City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, we're ready to get started. Today is Tuesday, September 15th, 2026, and this is the city council's regular meeting. I'm calling it to order and giving notice to the council and to members of the public that at this meeting, the city council may vote to go into executive session. which will not be open to the public for discussion and consultation with the city's attorneys for legal advice on any item listed on the following agenda. Could we have roll call?

Mayor Daggett? Here. Vice Mayor Sweet?

Here.

Council Member Aslan?

Here.

Council Member Garcia?

Here.

Council Member House? Present. Council Member Matthews? Here. Council Member Spence?

All right, moving down. Council Member Aslan, would you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

Always an honor. I invite you to stand if you're able.

Council Member Garcia, would you read our mission statement?

It would be my pleasure. Thank you, Madam Mayor. The mission of the City of Flagstaff is to protect and enhance the quality of life for all.

And Vice Mayor.

The Flagstaff City Council humbly acknowledges the ancestral homelands of these areas' indigenous nations and original stewards. These lands, still inhabited by native descendants, border mountains sacred to indigenous peoples. We honor them, their legacies, their traditions, and their continued contributions. We celebrate their past, present, and future generations who will forever know this place as home.

Thank you. Next up is open call to the public, which enables the public to address the council on any item that is not on the agenda for this evening. You'll have three minutes and there's a clock right here. And the first card I have is Frederick Hoyt. Is that correct?

Correct.

Thank you so much.

I'm Frederick Hoyt. I'm a public affairs specialist with the Office of Disaster Recovery and Relief out of Sacramento. I'm here with my coworker, Ellen. She's also a public affairs specialist. We're here in regards to the recent pocket fires which took place in Coconino and Yavapai County. We're here to present information on economic injury disaster loans for the business community. These are working capital loans and can greatly help small businesses get back on their feet if they suffered any type of impact financially. The loans are referred to, as I said, Economic Injury Disaster Loans. The acronym we use is IDLE. Small businesses can qualify for up to $2 million worth of assistance, and that's for terms of up to 30 years. at an interest rate as low as 4%. Small businesses qualify for that percentage. Nonprofits, which includes churches, can also qualify, and the interest rates for those disaster loans are 3.625%. We do have two business recovery centers set up to assist business owners who would like some one-on-one service. There's one here in Flagstaff, and that's located on North Gemini Drive, Suite 125. It's in the Moonshot Accelerator Building. Their office hours are Monday through Friday from 8 o'clock to 4.30. We also have a BRC, Business Recovery Centre, set up down in Sedona at the Chamber of Commerce on 45 Sunset Drive. Their hours are a little bit different, Monday through Friday from 9 till 5. There are several different ways you can apply. If you don't want to apply in person at the BRC, you can go online to sba.gov forward slash disaster. You can also call our 1-800 number. That's 659. 2955, the number again, 1-800-659-2955. In many instances, our loans are dispersed much faster than an insurance company. Also, for small business owners who are requiring a small amount of assistance, up to $14,000, there is no collateral required. We left some information sheets on the back table. I think I'm done. Are there any questions?

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Colleen Mehring.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council. My name is Colleen Mehring, and I am the Chief People Officer at Northern Arizona Health Care. And I'm here today to share some exciting news about an advanced cancer therapy option now available to eligible prostate cancer patients across our whole region, but now offered here in Flagstaff at FMC. This advanced therapy is called Pluvicto. It's an infusion treatment intended for men with advanced prostate cancer that has spread and no longer responds to hormone-lowering therapy. Pluvicto delivers targeted radiation directly to prostate cancer cells The treatment binds to the cancer cells, delivers a precise dose of radiation designed to help slow disease progression, and it allows treatment to focus on the cancerous tissue and limiting exposure, radiation exposure to healthy cells. So for eligible patients, this therapy's been around for a while, but for eligible patients, one of the challenges to people in our region is that this therapy has to be administered through IV infusions in a clinic, typically every six weeks for up to six times. And when it was only offered in Phoenix or Prescott, it was challenging for many members of our community to access this care. This care is really impactful, both to overall survival rates and limiting disease progression, 38% improvement in survival rates and 60% reduction in the risk of progression. So we're really excited to now be offering this here at FMC, meeting our mission of not just improving health and healing people, but keeping care close to home. Thank you.

Thank you. Andy Fernandez.

Andy Fernandez I'm born and raised here in Flagstaff native son been a political activist for 38 years and I have some very Appalling scenarios that have transpired that I need to address one of them is I Called solid waste I had a piles outside the property and They said it was going to be on this date. Well, my stuff was out there on that date. They showed up. They didn't take anything. There was one segment that had just a bunch of trash bags. And the lady said, well, you need to be five by five by five, five feet by five feet, wide length and five feet tall. I said, okay, well, that one segment was five feet tall. I called her back and said, yeah, that one segment was five feet tall. And, you know, the other parameters. I said, you know, this is asinine because you guys told me it was going to be on this date and I'll have to wait another three months. And then the lady says, yeah, well, we've had two trucks that do bulky pickup for the last 26 years. We haven't had any other trucks allocated to the city. So this needs to be addressed because this is appalling. And I say, if you have to, once a month, now you have to wait every three months, then you should be able to get the allotment for each month on that third month when they come pick up everything. Not say, oh, you're only allowed two stills. No, that's ridiculous. THE OTHER SCENARIO IS, ON THIS BOOKLET HERE, THERE'S NOTHING ABOUT THE CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATES OR ANYTHING. IN 2026, DISTRICT 6, THIS IS THIS AREA IN COCONINO COUNTY. THAT'S APPALLING. ANOTHER SCENARIO IS, NOW, I'VE HAD SOME ISSUES HERE BECAUSE WHEN I STUDIED CRIMINAL LAW AND POLITICAL SCIENCE AND COMMUNITY POLICING, I ACTUALLY HAD THE DEAN, MR. CARDONI, OVER HERE AT THE COLLEGE, AND HE ACTUALLY CITING SOME ADMINISTRATION SCENARIOS TO FACILITATE ME ON A HIGHER PATH SCENARIO BECAUSE OF MY POLITICAL STUFF THAT HE KNEW I HAD BEEN DOING, RUNNING FOR MAYOR AND RUNNING FOR CONGRESS AND FACILITATING THE RECYCLING SCENARIO AND THE FOREST STREET OVERPASS CURVES AND TURNING LANES. AS A MATTER OF FACT, THE TURNING LANES THAT I FACILITATED ON SWITZER CANYON AND ON FOREST STREET, YOU GUYS HAVE COME IN AND SCOOT EVERYTHING UP. IT WAS FINE BEFORE. YOU GUYS CAME OUT ON THE CURB AND NOW YOU SHORTENED THE DISTANCE JUST IN THE LAST YEAR AND A HALF. It was fine before. Now, instead of mitigating in an appropriate fashion, expediting traffic, you have done nothing. You have made it worse. That's why we have these turning lanes. We need to add one over there on West Street, too. West Street and Cedar. Cedar turning right. That expedites the traffic flow, especially when you go to school. When the children are out, you get a big, humongous traffic block. Well, that doesn't help if you have that asinine traffic. So there was circle crap that you guys put on for student locket because I had been a couple of accidents and I mean, I almost got hit a couple of times and another guy came and complained to me about that as well. So you'll be up with all these issues. Oh, and then I have another scenario where I was just told about an individual who got cited for being at a bus stop at the old Pep Boys on 4th Street. I got harassed and detained. Thank you, Mr. Fernandez. There was $172 missing from my wallet. We need to address these issues. Thank you, Mr. Fernandez. Your time is up. Community policing is true.

All right, we're moving down to proclamations. We have three proclamations today. The first is National IT Professionals Day and then Constitution Week and then National Service Dog Month. And if you are here for the first one, we ask you to join us down here at the end of the dais. After the proclamation is read, we'll take a photo, and then if someone from your group would like to speak, we invite you to, and then we'll move on to Constitution Week.

