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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03.01.21 Work Session Minutes COUNCIL WORK SESSION March 1, 2021 3:40 p.m. Meeting was held via Zoom. Members present: Boesen, Amos, Morrissey, Klein, Grieder, and Juon. Absent: Feuss. 159570 -Juon/Boesen that the Agenda, as proposed, be approved. Voice-vote Ayes: Six. Motion carried. 159571 -Juon/Boesen that the Minutes of February 15,2021, as proposed,be approved. Voice-vote Ayes: Six. Motion carried. Objective: Discussion of infill development located at the former Edison School site. Noel Anderson, Community Planning and Development Director, explained that the city received the property in a property exchange agreement with the Waterloo School District. The city has a good track record of doing infill development at former school sites, including developments at the former Lincoln and Irving Schools. On April 27, 2020 the department sent out RFP process but did not receive official proposals back. The city has several current proposals out there looking at developing the site and explained the different proposals. City staff has mapped out where it would be most feasible to place commercial property along Falls and the remaining portion to be one or two-family homes. The townhome design that is potentially being proposed would require a rezoning action and it would need to have input from city council, planning and zoning commission, and the neighborhood. Leisure Services has always maintained this, in part, as a park site of approximately 1-2 acres. He explained that one developer has already put forth a proposal to the Community Development board and has spoken with several council members, so it will be important to get council's direction on how they would like to proceed with the numerous interested parties and the pending action timeline for the Community Development board. Mrs. Juon commented that the neighbors prefer the 1-2 family homes with maintaining a park. Paul Hutting, Leisure Services Director, shared that department is looking to recreate a park, approximately 1-2 acres in size,with street access so that it is visible and safe. He stated that he has had Mark Kuiper with Kuiper-Ritland Landscaping to draw up some park designs and that they have been working with the neighborhood to get their input. Rachel Neil, Edison Neighborhood Association, commented that having an easily accessible park for the neighborhood is very important. She explained that the preference of the neighbors is to have single-family homes or duplexes, but that four-plex homes was a concern as far as blending into a neighborhood of primarily ranch style homes. Mr. Morrissey commented that he supports the neighborhood's vision for the infill development. Mr. Feuss joined at 3:52 p.m. Mr. Boesen commented that he understands the single family or duplex concept and noted that he has seen and likes some of the townhouse designs. He stated that there would be$6.2 million in residential assessed value with townhouses and less than half of that with just single-family or duplex homes. He agrees with having street access to the park is important and that he would be agreeable to townhomes at Falls Avenue. Mrs. Klein commented that she concurs with Mr. Boesen comments. Mr. Amos commented that he wants to see council move forward with a development that fits with the neighborhood. Page 2 Mr. Grieder commented that the city needs to find compromise between what the neighborhood wants and what will give us the biggest bang for our buck from a tax and development standpoint. Mrs. Juon commented that she would support the townhouses going toward Falls Avenue but that she would also like to see an inclusion park. Mayor Hart questioned what the council would like to see as a process going forward. Mr. Morrissey commented that he would like to see a couple developers go over the project with the leaders of the neighborhood on what they do and do not want to see happen. Mrs. Klein commented that she would like to hear what they have to say for three minutes. Mr. Boesen questioned if the city has the budget for building an inclusive park. Paul Hutting commented that they will need to work on funding. Mark Kuiper, Kuiper-Ritland Landscaping, commented that it would roughly cost $1,000,000, and grant funding would be available, and fund raising would be necessary. Mayor Hart stated that each developer would be given 3-4 minutes to give Jon Brundrett, Johnny B Construction, provided an overview of his proposal. Chris Fischels, Potential Developer,provided an overview of his proposal. Tim Combs, AFIL, provided an overview of his proposal. Mrs. Klein questioned if financing is in order for Mr. Combs' project. Tim Combs explained that they do have several investors but do not currently have 100 percent of the funds raised. They are working on putting together a capital campaign and have begun reaching out to all of the Black Hawk County veteran's organizations to help with fund raising activities to help make this happen. Mrs. Klein questioned why Mr. Brundrett's condominium association proposes just a ten-year maintenance, as her association is ongoing. Mr. Brundrett explained that the ten years is for maintenance of the city park, not the condominium grounds, which would be forever. Mrs. Klein commented that the neighborhood wants to see housing and that is what she would like to see as well. Mayor Hart questioned if there is a way to combine the housing and commercial proposals. Noel Anderson commented that staff had looked at the possibility of doing both but it would be up to the