Common Council - Special Meeting

Good evening. Welcome to the November 19th meeting of the Ithaca Common Council in special session. We'll go ahead and call most of this council to order. Uh most in the most literal procedural sense. We have six members. Uh all the persons Haynes Sharp and Fabitzio are excused and I have reason to believe all the persons Keelkumar and Letterman will be here shortly. Since we have a full house this evening, I'm going to read the emergency evacuation notice. In the case of an emergency, uh we are to take one of two exits. The one uh that most of you came through or the door over my left shoulder and we are to head west towards the corner of South Cuga and Green Street. Please do not cross the street. those with restricted mobility. In the event of emergencies, it is best to move to one of the stairwells and first responders will arrive to aid you. In the event of other emergencies, you will be notified how to proceed at that time. We want everyone to be aware of their surroundings and offer help when it is not to your own detriment as you were your own best advocate. Turning to agenda review, any additions or deletions to the agenda? Seeing none, I will just note that I have been informed by the attorney's office and by the director of sustainability that item 3.1 can be voted on this evening. Uh it is, as I'm sure council members know from their review of the packet, just a date change. It is just a date change. Um with that, we will go ahead and move to our series of public hearings. Mr. St. Perez moves to open the public hearing for the city's sign ordinance seconded by all the person Matoss. I need unanimous approval for all of these votes right now. All those in favor of opening and that carries unanimously. [clears throat] And that's everyone on that public hearing list. May I have a motion to close the public hearing? That moved by all the persons Moss seconded by St. Perez. All those in favor of closing that public hearing that carries

unanimously. We will also let the record reflect that all the persons Letterman and Kumar are present. So I will slowly call for a motion to open the public hearing on the southside forum district. Moved by Alder person St. Perez, seconded by Alder Moss. All those in favor of opening that public hearing that carries unanimously which is now reflected as uh 8 to zero. Um, my first speaker on the list this evening is uh Sam P. As I think you know, you have uh three minutes once you begin.

If you could just make sure your mic's on. I'm so sorry.

Of course. Like I said, good afternoon, Mayor Kento and members of council. My name is Sam Pool and I'm an ETHA resident. I'm here to speak today in support of the Southside resoning plan up for a vote. We know that Ithaca has a housing affordability crisis. Rising rents push families out of our city and a smaller tax base means the burden of property taxes fall harder even on the people who can afford to own their homes. All of these impacts are amplified for Southside, the neighborhood with the largest black population in Ithaca who have been historically subject to displacement. This resoning proposal, while not a comprehensive solution, is an important first step. It removes mandatory minimum off- streetet parking, which incentivizes car dependency and decreases the availability of housing. The plan also streamlines zoning codes, eliminating single and two family zones in favor of simple residential zones. Limiting the number of families does nothing but exclude renters who make up the majority of IT. This practice is rooted in racism and class discrimination and has no place in our city. So this proposal removes it for Southside. We know that addressing the scarcity of housing is critical for achieving real affordability. So I urge this council to pass the Southside rezoning plan and move forward on a broader citywide zoning rewrite which expands zoning for minimum density housing, eliminate single and two family zoning, and removes parking minimums so that everyone who wants to live in the city can afford to do so. Thank you.

Thank you. My next speaker is Taylor Moon. Welcome. You have three minutes once you begin.

Uh, hi everybody. Um, I'm Taylor Moon. Um, so I've spent a lot of the last year uh researching about uh zoning and um how it can particularly impact the poorest members of our community. Um, and while I think that there is a lot that this uh proposal does not do and that I would like to see done in uh the citywide plan in the future, I think that this is a very good first step and it's an appropriate balance of making big changes. Um, and not making Southside too big of a target for uh development right now. Um, I think as Sam said, eliminating uh uh off- streetet parking minimums and u single and two family zoning um is a really great step, makes sense. Uh both of those things are unnecessary restrictions on uh the density of housing and um you know just exclude renters from markets where or from areas that they don't need to be. Um and uh as I said, I think that um I recognize that part of the concern um is that uh we don't want to just like single Southside out as the one area that has uh really high uh density zoning and then uh have all of the people there kind of get pushed out as a result when there's just a big change coming in the near future. Um, and so I think that the density uh adjustments that are somewhat minor uh in this proposal are acceptable. I would like to see there be a lot more, right? I think that we could have higher stories um forplexes um by right um and uh particularly I would like to see town houses be much more common. Um but I

think that those things are something to implement citywide. um and so better to hold off for the time being. Um there are a few um uh technical concerns that my friend John is going to bring up in more detail because he is much more um experienced um at these things that um there are certain buildings that would currently uh be non-conforming or non-compliant um that exist in the neighborhood. And so I think it's worth considering uh making some minor revisions to uh include those. Um but uh I will allow him to kind of speak to that directly.

Thank you. My next speaker is Nathan Cidaman. As you know, you have three minutes once you begin.

Thank you. Hi, I'm Nathan Sedarin of Board One, City of Ithaca. I want to speak in in favor of Southside reszoning. Um, you've already heard I think that the new standard of single level of residential zoning brings single family homeowners and renters sort of onto a level playing field with each other. It makes sense that these people should be living together side by side in the same places. That's kind of the vision of the city that um that I'd like to see. And uh I hope you all share that position. There's there's no reason to be segregating renters and single family homeowners into different parts of the city. So I hope that that's a continuing trend that'll improve social equality throughout the city. Also want to say that uh encouraging development will create jobs. It'll create more affordable housing. Um, I'll also bring more properties onto the tax base to uh help the financial sustainability of our city. So, these are all additional reasons to move forward with resoning. And finally, as a nod to the elimination of parking minimums, I'm wearing my biking helmet today. Uh, hope that eliminating parking minimums will encourage more people to use alternative forms of transit around the city of Itha in the future. Thanks.