Takes a lot of people to run our IT department. Dang. Okay. Whereas information technology IT professionals are essential to the City of Flagstaff's ability to serve our community by ensuring employees have the technology, systems, and tools they need to perform their work effectively. And whereas the IT professionals of the City of Flagstaff support all the city departments by maintaining secure, reliable, and acceptable devices, applications, networks, communications, and data systems. and whereas these dedicated professionals protect city information, strengthen cybersecurity, respond to technical challenges, and support the continuity of critical city operations, and whereas IT professionals continually adapt to evolving technology and implement innovative solutions that help city employees work efficiently, collaborate effectively, and better serve the Flagstaff community. And whereas much of their work takes place behind the scenes, yet their impact is felt every day across city operations and the services provided to our community. Whereas their behind the scenes contributions often go unrecognized, yet their impact is felt daily across every level of city operations. Now therefore I, Lori Matthews on behalf of Mayor Becky Daggett, Mayor of the City of Flagstaff, Arizona do hereby proclaim Tuesday, September 15th, 2026 as IT Professionals Day in the City of Flagstaff and encourage all employees and residents to recognize and thank our IT professionals for their invaluable contributions to the success and resilience of our city operations.

All right, I get to speak today and I see CJ's here. Hi, CJ. So one of the biggest things is I could spend a lot of time praising these people, my team, but I promise I have a short, structured bragging right here. So, first, this, hold on, let me catch my breath, apparently I'm out of it. This division is made up of some unbelievably smart humans, but what makes them special is how willing they are to share what they know. They're always ready to help, to teach, to solve a problem, and somehow remain patient with us all. They protect and support the technology and the infrastructure our city depends on every single day, often in ways most people never see. And they genuinely make you feel welcome in their cyber world. So to our IT professionals, thank you for everything you do. Thank you for everything you teach us. Thank you for keeping our city connected, protected, and moving forward. And we appreciate you so much.

Thank you.

Well, if anybody would like to stand up in solidarity with Constitution Week, then feel free to come up here and stand with us as we celebrate Constitution Week. This is from the Office of Mayor, City of Flagstaff Proclamation. Whereas September 17th, 2026 marks the 239th anniversary of the drafting of the Constitution of the United States of America by the Constitution Convention. It is fitting and proper to accord official recognition to this magnificent document and its memorable anniversary and to the patriotic celebration which will commemorate this occasion. And Public Law 915 guarantees the issuing of this proclamation each year by the President of the United States of America designates September 17th through September 23rd as Constitution Week. Therefore, I, Councilmember Garcia, on behalf of Mayor Becky Daggett, Mayor of the City of Flagstaff, Arizona, do hereby proclaim the week of September 17th September 23rd. as Constitution Week and ask our citizens to reaffirm the idea that the framers of the Constitution had in 1787 by vigilantly protecting the freedoms guaranteed to us through this guardian of liberty, remembering that lost rights may never be regained.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council. The Daughters of the American Revolution, Coconino Chapter, wants to thank you for continuing to support what made this country great. And if you'd like to learn more, we will be on Heritage Square on the 17th, Thursday. And if you would like to learn more about the Constitution, if you'd like to share in the ringing of the bells at 1 p.m., We would love to have you there. Thank you.

All right. I heard there were some dogs here. Is that true? Okay. Everyone who's here for National Service Dog Month, please come down.

Do you want to stay standing for National? Okay.

Okay. Remember not to touch them.

Can we move down a little bit so that and this way.

What's up, baby?

We believe in the joyful, transformative power of human-canine bond and importance of inclusivity for all citizens. In the United States, more than 70 million adults and children have a disability. However, only 16,000 service dogs from accredited training programs exist nationwide. Canine Companions is a nonprofit organization that enhances the lives of people with disabilities by providing expertly trained service dogs and ongoing support to ensure quality partnerships. Canine companions and their service dogs empower people with disabilities to lead lives with greater independence by providing best-in-class training, ongoing follow-up services, and a deeply committed community of support. National Service Dog Month aims to educate our community about the benefits of service dogs and the laws protecting them. In the 250th year of our nation, the City of Flagstaff continues to work toward strengthening inclusivity in our community in which all citizens and their trained service dogs are embraced. Now therefore, I, Mayor Becky Daggett, Mayor of the City of Flagstaff, do hereby proclaim September 2026 as National Service Dog Month and encourage all citizens to celebrate service dogs and be respectful of the rights to safe access afforded to our adults, children, and veterans who lead more independent lives because of their assistance. I know, it hit me in the wing there.

Good afternoon. My name is Zoe Cornelius. I'm a volunteer puppy raiser and therapy dog handler for Canine Companions. We are greatly honored to be a part of the City of Flagstaff's recognition of National Service Dog Month. And we would like to take a moment to honor and appreciate all of the service dog teams throughout the country and the incredible canines that provide greater independence to individuals with disabilities. As you heard a moment ago, the United States is facing a massive shortage of well-trained service dogs. It is estimated that for every 140 individuals with a disability, there is less than one service dog. Many individuals face insurmountable barriers to getting a service animal, with cost being one of the most significant. A fully trained service dog can cost upwards of $50,000, making them unattainable to most who could benefit from their assistance. We would like to take a moment to highlight the work of Canine Companions in bridging that gap. Canine Companions is an organization that provides expertly trained service dogs to people with disabilities free of charge. They're the largest and oldest service dog provider in the United States and have placed over 8,500 dogs since their founding in 1975. K9 Companions is only able to accomplish that mission with the help of volunteer puppy raisers. Puppy raisers are volunteers that raise, socialize, and love on these pups for the first 18 months of their lives, setting them up for success before they advance to professional training for their future careers. Currently, K9 Companions is facing a shortage of people in this crucial role And anyone can volunteer to be a puppy raiser, so we would like to urge anyone listening to consider the opportunity. You can be the reason that someone with a disability has access to the four-legged tail wagging partnership that changes their life for the better.

So we're here today because of Collar Scholars at NAU, a club dedicated to the raising of these future service dogs by college students. So I am Reese Yarger. I am the president of Collar Scholars at NAU. And Zoe and I began founding the club together in spring of 2025 after She Puppy raised during her undergraduate degree. The club became officially recognized by NAU a year later and has grown significantly through the support of the students, staff, and volunteer community in Arizona. We could not have done it without the club's advisor, Dr. Karen Seelander, who has been raising puppies on campus for Canine Companions for over 25 years and is currently raising her seventh puppy, future service dog, Townsend, who's the black puppy. Dog over there, he's hiding. So even if puppy raising isn't right for you, we encourage you to advocate for service dogs and people with disabilities in the community. Anyone can contribute to building a more inclusive and accessible Flagstaff by supporting related legislation, practicing good service dog etiquette, and speaking out against service dog fraud. Collar Scholars will hold its next meeting on Wednesday, October 7th at 5.30 p.m. in the College of Education's Room 200. So we encourage all interested parties to attend and learn how they can get more involved. And a huge shout out to our club's vice president, Kaden O'Sullivan, who communicated with city officials and made this proclamation possible. And we would also like to extend a special thank you to Mayor Daggett for recognizing National Service Dog Month and increasing the visibility of service dog teams everywhere. Thank you.

Got you.

Oh, I didn't know I couldn't touch her. Well, they touched her. What's that? Yeah.

All right. I'm trying to get my mouse to work. OK. So we have a recognition award for you to present.

