City Council - Regular Meeting

All right.

I am going to call this meeting of the City Council URA joint work session to order. And our first item on the agenda, I do want to mention that we have Mayor Bonetti online, and Councilor Carmen Matthews, and Council President Lucinda De Novo will likely be joining us later. And so for our first agenda item, public comments and Dean Lundy.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and council members. I just wanted to say how the city is looking absolutely beautiful. I'm just so glad to be here and not anywhere else. Uh, because of the mega drought, you know, there's a lot of droughts, you know, some of us are here because of the rain and it finally rained. Um, and, oh, uh, um, as, as you guys know, uh, some of us have been working on a project called rails to trails, which is taking over the, uh, the unused rail corridor from the south of, uh, of this city all the way to, uh, Coquille and maybe as far as, as Myrtle point. And I think it would be the. An addition to the rail trail system in the whole country is going to these, you know, re-utilizing these abandoned rail lines. They're perfect for bicycling. And I've been talking to the horse people and to the dog walking people and the bicycle people and just the regular pedestrian people and everybody I've talked to is just, they go, oh yeah, we got to do this. But in the city here, because you guys are the city In the city, there's no shortage of bicycle feeds in town. We got our share of them. And evidently, you know how high tech I am? There's a new app for locating places for bicycle racks. I don't really know how to use it. But it's out there. I just heard about it. And so we're going to work on that. And we're going to identify places like public parks don't have bike racks. I mean, bikes are growing legs. I had a truck grow legs the other day. I mean, it's just happening. So anyway, so the app, I don't really know how to use it. But some of you people will know how to use it. And if you see a commercial outfit that wants a bike rack that looks like a fish at a fish store or a Tire place at a tire store will come up with a plan and make them a bike rack so that people can chain up their bikes and go in and . That's my coffee cup idea. Thank you very much.

All right. Thank you. And what you may want to do is connect with the Coos Bay Downtown Association because they have They actually worked with the city to install bike racks in some of the parking lots. But also I wanted to say there's an app for everything. Is there anyone else that would like to make any public comment tonight? You were getting the nudge, Mike. I saw that. All right, our next item on the agenda is to review the upcoming City Council and Urban Renewal Board action items. And our first is the draft of the public comment policy discussion for the council, and I believe Nicole is gonna give us some background on that.

Yeah, I'm gonna give us a start, and then we can maybe dive in a little bit deeper on the draft policy that's presented here. So over the last several months, probably close to a year at this point, we've been gathering some policies that other communities use in regards to their public comment practices. We here at the City of Coos Bay have not had a formalized policy and really have just followed what is minimally discussed in the council rules. And so maybe kind of creating something with a little bit more depth and some language around expectations and how people participate in meetings. So we can share that out but also have a pretty standard practice when it comes to how folks interact here in the meetings. So what's been presented is kind of that draft policy and it's just a starting point for us. So if there's some things you'd like us to address a little bit more in detail, some things we don't maybe think are relevant, certainly happy to modify this, this is really, uh, putting on paper what we are practicing already. Uh, and it gives us something to go back to and reference to, um, should we have question?

So happy to answer any questions. So, as I was looking through this, I noticed that the, um, the The section that the presiding officer, whether it's the mayor, council president, or another designated counselor, reads prior to public comment is contained in this item, so this policy. Is there anything else that maybe we should point out?

I think it's important to see the different ways that someone can present their public comments. Those are in here. So there's in-person, written, and also participation online. It speaks about that. There's timelines for getting that information to us. So it makes sure that we have that timely to get it shared if it's not going to be an in-person testimony. There is also, similar to before, the three-minute timeline, how we can have folks, if they have similar kind of comments, kind of grouping together. It addresses how we handle those submissions, so how we keep those in our record. You'll note the agenda has a reference now on it that things received during meetings can be added to our formal document that is saved and available to the public. Historically, we create it as a document, but we keep it internal. Now we're gonna put that forward-facing out there, so what happens here gets to go out to the public as well, so kind of addressing that. I'm trying to think if there's anything kind of else that we would have interest to share out I Can't think of anything.