Thank you. My next speaker is David West.

While you get yourself settled, I'll also just note for the record, I'll note uh Mr. Keel is present. Why don't you begin?

I'm glad to be here. Um I'm very happy to come and support the Southside resoning tonight. I think that the work that's been done on it is really commendable. Um the city has listened to the community is implementing the comprehensive plan is doing the things that will make it easier for people to improve their existing homes um and to add homes in the neighborhood. I'm a long-term resident of Southside. Um I raised two children on Cleveland Avenue and now live on Center Street. Um, and a lot of what this code does is it legalizes what has existed in Southside for a hundred years. The lot sizes, the um removing of mandatory minimum parking requirements, the density increases, they reduce how many lots are non-conforming with our zoning because the existing zoning is a suburban um zoning that's been laid on top of a walkable neighborhood. and the details of this new zoning. They still don't legalize absolutely everything in the neighborhood. And I would love to see more opportunities for buy projects. I'd love to see um some of the great new things that have been added to the neighborhood like the INHS um side by side town houses that were added on Plain Street. those would still have difficulty under this plan, but it is getting so much closer. And I encourage council to adopt it and keep working, keep listening to the neighborhood and help us legalize the walkable format that we have and bring more housing to the community. Thank you.

Thank you very much. My next speaker is Terresa Alt.

Hello, Teresa. Welcome. You have three minutes once you begin. I'm Teresa Alt of 206 Eddie Street, College Town. Um, and I'm also here to urge you to pass the Southside reasonzoning promptly without delay before another noisy car wash or some other industry thinks it can set up there. and ruin the life of the residents. Uh that is the point of separating out industrial and residential neighborhoods which does sometimes make sense. And I would also add that I am very much in favor of eliminating minimum off- streetet parking requirements. It is time for the city to put people above cars. The modest densification is also a very good thing. Thank you.

Thank you. And my final speaker for this public hearing is John King. Thank you very much. Welcome. You have three minutes. Why don't you begin?

Sure. So, John King, uh, been on and off at the resident for 19 years, living right now on 120 East York Street. I want to say generally speaking, I'm in favor of passing this legislation as is, even if I'm going to recommend some tactical changes to come after. A move away from Uklitian to form-based zoning is long overdue. Um, especially given that many of the primary concerns we express about zoning are about the character or look of the neighborhood. Um, I am happy to see things such as smaller minimum lot sizes, uh, elimination of on of off- streetet parking requirements. I would like those to go even further. However, I think it's incumbent that we upzone the entire city at once rather than targeting any of the potential detriments of development into one um, historically lower income neighborhood at once. Um, on the note of talking about neighborhood character though, something I I would like us to all remember is if you look at Southside, you see a neighborhood which sprang into existence almost wholesale in a period of about 15 or 20 years in the 19s and 20s at a period in which the city of Ithaca was growing as much as 30 and 40% per decade. Um, the historical character of Southside is not just in the nature of the buildings. It is in dynamism, growth, and Ithaca being a welcoming place for people to begin a new life. Um, so while we do want to protect the architectural character, I think the essential character is Southside is a place that made Ithaca welcoming for new residents. Um, that said, there are some technical changes I want to bring up. Uh, there's some of the language right now that I think is going to create a lot of buildings uh that are currently conforming that will be non-conforming. I have a not even remotely comprehensive list of some of them here. A lot of it has to do with things like the roof pitch requirements being between 612 and 12. Um, you know what we have right here, it's a beautiful Queen Anne. We have roof faces that are both above 1212 and we also have more than 50% dormer uh width across the front. We have other Queen Anne style with steep turrets, dormers that are going to exceed those widths. Uh, we then have a lot of prairie square um like this style where you have lower than 612 roof pitches and

flat roof portions. Uh, this is going to extend into some of the Dutch colonial you might see in some places. Um, and then go further. uh a lot of um kind of craftsman style bungalows. You're going to have dormers that are more than 50% width. The way it's written bans things like mansard roofs right now because they're too steep. We also see things like Greek revivals, which there are plenty of in this neighborhood. And these are all just southside homes which are going to be excluded. I would suggest that instead of doing things like mandating narrow or specific bands of roof pitches, we should look at what the architectural styles are. We should uh mandate that we try to follow existing vernacular, allow things like hipped roofs, allow things like shed dormers where appropriate. And for preserving the architectural character, we should look at things like the massing and the materials. For instance, we could ban, you know, having five or six separate dormers and pitches per roof like you see on McMansions. We could get rid of the composite aluminum panelized construction like defines a lot of modern buildings. It's these kind of touches rather than the specific shape of a roof that really protect the character of a neighborhood and allow greater flexibility in construction.

Thank you very much. Uh council, may I have a motion to close the public hearing? Moved by Mr. Keel, seconded by Mr. St. Perez. All those in favor of closing the public hearing. That carries unanimously. Um may I have a motion to open the public hearing for site plan review? Moved by Mr. St. Perez, second by Mr. Leman. All those in favor of opening the public hearing, that carries unanimously. I have two speakers. First is David West. And Emily, you're next. Hello again.