Yes, thank you. Good afternoon, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council, Trace Ward, Discover Flagstaff Director. Thanks for letting us present today. I wanted to share two awards with you today that were given out by Arizona Office of Tourism to Discover Flagstaff as well as our good partner, Kevin Schindler from Lowell. So we were honored to have Vice Mayor, a sweet Council Member Aslan, and Tourism Commission Chairwoman Regina Salas join us this year at the Governor's Conference on Tourism this past August. So Discover Flagstaff submitted a comprehensive marketing, direct sales, and in-market strategy plan to Arizona Office of Tourism and we won Best Marketing Initiative for Northern Arizona. We were honored for being early to market and create the most comprehensive and results driven plan of any city or town on the Arizona route. The team created all new creative treatments, that's digital print out of home, and a refresh of our mural at the visitor center. And we created a value statement which anchored all of our pitches to earn media. The only 7,000 foot elevation fresh Pine Fresh Dark Sky City on the Mother Road. Flagstaff garnered millions of views and thousands of engagements on our social media channels by giving a historical perspective on Flagstaff in posts called Then and Now. The team created and managed a digital Route 66 passport which highlighted the top 66 things to do On our 14 miles of the route, the economic vitality team engaged with the businesses on the route and citywide with media fans, one of a kind window clings, including our businesses in the passport itself, adding commemorative metal Route 66 signs all along the route and encouraging other businesses to create their own programming for the centennial. We even had a play written, produced, and directed by Theatric Coast called Route 66 to the Grand Canyon. I thought that was pretty unique collaboration. In collaboration with Rugged Nature Productions and the DBA, we produced a signature event in our historic downtown across Route 66 in the Visitor Center and at the mall, which included classic cars and a visit from our governor. And I wanted to mention that the idea and the lead, wait, let me redo that. And I wanted to mention that the idea and the lead coming from Heidi Hansen and with assistance from other sections in the Economic Vitality Division we produced an 85-page commemorative magazine, which was distributed to key markets of Los Angeles, Southern California, and Dallas, and it also lives digitally on our website. Our economic vitality director, Heidi Hansen, and our creative services manager, Ralph Schmidt, worked for months, literally months, getting permission from ADOT to have our Centennial logo adorn throughout the route, be adorned throughout the route. ADOT agreed to 36 signs being placed on their intersection light poles for 18 months. The idea is, after the 18-month celebration, Then we're going to auction them off to Route 66 enthusiasts and benefit a local charity. Staff worked with NAU on several different opportunities. One that needs special recognition is the work that was done by our marketing and media relations manager, Lori Pappas. She did on securing the Route 66 logo on the Tuba Bell covers. for NAU marching band participating in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which was super cool, if you didn't get a chance to see that. The beautification team, led by Jana Weldon, has always had a Route 66 beautification program, but they continue to add to the plan with installing over 13 permanent shields along the route, refurbishing the Route 66 park on the east side, installing monument signs for Route 66 throughout the entire route, as well as having a local artist create art for all of the utility cabinets. So all of these efforts from Discover Flagstaff and from the Economic Vitality Division and our partners did not just produce these awards, right? It didn't just produce recognition from our peers, but it also resulted in visitation demand over the summer that increased by about 9%. This is during a time where international markets are down and the Grand Canyon numbers are down as well. Our visitor center, as an example, has recorded record numbers of customers and merchandise sales. So enough about that award. I just want to take a brief moment to talk about our good friend Kevin. He's holding up our award at the moment. I'll hold his up later. His is bigger and more important. So let's go to Kevin. So Kevin Schindler is a historian and a public information officer at Lowell Observatory. He is a prolific science communicator, celebrated author, and admired community member. We submitted Kevin's nomination for Destination Ambassador of the Year due to his dedication to Flagstaff, all of his efforts to bolster the tourism economy, his hand in naming Pluto as the official state planet, his 31 years with Lowell, his relentless advocacy for the dark skies, In 2023, he was selected as Grand Canyon's Astronomer in Residence. Kevin is an author of several books about Flagstaff and Northern Arizona, and the Friends of Flagstaff City Coconino County Public Library named Kevin the winner of the Copper Quill Award for his literary contributions. Let's just hear a quick word from Kevin. Kevin. This is Kevin's award.

Thanks, Trace, and thanks, Mayor and Vice Mayor and Council, for taking the time to recognize this. I think these awards are really a reminder of the richness of our community and the stories we have to tell, as well as the people and the passion of this community. I think of how lucky I am to work at a place that changed our vision of the universe with discoveries like the expanding universe and the discovery of Pluto. And I get to work with people like Sarah Gilbert and Alex Elbert and Maddie Mooney right behind me. And I get to work in a city that is the first one in the world to recognize the importance of dark skies. And working with people like the council and Heidi Hansen and Trace and their teams And I get to work in a county that has the best preserved impact crater on Earth, one of the most beautiful geologic features in the universe. And I get to work in a state, the only state, that has declared an official state planet. And there's so many great stories we have and so many great passionate individuals. And I'm honored to be part of this little team we have here in Flagstaff to build awareness about how great our community is. So thanks for taking time today to listen to us and celebrate this.

We can't forget our thank you slide. Thank you.

Thank you, and Council, I don't know whether you have anything to say, but I would just like to give another round of kudos for all of the work that went into the Route 66 celebration, and Kevin, you are a community treasure, and we're so lucky to have you. Okay, we are down to council liaison reports. I will start with Council Member Spence.

Nothing this evening.

Council Member House.

Nothing this evening, thank you, Mayor.

Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. I have a couple of quick things. BPAC met last night. It was a great meeting. chock full of things. We did talk about the Multicultural County Park Sculpture Exhibition. Our year four is coming up, so that's exciting. Stay tuned for more information on that. We also got an update from Danielle Adams from Dark Skies, and she talked about the BIA grant And I don't know if you all were able to go to Buffalo Park to see the grand piano performance. They did it three times this summer, quite amazing, and just gave a really nice update on the community reception of that, which was amazing. And let's see, tomorrow Mountain Line is meeting, only this time we are at the Aquaplex, and that's at 10 o'clock. And Thursday, Water Commission has their meeting here in Council Chambers at four o'clock. Councilmember Aslan.

Not much to report. Just a quick announcement. The Coconino Plateau Water Advisory Committee's annual field trip this year is a kayak float on Clear Creek. Sign-ups are all full for that, but if you are signed up, we're meeting at Buffalo Park and departing in vans for Makuta Reservoir at 9 a.m. Lunch will be provided, and we'll be back between 5 and 6. Should be a really good fun day, take advantage of the last remnants of summer we have here.

Council Member Garcia.

No reports today, Mayor.

Thank you.

Council Member Matthews.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a quick report. Last week, we had our CJCC Criminal Justice Coordinating Council meeting, and we're still going through our strategic plan. analysis and just grouping that together. And just one thing that really jumped out at me and I thought it was important to share, when our behavioral health segment was talked about, there's a lot of concern within the mental health community and just in our community that when the HR1 bill goes into effect January, where adults with a child, I think it's 13 years old or older, they're required to work or volunteer or go to school for 80 hours a month. And with Flagstaff's minimum wage limits, if they do go and work the 20 hours a week, they will lose eligibility anyway. So that's a big challenge for that segment of people that receive Medicaid that excludes our indigenous community and other people with certain diagnoses. But it definitely is on the radar with our health and human services. And we don't have all the answers yet, but it is an alarming concern.

Thank you. Well, today we will be making an appointment to the Public Safety Personnel Retirement System Board, which I serve on. Metro Plan is still working hard on the Safe Schools, Safe Routes to School work that they've been doing, and it's pretty amazing. And next week is the Commission on Inclusion and Adaptive Living meeting. They meet here, but you could also join online. And it's from 11 to 1. All right. So down now to the consent agenda. 7A, B, C... Those three and all matters under consent agenda are considered by the City Council to be routine unless a member of the City Council expresses a desire at the meeting to remove an item from the consent agenda for discussion, the consent agenda will be enacted by one motion approving the recommendations listed on the agenda. Unless otherwise indicated, expenditures approved by Council are budgeted items. Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda?

Mayor, I move to approve the consent agenda as posted.

I'll second.

Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right. We are moving down to routine items. Consideration and approval of contract. This is a cooperative purchase contract and we have some folks here to talk to us.

Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. My name is Alison Hughes. I am the Support Services Section Director. When I was before you in August, I mentioned that we would be bringing forward a contract to replace our computer-aided dispatch and our records management system. Today is that next step. This request represents nearly three years of joint work between the Flagstaff Police Department, IT, and our regional public safety partners. Sean and I will present this from two perspectives. I'll cover the operational need, what this replacement means for our personnel and regional partners, and Sean will cover the technology evaluation, security, architecture, and contracting consideration behind our recommendation. Before we begin, I want to be clear what is before you today. This is a replacement of an existing legacy system. It is not an expansion of our public safety operations or authority. CAD and RMS are the backbone of our day-to-day public safety operations. CAD supports the work that begins when someone calls 911 or requests public safety assistance. It allows dispatchers to create and manage calls, dispatch fire and police resources, and track responding units. RMS supports what follows by providing the system where we document and maintain police reports, arrests, cases, and other public safety records. These are also regional systems supporting multiple law enforcement fire agencies. That partnership allows us to operate more effectively together while sharing significant cost of the mission-critical technology. Our current Hexagon system has served us for more than 20 years, but it is now a legacy on-premise platform. In addition to significant maintenance and support costs, we must maintain servers, hardware, backup, infrastructure necessary to keep it operating. Limitations in vendor support and functionality also place an increasing burden on our IT staff. The question is no longer simply whether the system works today. We have to determine whether it can reliably and sustainably support our public safety operations for the next decade and beyond. After nearly three years of evaluation, we determined that continued investment in the legacy platform is not the best long-term solution. Waiting does not eliminate the cost of replacement. It simply extends our investment in aging technology and increases our operational risk. This was not a police department technology decision made in isolation. IT has been an integral partner throughout the process, working with consultant, regional partners, procurement, legal, and the vendor to evaluate the city's operational, technical, security, integration, and long-term support needs. I'll turn it over to Sean to walk Council through the evaluation, the technology behind the recommended solution, and the contracting process.

Thank you, Alison.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. I'm Shawn Armour, IT Manager for the Applications area here at the City. I appreciate this opportunity to speak to you and answer any questions about this decision. First, let's gain some clarity on how we got to Versatrum. We engaged MSS, an independent consulting firm, to run the evaluation with us. That work started with extensive public safety business process mapping. sitting down with the people who actually use these systems and documenting how the work gets done. From there, we built a detailed requirement set, watched vendor demonstrations, and scored vendors' actual capability against the requirements. Out of the seven vendors that we looked at, Versaterm was the only vendor that made the cut. Our environment isn't a simple one. we support co-located agencies with genuinely different business processes running side by side. And that's where the other vendors fell short. Versaterm was the only modern platform that could support all of them. We also went past the sales pitch and talked to actual agencies using these systems. We talked to Mesa, Queen Creek, Tempe, the County of Salt Lake, and Portland. Every Versaterm customer that we spoke with was genuinely happy with the product. And the feedback on their customer service was consistently strong. Versaterm has the best customer retention in this industry. And in public safety software, agencies don't just stay with a vendor for loyalty, they stay because the product works and the vendor picks up the phone. We're not looking for a system that's gonna get us through just the next few years. We're looking for a long-term partner. and the agencies already working with Versaterm gave us confidence that this is what we're getting. This contract also puts us in a strong position on cost. Annual increases are capped at 5%, which is well below the 10 to 15% that we're seeing become standard in the software industry, which means that we can budget for the system with confidence moving forward rather than absorbing whatever the market decides. Today, keeping the system running means that we own the hardware. We buy the servers, we house them, we power and cool them, and every five years we must replace them. This is a recurring capital cost that produces no new capability. Doing nothing today represents an investment of $1.5 million next year in replacing server infrastructure. Next, a word on procurement. We're purchasing this through the city of Mesa's contract, a cooperative arrangement that Arizona municipalities use regularly. We didn't just take it on faith though. IT, the police department, procurement and legal each reviewed this contract extensively. And honestly, it's one of the most comprehensive agreements that I've seen in this industry. It addresses the question that we care about most, who owns the data, how privacy is protected, and what happens if we ever decide to change vendors. We're all very aware in this room that police records are some of the most sensitive data that the city houses. We take every evaluation of security seriously, but this one was definitely under a microscope. During requirements gathering, we put 32 specific security requirements in front of the vendors. Not just are you secure, but how is data protected moving across the network? Who can see what? How fast security patches get applied? And Versaterm met all 32 at the top of our scale. The data is encrypted both in motion and at rest. Every user has to prove who they are with more than just a password. Access is limited by job role and organization. And every action is written to an audit log that no user can alter or delete. The system also watches for intrusion attempts and for unusual behavior from the inside. The system is fully compliant with CEGIS, which is the FBI's security policy for criminal justice data. And beyond that, Versaterm has completed what's called a Security Operations Center SOC 1 audit, and is in the process of their SOC 2 audit. These are independent audits. A company cannot issue its own SOC report. It has to open its systems to a licensed outside firm. Our cybersecurity analysts also independently reviewed Versaterm and approved Versaterm as a vendor. And we are very confident that this transition actually strengthens our security posture from day one. Now I'm going to hand it back to Alison. She's going to speak more about the operational impact that this decision brings for our agencies.

From an operational perspective, Versatim gives us a modern platform for the same core responsibilities we perform today, dispatching calls for service, documenting incidents, maintaining records, supporting coordinated public safety operations across our region. The goal is to provide our employees with a more reliable and sustainable tool, with better workflows, stronger integrations, improved access to information, and better vendor support. For communication, that means reliable technology our dispatchers can depend on around the clock. For officers, it means better access to the information they need in the field. For records and other support functions, it means improved workflows and data management. And for our regional partners, it allows us to continue sharing both the platform and its cost. There is one new capability included in this contract that I want to highlight, Mindbase. Mindbase is an employee wellness platform designed for first responders. It uses operational information our systems already generate, To help identify cumulative exposure to traumatic incidents and provide opportunities for earlier wellness support, our public safety employees routinely experience difficult and traumatic incidents. As supervisors, we try to recognize when someone may need additional support, but we cannot account for every call or incident experienced by every employee. MindBase gives us another tool to be more proactive. We are implementing MindBase as a wellness tool, not a disciplinary or performance measure, and we will establish operational directives governing its use and protecting employee information. Versaterm has included MindBase in this agreement as no additional cost to the city. Flagstaff does not operate or fund the system alone. Our regional public safety partners share system costs based on sworn user counts. This model has allowed our agencies to share public safety technology for more than 20 years. rather than each agency independently purchasing and maintaining its own system. The city remains the contracting agency with the vendor, while the IGAs establish the responsibilities of the participating agencies. This is a significant long-term investment, but CAD and RMS are foundational systems supporting our communication center, police, fire operations, records, and regional public safety partnerships every hour of every day. Our current system has served us for more than 20 years, This project is about making the same kind of long-term decision for the next generation of our public safety technology. After nearly three years of operational and technical evaluation, we believe Versaterm provides a more reliable, secure, and sustainable platform for our future. Staff recommends approval of the contract. Sean and I, along with our partners from IT, procurement, legal, budget, are available to answer your questions. Thank you.

Mayor? Yes.

Noticed a member of our audience raising her hand if she would like to fill out a comment card to speak You can get a comment card at the back and when we call your name you can speak publicly you bet Councilmember house Thank You mayor, thank you both for the presentation One of my questions you actually already answered so I crossed it off my list, but I was really curious about the the MindBase program. Obviously, I think you know that that's a huge passion area for me. And I would love to hear just a little bit more about what the integration looks like in terms of supporting first responder Is it providing care after trauma incidents or is it just making a supervisor aware just if we have an idea of what that looks like in practice?

A bit of both. It does tie to an app that our employees would have access to that would recognize when they've been exposed to traumatic incidents and provide them with resources, anonymous resources that they could access for assistance.

Wonderful. Thank you so much.

Council Member Garcia.

Thank you, and thank you for the presentation. I was curious, how do we wem ourself off the other system and put this one in place? Is it going to happen directly, or is it going to be something that's going to be phased over time? And then how is the other contract eliminated, or do we have to go through the entire term with the other contract?

Yeah, thank you for that question. Great question. So we are going to be running both systems in parallel until we are on the new product. So that migration is going to take place in a phased approach. We're going to implement the CAD system first, which is what our dispatch dispatchers use to actually dispatch calls. And then about a three month period after we will be implementing the RMS. And then after that is up and running, we were, we are then able to cancel our contract with hexagon with a 90 day notice. So we will be prepared to initiate that cancellation when we go live with the RMS system and have confidence in the accuracy.