Yeah, are there any comments from the council or question? I

Yeah, Stephanie, this is Joe. Paragraph two, I think it's important that we have been doing this, but in the past, we've been questioned sometimes if we interact with a public comment. This allows us to act with a public comment or not. It's our choice if we want clarification, and I think it's nice to have that in there. In the past, it's been kind of a gray area for us, and so I think this clarifies it.

Uh, I'm curious, um, is there a way to allow folks to have a smoother path to posting, uh, online to sharing their, uh, comments virtually? Like I know on our agendas, if you go through it, it'll take you to the public comment form, but it's a PDF and it's not like something I could type in and then just click submit and it would go straight to the city. might have to print it out and bring it in or send an email. And I'm wondering if there's a more direct line we could create for the public.

So you can always send public comments to our administration email, which is just administration at kuzbayor.gov. On our website, when you first load our page, we have a submit a concern. And there's pathways for which that's both a, like, real concern, and you need to get it in front of someone immediate, but also getting that to counsel. those come through to administration so Christine and I get those and if they are designated as a public comment for an upcoming you know we treat them as such and they come before you either here at the dais or we'll forward them out to you if it's something you need you know in advance but Outside of that, there's not an app for it just yet, but those are the kind of mechanisms that we have. We are kind of talking about how we transition our forms into something submittable, like question and answer. That's what this first attempt is kind of here, although we're using a platform that the PD brought forth for us to use. It's not quite the same as that. form submission process, but we have talked about that. We're just giving this, it's called PD Connect, we're giving this kind of a go first, see if it works well enough, and so far it seems to do that well enough.

That's a great question, because I don't have a printer at home, so I have to scan it into my phone and then figure out a way to fill it out. And there's a lot of people like that.

I think you can fill it and save it and then send it via email. Of course those are all maybe practices that are not widely known across all populations for sure.

could instead of taking someone to the public comment form, could it just open up the email, the public comment at Couspe?

We can certainly put that on. We can certainly think about that, how we can get them a couple places, opening an email, which would require their system to be set up to drive an email.

But I believe it can be coded in as like a link of when you click this, this blue link, instead of going to public comment form, it would go directly to opening an email, regardless of whatever system you were using.

Yes, agreed. But I do think you have to have some settings on your computer that says, when I'm going to click an email link, it needs to know to open Gmail or Outlook. Well, maybe it's a web page then. But I think we can modify our form maybe a little bit, or to add even a link to PD Connect if you wanted to.

So they'll look into that, but I think first we have to have a policy in place and that's what we're talking about tonight. Yeah. So were there any other comments?

So we don't have any policy now?

We don't have a formal policy. Nothing is written? Nope. The only thing we have right now is what's a little dinky bit that we have in council rules.

Okay, thanks.

Anybody online?

I think this draft looks pretty good to me. I agree, maybe a little easier interface for public comments would be nice, but that is on the wish list.

Well, things are constantly evolving, so it's good to have those brought up so that we can, so staff can look into it. I'm a true believer in making it as easy as possible for people to reach us. So, um, you know, it's good information to have. It sounds like the policy.

We're going to get a starting point. Yeah. So we can bring it back at a future meeting for adoption. And like all things, we, these are live kind of documents so we can modify us as we need to. So appreciate it.

Okay. Our next item is the discussion regarding the structural observation of the library. And I know that we have some folks with the library, both online and in person. But right now, I believe Jennifer is going to give us some background and additional information.

Thank you. A while back, city council and library board had a joint work session to discuss the library. And they directed staff to evaluate the observed building settlement and compare current conditions with previous structural findings documented in 2014. ZCS did that historic report in 2014, and they were also available to do a current study and take a look at the library. So staff worked with them. They prepared the report, the reports in your staff report. So their key findings include survey data indicates up to 1.5 inches of additional settlement in localized areas since 2014 with an average of approximately three quarters of an inch throughout the building. The northeast portion of the original structure exhibits the most pronounced signs of settlement and structural framing elements particularly in the roofing system were observed to be in generally good condition with no immediate signs of structural failure. So ZCS concluded that the building is currently safe for occupancy based on observed conditions. There are no immediate indicators of imminent collapse. Continued settlement will require ongoing maintenance to address finishes, floor elevations, and door thresholds. Structural stabilization using micropiles is not considered cost effective due to many reasons being extensive demolition requirements, disruption to library operations, and inability to address existing floor irregularities and aging building systems. So given the building's age and condition, the city should continue to evaluate the replacement of the facility at an alternate location per ZCS recommendations. So they further recommended to implement a monthly monitoring program to track settlement progression. This program would include document and track changes in cracking and building movement, provide early identification of accelerating settlement or structural concerns, and support informed decision making regarding building use and future investments. The monitoring program can be conducted by city staff, with ZCS providing technical guidance to develop the initial plan and train staff. Staff is recommending council authorize up to $5,000 to contract with ZCS to develop this plan and train staff. And I can answer any questions.