Hello. Won't say who I am again. Uh I just want to take this opportunity to really thank um the planning staff of the city for bringing this forward. I think it's a very um It's very thoughtful uh way to look at our current system and incrementally adjust it to make future housing development um a little bit smoother, a little bit more predictable. Um I'd love to see more things by right. I think we're doing that with the zoning adjustments, but increasing what can be reviewed in a quick um staff review rather than going to a board is a smart thing. Um, a lot of the projects that qualify are the size of a large single family home that wouldn't have previously been reviewed. Uh, so I think it makes sense that we would allow those small multif family projects to go through a similar review. They're small projects. None of them are going to destroy the city. Um, so it makes sense to streamline things. And I just appreciate the staff for doing one of those little things. This is government really working the way it's supposed to. um seeing a problem and being proactive in addressing it.

Thank you. My second speaker is Emily Thuja.

Welcome. You have three minutes once you begin.

So, I'm uh here to speak in support of the proposal to simplify site plan reviews for midsize housing projects. Um, please picture me wearing a Yimi t-shirt right now. Um, in the department where I work at our local bank, a big portion of our business is lending to ethical landlords. I started in the department in 2017. I spent my first five years at my job looking at rent projections and going, "No renter in their right mind is going to pay these rents." And then being proven wrong. Um, I eventually got it through my thick skull that I supply and demand problem is so substantial that what should be irrational asking rents are rational in this town. And that's because even with all the building we have seen here, demand still outstrips supply. We have demand driven by decreased household sizes, enrollment increases at Cornell, and increasing numbers of retirees who want to move to this beautiful area. And meanwhile, supply is constrained by costs because it's expensive and difficult to build new housing in Ithaca. Any steps the city can take to make it faster, easier, and cheaper to expand the housing supply here should be pursued. In my opinion, housing affordability is is Ithaca's number one problem and it contributes to some of our other very important problems like homelessness, drug use, um tax base, and the ability to respond to new flood risks. I'd like to see it easier to build the missing middle in Ithaca, but I hope it's just one of many steps that the city takes to enable the expansion of our housing supply. Other people might complain about traffic, parking, whether new units are affordable units, or whether buildings are ugly. None of those considerations should be

more important than just getting new units built and available to people who need housing. Expand the supply to meet the demand. That's the only way to put us on a trajectory where more people can afford to live here.

Thank you so much. May I have a motion to close the public hearing? Moved by all the person St. Perez, second by all the person Shapiro. All those in favor of closing the public hearing, that carries unanimously. Um, may I please have someone summarize and move the Ithaca Energy Code supplement for colleagues who joined a little bit late. We amended the um the agenda uh to reflect that this was just a date change and this will now be a voting item. May I have a motion to move summarize and move Mr. St. Perez, you only got two meetings left to be able to be the guy doing this for me. So,

this is a very minor alteration to our energy code supplement. It alters a date. Thank you. Seconded by Mr. Wyn. Uh, I will ask if council has any questions for director Evans since this is a minor technical change. There is there is some context is

probably important. um for those that are continuing and if it does come up with any especially developers. Um so in January on January 1 we were expecting to implement a new version of the energy code which was the net zero code which would require all new buildings to meet a net zero standard. Um, this was a code that was adopted in 2021 and at the time was the only code that was the only net zero code available in the United States. So that was the one that we adopted. It's from an organization called architecture 2030. Um, since then there have been many many other net zero codes that have been rolled out. This was written back in 2019. Um, and we have been working on amendments or a rewrite really of the net zero code for the past probably 18 months now. Um, and we're actually ready to bring you something entirely different tonight. Um, but on Thursday of last week, the governor decided to delay um what is called the all electric buildings act at the state level. um which kind of puts the kibos on our energy code um which just means that um you can't use fossil fuels in new buildings. Um, so instead of trying to go back and rewrite everything or make a bunch of amendments kind of on the fly with a really really tight turnaround and having to, you know, force you into making a decision um with just a couple of weeks before it would need to go into effect. What we'll what we're suggesting here tonight is to just delay implementation of the code that we already have, which means that the 2023 version of the code, which is what's

currently in place, will continue until June of 2026. In the time between now and June 2026, we will keep an eye what's happening at the state level. See, this is all based on litigation that's going through the courts. um keep an eye on that and if it looks like it's not moving in the way that we expect to then we can make amendments to the code that we were expecting to bring to you tonight. Um I realize that there are a lot of moving parts there. So if that wasn't clear, let me know. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Any questions for the director? Seeing none. Uh all those in favor of uh the resolution as move the ordinance as moved. That carries unanimously. Thank you so much. Thank you. Uh, may I please have someone summarize and move the amendment personnel roster for the youth bureau? Mr. Letterman. Sure. Excuse me. This is I move a resolution to amend the youth program unit of the city of Ithaca schedule of authorized personnel for the year 2026.

Is there a seconded by Alder St. Perez? Any questions for director H? Uh, Mr. Shapiro. I'm sure this is uh something that's very agreeable to vote on, but I'm just curious. We just It seemed odd to me to be voting on changes in personnel the week after we approved the budget. Can you just explain the timing of that that occurred for you?

Yep. So, this [clears throat] is the result of budgets are put together at point of time. So when the budget was put together and submitted to the city manager, that kind of froze our staffing plan in that point in time. Since the original budget was submitted, we had personnel changes at the youth bureau, which created opportunities for us to reduce some of our supervisory level um positions with program mergers. that ultimately gave us the opportunity to then fund a direct service position um which is the youth program leader that defunding the coordinator level position would provide.

Okay, thank you. Older person Brown. Oh, I just didn't see him. Old person Ke. Um what is the current salary of the youth program coordinator position? I don't have that number in front of me. They are typically with the adjusted contract somewhere in the um $70,000 range not including um benefits. And what is the approximate salary of the youth program leader? Um that is in the low 50s and also uh slightly different benefit.

