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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017 10 03 CCICity of Springfield CCI Regular Meeting MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE SPRINGFIELD COMMITTEE FOR CITIZEN, INVOLVEMENT HELD TUESDAY, October 3, 2017 The City of Springfield Committee for Citizen Involvement met in a work session in the Jesse Maine Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Tuesday, October 3, 2017 at 6:00 p.m., with Greg James presiding. ATTENDANCE Present were Chair Greg James, Vice Chair Michael Koivula, Commissioners Tim Vohs, Sean Dunn, Andrew Landen, Nick Nelson, and Troy Sherwood. Also present were Development and Public Works Current Development Manager Greg Mott, Comprehensive Planning manager Sandy Belson, City Attorney Kristine Kraaz, and Management Support Specialist Brenda Jones and members of the staff. ABSENT STAFF REPORT 1. Accessory Dwelling Unit Program- Jo. No. 811-17-000057-TYP4 Greg James: On this October third, 2017, called this meeting of the Committee for Citizen Involvement into session. At this time, we will have some discussion around the Accessory Dwelling Unit Program and the proposal that's been put together for the citizen involvement portion. With that, I will turn it over to Sandy Belson to talk us through that process. Sandy Belson Comprehensive Planning Manager. Sandy was here talking about citizen involvement with you back in June. She had a draft Citizen Involvement Plan for the Committees review and comment, which the Committee did provide some comments. Sher has incorporated the Committee’s suggestions and some updates given some of the realities of what she has been able to accomplish, to do outreach to the citizens. This is focused on the code amendments. She recognize that there are other outreach efforts that they will be doing even beyond the code amendment process to encourage people to consider an accessory dwelling unit to inform them of their options. That's part of a broader strategy but what's before you specifically for tonight's consideration is how we get the word out and get input from citizens regarding the proposed code amendments for the accessory dwelling units. She has included two versions of the revised draft, one that shows the changes made from what you had seen back in June along with some commentary as to why those edits were made. In some cases, there have been some mistakes or some further explanation. One of the big differences that we added from the Open House, which was something that the Committee recommended that we include back in June. Reformatting a bit about our outreach approach where we're doing more general public outreach with having community groups as part of our interested parties list rather than having them separated out. The second draft version is as presented, in other words, it doesn't show the changes so it's clean version a little bit easier for you to read through and maybe comment on, if you do have some changes you would like to recommend at this point. Your options this evening are to accrue the revisions as submitted. To approve with revisions that you may identify or to not approve and give some directions to what else you would want to happen in terms of citizen involvement for this program. Andrew Landen asked Greg to tell them where do they ask some of these questions? City of Springfield Committee for Citizen Involvement Minutes October 3, 2017 Page 2 Greg: he thinks your questions-- Yes, he thinks you can talk about the city's email newsletter. He thinks you can chime in as long as it's in our role as the committee for citizen involvement. As long as it's dealing with that role, we're not meeting as the Planning Commission at this moment. Andy Not specifically in that one than in the other three are really-- Greg responded its specific about the Accessory Dwelling Units. Andy page three that talked about the city's email newsletter. It's a method of reaching out to the community, he didn't even know that there was one. He wondered if they might consider occasional billboard signs or sandwich signs or something like that. It's like these tax measures that crash and burned and he thinks it's because a lot of people had this idea that we're scared of taxes and had no idea what the city was going to do with it. We do the traditional register Guard and the stuff that we're -- I don't think we're reaching our local citizenry. If there was a way voter rolls, do voter rolls have an email addresses? Greg responded, no, not typically. Andy okay, that's too bad. In some sort of way, billboards occasionally, not all of the time but a broader way of saying, get information about Springfield, subscribe to something. he just worry we're not reaching people. Sandy I don't know what the cost of a billboard would be. Something she could look into. She’s not sure if there are any available. That's not something she’s really done. Greg added that there are some other avenues as well. They had to choose Springfield newsletter that goes out periodically, there are some other things that get out into the hands of the community, and he thinks from the Springfield homepage, He believes you have to go too deep to get to the newsletter piece, do you? Sandy doesn’t know how you get to the city's newsletter from the city's webpage. That she doesn’t know, but on the front page of the website has been the feature for the accessory dwelling units receiving this SDC waiver. There's been a link to the Springfield housing strategy and for a couple weeks featured in big was the open house announcement. She did have about 40 people come to the open house, 30 Thursday night. The Committee will get as part of your Planning Commission rule, a copy of the comments. She did have the TV