Springfield City Council — May 1, 2023

0:04 I'm going to call the Springfield City Council reception to order with roll call Mary Gordon yep Chancellor Weber here councilor counselor rodley here counselor blackbone here counselor Doyle here councilor here thank you we have one item in this meeting tonight housing diversity tax assembly incredibly Katie Carroll hi everyone my name is Katie Carroll I'm the city's housing analyst I'm here tonight to talk to you about a property tax exemption that the council is considering that staff has been calling the housing diversity tax consumption or hdte you may be familiar with this as a multiple unit property tax exemption or

0:50 Lefty as it's called in mentioned in Cottage Grove good so a little bit of background on this um this is a tax exemption that the state enables cities to adopt to incentivize the development of multiple unit housing near Transit and in core areas and the idea behind this is that by exempting some of the property taxes for the first several years of a Project's operation that can help make the project pencil and help us get more type of this type of development than we otherwise would it is an application based program so the city would need to set program guidelines and standards which is what we'll be talking about tonight and then

1:36 ultimately every application for this tax exemption would come to you at the council level for a decision um this tax exemption can be used for affordable housing but staff is anticipating it would mainly be used for market rate building and the city does already have the low-income rental housing property tax exemption or Liberty that is kind of more out on engagement portable housing so that's why we think this would be more of a market rate Council has been considering this as part of its housing strategy since 2017 and has had several meetings most recently at uh the March 13th work session on this the council reviewed the areas of Springfield where this tax exemption would be available in kind of

2:23 affirmed prior Direction on those areas and then also discussed whether to cap this program and directed staff to not cap it at this time but to provide language that would allow the council to Institute a CAF at any time um so you saw this at your last meeting but these are the areas of Springfield that council is considering for this tax exemption under State Statute and we have to identify where this would be available and it has to be areas that are within an order mile of Transit foreign requirement of this tax exemption is that applicants have to provide at least one public benefit as determined by the city so State Statute gives some examples of what public benefits could

3:09 be but there's a lot of latitude for the decision for us to decide what that means in Springfield um so kind of the three main things that the council will need to determine are first if the city will specify the benefits that applicants need to provide as part of their project or if we'll give applicants choices second how many public benefits an applicant would need to include in their project to be eligible for this tax exemption and then third what actually counts as a public benefit and then as a reminder if Council moves forward with this tax exemption the city will need to seek support from other taxing districts that equal at least 51 percent of the tax levy in order to have this kind of applied to the full tax amount and not just the cities share and

3:54 this public benefit requirement is one area where we think that those other taxing districts will probably have input and feedback for the city so the conversation on this tonight staff is just viewing as kind of an introductory getting some direction from Council and then we would come back to you with kind of more details and more definition or of this in a future meeting so getting in kind of to those first two things the council needs to determine um so overall what is the structure of this requirement that Council wants so the city can make this more rigid by specifying exactly what developers need to do or more flexible by giving some options um in past meetings where Council has discussed this they had indicated support for keeping this program

4:39 flexible for developers so what staff is proposing is having this be structured as sort of a tiered list with items in list a and list B and then asking developers to pick at least one option from list a to provide and then a second option from list A or B so the list a items would be sort of the like higher priority bigger ticket public benefits and this is similar to how the city of Bend has structured their public benefit requirement and it's kind of nice because it combines this idea of giving choices but it still allows the city to point developers towards what are Springfield's biggest priorities and allows us to kind of differentially weigh public benefits

5:26 and then in terms of the number of public benefits other cities that we looked at require between one and six so asking developers to provide two is still on the more flexible end of things but staff feels like this is kind of a good balance between not asking for so much that we're making this program so onerous that developers won't want to use it but still making sure that we are getting something for the community in return for exempting taxes I may have a question depending on what the next slide is okay should I go into it yes okay my questions on this slide here okay perfect um and then the third thing um is determining okay well what

6:13 qualifies as a public benefit so staff has put together this initial recommendation list which is 13 categories of public benefits um and the way that we identified these was first looking at well what do other cities have as their public benefits and then sending out a survey to Department of Public Works supervisors and the economic development team to get some initial feedback of what do we think the highest priorities for Springfield are and then doing some follow-up meetings with staff and looking into whether there's adopted policy support for each of these benefits um and then we also did try and include some things that I'd remembered counselor previously mentioned wanting to explore as part of this and then finally did also receive some initial

6:58 feedback already from a developer Phil Farrington um after your March meeting and tried to incorporate some of that here as well and these are all further detailed in attachment to of your packet and I'm planning on going um through those on a little bit more detail in a second um but in the packet they're categorized as list a or list B items and the way um we're sort of thinking about that when we were weighing that was first is their adopted policy support for this how much policy support is there um would this public benefit or could it be made publicly available and then finally is it something that would be likely to extend beyond the exemption period so like physical

7:43 improvements that are part of the building would be an example of something that would fix done beyond that um I have a question yeah so you have in our structure listed here right and I know and then you've got EV stations can we still require that based on what the cfec rules tell us that we could do I would look to maybe Sandy Wilson to answer that I'm not as familiar with Stephen but I would assume so because it's a discretionary right so um our code would not require parking but as a benefit for getting a tax exemption a city could say from one way that you could meet that public benefit is by providing parking in a

8:28 structure um we didn't go as far as saying providing parking at all which is some place you could go but I'm trying to make these compact type developments near Transit I'm saying that well if it's in a structure then that's gonna keep that same form but that's um only because they're getting something from the city um but it's it's not a code requirement I'm receiving it right and Victoria did you want to ask your EV question yeah I I understood that the EB is something that's in this wrapped up with cfx so how is that a benefit to them if it's already something that they're going to have to do anyway so it seems back I don't know if we said climate friendly Equitable community says the rules that

9:13 came out of the department of land conservation and development as approved by the land conservation and development commission so the EV aspect of that is that they're EV ready meaning the conduit is in place but there's no requirement whether there actually be an ability to charge so this would be addressing that actually you have the capacity to charge the electric vehicles not just the conduit being ready to charge um so to that point for all of these as applicable developers would be required to go kind of above and beyond what the code already acquire require requires so it's not just sort of a check the box item

9:58 um and then the bottom right hand I have folded here in the program guidelines staff is also included this other option um where if a developer wants to propose something that's not on the list of public benefits there's flexibility for the city you can consider that because there may be things that make sense in certain circumstances or certain sites that aren't included um so I wanted to point that out so that the council doesn't feel like we need to identify the universe of possibilities because there is that flexibility built in so kind of focusing more on what is the highest priority for Springfield Michelle I have a question on this yeah until this day how does LTD factor into the mass transit use options in as far as installation or enhancement

10:46 of a bus shelter um or anything that kind of connects to that mass transit option um so I relied pretty heavily on one of our transportation Engineers for those Transit related ones and I think his thinking in that was what are things that are sort of within the cities for you of controlling um I'm not totally sure of the relationship but I think it's sort of this Dynamic of like the city hopes LTD determine where the stops are so for a shelter that may be like is there an existing stop that doesn't have an altar but maybe just has like a bench or a hole um that they could enhance that okay so as just so as part of this planning process for the application and you know all of that about the front work are yes

11:34 my question is would we be seeking input from LTD as to how that impacts their their system and where they would want those improvements if we're going to say this is a benefit yeah that's only a benefit of LTD like in my mind it's LTD agrees that that's a benefit yeah and I'm gonna get into it a little bit more later but part of what um we would be wanting to do is require um developers to attend some called the development initiation meeting before applying so we could have those discussions of like okay what makes sense at this site because of Transportation benefit may not make sense it's just to make sure it's part of that upfront conversation and we're including all of them the people that need to be involved in

12:19 that stuff yeah okay thanks yeah thank you um um okay I think that was all I had on that slide so I'm just going to preview the questions and then get into talking through um what these various public benefits are so the first question that staff has on uh this part of the tax exemption is should stock move forward with the proposed public benefit structure so that's the pick two from this tiered list and then the second question being what public benefits should be eligible for the program um so I do have printed copies if anybody wants one of that okay perfect um so then going through these various

13:04 public benefits and attachment to um so the first one that I have on here is affordable housing and that has um list a or list B it can kind of be in either of those and that would be dependent on the percentage of total units that meet the affordability requirement and how staff is proposing to Define that is at the 80 area median income level or below and that the way a developer would meet that is either through holding those units for a Master Lease with a non-profit housing Choice vouchers which are section 8 or similar housing subsidy program and if you're not familiar with Master leases that is where the landlord would basically lease directly to the non-profit and then they