Okay. $7,000. Well, could you not because you're not recognized? But yeah, um I I I shared some of the concerns of Alder versus Shapiro. You know, we just went through an incredibly tough budget cycle in which we needed to make some cuts. Um I I'm I'm um I'm comfortable with this, Shane, just because of its uh similarity uh from what I understand in terms of the the budgetary constraints. Um that said, I I would appreciate if when you bring future uh changes forward that you include the salary lines uh with those changes.

Not a problem. All the person Brown,

my concern is pretty much the same as uh Patrick's. Um, also I just want to hear a little bit about this RISE program if it's okay if that So if council would like to have a presentation on the RISE program, we would be happy to schedule that for a future meeting.

Well, future meeting. Yeah. And so me once again when we've had we've talked a bunch about uh how tight this budget is and then to come later on and bring something even though I know you're getting rid of one to it is pretty much we need to save money but anyway and to be clear this is a cost-saving measure. I know it is a cost-saving money, but we could have saved all the money if you could have got rid of that that uh person. We didn't I mean at anyway Yeah. costsaving to who?

Uh Mr. Kale, just as a clarification. So So the new position that we're funding is less than the old position, correct? Okay. Um I I would actually appreciate just if you could give us a couple sentences about what the RISE program is. You can give a future presentation about the full the full thing, but it would be helpful to have some context for a decision tonight.

So the RISE program is a merger of two former youth bureau programs, the college and career discovery program and the Paul Shores Memorial Program. What we were seeing was a major shift in needs of our local youth population and as such we were seeing a decline in enrollment in both of those programs. So the youth development team came together and looked at what opportunities there were to take the best components of those two existing programs and combine them together to create this RISE program. Ry stands for uh resilience, identity, support, and empowerment. And it's really focused on helping to equip um youth, especially in that middle school to high school range, with life skills and the social emotional learning that there is a significant gap in in a post-pandemic world. Um the program currently has 26 students uh enrolled uh across ICSD and they are doing 8week cohorts and they're doing a number of different programs with uh a number of our nonprofit partners across the city um on a whole range of different life skills subjects. Um, for example, uh, we just had, um, presenter from Planned Parenthood talking about healthy relationship building, um, with the participants. Um, so that's a little preview, but happy to do a more in-depth presentation for council.

You still have the floor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, and I appreciate that, and I would love a presentation at a later date on on the full program. Um can you just give us a little bit more about um what you see the benefit being of of this change, how you see it impacting and empowering uh these students and and what you expect the outcomes to be. So ultimately we expect the outcome to be um youth that are able to go off to college and actually be able to thrive and survive without the intense levels of supports that many cohorts of young people entering college have faced post pandemic. Um, I talked to folks at TC3, at Cornell and IC who consistently have shared their experience with incoming freshman class in the last few years and the skills deficits that exist there. So, we have been taking a lot of stock in the observations that have been made there by our colleagues in higher ed and really trying to tailor this program to help uh increase those needs. are support those needs that exist.

Um, do do you expect that this this new youth program leader will allow you to have more students in the program and if so, how many? So, yes, we do anticipate that it will help us support larger cohorts in the program. Uh, we could potentially see an additional 25 students. Um, a lot of it's going to depend on how things go with this first um, new co cohort that's coming through. So far, things have been very positive in the response that we've received from uh, the participating students and their families and the school district.

That's lovely. Thank you. I'm excited to support this and um, I'm looking forward to that presentation in the new year about RISE. Thank you. Um, Mr. Ke, if you would just shoot me an email uh requesting that presentation and copy of the deputy clerk. Um all the person mas you've not spoken yet so I'll recognize you first.

Thank you. Um and I just wanted to take the time to recognize the great work that the RISE program essential the the combination yes the RISE program um does do. I know several teens teens um that are of color that are participating in the program. Um, and Greg, you did a great job describing the program, but I think I I also have to go to say that they are also supporting families even in the schools and having those difficult conversations with the schools um on how can you know we guarantee the academic success of the teens. Um, the employees that are a part of the program are amazing. Rocket who I I I know grew up with. Um, he's doing an amazing job leading leading that program. So, I just just wanted to give some flowers.

Thank you. That's much appreciated. Mr. Shapiro and then Miss Brown.

Sure. I um appreciated just learning all that about the program as well. I just thought I'd add since we're bringing this back, I'm sure to vote in on our December meeting since there is a cost savings. Another way you can support um youth having like social opportunities to learn new skills is by helping to maybe put some of these funds into the basketball program. I know there's a big gap right now that's kind of um endangering the program from even existing. So, I would wonder if um as we're continuing to think about how to vote on this, like if you can think about how you can also reinvest money into like some programs that need it right now. And Miss Brown,

I I just want to say that, you know, I am thankful for this program, but I'm a little disappointed because the same question I asked you, you could you needed you told me you need you would do a presentation and you didn't even attempt to describe it. But when Patrick asked you, and I just want this on record, you were very clear in explaining it in detail. And that kind of makes me feel some kind of way. Just want you to know.

I certainly appreciate that perspective, older person. It was not an attempt to not answer the question for either of you, but I do feel that it would have been more appropriate to have a full presentation on the program. after additional requests.

All those in favor of this roster amendment change that carry Oops. Those opposed that carries uh what are we at now? Nine to one. Thank you. Nope. 8 to one. Nine total. Uh thanks RG. Um, may I please have someone summarize and move the amendment to the city sign ordinance? Alder person, St. Perez.