All right. Are there any questions from council? Were you surprised with the report either way?

I was not.

Garmin, do you have anything?

You know, I'm glad to hear that there is no immediate, like, safety concerns at the moment. And honestly, the $5,000 seems like a very fair and reasonable price for kind of keeping a watchful eye on this and doing it in a thoughtful and coherent way. But, you know, just looking through this, the, what is it? The settlement report or the, what are they calling it? The structural observation report. It's just so wild to see the condition of the building. And I mean, it just points home to me that we really do need to figure this out. We need to figure out another location. But I am glad to hear that there's a plan to just kind of keep things on the monitoring level and see where we go from here. So, you know, in my opinion, The $5,000 seems like a $5,000 well spent.

All right.

Mr. Mayor. Stephanie, Joe. So last structural assessment was in 2014. Is that correct, Jennifer?

That's correct.

So it's been quite a while since we have the last one. But so the monthly is going to be done by, are we going to do this with staff or CS or how do we want to?

Yeah, and speaking with ZCS, they believe that they can develop a plan, work with staff, train staff, and then staff can implement the plan. And then if we see certain thresholds get exceeded, that's when we bring ZCS back in.

Okay. All right. Thanks.

I have one more quick question. So was the finding that the building isn't generally safe in a safe state, was that from the 2014? Report?

Sorry for any confusion. No, that was with the current report that was done this year in 2026.

Okay. Just wanted to make sure. I was like, am I 12 years old on this one? On the uptake, but yeah, that sounds good.

All right. Any other comments or questions from the council? Anything from the public on this?

I would like to just make a comment. I'm the chair of the Library Board of Trustees, Janice Long-Lenay. I live here in Coos Bay. My question really is to Jennifer, for when ZCS puts this program together, is there a threshold that once we hit it, we have got to get out of that building? And how do we know how fast we're... When we're getting close to that, are we going to be alerted? You know, this is now more imminent than it was.

Well, first off, I'm speaking from experience. Engineers are very conservative. So we're going to develop those thresholds. And I will talk to ZCS about Janice's concerns. I know that they're going to want to err on the side of caution.

And I think that's, I could be wrong here, but I think that's the goal of what this program is, is to establish the thresholds when we should make those kind of bigger calls about safety and use of building and next steps.

And, you know, to Carmen's point, and I, I guess I challenged, uh, Janice, the chair and the library board to come up with maybe a solution. I know we're in a awkward situation. Um, and so I don't know what the next step is, uh, to be truthful. I mean, I don't have a suggestion, but I really would challenge the library board to maybe come up with some creative ways to, uh, maybe rectify this problem and maybe a new library in another location.

Joe, I also sit on the steering committee, and we do have some contingency plans in place. We had them in place in case ZCS came back and said, we need to be out of this building soon. Those will still be in play. It'll just depend on what facilities are available at the time, but the plan would be immediate removal of all materials out of that building into a space where we would have what we would consider a closed library. The materials would be in one location and the storefront quote unquote storefront of the library would be in another and people would have to request or reserve materials in advance. The bigger issue, of course, is that we need a new building. And without funding and without the citizens being willing to approve some sort of a bond, that's the sticking point, is finding the funding to build a new building. We are, of course, looking at as many alternatives as possible for that.

I'm glad to hear that you have an alternative plan or a plan in case something comes about to move out of there. So that pleases me. And I hope you maybe find a creative way to find us a new building through grants or some other way. But anyway, thank you.