13:50 would put clients in those units through sort of a sublease and they would be receiving services and assistance that way and so for all three of those options theoretically it doesn't really require a developer to reduce the cost of rent because these pay a market Rent Now how HUD defines Market rent and how a private developer defines that may not be totally congruent so they may be providing subsidy in that sense um but this has kind of been a need that's been identified by service providers in the community is we have clients we have funds we just don't have somewhere to put people um but then also as part of the

14:35 affordable housing having an option yeah can you start this presentation you know projects or Market grade so why is it even affordable housing options so um I believe that in the March meeting that had been one of the things that counselor broadly had lagged as wanting to um look at it's also something that ranged pretty high within the staff survey um so this would be like I said I think an affordable housing developer could use this tax exemption um it's just when you look at that compared to the work D program the lurk deal is a 20-year tax exemption this is fewer than that um so that had been the reason for

15:20 including it so it's really not a market rate it can be that have set up or being set up for affordable housing has been a benefit to the developer so this is just one of several options so they could choose not to do this and then make it like I'm looking at better options and so far that list the biology did not be very attractive yeah and that's what I'm looking for feedback on so if I'm not sure if well sorry are you you're good with your questions yeah I'm good I'm sure we're going to circle back to the discussion here in a second Ben that was kind of my question too and why would a builder not use the

16:06 lurped event and use this because that's a 20-year tax exception so yeah all right so I have the two it seems like so um the alert D is set at the 60 um Ami level and then this also might be appealing to someone that wants to provide a few units do like a mixed income project and provide a few affordable units and not do like the whole project portably Corey yeah that was the part that I was going to say that I think that we talked about last time it's the trying to get to the the kind of mixed socioeconomic Community Development so the the lurches like you could do an entire project as affordable housing and this is how do you mix in some affordable units and so

16:51 if you were doing basically a market rebuilding and built in some affordable units along with that would help to qualify for that so it's not an all or nothing it's a like full band Stephen um the property tax exemption and I think you said that 51 of the affected have to have to sign into that what about the urban middle area they already knew that the urban renewal area Urban rental taxi uh the entities give a part of their taxi goes into their original fund yes so this would also be if being if 51 of the taxing districts agreed to it so it was taking the full

17:36 tax year then that would also mean that the urban renewal District would not be collecting the share that they would have so they are the urban renewal district is one of the taxing entities that counts towards this 51 of signing all on the war not sign on so we're doing exemptions exemptions and something's not going to have any taxes at home okay so do you have more that you want to get through before because I'm when we start talking about the benefits we're going to get going here pretty quick well I was going to say if um the council would prefer to just like discuss each benefit in turn rather than me going through all of them we can do it that way well maybe we can do this does anybody have questions about what some of these benefits are like something that you

18:23 guys want to bring up and just be like can we get more information about it before we start discussing what should be on there on the listing what shouldn't be on the list my questions are more around moving maybe some of these to list B and making higher priorities in this day or different priorities in this day okay so uh so I think maybe take us down the list and then we can kind of give out like Hey we're good with that go ahead Victoria well and I also think when we're talking about flexibility I think it's nice that you're coming up with these ideas but I think that it's important to allow the developers to come up with ideas and bring it to us because they know what they need in their with their community of people that they're that they're trying to gear towards right and it's similar to like storm water you know if we have a storm

19:10 water management manual that has specific ways that you can meet the criteria but people come in and go ahead but this really cool idea for a rain Garden that does this that and the other and we're able to approve that I think that you need to be delivered into those ideas if we're going to move forward with this and I also think that the amount of benefits that they get should be dependent on the viewers because I think 10 is a lot but so we'll get into that later but anyway um just a couple of quick responses to that um terms of like getting in from developers might open tonight will be getting some initial feedback from the council like where do you want to take this to be able to then go have conversations with developers of what does this seem right you might kind of put a list together and that's not what I'm saying I'm saying maybe the list needs to be open

19:55 and when you have that dim which by the way I think the fee of that should be refundable to them once they submit plans but irregardless um that's a cyborg but I think that they should be allowed to say you have to come up with some benefits what are you planning on doing and then see that in their plans not necessarily spoon feeding them what we have to have and see what kind of ideas that they come up with because I think the community can come up with ideas sometimes better than we can okay so one quick comment about the dim can we find a different something else that's all it right so we don't get confused with the other dim that we're requiring developers to go through yeah I know acronyms are really tough something like we need more

20:48 got a really interesting idea which is some sort of language that allows them to propose something and then how do we actually talk about it and whether or not it means but you know it means the public good right we don't have to have the whole complete list tonight yeah that's what that other was for right yeah so in the draft program guidelines I'm not sure exactly what page it's on there is um kind of that flexibility in there of if you want to propose something else um detailing what that is is there policy support for that um and then allowing the city to consider that too yeah it just seemed like that was sort of like lower down on the list and I think that the idea of allowing the developers to come up with those should be more of a higher Springs I mean I think you're saying we need

21:33 some flexibility built in and and I agree because throughout the time period of you know however long this program lasts things are going to change through that cycle cycle of time and we're going to want to add or change or alter so if we just build the flexibility up front that makes it I think easier on them whole process Joe so this this is this whole thing is being driven by the hdte's incorrect the sorry I'm not sure I understood yes that's what we're calling the tax exemption I I guess I'm just trying to understand I'm just trying to get a grasp of the what's driving this so the the driver for us thinking about

22:18 doing this is can you tell me that what that is what we're thinking about the public benefits or for the like the exception yeah statute that says that we're supposed to be doing this correct so this is a discretionary program the city could adopt or it could choose an ought to adopt the reason um that the council is talking about when the housing strategy was put together and one of the things that the council um directed staff to look into was property tax exemptions and this was one specific tax exemption that the council had wanted to explore so I guess we're beginning to do this there's nothing that's telling us we must do it this way

23:03 um the state statute says that we need that for a property tax assumption be granted there needs to be at least one public benefit so if we were to adopt this property tax exemption the public benefit piece is required but what that looks like is open and that's kind of what I'm getting at is it's a public benefit part is been left up to our imagination and so um the list is kind of just a it's just a jump off one because for example when looking at the part in structures I don't know of a single developer that would want to do that because it's extremely expensive but yet we have that on the list as both

23:49 tier one and or period or type A or whatever you call it list a and this mean so things like that I'm looking at that and say well I would have developer even won some of these things and I like what Gloria Doyle's saying it's like we're one we say okay we're going to have this program you come to us with your imagination and you tell us what you think the public benefit would be and then we could decide at that point if it's a public development as opposed to us saying well we got these great ideas but I don't see a single developer at this table and I know you talked I talked you talked with Rick no not Saturday but um Bill Clinton Bill and so they have their own interests for sure

24:35 but again I think that we're almost kind of getting the dog before the horse or the horse before the cart in a sense that we should be going to you and having this program set up and say okay we want to do this you want to develop great person you know there's properties you want to look at you want to buy so you tell us we got to satisfy a public a public benefit these are what we're have looked at and what do you want to do and then they have us or someone to put chain of command whatever the command chain looks like at the bay and say yeah that's a good that's a good part of a benefit I think we can move forward with that feminator or would you break them the developer and he would say I'm hell

25:23 so I like the idea of having your categories so a couple slides back where you had different categories and then that would be what the developer would say we have an idea and it falls under this category and then the city is able to look at it go is that really a benefit how much of a benefit is it and is it worth that and then at that point I just I agree I think we're trying to come up with these ideas that we think would be great but I think that we're not the experts on that per se when it comes to the development of the cost of it's gonna that's gonna be to them so that would be where I you know have I would think would be a good way to to do it is that higher level idea and then let them decide and then we decide if it's cool I think I'm looking at this a bit differently it's probably not a surprise but I think that what's helpful

26:11 I think it's a it's a philosophical difference like do we want the developers to decide what is works for Springfield and what Springfield looks like or do we want to think about what is our what what is overall what are we working towards and I think if some of these things come up to us in other ways you know how do we improve bike and pedestrian infrastructure how are we going to improve the livability and walkability of communities are we going to put that out there as like this is what we're trying to achieve because if it's if it doesn't happen in some of these developments is going to come back and we're going to pay for it out of other ways in the city to make that happen but if we're like no this is overall what we would like to achieve and here are these ways that we can contribute to it are we going to end up