This is an alteration to how we deal with requests to put up signs. Uh, it would consolidate the entire process uh under the uh planning board and uh remove the board of zoning appeals from said process. Additionally, it would remove some uh stipulations of the current system including the number of letters criteria because apparently number of letters isn't really a useful uh metric in signage. Thank you all the person. Is there a second by all the person Kumar? Any discussion on this? All those in favor that carries unanimously. Uh, now may I please have someone summarize and move the Southside resoning amendments. Mr. Letterman,

um, please do which one should I do? Please do lead a in the order that they're on the agenda. So, lead agency, NEG deck, and then the ordinance. Right. uh an ordinance to amend the municipal code of the city of Itha chapter 325 entitled zoning to establish section 325-46 southside zoning form districts and to reszone portions of I won't read declaration of lead agency is there is there a second second by all the person same press any discussion on lead agency Mr. All those in favor that carries unanimously. Neg I'll move the same for a determination of negative determination of environmental significance.

Seconded by Mr. St. Perez question. Nope. Just excited to vote. Okay. All those in favor of the NEG deck. That carries unanimously. Mr. Letterman. Uh, all right. Is this what we've all been waiting for? Oh, yes. The ordinance. All right. I move an ordinance amending the municipal code of the city of Ithaca chapter 325 entitled zoning to establish section 324-46 southside form districts and reszone portions of various districts which I will not read. I so move. Is there a second by all the person saying Perez? Mr. Ke.

Um thank you Mr. Mayor and uh thank you everybody for coming out tonight. Um I will be voting against this. Um, if you've been following along diligently to the council proceedings, uh, you will remember that we moved many suggested changes to the southside zoning. Uh, one of which was removing the pitched roofs requirement. I really appreciated the speaker who came and talked about the non-conforming uh, buildings that would be included in this. Um, many of which, uh, are are quintessential to the southside neighborhood and provide great value that would not be covered under uh, this reszone. I'm I'm continually um uh frustrated with the city's reliance on on not meeting best practices. Um getting rid of, for example, getting rid of uh minimum lot sizes, which was proposed and and once passed by council and then we uh went back on that. Um as well as other changes. Um I think we could be doing more. I think we should be standing on business on this one and really really standing up for what we believe in and and what we believe our our community should look like and be like in the next 10 to 15 years. And I understand that there's a comprehensive zoning rewrite, but at the same time, we have the opportunity to be doing things now. Um, and I'm also frustrated with the process that that we took to get to this point. Um, I expect it [clears throat] to pass. Um, but I hope that as we consider other zoning amendments um, in the near future, we'll we'll really take a look at at what we want our community to look like and also um, some of the kind of archaic uh, zoning practices we've we've found ourselves in. Um, again, just to recap, we're still requiring minimum lot sizes, which is is been found by both the Biden administration as well as many others to be uh, incredibly harmful to to communities. Um, we still have uh lot offsets and and we we struck down

changes which would increase sizes of buildings along Route 13. Um, and I'm I'm disappointed in that and and I hope that we we move forward and we we we make changes that that will increase housing supply in our community, not just go halfway. So, I will not be voting for this tonight. Question. Uh, Mr. Perez,

I just want to note that I am actually quite happy with how this turned out. Um, it is it look, should this have been passed in 2020 or 2021? Yes, but there was a pandemic. Here we are. And it is better to get this in and have it on the books before we do the comprehensive zoning right than not to. Moreover, I do think that it speaks to the the community hearings and input that were received during the extensive process that we took to get here. I I understand the concerns that were raised. I I don't think they're invalid, but I I think that we are looking at a a good change.

Mr. W. Just want to quickly thank everyone who came out to speak in favor of resoning. There are so many communities, the vast majority of them that typically oppose this kind of of change. And um we are very lucky this community has for a long time supported affordable housing where many people don't. They support upzoning where many people don't. And you know, you have things to do and I appreciate that you came out on a Wednesday evening to to voice that support. Thank you. All right. With that, all those in favor of the Oh, I'm sorry. All the person br I didn't see your hand. All the person.

Oh, I want to thank everybody for coming out also for this plan. Um, and I and I was struck by something. Uh, I what I what I think about a lot when I I don't only think about the design of the place. I think a lot about of the people who's been pushed out of that design. I mean, out of that area. And I'm hoping that in as we continue to uh re rewrite and do some changes that we also cuz when you said how it look about the the way it look when I go through there from when I came moved to Ithaca it definitely looked different. The people in the community do that's for sure. So I I'm more concerned about uh how we figure out maybe if we had this in place a while ago as many people who was pushed out wouldn't have been all those in favor of the amendments as proposed and those opposed and that carries 8 to1 with Mr. Keel against. May I have someone please summarize and move the ordinance to amend city code chapter 276 the site plan review preliminary. Mr. Letterman and this is just [clears throat] one ordinance this time. Uh let me get the title. I move an ordinance amending Ithaca City Code Chapter 276 site plan review. Isn't it the Ithaca municipal code?

Victor, sorry. Is it technically the Itha Municipal Code

versus city code? Yeah. It's a distinction without a difference. Okay. Is there a second by older person Ke uh question? Not a question, just a statement. I'm excited that we're continuing to make our processes for site plan more efficient. Um and thank you for the to the planning staff for bringing this forward. All right. With that, all those in favor of the ordinance as proposed that carries unanimously. Thank you very much. All right. Uh I have a couple of resolutions that I will be moving. Uh resolution one uh establishing a preliminary general fund balance policy directing the development of a permanent policy. Um I will summarize uh we are just setting an initial preliminary fund balance target of 15% of our annual general fund expenditures to serve as an interim policy until uh the request uh that the administration is directed to adopt and propose a permanent general fund policy for our review no later than the prior to the development of the fiscal year 2027 budget. I so move second by old person Letterman. Questions? Mr. Leman to speak on this. That's all right.

