been doing these meetings that long and haven't had an idea about where they want to go. She said that the past couple of meetings have been productive for brainstorming. Champion suggested that they give themselves a chance to mature because they are evolving and these meetings could become really productive.
Correia said that on three of the agenda items there was information that needed to be shared because they were regional issues. She said that they should be using the meetings for this. She said that they need to strategize the key items that should be coming before this group to be more effective on an individual policy making level. Wilburn said that there is a political element to each of their bodies where there might be individuals on particular councils or school boards that may wish to see something but their colleague doesn't. He said that it is going to come back to some type of individual action on each entity. Wilburn said that after attending these meetings for seven years, the one thing that was presented as a discretionary idea was the joint communications center, and that is the first thing that he recalls that looks like it is going to be come to fruition. He said that there is a political element to each entity and it is maybe too much of an expectation to see a regular series of regional projects get momentum if they haven't resolved those issues on their own bodies, although it is great to have a forum to put ideas out there.
Harney said that he doesn't care if they meet twice a year or four times a year. He said that communicating with all of the entities at the same time is very useful. Elliott said that there seems to be a comfort level in these meetings. He said that it doesn't seem that they have discussed anything in this meeting that they wouldn't discuss in another meeting, but many people seem to have a comfort level with having these discussions in a more informal setting. Harney said that there are more people at the joint meetings than there are at JCCOG. Stutsman agreed and said that everyone attends the joint meetings whereas only a couple of people from each group are sent to JCCOG. The group agreed to continue having the joint meetings quarterly.
Iowa City Community School District Board Member Jan Leff said that the SILO election is coming up on February 13, 2007. She passed out a brochure summarizing many of the issues of the SILO. Neuzil asked when the SILO will be effective if it is passed. Iowa City Community School District Superintendent Lane Plugge said that it will take effect on July 1, 2007. Plugge explained that voting has begun at the Administration Building. He said that the Johnson County Auditor's Office website has all of the satellite voting locations listed. Plugge said that they are planning on using the SILO funds for infrastructure, repair, maintenance, and new schools. A big part of the SILO funds will be used for new schools. They will use about $300,000 a year to support the family resource centers. They have opened two new ones this year at Roosevelt and Lucas. Plugge said that the other two school districts that will benefit most from the SILO are Solon and Clear Creek Amana. Plugge said that in their opinion the tax will probably be implemented in Johnson and Linn counties regardless of the election.
Plugge said that he isn't sure if the City of Iowa City has been approached by City High Student Government regarding placing a stop sign at the intersection of Court Street and 4th Avenue. Davidson said that in the last ten years they have been in contact with them six or seven times. He said that it tends to be a popular project for the Student Government class. Plugge asked how they can work with their students to help them get a stop sign at the intersection of 4th Avenue and Court Street. Davidson said that the request has been for an all way stop. The Traffic Engineering Division of the City has looked into this and at this time it does not come close to warranting the installation of an all way stop. He said that he is sure that Iowa City is willing to look at that again if that is the desire. Davidson said that there are Federal requirements based on minimum thresholds. Traffic volume is the main requirement, specifically traffic volume for all of the approaches for the duration of time that the traffic volume justifies it. Davidson said that is the key thing at this intersection. He said that there is a very small amount of time when it is justified, but yet if an all way stop is put in, it is in there twenty four hours a day seven days a week. He said that there is also a crash warrant where if it has a certain threshold of crashes an all way stop can be put in. Davidson said that there have been no reported crashes at this intersection. He said that a lot of times when they look at these if they can try and forecast that it is pretty close, they might put one in but that is not the case at this intersection. Champion said that because of the short amount of time that an all way stop is needed, people would ignore the stop signs during the rest of the time and it would become very dangerous. Weihe said that the warrants give a lot of pertinent information that is not biased.
The group agreed that the next meeting will be hosted by North Liberty on April 11, 2007 at 4:00 p.m.
Reverend Bob Welsh said that there has been a maturing in this group and as a citizen attending, the information was helpful.
Adjourned at 5:31 p.m.
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By Casie Kadlec, Recording Secretary