Sammy, did you have anything that you wanted to add? I'm sorry, I didn't. No, that's okay. Jennifer did a wonderful job for us. All right. Okay. Any further questions or comments? Then we will move to our next agenda item, which is discussion regarding vacant and blighted property program. And Nicole, you're going to take this one?

Yes, I will get us, again, we'll get us started, give us some background, and then open up for some discussion. For the last several months, we've been gathering, again, some examples from other municipalities on how they successfully deal with vacant and blighted properties in their community. We acknowledge that there are several buildings in our kind of downtown and empire core, along with homes throughout our community that are struggling with either being vacant for too long or just kind of going into disrepair so trying to address that in a way that's encouraging for those property owners to put those properties back into rightful use is the challenge set before us what is presented here is kind of the of various rules and regulations across the state with other municipalities and how those fit best in our community. This is a revision of a code section we already have, but expanding it out to giving us a little bit more opportunity for staff to kind of enforce and even begin working through compliance measures. Historically, this has kind of been a shared responsibility. We had community development in the police department kind of working hand in hand in their various roles. But with this fitting now under one kind of position that's under the guidance of the police chief, this is going to hopefully be a little bit easier process. So what's presented to you is kind of an expansion of our current code section. adding in some ability for our team members to assess fines. There are some registration requirements for folks who are gonna leave their properties vacant. These amounts are in the mid-range. There are some municipalities who are going really overboard on things as far as fees and fines go. And then there are some who aren't charging quite as much. I think that middle ground might find us in a little bit more success. But time will, of course, tell. So hoping to get a little bit of feedback. Nate, city attorney, has read through this, as have all of our department heads, to provide any feedback as far as how they see things maybe touching their departments a little bit. And then, again, always, this is living code, so we can modify it as we kind of walk the path. This still includes pieces that we've had on the books, vacant property registrations through our homeless work group, which has been offline for quite a bit, but that still sits in here. It's just really an expansion of that and then how do we deal with the blighted properties.

And it also has a fee structure that you said is mid-range. So did that expand that homeless work group initiated process to include the fees?

Yes, that's really kind of the intention was to kind of build on the back of what was already presented and in place.

And when I noticed that it says per occurrence, so how is that conveyed?

So there are, within the definitions, there are some kind of what we call blighted properties, whether you're blighted, you're vacant. It is, within here, talks about, I didn't put tags on things, but you know, the number of touches, essentially, that we have. So if we have someone go out in reference to a complaint, or if we see something happening, it starts a process. And there is a length of time, I'm just trying to find it in here. If you have so many touches within a length of time, that becomes... Let me see here, it might be, so blighted property is, they have a certain period of time between 30 days, no more than 90 days to address that.

So basically, a clock starts at a certain point, and then when it reaches that threshold, since that seems to be the word of the night, if the matter hasn't been addressed, it starts the fee process.

But there's also language, and I believe there is. I'm just not seeing it right off. There could be a property owner who does their part to bring it back into compliance, but if there's another issue that happens again, multiple issues in a time period can create a similar circumstance. So you might get into compliance, but if you don't maintain that compliance, if you have multiple touches, we're gonna address that at a higher level.

All right, let's open it up for discussion.

Well, I think this is something that needs to be done. And I think it's unfortunate that we've come to this point that we have to do this. But there, in my opinion, are some, in fact, I think Sarah's the one that brought this up months ago, that this is being done in other communities. And I know Astoria is doing something similar, not on commercial property, but on housing. But the thing is, is that we have some out-of-area owners, and I'm just going to say they're slumlords, and they have no intention of doing anything about this property. And therefore, it's a blight on us, and it doesn't look good. And then the buildings are deteriorating to a point where it could potentially cause the city to have to act, which it means it's going to be very expensive. So then what's, I guess, Nicole, how is it going to work? with the Lemon Tree Bakery. We have financial institutions that own this building. Are the financial institutions going to be fined on this, or how is this going to work?