Thank you for that.

Yep. As I understand it, the needs of dispatch are greater than this. How does this set us up for hopefully future improvements to call taking and dispatch and how this system will work with that?

Yeah, so this system is a very modern technology that has the ability to integrate with third party software. So any needs that aren't handled within the VersaTerm software suite, which is actually a very expansive suite of multiple products, we are able to easily integrate to third party software to help support those dispatchers because of the modern infrastructure and technology.

And there are additional needs beyond this, correct?

Yes, they have a lot of different software within PD. I think last time I counted, we were upwards of 70 different pieces of software, not necessarily just in dispatch, but across PD in general.

Okay, thank you. Any other questions, counsel, comments? I'll take public. Do we have comment cards? Okay. All right. So then I will entertain a motion from whomever.

Mayor, I move to approve the cooperative purchase contract with VersaTerm Public Safety Incorporated using City of Mesa contract RFP number 2017190. for computer aided dispatch and records management system software as a service solution for the Flagstaff Police Department, Flagstaff Fire Department and regional partner agencies in an amount not to exceed $1,232,977 for one time implementation services and $829,629 annually thereafter for subscription fees with annual subscription price increases capped at 5% and authorize the city manager to execute all necessary documents.

I'll second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right.

Thank you.

Thank you. So moving down to public hearing items, item 9A. I am opening the public hearing, and we have a presentation.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Tiffany Antle, Zoning Code Manager. Tonight, for your consideration, we're presenting a new zoning district. As you are aware in our zoning code, we still in our conventional code break down our zoning districts in categories of residential, commercial and industrial. This would really fall into an other category as it's meant to be more all encompassing of all different types of land uses so long as they're in conformance with our regional plan. So the purpose of the amendment is to add a new zoning district And right now, every property in the city has a zoning district applied to it. But this would, if adopted, would be a zoning district that belongs to no property until somebody chooses to rezone their property into this particular zoning district. This will not be administratively approved. applied to any existing property, all property owners out there will need to come in and request this zoning and go through that standard rezoning process that goes before Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council. The planned community zone, just so you know, also was an idea generated through the last cap process. While not a specific recommendation of the last cap report. This was an item that was talked about at our community conversation just over a year ago. At that time, we've called it different things. We've called it planned area development. Planned community came across a little bit more smoother of a name, less conflicting with other tools we already have in our zoning code, and better in alignment with other tools that Coconino County has already in their zoning code as well. So planned community, planned area community, or planned area development and planned unit development are the common names for these kinds of zoning districts that you will see throughout many zoning codes in Arizona and beyond. The PC zone is intended to encourage creative and efficient design. It's meant to integrate land uses. It also has key provisions for the preservation of natural resources, as well as the integration of common space areas, active transportation connectivity, and the orderly provision of infrastructure and services. The zone is intended specifically to implement the general plan. As you've all been through the journey of the recently adopted regional plan, you'll know that we have a very specific land use compatibility table in the regional plan, and it tells us what zoning districts we can use to meet the categories or the design features of each of of those land use categories. So we tried to build this crosswalk between zoning districts and land use categories. They're not a perfect fix. We need to do a lot of work in the zoning code and we're teaming up that work with our last cap recommendations so that our zoning districts are a true reflection of what the community is looking for in our regional plan. But it will take a little time. So the planned community zone is also an alternative for folks to use to come closer into conformance with what those goals and policies are in our regional plan until we can make those permanent changes to our zoning code. Lastly, the planned community zone has no minimum parcel size requirement. So it can be applied to any property or any size property. So it doesn't have to be a large master plan. It can be a much smaller site master plan. It could even apply to a smaller individual parcel, although unlikely, but it could. Also, this zoning district could fulfill a hole where land uses come up that don't currently have any place to live in our zoning code. innovation and technology and industry is always evolving and there are always new land uses we're trying to understand better and trying to determine where they fit in our zoning code. But when we hit that rub, we could work with an applicant who has something unique and different that doesn't fit perfectly within the parameters of our existing code framework and utilize that PC zone to accommodate those land uses. So there is that potential instead of having to rush to amend the land use or zoning code every time something new and different comes up, we can take an applicant through this process. So that's a whole lot of hope and love going into this one little defined zoning district. It can do a lot, but it does have this core goal of offering a greater flexibility as well to our development community. especially when they're dealing with large property sizes so that they can work through the project as time evolves, right? Market conditions evolve. Any large development you've seen, any large master plan, Canyon del Rio, Timber Sky, we've all had needs to work through adjustments over the 10 to 15 year development timeframes. And this particular zoning district has built in functions that are meant to work with those developers to also grant them that flexibility to have a comfort level that they can depend on a realistic marketable plan moving forward. That was a lot and a lot of mouthfuls. So the PC zone, like I said, can be established on any parcel of land. It would require a master plan. Then land uses not listed in the code could specifically be permitted within this. Again, they still have to be in alignment with the land use category within the regional plan. So please remember that the regional plan remains that safety guardrail in terms of the zoning district. All development within the PC zone must follow existing city review processes. So the same rezoning process today that would exist for multiple zoning districts would be the same for planned community. This in no way, shape or form is an administrative process. All right, so the planned community master plan has a lot of different features to it. I've synopsized this, so if you would like me to go through any of this in more detail, please let me know. But essentially the first plan coming up with is that land use plan where the developer is establishing the maximum and minimum densities or intensities. So densities, number of units per acre, intensity, is usually the number of square footage of a particular commercial or industrial use. So we use intensity more in terms of commercial and industrial. And again, consistent with the regional plan. Building form and development standards. These are things like setbacks, building height, lot coverage, floor area ratio. So a developer can come up with unique development types. They don't have to wait for us to go through the long, last-cap types of processes and procedures. They can come in with that unique product type now. And this is meant to be more reactive and responsive to changing market needs and conditions, especially in terms of housing. There are requirements for common spaces and amenities. It is 20% of the gross land area. When you look at this in detail, 10% of that common space is towards conservation-based lands. These are your natural resource areas or resource protection overlay components. Could be tree resources, could be slope areas, could be cultural resources. The list is pretty broad on this. The one thing that would be allowed in these conservation areas are trails. Trails, the next 10% of that 20% is for recreational uses or amenities to serve that master plan development. Trails are the one thing that can overlap in those two different common space types. If for some reason a site does not have unique natural features that warrant preservation through common space, that conservation common space, The planning director, in consultation with the pros director, can realign this with the developer to full 20% recreational, if that is the case. I have worked with sites over time. They've either been burned, they don't have specific natural features that are really worthy of preservation, but we still want to attain that 20%. So again, a little bit of flexibility built in there. we would see a master street plan that prioritizes transit facilities, looks at that roadwork network, and creates a connectivity plan. Planners love connectivity. They want neighborhoods to be connected. They want all of the streets to align. And that is what our goal and our hope is, is to give you some broad-based information, but to make sure we're meeting those core community principles that we're looking for. Infrastructure plan you're gonna see that with every rezoning case, but it's just as important here We want to make sure that any development site can be adequately served with infrastructure and of course phasing plans I would the assumption here is that not every development may require a phasing plan, but when it is contemplated that a phasing plan would also be included within this master plan and This is not Flagstaff, this is not a Flagstaff project, but I wanted to give you an example from another city under another set of code regulations of what you could potentially see through one of these rezoning types. So you would see development areas, and in those development areas it would designate what it was intended for, whether it's multi-use, a mix of residential and commercial, all residential. It would also tell you what the acreages of those areas were. It would also give you approximate densities as well to understand. And then you can also see and understand what that core circulation system is and where those connectivity points are coming. But it's still flexible enough to be intentional for everyone to understand what is anticipated out of this development But still, at the end of the day, some of these points could move 50 feet, 100 feet, or more, and not be so specific as you would see with, say, something like a subdivision plot. The other provision of this that is a little bit different and unique is that there's an amendment process built in. So minor amendments could be administratively approved. Anything that is not deemed a major amendment would be considered a minor amendment. So those major amendments include the addition of land uses, not include in the PCMP. So if you come in, you have a master plan, and that master plan lists 10 land uses, you're locked with those 10 land uses. If you want to come in with something off the wall and different, you need to amend that PCMP, that master land use plan. And that, again, requires public hearing, requires going through the rezoning process. It's a different review and analysis. if anything is more than a 10% increase or decrease in that square footage of density units or area of a building. So really what you have to think about here is this gives great flexibility. We want that min and that max. So if a developer is very thoughtful in terms of minimum and maximum density and they can still have that 10% wiggle room, that gives them a pretty good range of density units that can be accomplished. None of these things are out of the ordinary. A lot of these items are already within our zoning code and are already allowed through other provisions when dealing with cases that have gone through zoning map amendments. An increase in building height would be a major amendment. So again, a developer at that forefront would have that ability to set what the building heights were and knowing just the concerns about building heights and what they can be and where buildings are located, that would definitely be one of the triggers. Increases in development intensity that would exceed our infrastructure plans, of course, we're gonna come back through that process. And any amendment as determined by the planning director that changes the character of the proposed development or has additional significant external impacts. So here's where that difficulty is. There's an uncomfortableness here in terms of giving us this catch-all. Um, but we, as staff absolutely understand and know what the catching points are on our development cases. When we bring forward an item, we know where a developer and a community have mitigated or negotiated concerns about that development. And our planning director is amazing. And she would always make sure that any of those things that were negotiated as part of an approval process. would be back heard in that public hearing process. There's also an enforceability provision. One of the things that happens over time with rezoning cases is they grow a little stale. So somebody came through, they did a lot of work to get a rezoning case approved, and they didn't develop. And it was very specifically conditioned on very specific parameters, and then our code changes over time, 10, 15, 20 years goes by, And the developer comes back in and says, I would like to use this entitlement, and there's no way for staff to make that happen. The goal here is that we are kind of staying in contact with the developer over time in terms of understanding what the phasing plan is, keeping on top of what this development looks like, and making sure we're keeping track. with market conditions. It is also the developer's responsibility to make sure they're sharing the PCMP with future buyers or parcel owners within their developments so that they're fully aware of what the requirements are when they develop. That is the story of the planned community development zone. The required findings for zoning text amendments are here. You'll see one, two, and three. The first one is that it needs to be consistent with and conforms to the objectives and policies of the general plan. I skipped ahead and pulled out an action item because I'm really excited to tell you we're already tackling one action item in the regional plan that was just ratified, and that is developed a planned area development zoning district. Again, same thing, just different name, that allows for a greater mix of land uses to support a variety of housing types and economic development. So we knew this was coming. We have advocated and talked about it in the community setting and again have talked about it through that last cap process. This is one of the steps we believe we can take to help sort of streamline and smooth out some of that rezoning process and concerns that each one of our zoning districts may not work perfectly for each developer in the community. The core supporting policies are all here. The list went on for quite a substantial amount, but I'm fairly confident that the regional plan is saying, yay, let's do this. And then the proposed amendment will not be detrimental to the public interest health safety. So there's no anticipation that that will be. Again, no property is automatically given this. There are set limitations of the flexibility that can occur within and every rezoning case is vetted through a public hearing process. Lastly, the amendment is internally consistent with applicable provisions of the zoning code. I sure did try my hardest to make sure that was the case. And lastly, the Planning and Zoning Commission, by a vote of 5-0, in accordance with the findings presented in this report, made a recommendation to City Council for approval. If you should have any questions, I would be happy to try and answer them. Of course we do.