26:56 with little pockets of things that don't necessarily you know fit together as we work to like improve the infrastructure and the livability of the city so that's why I'm looking at it a little bit differently because I was like yes we're inviting them to share and to say we have these additional ideas that we would like and we're like okay and these are the sort of the values and the plans that we have decided as a city that we are working towards in terms of the livability of our neighborhoods particularly in those Pockets that are on the map see I think that's the other thing it's like it all fits together so you're looking at these sort of nodal areas or whatever we used to call them you know I'm looking particularly at Mohawk and thinking about part of this is that you know you're developing maybe commercial land into housing and what is

27:43 it that's needed in those areas as opposed to come tell us what you think should now be blocked down in the middle of this neighborhood so I think it's kind of a bull fan sure I think we're open to hearing other things and these other things that we all talked about here a few weeks ago about these things would be the things that would be the values that we would want to see so I'm seeing it a little bit discipline Victorian I think I think I agree and I feel like we're saying the same thing in that when I was talking about those categories they should be the categories that are the priorities to the city and if pedestrian walking and Transit and that is a priority then that would be one that would be in that tier one that would be like this is the one that's going to get you the most benefit or what have you and so we set out to say

28:28 these are the things we want to see now you come with your ideas that's all I was saying and say hey you've got to fit into like you got to fit something into you know something on on this list whether or not be bike pad lighting website whatever the case you know whatever whatever case may be and some of these I think when I re when I read through them like I was questioning whether or not like what developments would actually you know meet that public benefit and that somebody would actually want to uh spend the actual money you know money to complete right like I think that you know the ques the question with parking structure is a kind of you know a good example of that or I think there's a you know a term that they use for you know trains at like a substantial you know

29:15 impact to to Transit right like so I think just probably a sizing of this would probably be a good good piece but if we can get it into some some big Frameworks that say Hey you know you need to find something for I don't know you know housing variability you know like I liked I liked the the point the call on about different sizes and you know of apartment complexes I think that's good but you know public space right like there's there's a good list here but it doesn't I don't know that it needs to be so prescriptive to Define how we mean it so um question to clarify just for direction um so

30:00 I'm hearing from counselor Doyle this interest in having sort of these broader categories but maybe just sort of slashing through these detail pieces um and so I'm wondering if if that is Council Direction one and then two if that is the case um is the council still interested in this like list a list B concept or would it be more broad than that I'd say again honor let's say pick three you know instead of you know because that's true whether they may get when people look at the subtle investment and make and some on must be maybe more attractive than doing stuff on a so you can potentially I mean there's a lot of ways you can do a matrix on it

30:45 you can you can put each one of those assigned points to it and say if you as soon as you get to 100 points we're good you know there's different ways to look at things as opposed to the linear a b you can weight these if some are most impactful something they're very impactful for the area but expensive and give them more weight and allowing them to check off one you sort of speakers instead of having to have three other things because you have one on a and two one you can have it where there's a point value to them as soon as they get to a certain point value then okay I mean I would look at it differently but Michelle just to kind of so we're having this upfront conversation

31:30 so I feel like a lot of this is going to be handled you know however we do this list a lot of that planning and all of that does this make sense does this fit into what the city schools are today all of that kind of plays in there so I agree I think a longer list is good and at that time we're having that conversation that either makes sense in that moment or it doesn't and we say well yes we can do this piece but how about instead we look at you know what I mean there's there's a conversation there between us and the developer then and if I understand this right council is approving all of these applications at some point is that right yes so we all have you know we all have an opportunity with each application to look at what what's that final product gonna be in this in that time frame right in in the

32:16 period of time that that application is is presented Victoria no it's okay I'm fine another thing that I think would be helpful right when you saw us triple rate kind of coming into the start of the list is maybe at you know um I'm looking at the Matrix it might be in the program guidelines but it's our language that says hey if you're if you're an affordable housing project this might not be the right program for you like maybe look at Lefty um there's not that I could add that because like when I read the first yeah when I read the first two I had the question like okay could we you know we have so many Housing Programs now can we end up with somebody that should be in this in this track that we really want in a different track

33:02 but I do have to say I agree with counselor rodley and that I like the idea of having that mixed use that that idea of having market rate as well as having you know affordable housing in the same complex I think that's really that's something that's really important so I don't know how that fits into what we're doing I just I liked the idea I mean if it's a priority then I think we should kind of set up yeah some parameters around what we're looking for but just not be so rigid that it has to have that like I think it's like because I thought like a thought right this is what we want to do um and see you know the developers are going to come either with something in that realm or something completely different but again I think those are those upfront conversations that we're having we're gonna go chill and then

33:47 Corey so actually if you look on a tab and create page five you'll see where it allows for the proposal to submit they benefit and staff will decide whether it's worth coming up so there's there is that in their graph IC sorry I see somebody come in with some big round plan that doesn't fit at all so I could just giving them some of what our priorities are sorry that's okay jump in front of you when we build it since as we're talking about this and we're building this and we're a group when we um like build in a year or two years to come back and like look at if it's being

34:33 used we had we kind of did this with the the RV camping we're like okay come back and let's see who's using it how do we need to make adjustments should we be adding decreasing whatever is there a way to build that into this as opposed to like it's printed it's gone live and we're done so there is in the draft program guidelines um that's something that says that will report annually to Counsel on um applications and exemptions so that would be one way I'm not sure yeah I saw that in there but I was just like we haven't built like can we then redo the program or can we or once it is it like is there some sort of here's my messy way of saying is it if if we design this program to meet this statute of requirement is it stuck in that place

35:18 for a certain period of time or can we adjust it there's nothing stuck in place um the sort of administrative hurdles of it is I believe that the program guidelines can be adopted by resolution so that's fairly easy to update um but we would need to adopt this thing to be owned and then in my conversations with City attorneys I this about if we made changes to it would we need to go back to other taxing districts and um I think the answer to that is yes so it would be sort of revisiting that so it is not impossible it's not set in stone it would just take some administrative steps but that's helpful because then it makes sense for us to

36:03 iron out as much as we can on the front end to minimize the what would happen if we had to go to everybody in a year and a half or whatever or at least maybe think about the areas where there's flexibility to put stuff in just the program guidelines that might be easier to change and I think that's a that's a kind of an open question for you know as we go and talk to our partners and friends out there in this like is there a way we can have that conversation that would allow us to make I don't know marginal tweaks to the program without having to come back every you know every five minutes and ask them for permission if there's a way that we can adopt more fine beings build process into the guidelines that would you know alleviate some of that I would be interested like I would be interested in that maybe we have to go back and

36:48 tell them what we do or we can only tweak it a certain you know a certain amount but that's awful but that would be a that sounds very rigid to changing what we do in the future Victoria do you have more of your presentation because I have something to comment on isn't about the benefits and I just want to make sure I'm not throwing that in in the wrong time or the wrong place yeah so I was going to get into other aspects okay program guidelines is what I have may come up I may answer the question before I ask it um if you have other places you want to go then we should probably do that before we keep you know hammering away at this so um I'm wondering if the council wants to finish going through all the other things and come back to these because I think um I'm still sort of looking for

37:34 direction on how we want to handle the public benefits teeth of it if um we do want to list anything but with less specificity what those things would be so do you want to go through the rest of it and then come back to this okay so maybe we can try wrapping them sort of Direction on this because this is going to take a couple like this is you know this can take a couple iterations to get for it so what I heard was turn it into some sort of turn it into some sort of policy list and let people choose from a single list and sort of mix and match and then provide them I don't know is everybody good with the waiting you have like the benefits and then the example of the different benefits like you have the benefit list on the left and then provide some examples of those benefits and nothing more like made on them

38:19 so that they have some guidance on what we're looking for yeah and I've also heard you know trying to weight that list in some ways so you can kind of understand the magnitude you know so that you know maybe one big thing gets you to the finish line but three small things get you to the finish line now did anybody see something outside of the parking garage did anybody see something on that on the actual benefit list that they were like no I don't like I'm not interested in that bullet pulling off no but I did like the ones at the bottom there were like some other ones some of those were really Innovative so I was like I kind of liked those you know that

39:04 were like you know the advancing public infrastructure and the Energy Efficiency all of those like I was like those are cool so maybe when you're making the one big list to just kind of elevate those because those are good as usual I added that they should be that there should be the option of having an on-site dog park but I'm just saying the people that have their friends yeah or tenant amenities um I don't care [Music] really anybody have something else that they want to either strike or add to that longer list