So, we understand right now that the property owner for that building, which is on Anderson, is, I believe, in the bankruptcy process. certainly can add to those liens that are on the property, but they're in excess of what the value is and if under bankruptcy it will be foreclosed and get turned over to the to the first lien holders there. So at some point, the property is going to transition hands, and then we're going to want to try to engage with that new owner, be that a financial institution. It could likely be the State of Oregon Department of Revenue, I understand, has a lien. So it will change hands at some point.

Like these penalties, if they were assessed now, you mean to tell me the bankruptcy, these would go away, these fines?

They're going to be... in an order of lien, and our lien compared to what you see some of the other liens on the property for would not be equal to. So it wouldn't go away. Just knowing how foreclosed properties work, they often are foreclosed and sold at an amount that's lower than all of the liens on the property, which is the case for this property at Anderson.

So let's go through the scenario. So the institution takes it over for the bankruptcy and receives it. We start implying or putting penalties on this chronic noncompliance penalty of $1,000 per occurrence. I mean, my gosh, that building is going to have one, what, every week, every day, every month? Because it's definitely going to be in violation. And so then it's going to build up to, you know, X amount of dollars. And, you know, how's that? I mean, are we going to get with the Oregon Department of Revenue? Or I guess we just need to put some things in place or ideas how we're going to go forth on this because we need to be serious about it. And I don't care if it's a financial institution or an out-of-state owner or a public residential owner in town.

Yeah, I think absolutely we need to take this serious and do some things. I'm just acknowledging that there will be some instances where our lien place will be far below others who came before us, right? In the valuation of the property, I don't know what that valuation on that property is given its current state. The lien that's there for Department of Revenue, I believe the last we checked was $250,000. That's going to get cleared. What will be left is hard to tell. We can certainly get in line, but there will be instances where we won't be made whole for sure.

But I understand, but once the bankruptcy has gone through the procedure, then somebody's going to be the owner of that property.

Yes, it will transition ownership, and we'll be hopeful then we can have better engagement with that next owner.

Okay.

So for clarification... We have a process. We start that process. The clock starts ticking. We have reoccurrences. The property then goes to the first lien holder. any property USA, goes to the lien holder and we still have a lien on that property, that doesn't go away with the bankruptcy. It stays on the property or does the clock start over? because there is a cost to putting a lien.

Yeah, agreed. There is a cost, and there will be a cost to administering this program. What we've experienced in the past, when a property changes hand and there is a court process that does that, bankruptcy or foreclosure, the liens are paid off in order based on whatever is collected from that process. Ours would not take precedence over. The Department of Revenue is the state of Oregon property, or you know, taxpayers are gonna get paid back first through the Department of Revenue. If there's anything left, the second lien holder, it may make it down to us and we'll get a percentage, an amount. It's not likely with this very property we're talking about, knowing the current state that it's in. But when it changes hand, we can engage with that property owner. Having this in place will be helpful. They'll know they need to take action to avoid us now attaching their property with new liens and fines. In theory. In theory, yes. There will always be some problem kids out there, for sure.

We need to have a discussion with the Department of Revenue how this is going to be handled. I mean, are they going to just let this thing sit there and deteriorate? I mean, there's got to be some remedy, I guess, or a collaboration that they are willing to do with us. We need to broach that, at least, I would hope.

Yeah, I mean, we're going to need to see if, in fact, the bankruptcy process continues and is finalized, we're going to need to see that be finished up before we know who we need to engage with.

Well, and that's my concern, too, is that that process takes its own time, and then there's still another process after that. If we're fourth in line, there could be four processes or a teardown.

Yeah, I mean, I think the bankruptcy process clears all parties, and so there will be an owner at the end of that. Yeah, and that's the one we'll want to engage with.

So to that point in this discussion, that's why I think it's imperative that we really stay on top of this. And if we're going to start initiating these fees and penalties, that we can do it in a substantial way that we're going to find ourselves in a position that we could be in line to help facilitate taking a place over, go through a bankruptcy or whatever necessary, not be like the Lemon Tree Bakery, because that's going to be another mess to try to get through.

I'm curious, where do the fee funds go?