And thank you, Tiffany. Council Member Garcia.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Tiffany, for the presentation. I just had a quick question about if this presentation went before the Open Space Commission, and if so, how was it received by the commission in terms of how it will compare to our current resource protection overlay or anything, any other concerns that they might have had?

Thank you so much, Commissioner, or Councilmember Garcia. Too often in front of commission. I did not specifically take this to a work session with the Open Space Commission. They did request it. I was unavailable at the time. We do have a joint council or commission member. Sorry. We do have a joint commission member between our Planning and Zoning Commission and our Open Spaces Commission and I did talk with her and I asked her to feel, I shared she should feel comfortable with sharing information she heard and learned in the commission meeting with the Open Spaces Commission. I did vet this text amendment language with our pro staff. And we recently, a few months back, did do a presentation as part of a larger last cap where we sort of highlighted some of the common space requirements, but we did not do a full review. I think the, I got the general impression that the common space was a welcome addition to this amendment.

Well, I appreciate that as well. And the depth that you went to kind of explain that it in some ways mirrors or maybe strengthens the... the resource protection overlay just kind of in a different category under this other zoning code. Is there anything more you'd want to kind of expand upon the difference between having this as a standalone zoning provision and then having it under any of the other provisions with the resource overlay infused in it? Does that make sense?

Council Member Garcia, I think so. The common space areas are often confused with the resource protection overlay. Oftentimes there are, I get comments that folks think that the resource protection overlay is about the preservation of areas for the use of residence and it's not because resources can be preserved in lots of ways. And in fact, the majority of forest resources and single family subdivisions are actually preserved on individual lots and not in common space areas. Our goal is to see more natural areas in neighbor woods and neighborhood amenity spaces. And this is trying to push more in alignment with resource protection. There's still a lot more work to do, so be patient and we'll get there. But I think you're seeing the lead that we're trying to take in truing up our resource protection standards with some of these common space standards and meeting what the community's expectations are.

Thank you for that.

Council Member House.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Tiffany. I apologize in advance because I think this type of question that I'm going to ask, I would usually try and send in advance. So yeah, sorry that I did not in this case. But as I've been reading about planned community zones and what they can do for communities, what I understand from what I've been reading is that they can really support the streamlining of mixed use and mixed or missing middle and other housing supplies, but also have the challenge of sometimes focusing on private community amenities that can impact affordability or unintentionally lead to gentrification. So how have we worked or how are we working to ensure that this new zoning is complimentary to our housing goals and avoids gentrification or community displacement?

Thank you, Council Member House. I think here the amenities are meant to be broad-based, right? So they don't always have to equate to large community infrastructure. So it's not a requirement for a park. It's not even a requirement for for a dedicated amenity, what it is trying to focus on and what it is trying to encourage most of all are those trails and connections. Because the more alternative trail connections there are and when alternative modes and active transportation modes do not always have to rely on street infrastructure, we also make it possible to redesign how our streets look as well. So streets may not always be the primary function of all pedestrian and bicycle traffic. This can be accomplished through other means. The goal here is to hopefully encourage by allowing those trails and connections to be the means While they are costly as well, they are also up within the level of sort of community need, right? Everyone, even those seeking affordable housing options, also need desirable community spaces. They need places to be outside of their home. And whether or not they're full amenities is not necessarily the intention. but it is our goal to work with each developer to understand each site and what it wants to bring towards serving the residents who live there. I hope that helps answer that question.

It does. I'm wondering how specific the language of this gets in terms of that being a primary focus or goal, particularly in terms of trails or those connections versus what's typically understood to be like a planned community amenity or things like that. Does the language of this amendment go into some of that to support that? Would you like me to pull up the language?

I would love it if it's, yeah, easy.

Sure.

Somehow I just knew. I don't always have this. Let's see here. All right. So the common spaces and amenities plan. So all applications shall provide a minimum of 20%. The plan shall identify the approximate areas and acreages as well as a list of amenities that meets the following requirements. So that 10% common space, that's conservation. There's nothing. required other than designating what those areas are. But a trail could exist in those areas. We want to make sure, because you still want people to have access to those really beautiful spaces. And then the required common space area that should be used as recreational common space may include recreational amenities open to the public, including but not limited to playgrounds. So here's the thing. We want everybody to enjoy. This is also about amenities within neighborhoods being open to all. And those can be playgrounds, sports fields, ramadas, picnic areas, multi-use paths, and trails. It is not meant to be exclusive to those. And so definitely drainage areas have been used as amenity space. You know, a nice little grassy patch to kick a ball around is awesome and very meaningful. And I have seen those included in communities all over where I've also seen full blown perks and pickleball courts added to developments as well. So that is what is intended here. The language is not meant to be completely hard and that it has to be those specific things. but one would hope that depending upon the size of the development, we would be looking for proportional amenities based on what the particular land uses are proposed. Thank you so much.