Yes, please. Okay. Um, no, I think this is really important. I really appreciate the mayor moving with elacrity. I think we are in a sort of very serious um financial position and establishing better internal controls is a way to address that situation. So, um, this and this these comments apply to all of them. Um but I think uh in addition to having the audits complete um sort of making sure we have a credit rating we are comfortable with um is having a sort of minimum fund balance of at least 15%. So I appreciate the mayor and the rest of the finance committee members moving so quickly on addressing these issues um once they came to our attention.

Thank you. Uh any further Mr. Shapiro? Yeah, I just want to say I appreciate the work you put into this. I I um also appreciated having the chance to put some input into this as well. So, it's uh I think good and timely work. So, just uh uh thank you. Thank you.

Um all right, with that, all those in favor of adopting this resolution that carries unanimously. Uh the second resolution is a resolution prohibiting the use of bond anticipation notes for the purchase or financing of vehicles and short-lived equipment. I will move this as written with one verbal amendment. Uh now therefore be it resolved that the common council hereby prohibits the issuance of bond anticipation notes for the purchase, leasing or financing of vehicles or any other physical asset with a useful life of less than 10 years. Um all seconded second by all the president Kumar. Uh the rest is moved as written. Mr. uh Ke

um I do have concerns. I I think generally I support this and I'm going to be voting for it tonight. I do have concerns about the the useful life duration. Um, and I hope that as we move forward that we continue to stay engaged with these financial matters and that we continue to re-evaluate whether that's a an appropriate time frame or it should be shortened or maybe extended in some cases. I'll just quickly respond and say I agree with the older person. I think um certainly like with the fund balance policy, the intention here is just to create a baseline. Um, as uh council will note, of course, we will have a vehicle and equipment replacement reserve fund and uh follow on plan uh as a part of this resolution because I think there is probably granularity and staff considerations that need to be taken on board. So, thank you for that. Mr. St. Pres,

uh under this in extraordinary circumstances, could could obviously council can itself override it, but would it be proper for staff to say request such an override if an extraordinary circumstance emerged? like what would the process be to bring a ban for one of these if this is put in place?

Um that's a good question. I think um the the sort of the procedural answer to your question is yes. A resolution of council can supersede a resolution of counsel. Um I would suggest that if there was a need to override those policies, I suspect that the controllers's office would of course apprise us of that um in advance. And there would be a discussion with council and memo memorandum justifying why that was necessary. Understood. Just wanted to make sure we weren't tying our future selves in knots.

Uh all those in favor that carries unanimously. Um I have another resolution to require monthly financial reporting to the mayor and common council. I will move this as written with uh three additional resolves in between the second to last and the be it finally resolved. I will read those in full. Be it further resolved that the controllers's office submit no later than the January 7th meeting of the common council a draft template to serve as standardized report uh for review. uh be it further resolved by the same date, the controller is directed to identify any impediments or resource challenges that may interfere with said office's ability to provide the information set forth above and be it further resolved that the common council will promptly address any such resource constraints to maximize the office's ability to furnish such information and I move the rest is written seconded by all the person saying press discussion please

can we make that the uh January 7th 2026 meeting

that is friendly We don't want to have another uh vote on just a date change. Uh further discussion on this. All those in favor that carries unanimously. And then the last of those uh is a resolution establishing an interim debt policy and limit limiting short-term debt obligations for fiscal year 2027. Um I move this as written [clears throat] seconded by all the person Kumar. Any questions? Seeing none, all those in favor, that carries unanimously. Um, don't jinx us. I have a series of home rule resolutions I'm bringing before council as well. Uh, the first is a resolution. Uh, I will summarize and move. Um, in accordance to the principles of our public safety reform report, our commit our commitment to equity, transparency, and privacy protection, so on and so forth, as well as pedestrian safety, we are requesting, this is a resolution to authorize me uh on your behalf to advocate for um the installation of speed safety cameras in our school districts. Uh we need we need procedurally we need an authorization from the New York State Legislature. They have to vote that into law and then we can design a program in compliance with state law once we do that. But this is that first step to ask them to carry the home rule bill for us. I so move seconded by all the president. Any questions? Miss Miss Brown.

Yes. I'd like to know a little explanation of um when you say give you the right to okay or deny uh just to advocate on your behalf not okay or deny anything on our behalf but there will be on their behalf will it be a discussion and stuff before

good question so um what uh uh very specifically what you're resolving to do here is just that I am authorized to transmit this request to the New York State Legislature. Any substantive legislative process that were to follow from any home rule grant from the state would of course come before the entirety of council. Thank you for that, Mr. St. Perez.

I just want to note that this is a I'm very glad to see this in front of us. Uh the amount of cars that speed uh directly path past past uh both Bell Sherman and South Hill elementaryaries is a huge danger in my ward. And on a personal level, I remember almost being hit by cars multiple times right by ACS when I was a student there. Thank you, Mr. San Perez. Uh Miss Brown, my my concern is more with the uh cameras. So yeah, I won't be here but I hope that it'll be a healthy discussion around them.