39:50 they're going to State you certain right EV charges charging stations and it I don't see how many you're saying some of these had not um we hadn't flushed out specificity because waiting to see if Council wanted to move forward with them um and I think that's where staffs just have to think more about this like if we want it to be more flexible and say you know such as EV charging stations how on like a case-by-case basis we would handle that question we did that but let's say we have a large development downtown and is anybody considered how much energy would cost to charge those charging stations and if there's a capacity for that

40:36 so I think in terms of what we had discussed with the EV charging was that the number of stations it wouldn't be like one per unit it would be like one per episode the availability of the electrical charge to do that to charge those stations so we have them downtown I think that's going to be very close to Impossible as opposed to our main street or different parts of the city so I think before we even start thinking about putting a number of for example the high energy use items a conversation with sub would be in order to talk about capacity of the system aren't you yeah that's correct

41:21 so some of these are partner conversations right partner agency conversations as to whether or will be a viable benefit s hey I want to Evie station for every unit Bill we're going to build 120 of them downtown in oops can't do it and I would say that ev1 you've got to probably cap it at their estate requirement for the conduit yes right like you know because I think it's like 40 of you know our all parking spots or something like that okay did that give you enough Direction um so I'm hearing strike structured parking at all these other ones below were there any others

42:07 that were not encompassed on this list that the counselor I'm not saying striking but I'm what I'm saying is is that it would be a rainbow thing leprechaun thing if you find a developer that will do it there's lots of they're doing that in Eugene on many of the developments 959 Franklin they have underground parking they're starting to build those developments with underground working it's becoming a thing right they're required right I don't know I just oh because it's requirement there you go well they find the money for it so okay so maybe some more information when we have a second conversation about that because I think that's the that may be the important context

42:56 okay what about 10 minutes left before we you know have passed past the red line and we got to start migrating our way to the other room okay well let's get back to you so um in addition to this public benefit requirement the council would need to set other minimum eligibility requirements for the program um and so there's a copy of draft program guidelines in your packet of attachment three um if the city adopts this property tax exemption there are certain things by Statute that we would need to do I've tried to highlight those in Gray in the packet but there are a lot of policy decisions too and those are highlighted in blue and these guidelines are written with staff's recommendations for those policy decisions and I'm just going to

43:41 kind of run through those um and then get some direction on that so first the city needs to determine what the minimum number of units a project has to include in order to qualify for this program staff is recommending requiring the developers meet the development code definition of multiple unit housing which is five or more dwelling units on an individual lot or parcel except for cottage cluster housing and not counting adus so that's kind of getting at the higher density development that we're looking at in these mixed use and higher density residential areas um second is the length of exemptions that the city would Grant um so by Statute unless we're sort of

44:26 offering this special affordable housing provision which staff isn't recommending because we do have that alert D program in place and the maximum exemption length is 10 years so in some past Council meetings there have been several council members that had expressed interest in limiting the length of the exemption to five years um staff is recommending that Council offer exemptions for the full 10 years for qualifying projects so of the other City programs that we looked at there are eight other cities that we looked at only the City of Salem had granted an exemption for fewer than 10 years and that was for a duplex and then I think also kind of the market context right now with high interest rates High construction costs and some more bank

45:12 loan hesitancy given the recent bank failures and that is making it hard for projects to pencil and then there is also a certain administrative burden to applying for and complying with this program that may not be worth it to some developers um for sort of a short exemption period the council does have several options here first you could uniformly decide to Grant exemptions of 10 or fewer years you could also decide to Grant exemptions of different numbers of years for different projects but in that case the council would need to set kind of what standards we're determining you know when a project qualified for five years versus eight or whatever the council chose to

45:58 do um and then there's sort of a third option that um the council could require that projects make a showing that they could not pencil but for this tax exemption and cities that have this requirement usually have developers submit to Pro forma's one with the tax exemption applied and one without it applied to show that they financially need it um and this would be kind of a different way of limiting the fiscal impact of the program while still ensuring that projects that were granted it got sort of the maximum benefit out of it um so three options there and then um other recommendations so staff is recommending that new construction

46:45 additions and conversions from non-residential uses be eligible to apply for this so these are all infill areas of Springfield where there's not a lot of vacant developable land that's right for residential so making sure it's open and then steps also recommending um that we require developers to comply with the code as it's adopted so this is in here because there's a lot of focus at the state level right now on um increasing housing production and so what's come with that are the Mills that are further limiting what the city can do in terms of regulating land use especially for Housing Development so this would just be requiring developers to follow the code where they otherwise might use a statutory exemption and then

47:30 finally we talked about this a little bit before but attend something like a development initiation meeting to talk through mostly the public benefit aspect before and so the question here just being does council have feedback on any of those points or the guidelines more generally Corey I like the 10 years I mean I think that's reasonable and fine and also you know it is different from the affordable housing um so like I feel fine about that and I do really like the idea that people come to a meeting and establish the relationship before they get going too far on it so I support all of that Victoria okay

48:15 I have some questions I have some suggestions ideas so the um again it's like a project consultation and it has a significant cost associated with it correct I believe that if you're going to require that dim then um once we we plan is plans are submitted for a project that's been approved for this um then that dim cost should be refunded to them that's what I think um and then I like the I think that the 10-year should be um reserved for those butt Force because to me I'm looking at this program and I'm saying who is this benefiting the the tax exemption because the developers that I've worked with it's those upfront costs that are killing them it's having

49:00 those permit fees it's the SDC fees it's all those fees that go into actually breaking ground before they ever even get their shovel in the ground and so it seems like and I could be totally wrong but it seems like that this benefits those much larger developers who are you know I want to say the OBS and that kind of thing that do these awesome projects but they can use that where there's a lot of developers are building small um subdivisions that would benefit more from up front help than this long term so I would be more interested in like a five-year up to 10 years with that but four built in there even if it's got something to do with the cost of the project or the size of the project or the number of units or

49:45 something that ties it to that five to ten year amount I don't think it should just be a blanket 10 years um that's it anybody else um I like I think those guidelines look fine I mean I think you know running through that through a five and year window is good um I'm really interested in this question of where does it who does this help right because I acknowledge right developers developments are all shapes and sizes right like as far as size and scale and capital so if we if we check off an assistance program that uh covers you know sort of big big developments then I

50:31 kind of have the question about how do we promote the smaller stuff too but I think that's maybe a separate sort of policy policy conversation um does anybody have other opinions about adding about foreign brought up the stcs and whatnot and we're sitting at this table whole table coming up on decades and what seems what still is the problem is that the city it's a city waived 100 of our stcs that still isn't going to be a big dent in what they have to pay up front for stcs because of problem and because of sub our partners that that these costs especially a multi-unit you look at the multi-unit I I'm not going to try to

51:18 throw a number out there but it's a multi-unit facility where you have like say eight or ten units do you realize how much Lima Lane charges for each one of those units it's it's there's those units these projects that are really aren't that huge we're into six figures and so we can talk about it all we want but as long as it's Eugene is different because they have their parks department as the same as Eugene they don't have these separate agencies so so until I mean we can do all we can we can break the bank for City of Springfield while other agencies next to us aren't bringing in their cash and having their cash flow and getting along those Prime but I don't see the point you know

52:04 slashing our own wrists again for getting somewhere and eating housing is being built when everybody else is going to benefit from the tax base from those from that structures and here we are sitting by ourselves and we're the ones that are shooting ourselves this whole time coming up spending hours and hours coming up with things on how we can get some things built at Wars Factor exactly what Victoria is doing this SDC and you're just here by proxy I get it so but it's it's um that's the bigger picture we get other people on board that's when I think we can have some real conversations and and make some big Headway but until then we can have this out of here we won't

52:50 get out but on projects in the next things one of the things I think we need to do before we we wrap up is uh the next team Springfield meeting like our position as an agent you know as as an agency really needs to be that that the topic that we've done talk talking to needs to be the sdc's and development piece right that that's the place that we've got everybody at the table and can kind of dive into something throughout you know with some meat on it instead of having the staffs kind of have to go back and forth between all of them okay um but and I mean to give you an example of how how deep their heels are dug in is that we can't even get them to waive for adus which is a 800 square foot little structure