Vice Mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Tiffany, for bringing this forward. I love that you are bringing these things slowly and surely as we go through the last cap process and that this adds flexibility as things evolve. My question, and I don't know how to phrase it right, but you had mentioned we do have a great planning director, a great team right now. What happens, is this specific enough to where it's not as subjective as relying on the team as much as knowing where we want to go as a city and Does that make sense?

Yes. I have worked here now 14 years, almost 14 years, something like that. And I have only ever worked with phenomenal people. So while we have a great planning director today, I'm sure the planning director after her will be amazing as well. But this is really not meant to be administrative or reliant on staff. This is really that amendment sort of scenario. There's one provision that allows the planning director to determine if a proposed change really does change the character of the development to trigger a full rezoning case. And I think that any planning director or any planning professional has an ear to the ground of what our community is looking for. And it is our goal to serve both community, residents, existing, as well as future.

Thank you. That answers my question. Thank you.

That was my question as well, but I do have another question. I know that you're working on some code amendments to bring back to us. We've spoken about it once or twice in here, I think. Is this meant as, so say someone has a piece of land that's zoned R1 or rural residential and they want to do something different than what that zone allows, this is what's intended to allow for that diversity of what it is that they want to do?

Thank you, Mayor. Yes, it absolutely could. Another great example and where our code is the least flexible right now is in terms of our industrial zones. Somebody could come in with some innovative industrial project that is arts-oriented, that includes artist lofts. I get excited about it because I've seen people come through the door, and we don't have a zoning code that works really well with it. And this is a zoning district that could be used for something creative like that that still meets our employment category standards of what we're trying to attract in our community that's still bringing something meaningful professionally and business oriented, but also is filling a housing need or some other commercial use that also enhances and supports. But instead of us always trying to build a sort of break and dividing lines between restrictive land uses, this is trying to blend and meld them together. so that they coordinate and build cohesive neighborhoods.

And to members of the public who might be concerned about this decision being made administratively, if we do adopt this, and you've answered this different ways, so I think that I'm asking you the same question, is what would you say to them? the parameters and the guard rails that we're still getting what it is that the community wants?

Sure. First and foremost, every rezoning goes through a stringent review. So there's an internal staff review and it's not just the planning team. It's that inner division staff team. It's public works, it's water services, it's development engineering, it's traffic, I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot of people as I go down the list, but it's a broad group of so many folks in the city. And we stretch and pull on those cases super hard before we bring them to that public hearing process. So that developer's got to go out. They've got to engage the neighborhood. They need to have multiple neighborhood meetings. Then we're taking it through public hearings. Depending upon the size of the development, it may require multiple hearings before planning and zoning commission. and then of course ultimately city council. So it's a stringent review. The first finding for any rezoning just as it is for any zoning code text amendment is conformance with that regional plan. That's your guardrail. That's the guardrail for all zoning code amendments moving forward. It has told us specifically what we're looking for in each of these land use categories. And this district is written specifically to implement those provisions within the regional plan.

Thank you. Council Member Matthews.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Tiffany, for all the great information. Just curious because you have mentioned that this also can be applied through industrial. Can you just talk a little bit about what it does or doesn't do, allow and not allow for someone wanting to bring in a data center?

Thank you, Council Member Matthews. So again, any land use that would be proposed would have to be identified at the time the rezoning case is moving forward. This could be a tool to work with something heavy industrial land use. It could even be the only way to accomplish such a land use. But again, it would have to go through a public vetting process and it would have to go through that public hearing process and allow for all that public input and feedback. And so what I could share with you about the rezoning cases, that's where our elected polity has the most ability and most discretionary review in terms of any land use case that we review as staff.

Thank you. Council Member Aslan.

Thank you, Tiffany. Just real quickly, how does this relate to Proposition 207 in any way? Specifically, could it trigger 207 cases?

Thank you so much, Council Member Aslan. The likelihood of obtaining a Prop 207 case would be low since a developer would be approaching us and wanting to go into that rezoning process. It is typical that we have a 207 waiver on almost all of our rezoning cases. We do it as well on conditional use permits.

Any additional questions, Council? Okay.

Since you mentioned conditional use permit, I'm understanding that the process that this is working through kind of circumvents that because within this, you're going through the same process as a conditional use permit. Am I correct by that?

Council Member Garcia, yes. Yes, you wouldn't ask for a land use and then say, I would want a conditional use permit on top of it. I mean, unless you like to spend a lot of time with us, but maybe.

I got you. I appreciate the explanation of that. I had a community member ask that question, and I didn't understand how to contextualize it until just now. So thank you. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Tiffany. I am going to take some public comment. First up, we have Michelle James.

Hello, Mayor and Council. I'm Michelle James, the Executive Director of Friends of Flagstaff's Future. I want to start by saying it's been, as always, very nice to work with Tiffany, and she answered all my questions. I have noticed in the conversation we've had already that one of our concerns with Prop 207 doesn't appear to be, although I don't fully understand that yet, but I will ask her more questions. So I've written you a letter, and this comes from myself and some board members. We don't believe that the city needs this new proposed zoning district. We believe the PC zone eases the development process for those who want to build without providing the evidence that this new district will result in development that meets the needs of our community. FQ believes the process associated with the PC zoning district prevents detailed input from the city council, neighbors, and the public regarding what and where a suite of broadly described land uses will be built. This is worrisome because it removes important review and input from our elected officials and public. The new district is designed for a broad array of uses. However, it does not specify that residential development is necessary in this zone. It puts potentially a huge amount of pressure on city development staff to negotiate with developers. with no backup or support from council or the public. While projects proposed in the PC zone will undergo a city review process, it will come after the details of the development have been negotiated out of sight of the public. We believe the public deserves a detailed explanation regarding the major amendment clause E2E, and Tiffany touched on this, as to why this vague language is preferred by city attorneys. If the city is to approve this ordinance, we urge a rewrite of this clause. In addition, we believe that the resource protection overlay requirements must be named and included in the language in the code that lists what doesn't change. This is section C2. I talked to Tiffany about that and it seems like a pretty easy addition. FQ believes that the city needs to determine a separate procedure that addresses potential proposals for land use that don't exist in our existing zoning code. This procedure needs to involve council, the public, and additional staff if appropriate. We don't believe that proposed golf courses in a PCMP should be considered common space. We urge council to carefully consider this because we are concerned about the Prop 207 implications and that concern may no longer be necessary. But I wanted to let you know that we did have a conversation about that with my board. Okay, thank you.

Thank you. Tyler Denham.

Hey, good afternoon. I'm Tyler Denim here with Flagstaff for Affordable Housing. So I'm here to speak in favor of the creation of the planned community zone. The primary issue that we see this solving is the mismatch between our current regional plan and existing zoning categories. None of them have been fully aligned yet with the regional plan and doing so is complex because it means updating entitlements of existing neighborhoods. The PC zone creates a flexible category that can be applied to upcoming development without getting stuck in those tricky details. We see some urgency to this as much of the remaining land in Flagstaff is zoned as rural residential or a state residential. neither of which meets the regional plan goals. We need to make it easier to get out of those zones and into something that matches the regional plan before they are developed by right. And yeah, that's my comments, thank you.

Thank you. Andy Fernandez.