So in this instance, and we haven't really talked through where those all should go at this point. Right now, the co-compliance is under the general funds kind of hat, so we can certainly do that. and just designate those so we make sure those are dollars that are just very specific for this program, because I think the goal of this is to use those dollars to work the next project, the next kind of thing, and eventually maybe Let's hope we're going to not end up in this situation, but if you had enough dollars, it could allow you to acquire buildings and get them back into use over time. That means we have lots of problems, of course. We would not be hopeful for that. So we haven't really discussed, but that would be the first place, right? And just like any other instance where we see a program or a division of the city grow, we sometimes make a decision to move it into a different location. The parks fund is exactly that. That was in the general fund previously, and we determined that that would be better served by being its own fund so that those funds could be tracked In a better way for the parks commission to administer that could be what this ends up being But right now the most logical place to have that sit would be within the general fund Troy did you have any questions?

Carmen Um, yeah I realize that this is really sticky and it's going to be an interesting program to like implement. And I guess the hope is that we don't get stuck in a place like we are right now with the property on Anderson. Did I read it correctly that it is property owners must register within 30 days of vacancy?

Yes, that's our intent.

So, I mean, if you are actively renting a building and your renter leaves, um, and you know, it takes a little bit of time to find a new renter. Uh, I, would that be considered like, I guess that's, they'd have to register during that time. Every time they have a tenant who moves out. Is that correct?

That's how this reads right now, and I can see that might be, you know, that could be a challenge. The other issue is here, unless... With one person, it will be really difficult for us to know and be seeing and aware of vacancies as they're happening. So some of it's gonna require that there's enough education out there that that needs to happen. And then folks are gonna need to, neighbors maybe are gonna need to tell us there's vacancies. It's gonna be tough to watch to that level all the properties. We have a lot of rentals in our community. It's somewhat of an honor system, right? You need folks to tell us when they're vacant. I'd imagine if it's a home that's regularly rented and it's just a part of that process, we would want to be a little more lenient in those property owners who are maintaining their property and they are renting it out on a regular basis. It is in use. It's being used in the way we would want it to be used in the environment it's at. We're really talking about the folks who are failing to maintain their property it is becoming a problem within the environment that it's at and we now are getting be engaged so there's while it reads that way there's a difference between those folks who are just having a transition of renters versus failing to keep their property in use i don't know if that helps yeah it helps clarify i'm just wondering if 30 days is really the the right number it almost seems like three months would be

more adequate kind of timeline for somebody who's like, oh, it's been three months. We are a vacant property at this point. If nothing else, just alerting the city that it is a vacant parcel so that city staff and PD can keep an eye on things would be helpful. It might even be of benefit to some people who, I mean, that would be... obviously a financial uh you know cost but uh it might be helpful if like just there's an awareness that the building is vacant at the moment but 30 days seems a bit heavy

I am concerned that it's going to be easier to enforce blighted or abandoned properties that are commercial versus residential, which tips the scales to me. I mean, you have to apply this. The ordinance clearly addresses both residential and commercial. And I think we need to be very careful I think it's easy it came about because of commercial properties and I'm just wondering this seems like it came I know it was discussed But it seems like the ordinance came to us one week and then we're considering it the next week and and because it's on the agenda for the council correct on the second and

It's only going to be on there based on how tonight's discussion is. It's not solid for that. We're planning for that, but if we are in a place where we're not ready for that, we obviously don't want to bring something forth that we're going to struggle with moving forward. This is just opening up the conversation. If this needs more work, we're happy to do more work to get it where we're comfortable.

I don't know. How does the council feel about that?

Well, this is Joe. I mean, I think that we've had not a discussion like this, but there's been comments over months. I mean, I'm not even sure the first time Sarah brought it up, and then I brought it up, and others brought it up, and that's why here is where we're at. You know, I think there's some There's some validity to Carmen's comment about 30 days. That might be a little quick. I mean, we're just asking people to register, but I think that maybe, you know, maybe we need to look at 90 days. And I think that we can make that comment now or make it at the council meeting and the adjustment. We prefer to do it here, but we need to get started on this. And again, I think it's... It's too bad that we have to take this action, but we are in a spot that we have some major commercial properties in the downtown core area that are not being in compliant and are deteriorating and are becoming an eyesore. And they're hindering other commercial development in the downtown area because of their existence in the fashion that they're at. And I think it's also incumbent upon us to make sure that we try to help the downtown area become a commercial property that commercial area that's going to be prosperous for those there now and others. So we have to do something and to do nothing would be we've been doing nothing and we've been trying other aspects. I mean, we've offered urban renewal funds to many of these businesses that have turned us away. And it's I don't understand it, but that's what's happened. And so we need to find another way to go about this. And I think this is something that we should try. So. Or we're going to have many more Anderson properties like the old Lemon Tree Bakery it is. I guess along those same lines, that Lemon Tree Bakery has multiple vacancies. Am I correct, Nicole? So it's not going to be just one. It's going to be like, I don't know how many apartments they had and a couple of commercial properties downtown down below. So we got four or five different locations there. Am I correct?