53:35 we can't get them to partner so good luck so the theme Springfield thing's not not a thing for you it's yeah and you know please don't get me wrong you're there just putting proxy and I just you did a great job tonight thank you all thank you it's going to take a couple of conversations yeah sure again so are you taught are you making those notes and then back to us are we talking to partner agencies first and then coming back um I had originally been thinking start informally talking to partner agencies to let them know that we would be coming back formally over the summer if that is fine with the council I would continue with that and then come back to you in the fall okay perfect thank you thanks

54:28 [Music] um I'm going to follow a city council regular session to order with a roll call Mayor Van Gordon here councilor Weber here councilor Mo here councilor rodley here councilor Blackwell here councilor Doyle here and Council Visionary here thank you please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance

55:18 as we begin our meeting tonight there are two designated uh there are two designated times for public testimony under public hearings and business from the audience if you are attending in person please complete the request to speak card located at the entrance of the council chambers and give them to the city recorder if you're joining us online with a tablet smartphone or computer and wish to speak to either of those at times please join us by raising your the using the raised hand feature in Zoom the order of public testimony is as follows anyone in person in the council chambers and then anyone who has raised their virtual hand first item please mayor you have two items under Springfield upbeat tonight the first item is mayor's recognition May is bike month Proclamation

56:15 the bicycle is an economical healthy and convenient form of transportation and an excellent tool for the enjoyment of the Springfield Scenic Beauty and whereas through the month of May residents may experience the joy of biking and support our local economy by biking to a nearby shop or dining establishment whereas the bicycle Industries sales and bicycle tourism could contribute to at least 440 million dollars it for Oregon's economy and generate 7 000 jobs and whereas with money saved from lower travel costs people who ride bikes have more money to to spend with local businesses and can grow our economy whereas the City of Springfield and safe routes to school are promoting greater public awareness of the bicycle operation and its safety in an effort to improve the health and safety for everyone on our streets I Sean Van Gordon mayor of the City of Springfield Proclaim May 2023 is bicycle month in

57:02 Springfield and challenge Springfield residents to get out and enjoy our regional pass or visit a local business by biking this month thank you for our own pizza yes I don't know what to do with them if they send it back and uh Michael um I think you set the bar for the public works people who are going to come later this month to

57:47 celebrate their week so like the challenge has apparently been thrown down next item please the next item is item two under Springfield upbeat and that's the Earth Day art competition item and that's Thomas Gray for the staff report well good evening Council uh we are here to recognize the winners of the environmental services division uh annual Earth Day art competition we've been doing this competition for many years now with the Springfield Public School District uh specifically with the fourth grade classes uh we had about 150 submissions this year uh we put out a

58:33 poster contest that is themed around uh environmental sustainability and Environmental Education for kids leading up to Earth Day which this year was April 22nd and we got about 150 submissions back staff voted for the top 20 submissions we have 15 of our honorable mentions out in the lobby tonight and we have one of our honorable mentions uh here in person and then we have the top five winners uh who were submitted to Mayor Van Gordon and he personally ranked first through fifth place and we're going to go ahead and present the awards for first to fifth so in fifth place we have Larissa Landa

59:35 great there's one I'm gonna take one more wonderful congratulations in third place we have Kimberly and we were unable to confirm a last name I don't think she's here tonight in second place we have Millie lease and it looks like she's I think she's also not here tonight

1:00:24 okay we do have our first place winner and that is Adeline new next item please next time is the consent calendar I'd like to make a motion to approve the consent calendar second

1:01:09 Neil could you call the roll please yes councilor Weber yes councilor Mo yes councilor Radley yes counselor Blackwell yes counselor Doyle aye and Council missionary yes thank you it's been a long time since I've been able to say this motion passes six yes is zero knows all right and I I know we had a lot of families that joined us um we've got a long agenda item instead of agendas items so please if you want to join us and participate by all means you're welcome but don't feel the need to to stay for the entire evening next item please uh next item you have five items under business from the city manager item number one is the fiscal year 2024 Community Development block grant cdbg annual action plan Aaron Fifield is here

1:01:54 for the staff report good evening I'm here tonight with the fiscal year 2024 Community Development block grant annual action plan each year the City of Springfield receives an entitlement allocation of Community Development block grant funds from the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development These funds May primarily be used to address Housing and Community Development needs of low-income persons in Springfield in order to receive these funds the city must create an annual action plan to describe specific actions to be undertaken in fiscal year 2024 we anticipate having 622 374 dollars in new

1:02:42 funds available for projects tonight's action plan reflects the direction from city council given during the April 10th work session this includes funding allocations toward the city's home repair program to rehabilitate existing housing owns by low-income persons it includes an allocation toward the city's home ownership program helping to provide down payment assistance to low-income homeowners it supports Lane County's Human Services delivery system to support low-income and unhoused persons and it includes an allocation towards staff administration of the grant this plan follows a public involvement process that included two public hearings by the Community Development advisory committee and a 30-day public

1:03:27 comment period right I think we're ready for a motion trying to find it I'd like to make a motion to approve the fiscal year 2024 Community Development block grant annual action plan and authorize the city manager to execute all documents needed to give effect to the city's agreement with the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development for these funds second all right Neil could you call the vote

1:04:12 please yes counselor Weber yes councilor Mo yes councilor rodley yes councilor Blackwell yes councilor Doyle aye and Council appreciationary yes thank you motion passes six yes is zero knows next item please next item is the Cornerstone Community Housing funding request and Aaron Fifield is here for this report as well hello again I'm here tonight with a request for funding from Cornerstone Community Housing included in tonight's packet is a memo from Cornerstone it describes their new affordable housing development in Springfield that is experiencing a gap in funding as you may recall this is a 39-unit development near 16th and Q Street with a mix of apartment sizes

1:04:57 serving low-income seniors providing resident services and the community room this is a 12 million dollar development in the fall of 2022 Cornerstone applied for two million dollars in federal home funds this request for home funds came before Council on February 6 2023 to which Council gave their approval for that project part of that pro forma at the time included a 640 000 cdbg award that through a back and forth discussion we decided was ultimately not compatible with the project so they have a gap timing wise the plan is to apply for close to seven million dollars from Oregon Housing and Community Services

1:05:43 this summer for their bi-annual every two years notice of funding availability Cornerstone is requesting additional support from the city to fill this Gap with local resources that will allow them to be more competitive for State funding so normally the question is is there funding available and usually I would turn to cdbg to ask that question we've determined it's incompatible um we actually do have City actually does have funding that would fit this and so that is what I'm bringing here tonight is for your consideration if you recall in 2021 the city received an unsolicited one million dollars from the state general fund as part of Senate

1:06:29 Bill 5561 to address to address housing and security to address the lack of affordable housing or to address homelessness we met with Council in two work sessions on February 14th and April 18 2022 and Council discussed a long list of projects that they would be interested in funding the time Council noted that they did not want to fund projects that would need ongoing funding and so ultimately Council awarded that one million dollars to three different projects one home ownership development through habit habitat for humanities Fisher Village project a homelessness response and Street Outreach by procuring giving funds to

1:07:16 the police department to procure a second van for cahoots and third to support the Eagan warming Center by installing a fire suppression system at Everett Methodist Church in exchange for a commit commitment for a 10-year agreement to host as a warming Center the habitat project in cahoots van are both moving forward however with the third award ever ultimately had to decline I've since talked with staff at Lane County about a long-term Eagan warming site they've advised that they do not have long-term funding to support operational costs to run a shelter for existence if we were to take that six hundred thousand and buy a building could Lane County support funding that

1:08:01 operationally and they said no and their advice was that partnering with a religious community to use their space in winter is still the best arrangement to serve the Eagan warming Center needs staff at the county have offered to help with Outreach to the religious community here in Springfield so that we can find a site in the future all that said we have an estimated 565 thousand dollars remaining in this award from state general funds that could be reallocated and at the same time Cornerstone has come in with this request to help fill their gap for an affordable housing project that would be eligible for these

1:08:46 funds so the question to counsel is would you like to re-allocate the remainder of the state general funds toward the Cornerstone Community housing project coin thank you uh two things one I remember when we were talking about this allocations and the first time around and this was one of our questions was if somehow it doesn't get spent will it come back and can we put it to something else so I appreciate one that we have that conversation and that this is what's happening um and I am very much in support of the support of this um I think that y'all have heard me say it before I think this particular particular development on Q Street is fantastic it fits some needs that we are