provide coverage on that day , Tom Adams from KVAL came in and It was on TV and she knows that a number of the people that came to the open house had seen it on TV. She doesn’t know why they came but she had a wave that came in at 6 o'clock that she thinks whether they were planning to come or not. She thinks they came in specifically because they know a presentation was at 6 o'clock and that they heard that on the news. She understands and has the same concerns in terms of how you reach your broad populace given the limited budget and so she’s open to suggestions as we're going into the public hearing process. She can say that in terms of the people that did come to the open house, some heard about it through word of mouth, some heard about it through the Eugene Weekly in their calendar and some through social media. She thinks the city's Facebook page has probably been the way that most people have found out about it. Not just the open house but about the program in general because our Facebook page has been more and more linked and that's something that people forward onto their social networks and then we're able to reach more people through that Facebook page and we did pay to have our Mrs. Caitlyn Young, my technical expertise and whenever you do have it higher up on the-- I can still pay to have that bumped for a couple weeks. What Greg heard Andy Landen say, “if you're going to say as part of our plan for CCI to review as a form of outreach and the email, the city has a newsletter, people ought to know how to find it”. Greg thinks one of thier recommendations would be make sure it's high enough and easy enough to get to from the homepage that people can get to the E-newsletter and the Facebook page, should they choose to do that and that's an important part. City of Springfield Committee for Citizen Involvement Minutes October 3, 2017 Page 3 Tim thinks that people are interested in this subject. If people are interested in what's going on in Springfield, they know how to access the information that comes out and he thinks there's a larger number of people in the community that don't care in the least, which stands to think if you plant a sign in their front yard then they won't care. Tim suggested that Sandy could send out mailing stubs with utility bills for that matter if you wanted to reach the maximum number of people, but percentage of people that are going to pay any attention to it would be the same number of people that follow the website. Greg added that there is a real cost benefit piece to this and we do need to focus on the tools that are here. He knows there are a lot of people in the community that don't necessarily communicate electronically either so I'm back to your point, something somewhere that's just a sign that says-- at the bus station or something that says, "Did you know?" or the senior center or "Did you know there is a public meeting?" Those are important things. Mike also thinks the Senior Center and Willamalane probably has a community board thing you reach a lot of different people from the school. Tim grocery stores have bulletin boards where you can post information like that too. But again, depending on cost should a flyer go with the utility company. Sandy did look into the utility option. There is a contract with SUB and it states that there is a certain number that we can send out and those are already prescribed four topics related to the utilities such as the storm water. Something like accessory dwellings is not an eligible topic to use this contract for. Tim added that evidently that is at the discretion of some. Because there are subjects that come with utility bills that are not related. Sandy thinks it's some agreement between the City and SUB, which is her understanding. Tim added that because he gets flyers on public events that aren't SUB related. He thinks it's all a matter of whether you can push hard I guess. Mike interjected that ADU’s use would affect sewer services, etcetera. Nick said that the Rental Owners Association might be someone to reach out to. They do newsletters to all people locally that have rentals. He thinks that's going to be an easy target for people that would have interest in this. Greg said that was a great point. Sandy did include them when we sent the notice of the open house and they will be seeing the public hearing notices as well. Greg asked how the Home Builders Association, what is their take on this? Sandy answered that they support and they said that they would include it in their Monday update in terms of the open house. Mike as he recalls there we're independent speakers coming in for presentations. There might be an opportunity to actually have someone from staff come in and help do a presentation on the event. Troy said for him to get a better understanding on the emails that are sent out by the city. What's that roster made up of? City of Springfield Committee for Citizen Involvement Minutes October 3, 2017 Page 4 Sandy said that their list was made up of people who are already on the department of public works [unintelligible 00:12:54] the department -- . It often included anybody that staff has had contact with over the past year that has said that they want to be on a list and get updates. Then is there anybody who has signed up through our website saying that they want email updates. In addition to that she picked out groups such as the Renters/Owners Association. A second address for Lane County Home Builders, the executive director is on there. But she sent it to the administrative person as well, since she's the one that really does the mailings. So Sandy added to that, people such as the Chamber of Commerce, the City Club, the League of Women Voters. AIA the American Institute for Architects group. Even though