Yeah, that is correct. I don't know that all the living spaces were acknowledged as living spaces. Sure. But yes, there's multiple spaces there.

I just, I agree. As the liaison to the Coos Bay Downtown Association and the co-chair of the Economic Vitality Committee for that organization, Uh, with a committee that has representation from developers to property owners, to businesses, to real estate, um, folks. I, I hear what you're saying. I just have not heard this go to that organization or that committee yet. And I want to make sure that we are taking care of the problems, but at the same time, we're not hurting businesses in the process. And that we get good input from that organization that is working towards the same goal, to have a prosperous, great downtown core. And it has not come to either of those organizations or the committee.

I'm curious. Is that a regular occurrence where we'll bring draft legislation to organizations to get their input?

I would hope so. They're an advocacy group for the businesses in the downtown core.

Do we want to consider expanding that out to the Community Coalition of Empire, who's also trying to do similar? The same thing. Yeah.

And there's probably problems in the neighborhood areas of Eastside, because we're talking about commercial and residential. They're just not a formal organization that's handling it yet. They're growing, but yeah. But they can help get the information to people that live in those communities that might have good input. when the ordinance is put in front of the council. I just feel like a week doesn't give them a good turnaround time to look at the ordinance and then have it go before the council.

Yeah. And again, I don't think the intention is that it's going to come back next week. It would if you were ready for it. So I think a week is best case scenario. But that wasn't necessarily intention.

Right. Any thoughts on that?

Well, you know, go ahead. Who's going to speak? I don't want to interrupt. No, no, go ahead, Joe.

I'll go after you.

So I think that's fine, Stephanie, but I think there needs to be a timeframe on it. I mean, I, you know, to Jacob's point, we don't run everything by the downtown association and the other entities, but to your point, I think that we need to keep in mind something like this will impact them. And then we need to come maybe get their feedback, which is, you know, I think doable, but I don't know what timeframe you're thinking about, but again, I, you know, I mean, we've been, And on the Downtown Association, I know, and even in the Empire Association, they're both been frustrated as we are to try to find a resolve. And so I think I would hope that they're going to be on board and find ways to make this work for everybody.

I guess the other thing I would just kind of comment on, until we know whether we're even on a track that's reasonable for this body, pushing it out in the public feels too fast. So here, if we're thinking this is an okay start, then I think it's appropriate to push it out to the folks. If we've got a lot more work to do, then I'd say we do that and we let you look at it again before we push out to these other organizations. I'd hate to muddy the waters when we're just still developing the waters, I guess.

I don't see a lot of problems with this. I just feel like we need to give them an opportunity to comment if they want to. It doesn't have to be a long period of time. I don't know, when does the Community Coalition of Empire meet, like third? So we just missed third. Third Thursday. We missed theirs. But the Downtown Association is the fourth Monday and They actually had to push it to because of the holiday they pushed it to next week. So they are aware of it because I Made sure that they got tonight's agenda. So So we'll probably talk about it at that meeting I

Why don't we have it with everyone if everyone agrees? I mean, I think what you proposed so far seems something that we should probably do, Nicole. How about the first meeting in July, which will be July 2nd? That gives everyone enough time to probably discuss it more than just a little bit, each entity, and get it out there. And again, I think it's important what Nicole said. This is something that we can change as we go. And I think it's important that everyone realizes everything's not set in stone. And that's what this body is about. If it needs to be changed, then we can.