1:09:33 not seeing in other ways which is for seniors and um ADA accommodations is very hard for folks who need ADA accommodations or wheelchair users to find affordable rental housing so I am absolutely supportive of doing this anybody else all right uh the one question I had is there any news from the utility board on the what they're interested in in their piece of property that is adjacent to this uh um It's Complicated I got it yeah short answers now okay and now no news okay yeah go go ahead Joe so you had 565 leftovers is that what you're saying yeah it's so Council

1:10:19 awarded 300 000 to Habitat that's not changing it's the number from Cahoots they've got an estimate to upgrade their van and then Council also wanted to make sure there were funds to sort of pay for staff time to administer this Grant and so that's where the estimate maybe 575 maybe 565 but that's the ballpark high fives yeah so to speak yep and then the gap for Cornerstone is exactly how much it says it's about 600 000 in the memo so there's still going to be shy or is that is that is that an approximate or estimate on their behalf or do they have hard numbers I think everything probably with the rate environment right now is a little flexible um I will say

1:11:04 um Michelle Martin is here she's the Chief Financial Officer for Cornerstone um I think she's new to the organization but has been involved in the project if good evening uh she was right that the with the with the right environment what it is um we have estimates and very good projections but it can fluctuate a few hundred thousand dollars um with what we have right now and uh what we are seeing for our scoring and

1:11:50 we're getting in for letters of support from the banking institutions um we're going to be much tighter than that um closer to that six hundred thousand dollar Gap and um we have were prepared to to find sources to fund that all right go ahead Joe and so the question is the 565 575 is going to potentially be slightly shy of what you need but gets you very very close tremendously helpful yes and it will get us there yeah answer your confidence level is at 100 percent oh yeah I feel very confident about the project I um 100 is always tough on development projects but um we the project is ready to go we have

1:12:39 an incredible team everybody is very very excited and has been very supportive and I think that um in the high 90s so but I mean I guess I'm what I'm asking yeah kind of squirreling around on it is do you have a plan B so that way you can say okay we get this we can do this and we'll get there as opposed to okay if we get this and we hope we get there and then if you don't get there then you show back up here so I don't that's what I see what you're saying yes um thank you for explaining um we with the amount of such a small Gap to Bill I'm confident that we can fill that without coming back and asking okay and that's recorded So I support it okay

1:13:25 Victoria I just want to say I've worked with Cornerstone Community and some of the projects you've done in Eugene and I'm fully supportive of this as well thank you thank you all right I'd like to make a motion to approve allocation of the state general funds for Cornerstone Community Housing Springfield apartment Neil could you call the vote please yes councilor Weber yes councilor Mo yes counselor rodley yes councilor Blackwell yes councilor Doyle aye and counselor Pictionary yes thank you motion passes six yeses zero knows and I'd like to make a second motion please uh authorize the city manager I can make a motion authorized city manager to negotiate and execute all documents needed to give effect to the city's agreement with the

1:14:10 Cornerstone Community Housing for these funds yes counselor Weber yes councilor Mo yes Council Bradley yes councilor Blackwell yes answer Doyle I and counselor Pictionary aye motion passes six yeses zero knows next item please thank you uh next item is item number three ratification of the mwmc fiscal year 2023 2024 Regional Wastewater program budget and Capital Improvements program the CIP Matt stouder is here for this item good evening American Council I have a somewhat of an abbreviated presentation for you tonight uh you may have watched our department budget presentations so there's a lot of information in there but I'm happy to answer any questions you may have as you may know the mwmc IGA allows for the

1:14:55 governing bodies of Eugene Springfield and Lane County to ratify our regional budget and CIP on the 14th of April the mwc approved that Regional budget and CIP and directed staff to forward it out to the governing bodies the commission held three work sessions over the period of January February and March and then culminating in the April meeting and they adopted a four and a half percent rate adjustment in that budget uh in accordance with our IGA Eugene provides for the operations and maintenance of our regional facilities in Springfield does the administrative Services which includes the planning the Capital Construction and the financing of projects in the budget in the permit Administration among other things this budget provides for the mwc to operate and maintain our existing

1:15:41 facilities and infrastructure provide service to the approximately 850 000 community members reside in our area implement the commission's key outcomes that drive our work under our Capital Improvement program cover our debt service obligations and respond to Regulatory and permit requirements including the recently reissued permit that we got on November 1st of this past year so the approved 2324 budget includes 23.9 million dollars for our operating budget that's a 7.1 percent increase over last year uh I would note that there's a 2.37 FTE change um that's on the Eugene side that they've held

1:16:26 Staffing relatively flat over the last several years includes an electrician safety manager and a lab specialist it's broken out amongst those positions uh we have a six and a nine six point nine percent increase on m s and that includes our indirect chemicals utilities those types of things and then the overall budget combined is a seven percent increase in Personnel services including regular wages Medicare health insurance per those types of uh of numbers excuse me of so the SDC our SEC revenues are on target we have seen economic growth in the region particularly around the uo and our revenues are on track the capital budget for this year is set at

1:17:11 67.1 million and just that spans multiple years because our projects are large and they do cover multiple years so that money will track forward the majority of our projects are plant performance Improvement projects including replacement of our electrical switch gear we have a thermal load mitigation project in partnership with the pure water Partners that's in response to our environmental permitting we have a administration building improvements that we're working on and then there's a quite a bit of work associated with equipment replacement and major rehab as our plant is starting to age it's approaching it's over over 40 years old our five-year CIP is projected at 129 million and and so as I mentioned earlier our budget must be approved by Lane County

1:17:57 Springfield and Eugene prior to adoption and that occurs on July 1 that the budget will go into effect on July 1. we're here before you tonight we're going to be before Eugene Council on May 8th and then at the County Board on May 9th 9th for ratification before finally going back to the commission for final adoption on June 9th and so with that I'd request that you consider ratifying the budget and I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have there any questions all right I'd like to make a motion to adopt ratifying the fiscal year 2033-24 Regional Wastewater program budget and capital Improvement program if resolution number two is adopted in tonight's public hearing

1:18:48 what was that if I think we have the rate increases later so oh it's in a funky order is that the cart before the horse normally this yeah normally this item comes after as on the schedule ahead of time tonight all right we do that Mary B well okay and that's my motion and it stands oh all right thank you Neil could you call the vote please yes councilor Weber yes councilor Moon yes counselor Bradley yes councilor Blackwell yes councilor Doyle aye and counselor Pictionary yes thank you Ocean passes six yes is zero knows next item please uh next item is a resolution of necessity for South 28th Street Paving project p21155 this is resolution number four resolution exercising the power of eminent domain and authorizing a

1:19:33 resolution pursuant to rs223.005 or s223.105 and ors-35.600-3625 concerning acquisition of right-of-way necessary for the 28th Street Paving project again p21155 and Christy Krueger is here for this item good evening mayor and Council uh back in February Council approved this resolution of necessity for the South 28th project since then we received the legal descriptions for every single property and so our new city surveyor highly suggested that we come back to ask Council to reapprove this resolution of Necessities which shows exactly what

1:20:19 right-of-way we would like to acquire as well as the temporary construction easements I can make a motion to adopt resolution number four okay Neil could you call the vote please yes councilor Weber yes councilor Mo yes counselor rodley yes counselor Blackwell yes councilor Doyle I am cancer missionary yes motion passes successes zero no's thank you next item please the next item is uh spark at Booth Kelly lease Amendment Ellie Camp is here for this item

1:21:06 good evening everyone I am here today to talk to you about the lease Amendment we have for spark it's sweet Booth it's Suite 150 in Booth Kelly uh the lease amendment in your packet includes an edition of outdoor space and a work letter to address improvements to the building's roof um for background knowledge the existing lease was uh implemented or approved by Council and implemented in November of 2022 uh that is for connected Lake County for booth Kelly Suite 150. uh the lease identifies three years of payment the first year is the nominal payment of one dollar the second year is 2 395 a month and the third year is for 2875 dollars a month they needed substantial tenant improvements to the space to make it into the area that they need uh thus the

1:21:51 three year lease was approved by cancer um I'm going to explain a couple of the items within the amendment and we're going to start the outdoor space the additional outdoor space measures approximately three thousand square feet and you can see that in your attachment three there's no added cost for the space proposed in the draft lease in front of you that draft lease amendment is attachment for there's a precedent for leasing outdoor space for tenants Kelly the fitness facility leases outdoor space the fitness facility is right next door to a spark I use the loading dock in the back when it's warm out to let the athletes touch the mayor the extra space would give spark the ability to have a safe space for students outside the building this space is not currently being leased