developers if they want to change their site plans to make that work. Mrs. Juon commented that she is leaning toward the Magnolia Place proposal. Mr. Grieder commented that Mr. Combs' project should move forward somewhere in our community as a support network for homeless veterans is badly needed. Mr. Boesen commented that the Magnolia Place proposal is set up for down payment assistance on at least six units for up to $240,000, which he understands has some time sensitivity through the Community Development program. Page 3 Mr. Brundrett confirmed and explained there is currently a verbal agreement with Community Development on down payment assistance, which is time sensitive. He added that they have been working with Green State Credit Union who has already developed an in-house and secondary market mortgage program to qualify buyers, and that an additional $5,000 per unit developer grant will be passed on to any buyer, whether they are low-income or not. Mr. Feuss commented that housing seems like a logical choice given what we have heard from the neighborhood. With the University Avenue Project ending and several businesses currently in the area, it would be beneficial to have additional homes to support these enhancements. Mayor Hart thanked the developers and council for their flexibility and added that it is a great to see so much competition for future development. Objective: Discussion on amending Waterloo City Code Section 5-2-13(B), Fireworks, by prohibiting use of consumer and display fireworks. Mrs. Klein commented that the amount of fireworks in Waterloo caused the air quality of the community to diminish so far that the city experienced an environmental event that gained national attention. She stated that fireworks are hard on residents, pets, and people with health conditions including PTSD. She asked that the council consider banning fireworks again. Mr. Grieder commented that as a parent with young children it was very difficult to endure the fireworks use in the community. He spoke as well with constituents that have PTSD who shared that this time was particularly difficult. He questioned what can be done to better support the police and fire department with enforcement. Mr. Amos commented that the council went through the whole gambit of banning and not banning for a certain number of days. When it was banned in the past the call volume was the same. He questioned why we are forcing our citizens to be illegal when they could be responsible and use fireworks around the 4th of July. He added that he does not believe banning fireworks will change much of anything. Mr. Boesen commented that he agrees with Mrs. Klein and Mr. Grieder. He stated that he lives in south Waterloo and it is like a war zone out in his community. The problem he sees is that in the last three years the city has issued one citation out of 1,666 calls for service. In 2020, calls for service were 686,more than double that of 2019. The minute people start shooting fireworks he begins getting calls and texts day and night from constituents. No matter what plan we have, the plan is not working. He added that he supports the ban. Mrs. Juon stated that the ban previously reduced the calls for service. When the ban was lifted the calls for service doubled. The ban cuts down the number of fireworks and the council owes it to children,people with PTSD, and animals to ban fireworks. She added that it would be great for neighbors to step up and take photos of illegal use to help support the police department. She added that several organizations have professionally run fireworks shows. Mr. Morrissey stated that he opposes any changes to the fireworks ordinance because the current ordinance is a compromise. He called for robust enforcement of the current ordinance. Chief Joel Fitzgerald commented that Iowa law makes it very difficult to arrest or cite someone for using fireworks. He asked the council what robust enforcement looks like to them. A city of 68,000 citizens has less than 100 officers on the street at any one time. They are overwhelmed with calls during that time and does not want to pull officers off gunshots or other serious calls to address nuisance calls. Mrs.Juon shared historical data of calls for service for the various levels of permissive use versus banning. She added that most of our neighboring cities have a ban. Mr.Amos questioned if it was possible to separate the 800 plus calls for service received in 2020 into categories of inside verses outside the legal window. Page 4 Chief Fitzgerald explained that it would be difficult at this point since the calls were not initially captured that way. He said that some calls were changed from a gunshot call to a fireworks call when there was no way to prove it was a gunshot. He commented that the department could do better in capturing more information on fireworks calls in the future. Mr. Morrissey asked to have the call data separated to show a breakdown of when calls occurred versus when the use was legal/illegal. Mr. Boesen clarified that sometimes illegal use is occurring when use is permitted, such as in city parks. Mayor Hart four council members want the ordinance to move forward for a vote. Objective: Discussion of FYE2022 budget. Mayor Hart shared next steps with the budget. Michelle Weidner, Chief Financial Officer, shared an overview of the dollar amounts listed in the maximum levy. Council then discussed the FYE2022 budget with the Mayor and Chief Financial Officer. 159572 -Juon/Feuss that the meeting be adjourned at 5:11 p.m. Voice-vote Ayes: Seven. Motion carried. Kelle# -elchle Cv` Kelley Felchle City Clerk