Do we have a definition for vacant? So let's say I have a commercial building downtown and I'm not leasing it to anybody, but I'm keeping the building up to code and I'm painting it. Am I going to fall subject to this?

There is a definition. So it's a property or structure unoccupied, substantially unused, unsecured, lacking local occupancy, or where maintenance has been neglected for more than 60 consecutive days, regardless of whether there are habitable structure or personal belongings on the property. So that maybe addresses some of Carmen's concerns.

That's what I was thinking. That addresses Carmen's. So it has to be that way in that condition for at least 60 days before we take action or move some sort of stick to get them to comply. Is that the same for commercial and residential? So if I have a house in a neighborhood and I'm not renting it?

We haven't acknowledged a difference there in the language, which we can.

Well, I don't know that it needs to. I mean, I didn't see the definition of mine. I guess it didn't look hard enough. The definition seemed clear to me. It's not just empty. Because I can have an empty house or an empty building and take care of it. That's different than being vacant. Vacant, by definition, means I'm not keeping up on maintenance. People could come in and out, et cetera. And then so it's almost just the first step to being blighted, right?

Essentially that they're kind of connected and we want to we want to acknowledge that they are different because you could have a vacant building that gets a pocket to use But a blighted property is really challenging to let it go too long, right?

I think this is where this and correct me if I'm wrong This is where this is initiated is with those couple of buildings We have downtown that we cannot seem to get the owners to cooperate or or

You know Yeah, I think that is a driver of this but I think we'd also Acknowledge that there are a couple of homes in neighborhoods that have been really a detriment to the safety and vitality of neighborhoods I've seen those and yeah, I mean we talked about Zoning ordinances.

They're not to restrict you from doing things there to protect you from your neighbor so

And this is just another tool in the toolbox for our compliance and enforcement.

So if we do take this out to different neighborhood groups, I think it's important to hear what they have to say. Maybe they have some different ideas or better ideas. But it could also really get into the weeds. And we could never get anything done. There should be some sideboards on that, would be my two cents.

Well, I guess the first thing would be, like, right, we want a timeline when we'll accept feedback. And then some sort of... organized, one voice, written response. So you as a organization have determined that these elements need some attention. So we have something to bring back to you in a formal setting. That makes sense to me.

Can the city give a form so that it's consistent, like suggested changes, suggested keeps?

I think what helps is having the messenger Because that's exactly what happened is I sent the agenda item out so they could listen in. And next thing you know, we had all these ideas and I said, Oh, Hey, we've got to have a policy in place before we can. But it generated ideas of what could be done when there's properties that are problematic. And these are business owners. They're the owners of the property. That are trying to keep their, their properties nice. And then maybe they're next door to one. That's not so, not so nice. So, um, but, but yeah, we just, we reined it in, but that doesn't mean that, that, that they sh they don't have a process. They have a process too. And I just explained that that needs to go to this committee that then goes to the board. The board will then make a formal presentation to the city or have their. manager discuss it with the city manager, you know, and it's just having the right message and messenger to Reign that in a little bit.

Yeah. Well, I think it does help because I think more than that we get Accused of not doing anything and if we're asking these groups you're at least for a concise Two cents on what to do. We're at least acknowledging that we see it's an issue too, and we're trying to solve it.

Mm-hmm

I'm good with us moving forward.

Sounds like you have got marching orders. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm good with it moving forward as well for further discussion. And as a business owner next to a blighted property, I'm really glad we're offering another tool. uh for code compliance because it's it can be very very frustrating um cleaning up after a blighted property spills out into the surrounding areas and speaking from experience i am a community member who's very disappointed and frustrated so i'm glad we're working on it

Well, and it also seems to breed other issues. I'm just curious, if you had to take one property, maybe that's near the 101, how many a guesstimation of how many contacts you have with that building. I know one of them, I've made five calls between my spouse and I just because the authorities needed to be notified. So that was just in a week. So I can't imagine how often that happens when you have multiple agencies involved. or multiple services that we provide as a community police fire codes all of that so all right and we don't have any further business unless anybody has anything to bring up then i will go ahead and adjourn the meeting thank you for everyone for attending thank you thanks stephanie for filling in thank you stephanie