1:22:36 or used by any other tenants the nearest tenant is the gym and we confirmed with them and their access would remain unimpeded for tenants that may want to use shared space at Booth Kelly they can request the use of the crane shed which is the covered structure there we have a process where folks can use that space for things like barbecues and the tenants we've been told work well with each other whenever those accommodations need to happen onto the roof item uh the lease Amendment addresses the alteration to the roof there's a work letter included as an attachment to the lease amendment that identifies the terms and conditions to deliver that alteration the roof was installed as part of the tenant improvements carried out by The Architects engineers and work crew hired

1:23:21 by connected Lane County for spark this will be paid for by the city as its role of landlord property owner the roof installed is a membrane roof it stretches over three Suites Suite 150 Suite 165 which houses Ditch Projects and Suite 170 which is storage for the Eugene Opera to eliminate a material transition right in the middle of the building that membrane roof was brought to the edges of the entire structure the project overview map and attachment to you can kind of see where the roofs are all shared in these three Suites under one building the roof costs 254 650 uh the prevailing wage differential for the roof work is an added cost of

1:24:06 Thirteen hundred dollars so totaling both of these come to 255 950. this cost is captured in the work letter agreement um I am here to ask to request action direct to direct the city manager to enter or not enter enter into this lease agreement with connected Lane County for spark Suite 150. great question appreciate the information because you knew I was going to be asking about yep so one more related question to that space that three thousand square foot space are they going to be expecting us to provide a secure parameter to that or if they're going to want that it's going to be on them any accommodations they want to make to it will need to go through a landlord review process and

1:24:51 then any sort of land use or billing permits associated with it so it's on them so it's on them but they still can come to us and ask us pay to pay for it already um the cost has been carried by them for the tenant improvements for the rest of their space outside of the roof it's theirs okay perfect I'm ready to make a motion okay all right I like to make a motion to direct the city manager to enter into a lease Amendment with connect with connected to Lane County for spark at Boost Paley Booth Kelly Suite 150 to include additional outdoor space and coordinate payment of a building Improvement second you know could you call the vote please yes councilor Weber yes councilor Mo yes

1:25:37 Council Radley yes councilor Blackwell yes councilor Doyle and counselor Pictionary yes thank you motion passes six yeses zero knows next item please any other business from the city manager yes just uh briefly uh we will be not we the city there will be an event held on May 3rd um at Herron Park to remember and honor the missing and murdered indigenous women uh in our in our country and in our community um this has uh been organized by Marta Clifford and a wonderful woman that I met and I um I'm committed to attending it's willamaline has also been a partner in this by uh allowing them to do a

1:26:25 ceremony at Heron Park on May 3rd at 5 00 PM so I just wanted to make the community aware of that you know we've talked about human trafficking before and what an issue that is in our country um according to Marta when I was talking to her a lot of the victims of trafficking are indigenous women and they're underreported in the system and because sometimes they may come from a sovereign tribal Nation uh they could literally slip through the cracks and because they might not be tracked in um other ways so this is an important issue for um for Marta and certainly for me and I just wanted Valerie's awareness about that thank you thank you okay

1:27:16 next item place next item is public hearings you have poor four public hearings tonight public hearing number one is setting local and Regional Wastewater stormwater user fees effective July 1st 2023 this is resolution number two a resolution of the City of Springfield setting local and Regional Wastewater sewer user fees and local storm water drainage user fees as set forth in the Springfield Municipal Code Matt souder is here for this item good evening again um so each year Council considers user fees for regional and local Wastewater systems as well as the local stormwater system last week at work session we presented options for Council consideration and input and we incorporated that feedback last week into the our discussion tonight if approved the proposed proposed fiscal

1:28:02 year 2324 user fees will provide adequate revenues for us to continue to maintain and operate our systems deliver reliable services for the Springfield Community Fund our adopted CIP maintain our debt service requirements help us delay the need for future financing meet environmental regulatory requirements and ensure protection of the public health in our local environment so before Council this tonight the user fees include a local stormwater fee increase of three percent or 48 cents per month on a local Bill a local Wastewater increase of 2.5 percent or 0.63 cents per month uh Regional Wastewater fee increase of 4.5 percent or a dollar Thirty a month and as noted previously that Regional increase was

1:28:48 approved by the mwc commission on April 14th up for a public hearing and so at this time staff requests that the council hold the public hearing and consider adoption of a resolution establishing user fees to go into effect on July 1 2023. any questions all right I'm going to open the public hearing I don't have any cards for this item Neil do we have anybody that's raised their hand online well appears we have no one online I'm going to go and close the public hearing I'd like to make a motion to adopt resolution number two you know could you call a vote please yes councilor Weber yes yes counselor yes Council rodley yes answer Blackwell counselor Doyle aye councilor Pictionary aye the infamous resolution number two

1:29:35 passes six yeses zero knows next item please the next item is the fire code update this is ordinance number one an ordinance adopting a fire code for the City of Springfield by adopting amending adding and deleting sections to the state of Oregon 2022 fire code regulating and governing the safeguarding of life and property from fire and explosion hazards arising from the storage handling and use of hazardous substances materials and devices from conditions hazardous to life or property in the occupancy of buildings and premises crn provided providing for the issuance of permits and collection of fees therefore and replacing ordinance number 6427 adopted June 28th of 2021 by the City of

1:30:22 Springfield Travis Worthington is here for the staff report good evening mayor and city council Travis Worthington for fire department Fire Marshal's Office uh this ordinance would all right yep this would help to put in affect the 22 organ fire code with amendments by the City of Springfield again we have about 87 modifications to the fire code that we've identified that would better uh the community for Springfield and improve operations by the Fire Marshal's Office all right any questions I'm going to go ahead and open the public hearing there's no cards for this item and you'll do have anybody raising their hand no one raising their hand I'm gonna go ahead and close the public hearing and there's no action tonight at his

1:31:08 first reading only thank you next item please uh public hearing number three is an industrial pre-treatment code update this is ordinance number two an ordinance repealing Springfield Municipal Code sections 4.002 to 4.094 adopting sections 4.001 to 4.085 relating to Industrial pre-treatment adopting a severability clause and providing an effective date Sean Krueger is here for the staff report good evening mayor and Council I'm here tonight to request that the council hold of public hearing and a first reading to consider an ordinance repealing Springfield Municipal Code sections 4.002 and 4.094 and adopting sections 4.01 to 4.085 relating to Industrial

1:31:53 pre-treatment as you may know after a long process the Oregon DEQ recently issued an npds Wastewater discharge permit to the mwmc the City of Springfield and the City of Eugene are also named on this permit this permit became effective on November 1st 2022 and requires the mwmc to update its model ordinance for pre-treatment standards it also requires the cities of Springfield and Eugene to update their local preaching and ordinances after working with DEQ and the two cities the mwmc adopted their model ordinance and held a public hearing at the April 2023 commission meeting pursuant to the mwmc's intergovernmental agreement the City of Springfield and Eugene might need to adopt at minimum the mwmc's model ordinance

1:32:39 City staff and city attorney's office have reviewed sections 4.002 to 4.094 of the municipal code with respect to the issue the reissued mpds permit requirements and the mwmc model ordinance since the city's code has not been updated since its adoption in 1997 the city's attorney's office has recommended repealing the existing code and adopting a new code based on the new mwmc model between an ordinance the City of Eugene has taken action on the same issue presently and will also be adopting the mwmc model ordinance in their local code the changes to the new code are mostly not substantial in nature and largely involve correcting terminology as well as adopting the code structure of the mwmc model ordinance which is based on

1:33:26 the epa's current model ordinance template these changes should result in requirements that are clear for Springfield's Industries and make future updates of the ordinance more streamlined the mwmc held a public hearing and conducted a public notice process resulting from the updated model ordinance and received minor comments from industries that have and they have been addressed staff also reached out to each industry that is permitted through our industrial pre-treatment program and no specific concerns were received with the proposed ordinance updates attachment 2 in your packet provides the updated ordinance if Council has any questions a second reading is scheduled for this item on May 15th and upon Council approval the ordinance will become effective and review and approval