they haven't been requested to be on that list. Sandy sent that to them separately so they are not on the regular contact list. Troy is thinking it might be a good idea to try to bolster that roster. He meant as much as we can by advertising the roster and not even necessarily commercially advertising a roster. But advertising a roster on Facebook because you're talking about posting about things. But if we advertised an email list maybe people would get on that email list so they could get it directly in their email even if they don't see it in their Facebook feed. A lot of people go off and on Facebook or aren't on very often but will still see their email. He thinks if we advertised the email list itself might build us a better roster so we can have constant contact with these people. Greg asked about a link, to advertise a link and say, "If you would like to stay-- If the City of Springfield can contact you with updates at your email to stay involved in your city, sign up here", because you can just go and sign up in the website. Frankly, he doesn’t know where it is on the website. He could probably find it. Greg asked in other words, when you do an ADU update on the front page of the website, it would be great to have a link there that says, "If you'd like to stay connected, click here", and it takes you to page where you put in your email and now you're connected, making that easy. Sandy added that it is not on our front page but it's on our ADU page. Greg asked if Sandy said it was on your front page, at some point. Sandy answered, not the place where you would click to get on to the mailing list. You can click to the ADU page from the home page, but then you have to click from that ADU page to request to have your name on the contact list. Greg said as long as it's well advertised and easy to get to, he thinks that's what I'm hearing. Andy said that, that would be the question and it’s a possibility of [inaudible 00:16:09] Brenda Jones showed the Committee the computer and where this page is. Mike said that now were talking about the sort of the things [inaudible 00:16:26] but if you type the link, it's fine, but he thinks most of them would [unintelligible 00:16:33] idea where it send out to-- We are talking about the Home Builders Association, but I think there'd be some other ones too. He knows the American Public Works Association locally has a lot of active numbers. He’s also thinking of local planners and professional land surveyors in Oregon [unintelligible 00:16:56] Greg added that they have the list where the Home Builders Association of Lane County Springfield, Board of Realtors, Renter Owners Association, affordable housing providers, Washburne Neighborhood Association, Chamber of Commerce, City Club, and League of Women Voters. That's the current list. Sandy answered that after she put that together, she added the American Institute of Architects given they're a local chapter. Greg reminded Sandy that she has heard some other suggestions like the-- City of Springfield Committee for Citizen Involvement Minutes October 3, 2017 Page 5 Andy asked if we have any kind of a list of local congregations, is that right way to reach people? He doesn’t know if that kind of list exists. Nick added like rotary or something like that? Andy said he just thinks churches, rotary and -- Mike added interfaith council, is there any-- [crosstalk] Andy answered, “Something like that”. Again, he doesn’t even know if that list exists. Greg said that this particular issue could potentially, directly impact several things. Homeless folks, the amount of rental space, affordable rental space is available immediately. Those are important to our faith-based communities. We've got groups around the City who do a lot of work, feeding homeless folks and assisting in finding a place. He doesn’t know that that group-- They certainly would want to be informed on how much they want to be involved necessarily in the design of code. This process is about developing code amendments to support the roll-out of ADU development in the City, but he’s sure they would want to be informed. Sandy knows that there's the Springfield Shelter Rights Alliance. They have members already on our list, but beyond the Springfield Shelter Rights Alliance, who are you thinking, or is that going to cover it or if there are other- Nick asked, if the mission is there someone to reach out too? {19:36} Sandy: I'm sorry. Mike Koivula: The Mission. They might be someone to reach out to. Greg James: Do they do anything? What about the St. Vincent, Paul-- ? Sandy: They're on in terms of being affordable housing providers. So, all St. Vincent's and [unintelligible 00:19:49] Greg James That would be good. Mike Koivula: Interfaith council. [unintelligible 00:19:58] Speaker 1: Have you reached [unintelligible 00:20:02] Mike Koivula: [unintelligible 00:20:03] . Professional [unintelligible 00:20:09] Sandy Belson: We sent it out to the Liveability Links, it's not a professional group, it's kind of an informal group of people who are [unintelligible 00:20:31] Mike Koivula: What about the builders that are specializing in these? They probably have a pretty good, robust Facebook page or email list already and if we say, "Hey, we're looking at doing this". They might be able to get a lot of information from people that are falling there. Greg James: Well home builder's association I would think would communicate to that. Sandy Belson: We did have flyer's, not about the [unintelligible 00:20:59] because we weren't ready yet. We did have flyers out on builders to our homes about the SDC [unintelligible 00:21:07] . We also have [unintelligible 00:21:08] actually included flyers about that [unintelligible 00:21:17] City of Springfield Committee for Citizen Involvement