Thank you all the person. Uh seeing no further discussion, all those in favor of this home rule resolution that carries unanimously. Uh the second home rule resolution is uh pertains to uh the the same but for red light cameras. This is similarly an issue of uh public safety and pedestrian uh safety as well as traffic safety. This would just give us the authority again pursuant to the exact same uh procedure as the other state elements um to uh in consultation with the city engineers office eventually install red light cameras uh for folks that I'm sure none of us have ever seen anyone run a red light in Ithaca but uh I saw move seconded by Mr. question. Alter President Mtos,

not a question, more so a statement. Um, I will be v voting in favor of this too, though. You know, the camera, like Miss Phoebe, the cameras make me a little iffy. Um, but I do think that we really need to start taking traffic calming seriously within our within our city. Um, especially in Ward One, um, Southside, even during bus drop off times. Cars are continuously running those red lights going down plain street 50 plus miles an hour. So I would love I would love to see see this move forward as well as other traffic caling measures. Thank you all the person Mr. Shapiro.

Yeah, just second and thirding everything that's been said. Our neighborhood list serve um frequently talks about the uh um speeding down um or Cornell Road or or Mitchell both adjacent to to Bell Sherman Elementary School. So any kind of traffic calming would be helpful. Um I just have really a procedural question. We just approved a lot of things including I'm sure what we're about to do this. Are they all consent agenda for next? We're in a special meeting of council. These are all law now. Oh, we're actually Oh, okay. My my mistake for that. Um well, great then. Even better. Um Mr. Leman, you had a hand.

No, I'm just very glad we're doing this and excited and I think we one of I don't know of any other cities around here in the southern tier that have red light cameras. I believe the closest the southern tier. No, I believe the closest is Syracuse. Okay. So, watch out speeding drivers. Not that those are any you guys are any of them, but uh no, we're gonna be full of red light cameras and school speed zone cameras and let him have as many jokes as he wants. He's got two meetings left. I know. Second to last one. So, uh we'll have to I'll have to learn how to be funny between now and then. So, Mr. Hussein Perez,

I do want to note that I share some of my colleagues concerns about cameras. Um the devil's going to be in the details with that about how information is stored, maintained, and used. Uh I feel perfectly comfortable authorizing seeking the home rule uh resolutions, but it'll it'll come through to a future council to really make sure that we don't cause our our community problems with how these cameras are implemented.

Thank you. All those in favor? And that carries unanimously. Uh then our final home rule resolution for the evening is a motion to um I I move this is a home rule request. Um functionally what this does is and my older persons from the third board can back me up here. We have a very small part of the city that allows for residential parking permits. Um this was created I believe originally when Assembly Member Lifton was in office. Uh this was to basically protect uh that neighborhood from uh college student overflow parking. Um instead we're expanding the proposal here is to expand that permitting authorization citywide and allow the council to consider developing uh residential and commuter parking permits. I so move seconded by Mr. Keel. and a question.

I think I'll probably vote to on this tonight just because it's for for it's a home rule resolution, but I do have some pretty significant concerns about the Bell Sherman uh um parking permit system. You know, we we hear anecdotally, and I don't think we actually have any data on this, but I hear this from people all the time that, you know, these because of the zoning we have in the city of Ithaca, you have situations where people will park in their driveways or park in on the street with a parking permit and then rent out their driveways to students. Um, and you know, again, it's anecdotal, but I've heard it from from many people. And um, I'm just concerned with with that practice. I'm concerned with this kind of this system we have that's specific to one neighborhood. And I get we're expanding it citywide, but I just want the public to know for those anybody anybody who's watching that I'm going to be paying pretty significant attention to this when it comes back to council uh and if it comes back to council.

Miss Kumar. Well, I I just want to say that I'm uh very enthusiastic about this. Um ultimately I think it does fit within our goals and also the goals of a lot of people who came and spoke today um in terms of uh moving um our reliance on private vehicles away and also allowing for more flexibility um in general. And I do think there's many ways that we can leverage uh parking permits and such especially looking at Cornell University um and the fact that in some ways we're subsidizing parking for them uh especially um during a certain weekends out of the year where a lot of people are visiting. Thank you. All the person. All the person win.

Yeah. I just want to thank the mayor for bringing this forward. I think a few times a year for every year that I've served, I've gotten requests from residents for, you know, to to expand the residential parking permit system. And they're frequently flabbergasted that we have to go to the state legislature to even get it enabled. And I've talked to staff over the years. It's been so long since we did it, they don't even remember the process of going through uh the legislature. So um I I support all these three of these uh on their merits but also just to inform the public that we have this insane um hurdle to jump through. Thank you. All the person uh Mr. St. Pres

I will note that the system in Bell Sherman is I believe absolutely necessary. Is it perfect? No. But without it, we would be looking at parking in walkable areas near Cornell being completely taken over by by commuters and being inaccessible to local residents. In that vein, I do think especially as the uh college community in Ithaca has expanded over the years, expanding this to the citywide makes sense to me. Uh I'm going to it'll be fascinating to see how the policy ends up being implemented. I personally would hope for many smaller zones to uh fit with our neighborhoods, but that's me personally.

Thank you. Uh Mr. Keel, I'll just note as uh the College Town representative who hears from businesses a lot about how their employees can't find parking and they're having to pay, you know, upwards of $10 a day uh for parking for their employees. is then you drive through Bell Sherman uh during working hours and there's tons of free spots everywhere and you can't park there when you're an employee because you have to move your car at 1:00 p.m. every day and there's just you know tens if not over a hundred spots and I mean as we think about uh you know effective parking mechanisms in the city and you look at you know we're we're increasing parking uh fees this year and and I I think about how this will impact uh my community and the businesses that operate in my community and how um how how tough it is to to commute into the city to work for some of these these uh employers And um I'm kind of related tangentially. I'm interested in exploring um uh verified parking um through the parking garage in college town and different things to kind of mitigate that. But at the same time, I do think there is a little bit of irony there. Um and I just want to bring that up.