1:34:11 by the Oregon DEQ with that I'm available for any questions you may have there any questions all right I'm going to open the public hearing I don't have any cards for this item or is there anybody online Neil no hands for this item I'm going to close the public hearing there's no action tonight this is first reading only thank you next item please uh your final public hearing tonight is fiscal year 23 Appropriations transfer transfer this is resolution number three a resolution authorizing the transfer of Appropriations within the booth Kelly Fund from development and Public Works Capital project expense to development and Public Works operating expense and from contingency expense to development and Public Works operating expense Neil o'bringer is here for this item

1:34:57 good evening mayor and Council uh Neil o'bringer budget and procurement manager in the finance department this budget adjustment is being requested to provide budget Authority for the roof replacement at Booth Kelly that Ali Camp discussed earlier so DPW is actually absorbing the cost of this roof within their existing Appropriations this action only moves existing capital and contingency Appropriations into their operating budget so that the purchase can all happen with one within one area of their budget so with that I'll take any questions there any questions I'm going to open the public hearing I don't have any cards for this item you know do you have anybody online

1:35:42 no hands for this item I'm going to close the public hearing I'd like to make a motion to adopt resolution number three second you know could you call a vote please yes counselor Weber yes counselor Mo yes counselor rodley yes councilor Blackwell yes councilor Doyle aye counselor Pictionary aye Ocean passes six yeses zero knows next item please next item is business from the audience I have two cards for in the room testimony so please come forward and state your name for the record and in location in the city and then you have three minutes uh Chris McAllister good evening Mr Mayor members of the council my name is Chris McAllister I

1:36:27 come from Ward 3. John O'Neill is dead John O'Neill lived and worked in ward 3. John was a veteran of our country served in the Vietnam era War John is dead and died in Junction City this place because there's no place for him in Springfield the marathon made it to where he could not even be in a hotel waiting for a replacement in a home he had to go to Junction City he did not die alone he did not die suffering but he is gone he like over 27 people since 2020 have passed away people who are from our city people claim 75 percent of the people come from other places we

1:37:12 have data 60 to 80 percent depending on the year on the count that people are coming from Oregon they're coming from Portland they're coming from drain Mapleton Florence doing City even we have the homeless by name list it keeps track as best we can but not everybody's willing to trust to talk to government to access Services because once you're on a list it doesn't mean you go anywhere it just means that you're remembered on a list foreign because it's one of the only places that actually qualifies for the card camping program that you use we proposed it called operation last stop converting LTD buses into Apartments so that way we can take care of people putting a fence around it putting a uh a structure in the Middle

1:37:59 with flowers water make people feel comfortable I feel comfortable have access to their caregivers because both Kelly is the only property you own that actually is allowed to be participant in the car camping program we posed that we were told that the the leases could not be amended that we can't assume today that you were able to mend the lease I'm hoping that maybe we can brainstorm a little bit about how to serve our people um I I came to speak a little bit more about the hearing but uh that appears to be on another day in regards to the camping van I just want to say that I'm proud of our hired staff who have done so much in the past couple years from helping secure the memorial building when Springfield was going to be without a coveted prevention shelter when

1:38:45 everything was else locked down that when the guest house closed that our staff from the library to the finance to the housing and public works all rows and found Solutions I believe in the will of our people when they're directed and given license to serve and so I hope that you continue to find ways to raise up your staff to raise up your community and to remember who we are I spent eight years on the streets in this town as a 13 year old to 22 I am here because a program was allowed to do something that it's not able to do now carry it forward the organization that I am now honored to serve in and to lead at this point has been able to be the

1:39:30 stop Gap I just ask that you remember John O'Neill and in the over 27 people who passed away since 2020 from Springfield thank you for your time and your service thank you not yet Steve we'll come back hold that thought you'll be the first for me um last card is Angela Stout good evening my name is Angela Miceli Stout I'm from Ward 6 and I am a member of the Springfield Public Library Advisory Board and I'm here to offer a few updates to the council about the library and its programs over these past months it's been just over a year that the library has been fine free and this has

1:40:17 been a huge benefit to our entire library or the staff our community Yours Truly included our library staff tells us that they now spend far less time with upset patrons who have fines and blocked cards and they this has created a better work environment for our staff who are now free to spend their time on other work projects and on helping patrons again like myself finding really good books so people are returning to the library without the fear of racking up fines they cannot afford to pay there's just one anecdote that was given to me from a library staff member the staff member recounted an inspiring comment from a new Patron a mother with

1:41:03 a six-year-old daughter the mother says we just started coming to the library a few months ago when I found out that there were no late fees I stopped feeling anxious about going to the library and now we come all the time I couldn't believe the email said that we had another three weeks and it automatically renewed it's amazing that we get to keep the books that long and not worry the library Advisory Board would like to thank the city council for supporting the decision to go find free the library has already seen an incredible benefit to the Greater Community and looks forward to serving Springfield even better the library is also pleased that much of our youth programming has grown back to pre-pandemic levels our library is the only free early

1:41:50 literacy program in the community and we reach out to hundreds of children each month the Springfield Library story time has grown over the last year with a baby and preschool Story Time on Tuesdays with about 70 children and their caregivers in attendance and Wednesday and Saturday offer a bilingual story time that brings together many community members over spring break at the end of March library was packed as you may have seen with support from sub the library was able to provide many fun educational free programs for children and their families just a few highlights 613 free books given out in English and Spanish 166 children and their families attended

1:42:36 the Spring Film program that was a collaboration with the wildish William and planktown and finally there were 675 children and their adults at the reptile man show which was wild and we had to add a third show the library board is very grateful for the continued support of this Council and very grateful for the opportunity to serve our community and should the city council hope to pack these Chambers we might suggest inviting the reptile man thank you thank you so much um Council response Steve Chris McAllister the gentleman he talked about that died was two two days ago a veteran Chris called me on Saturday asked me if there's anything I could do and I couldn't and I'm so sorry Chris

1:43:29 Corey yeah I want to thank everyone for coming and testifying and sharing a public comment um I very much appreciate Chris reminding us that the unhoused people in our community are the unhoused people in our community there's often a myth that everyone is the term transient gets used and people come from other places and the fact is people are in the communities that they live in that they have ties to their families are here they may move in and out of Housing and I just appreciate Chris continually reminding us that these people are part of our communities as well and they are not necessarily coming from somewhere else and my deep condolences for the loss of another neighbor um and I also am so supportive of fine free and love Angela that you brought up

1:44:17 all the ways that you know families it has erased that anxiety and given people access to the library as someone who had kiddos who were constantly having overdue books and then couldn't go to the library for a year um I just really appreciate that we have moved in this direction and so thank you for both of those messages just one quick comment Chris um I know that you know that there's a lot of medical respite issues that are tied up in this particular occurrence no um I would just encourage you to take that story and reach out to to uh to the administration at the hospitals um I think there's some details in that that you shared with me that really would help them as they start to do work around understanding medical respite and

1:45:02 making sure that people transition appropriately um including into hospice so please don't let us be the only person that uh is hearing that story make sure that you're reaching out to the people that are doing the work on around medical respite and one quick comment about the library board um my kids loved the reptile man and I also want to say that I am grateful that the same amount of reptiles left here is that we're in here listen all right next item please and and just for the record there were no hands raised for business from the audience well thank you no problem uh next time is business from the city council does anybody have business all right I have one easy one and then one particularly hard one um we're packing desserts for dinner uh the this

1:45:47 Friday so if you've bought a dessert for dinner make sure you swing by on Saturday between uh 10 and 12 which is the Catholic Community Service or or the G Street location is on uh on G Street um I'm a riot this time of night um the second thing we want to pull back and talk about is timing and location around for Council Retreat so when we had a gender review on Friday um we're gonna have to reschedule the council Retreat AJ's going to send out a survey everybody's favorite doodle poll uh the best option for everybody if we do not want to do this thing in the middle of August it sounds like it is June 24th and I don't know if somebody had a

1:46:32 if somebody had an issue but I would strongly encourage you Saturday thank you does anybody know if they've got an issue around June 24th I thought it was the 17th the 17th to the 12th we were trying to think of where where I'm sorry no it's it's okay we will be 17. okay so we're going to try to put this thing out there for probably middle July um like what I want to do is make sure what that is during break this is we're going to doctor pay oh

1:47:18 no we'll triple it um fall is going to be pretty full it would be really helpful for us as a body to be able to pull back and have this conversation and early in in before we get into the middle of the fall uh part of the season so look for that answer it and hopefully we can find a date anybody else with business from the council all right next item place any business from the city attorney uh no business thank you all right considering how much we got done and it's before eight o'clock I'm gonna go ahead and insurance thank you everybody