Minutes October 3, 2017 Page 6 Mike Koivula: Okay, good. Question, we're running low on time I think, right? Greg James: Yes. Mike Koivula: It sounds like we're getting a lot of new ideas here. If we all wanted to send you and then send out the group our ideas regarding this, what would be a time frame that we might have to have you consider something? Greg James: Well what I think is this is our time to consider this and I think you've taken good notes. What I'm hearing you say is there may be other things we might think of, is that- Mike Koivula: I'm wondering whether we should defer, she says something about approve, disprove or defer and I'm wondering, what the time frame is? Kristina Kraaz: Well, we have a public hearing scheduled, notice has been sent to the registered [unintelligible 00:22:15] and to the Home Owner's Association scheduled for October 17th. Greg James: Okay. Kristina Kraaz: If you think that there is more that needs to be done than what we can include into this plan before that hearing, then I think that raises the question of having approved this involvement plan before you're into the public process and you haven't approved the plan yet. I think that raises the question about how this works. Greg James: I think if we're going to make that hearing schedule, and I know this is a priority of the city council and the city manager and staff- Kristina Kraaz: I would say, the Citizen Involvement Plan once it is approved by you, doesn't preclude us from doing other things as well. If you have other ideas or things that-- We could reach out to I'm certainly willing to add that in. I don't think that you have to revise your Citizen Involvement Plan to give additional outreach fee on this. The plan has to- Greg James: Look, maybe you should just have a statement under community groups outreach and additional groups that this plan might affect or may have the interest in input or something. At least we've said, this isn't an all inclusive list right in the plan. Then that we can accept and then you've heard the feedback from the group tonight and then that would be part of what staff would do. As we move forward or wait for public hearing, one of the questions staff might receive is, what groups beyond what was identified in the plan were reached out to? Does that make sense? You've had lots of feedback tonight, that can get us probably tonight to get consensus on having a group plan. Kristina Kraaz: Real quick. [unintelligible 00:24:34] I heard that suggestion to send suggestion through to Sandy. Sending individually your suggestions for further groups to Sandy is completely acceptable. I would ask you not to send them out to your entire group because that creates a potential for a public meetings violation if you start replying all of those. The CCI is a public meeting, it is a public body. Sending those one way to staff on your own individual suggestions as members [unintelligible 00:25:00] Greg James: That's a great point from legal counsel. So you all understand that in public hearings law, and we cannot communicate broadly to our group, because that [unintelligible 00:25:15] so directly to Sandy is fine if you have additional suggestions, I would encourage you to do that. Sandy will be the keeper of the list so to speak, and do her best prior to the public hearing, and we'll then just put that additional clause under community move outreach, under that paragraph on page 304. Could we do that? Sandy: Sure. City of Springfield Committee for Citizen Involvement Minutes October 3, 2017 Page 7 Greg James: Does that amendment makes sense to the CCI? Other comments? Mike Koivula: I have a suggestion maybe property management companies? Sandy Belson: I did send to Emerald and Acorn is the link with the Renter Owners Association so I did not reach out to more than those two, but I could. Greg James: Okay. Any other? Yes? Tim Vohs: I just want to as a reminder, there's really two different levels. We've been talking extensively about outreach and who to contact. The other issue is the specific code amendments. [unintelligible 00:26:36] whoever we reach out to, and whoever we contact, and communicate with they're not so much keyed into what's specifically we're changing in the code as just the program that's being set up and the opportunity for ADUs. I think there's two different levels that really we're looking at. Greg James: That I think may serve as a good segue to our next meeting as the planning commission. However, I would certainly entertain a motion at this stage, we need consensus or a motion? Sandy Belson: If you move to approve the plan. Greg James: I would entertain a motion to approve the plan as amended with that additional language in that section that we've discussed. Is there a motion? Andrew Landen: Motion [unintelligible 00:27:32] plan's in action with amendments as discussed. Mike Koivula: Second. Greg James: Moved by Commissioner Landen, seconded by Commissioner Koivula to approve the CCI plan as amended, as we discussed in relation to community group's outreach. Any other discussion? All those in favor signify by saying,"Aye." Members: Aye. Greg James: Opposed? Motion carried you have a plan, we have a plan. Sandy Belson: Who seconded that? Mike Koivula: I did. Sandy Belson: Thank you. Greg James: We will now adjourn our session. [00:28:16] [END OF AUDIO] Commissioner Landen moved to approve the CCI plan as amended as discussed regarding outreach, seconded by Commission Koivula seconded 7:0:0 City of Springfield Committee for Citizen Involvement Minutes October 3, 2017 Page 8 ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 6:30 p.m. Minutes Recorder – Brenda Jones ______________________ Greg James CCI Chair Attest: ____________________ Brenda Jones Management Support Specialist