I have Mr. Letterman and Miss Kumar. Um, [clears throat] yeah, I think this is great and I think it'll allow us, as I know the mayor spends a lot of time thinking about parking and parking policy and academic research on parking, uh, as as do I. Um, but I think especially in the last 15 years, there's been a lot of innovation in terms of thinking about how to do dynamic pricing for parking. Um, I'll say, you know, San Francisco is something interesting where they change prices every eight weeks with a goal of keeping eight or 15% of all parking on the street available. Um, so there are a lot of just different more sophisticated mechanisms that have evolved. I think we've also seen sort of dynamic pricing like congestion pricing works super well in New York. So hopefully we can have a more sophisticated pricing mechanism that'll help people who need to park for work reasons or residential reasons. uh and then make sure we sort of keep parking available for other folks um as a needed basis. So um this is yeah glad we're doing this.

Miss Gumar

um Alder person Letterman kind of took the words right out of my mouth, but I appreciate um Alder person Ke's uh perspective on this. Um I agree that we need to be especially careful um you know considering that parking fees are going up across the city, especially uh in that parking garage in College Town. Um, but from my conversations, you know, I've been hearing a lot of similar complaints. But, uh, to me, I I I feel it may boil down a little bit more to a lack of stability in parking, being unsure if you're going to be able to find parking that day, being unsure about, um, what your what your schedule is going to be, and not having that kind of flexibility. So, I actually think that maybe if we implement a smart um uh you know uh program here that um we can utilize this policy to help ensure um more stability uh for you know employees of College Town um as well as you know uh the long-term residents there.

Seeing no further discussion, we'll go ahead and bring this one to a vote. All those in favor and that carries unanimously. Final voting item for the evening is a resolution uh appointing um [clears throat] excuse me I have too many tabs open y'all uh working group authorization and mayoral appointments for the city's reparations working group. I will summarize with the relevant resolve that it is hereby established to create um uh to advise the common council on the creation scope and implementation of a reparation study that was authorized in the fiscal year 2025 budget. Be it further resolved that the working group shall have the following responsibilities to develop an RFP for a qualified research lead to conduct a reparations study utilizing up to the $50,000 replaced in a restricted contingency. The scope of that study uh will include but not be limited to a historic detailing of systemic racism faced by black ethicans since the incorporation of the city. An analysis of how systemic racism has inhibited economic stability, opportunity, and safety. A review of comparative reparations models and other municipalities and recommendations for local policy interventions and repairative mechanisms that the city may pursue. We'll also establish a timeline for key benchmarks, progress, reports, and deliverables. identify and conduct research outreach, excuse me, to third party organizations, scholars, and institutions relevant to the study and recommend strategies for public engagement, transparency, including public posting and disseminations of the RFP. It appoints a number of individuals uh and uh also reserves the opportunity to add an additional liaison from the common council to be seated after January 1st of 2026 and one representative from the city of Etha staff to be designated following the opportunity to have consultation on that with the city manager. I so move seconded by all the person ms discussion all the person ms.

Thank you. All those in favor? That carries unanimously. Um, that concludes our voting items for the evening. Before we adjourn, I want to just share I understand that the county uh already mentioned this and that it was covered in the Ithaca, I'm sorry, the Cornell Daily Sun today, but I am not accurately, but I am proud to report that uh thanks to uh largely the negotiating efforts uh of Boulder person Letterman and Assistant City attorney Jim Knife uh that uh the city, county, and Cornell underwriters have agreed an agreement uh to increase that Cornell proposed contribution uh by 900%. Uh up to $280ish,000. Uh so that will be additional underwriting uh that will support TCAT operations for next year. And uh I'll recognize Mr. Letterman briefly if he has anything he'd like to share.

Yeah. Well, thank thank Win for representing us on the uh the city on the TCAT board. Um, and the great thing is we will be able to avoid any service cuts for calendar year 2026, which is great. Um, that was sort of the number was 263,000. So, um, glad we're able to land at a spot. And the other good news is a lot of the other money that's still out there is with the Cornell bus pass agreement, which, uh, the service level agreement is also called, will be reopened, um, uh, significantly earlier than it previously was. So there'll be some more negotiations to make sure that's sort of there's equitable contribution of all parties. Um and we have sort of bus service that works for uh everyone in this community. So and thank you all for supporting that and putting that money in um restricted contingency. I think we're going to have to have a vote on that sometime at the December 3rd meeting to release that. But um thank you

Miss Brown. So we we uh in the contingency fund is uh the 300,000. So I'm just thinking about that extra 20 because if we give up 280 in the the balance will just remain in the uh fund balance. Great question. Yeah. Um so uh Mr. St. Press and this is just a reminder we are paying this out of our fund balance. That's not a sustainable method. It will work for this year but we're going to have to figure out how we're going to continue to support TCAT in the future.

Very sober. Correct. I will say I'm quite happy with this. It is slightly more than the 8% increase I had campaigned on. So, uh, very happy to see that. Um, thank you again to Mr. Letterman and Mr. Kenneth. Uh, with that, council business is concluded. Council, you will stay. We have an advice of council session. But with that, we are we are ready to adjourn. May I have a motion? Moved by all the person St. Pres, second by Albert Cresumar. All those in favor of adjourning, we are adjourned. Thanks. Okay. I was on and