Okay, we didn't really hear too many of the specifics on what these scenarios would entail. Yeah, so my concern is a lot of this BS is a bunch of BS. We have these, like the lady from F-Cube said, these other zoning scenarios that she believes is adequate. Now, I have come to the city council on several occasions I get a complaint letter by the city stating that, oh, you have to remove your backhoe, your dump trucks, because you're not in the correct zoning area, which is on West Street, 2014 to be exact. Across the street from the Dairy Queen on Cedar, there's a guy, but he happens to be white. His backhoe's sitting with no fence around it. Mine has a fence. And we communicated with the city, and we said, if we were allowed to put slots in there so you really couldn't see it, would that dissipate the problem? They said they would. So we facilitated doing this. But the other guy over there, and there's a few other people in that scenario, and again, they're Caucasian, Anglo... sex and ethnicity and it seems like they're, you know, actually not the same, it's a damn fact. I have photos that these rules are not being facilitated appropriately, equally. being picked on by the people who are the minorities and harassed, like a lot of scenarios, like I stipulated about what happened a few years ago. I'm walking, I thought I'd seen a $5 bill, and I was just getting out of work, because I was a bouncer at the mason jar, and a cop pulls me over and says, what are you doing? I said, well, I thought I'd seen some $5 bill or $10 bill on the floor. I couldn't tell between the shrub and that gravel. I went to see what it was. And then he says, oh, you know, like the usual excuse they always use is, well, we got a call of someone matching that description. That was the first thing he said to me to try to facilitate probable cause, which was a lie. And it was when I told him that I was just getting off work and that was substantiated. He had nothing to say. And I talked to one of the other individual police officers who knew me. And I told him the situation. He said, Andy, don't worry about it. He's a new guy, a green rookie. And I'll talk to him. And now we have all these green rookies. And again, what I was talking about earlier, community policing. You're supposed to work with the community and not harass them and try to make issues. The Pep Boys on West Street, this guy Paul just decided three days ago for trespassing when he's waiting for a bus there. Come on. There's no trespassing sign. There's all these scenarios that have been manipulated. NOW WITH THIS SCENARIO AGAIN, SO THEY WERE SAYING, I NEED TO PUT MY STUFF IN AN INDUSTRIAL ZONE. THAT WAS THE INITIAL SCENARIO. SO THE SCENARIO IS, WE DIDN'T HEAR ANY STIPULATIONS OF WHAT WOULD BE ALLOWED IN THE ZONE OR WHAT NOT. THE SCENARIO AGAIN IS, WE HAVE SCENARIOS THAT NEED TO BE ADDRESSED EQUALLY ACROSS THE BOARD AND THIS SCENARIO IS JUST PUTTING MORE ALPHABET IN THE SOUP. TOO MANY COOKS AND NOT ENOUGH CHEFS.

THANK YOU. All right. Council, do you have additional questions? I have a couple of questions that I'd like to ask. Council Member Garcia, go ahead.

Yeah, thank you, Tiffany. I was curious after hearing the public comment, like let's say, because up till now, I'm pretty happy and content with moving forward with this plan to see how it works. If it somehow doesn't work out, can we change it?

Council Member Garcia, this is one of the easier fix in the zoning code. It probably runs the least risk of a Prop 207. If somebody is successful in doing their rezoning to PC and we choose to eliminate the PC zone in the future, they can remain. as a legal nonconforming PCMP or PCM master plan. But otherwise, yeah, we could choose, we could decide as a community that this doesn't fit our needs and we can remove it from the zoning code.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Actually, if I could.

Yes, please. I meant to add on that new regional plan. I will need to make a small change to the ordinance So be prepared for this, if this should succeed first read tonight, that I will just be updating the ordinance to list where this zone will fall in the land use compatibility table in the regional plan. Sarah was so kind to build in a process for me and I missed it when preparing this ordinance. So forgive me, this is new, but you'll see a slight small amendment for how this will true up with the regional plan and the ordinance.

Thank you. All right. I am closing the public hearing and I will entertain a motion.

Madam Mayor, I'd like to read resolution number 2026-40 by title only. I'll second.

Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Was that the rule? It was 2026-46. Could you say that again, Councilmember? Correct. 2026-46.

Yeah, I would like to read resolution number 2026-46 by title only.

I'll second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. City Clerk?

A resolution of the Flagstaff City Council declaring as a public record that certain document filed with the city clerk and entitled PZ-25-00200-Planned Community PC Zone.

I move that we read ordinance number 2026-20 by title only for the first time.

I'll second.

Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. City Clerk?

An ordinance of the City Council of the City of Flagstaff amending the Flagstaff City Code Title 10 Flagstaff Zoning Code by adopting by reference that certain document entitled PZ-25-00200-Plan Community PC Zone, providing for repeal of conflicting ordinances, severability, authority for clerical corrections, and establishing an effective date.

All right, so we're moving down to the regular agenda. Item 10A, consideration and adoption of resolution 2026-47 and ordinance number 2026-24.

All right. Good afternoon, mayor and council. I am Amy Tressler building official for planning and development services at the September 8th work session staff provided a detailed review of the proposed 2024 suite of building and fire codes. And this afternoon's presentation is intentionally brief. We'll summarize the key items, address several amendments and questions that have come up since the work session. and then be available for questions before council considers the ordinance on first reading. So as discussed last week, Flagstaff is moving from the 2018 to the 2024 codes, maintaining our established six-year adoption cycle. Updating the codes keeps us aligned with the current construction standards, while our local amendments allow us to address Flagstaff's climate, wildfire exposure, construction practices, housing considerations, and community priorities. This proposal reflects extensive outreach and collaboration throughout the adoption process. We've engaged the public, builders, contractors, design professionals, developers, boards and commissions, and other community stakeholders while also coordinating closely with Coconino County. This was more than simply sharing information. We listened to the feedback we received and made adjustments along the way. That input helped shape the local amendments, refine our cost estimates, and identify cost mitigation measures that are reflected in the ordinance before you this afternoon. That engagement is continuing even as we move through this formal adoption process. Staff continues to evaluate substantive technical and legal concerns as they are brought forward. These are the primary building safety amendments we highlighted at the work session. The residential ground snow load increases from 60 to 70 pounds per square foot while engineered design options remain available. Permit duration provides a two-year base permit with one 365-day extension and the package also includes the limited residential temporary certificate of occupancy option, and updated plumbing efficiency provisions. Throughout this process, our goal has been to update the minimum standards while maintaining reasonable flexibility and mitigating costs where practical. One additional amendment we've added since the work session provides clarity for triplexes and fourplexes. Arizona's middle housing legislation requires qualifying triplexes and fourplexes to have an appropriate residential construction path. We are therefore amending the scope provisions of the IBC, International Building Code, and the International Residential Code to clearly allow qualifying projects to be constructed under the Residential Code while still allowing the applicant to use the International Building Code where appropriate. The intent is to eliminate uncertainty for applicants and staff, provide a consistent path for one through four family residential construction, and ensure these projects receive the benefit of the residential code where applicable. With that, I'm going to turn this over to Genevieve to walk through the energy code recommendation and additional amendments associated with these triplex and fourplex changes.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Genevieve Parathre with the City of Flagstaff Sustainability Office. So just as a reminder, in our work session last week, we talked about adopting energy code option two, which is the 2024 residential and commercial energy base codes with some amendments to improve HVAC efficiency for residential construction and to reduce costs. And we went over those in detail last time. There's also proposed readiness appendices, so solar ready, EV charging, electric ready and demand responsive controls for commercial buildings. Finally, we also discussed adopting radon mitigation for new residential and commercial construction. I do want to add that we are proposing a few additional amendments that aren't actually in your packet, but they're related to the amendment Amy just discussed. So Amy mentioned allowing triplexes and fourplexes to be built under the IRC, giving the path where they can choose to be the IBC or IRC. So after we made that amendment, we realized we also needed to update some appendices to ensure consistency across the code and make sure that those appendices covered single up to four unit buildings. So that necessitated some changes in the solar ready appendices, the EV charging appendices, and the electric ready appendix. We also had a few like just code references that we needed to fix. So this is one of them on the slide. And then I'll go through the other ones in a little more detail. So the first one was solar ready provision. So there is an appendix that we're proposing to adopt, very similar to what we have in our current code. So it's appendix NB slash RB, and that's solar ready provisions for detached one and two family dwellings. That's the title. So we're proposing to actually change that title to add triplexes and fourplexes to that, just to show that that appendix applies to those buildings as well. and updating the scope to include triplexes and fourplexes, and then this applies to both the International Residential Code and the International Energy Code. There's also another appendix for, it's called Renewable Energy Infrastructure, but it basically is solar-ready construction. And we're proposing to only adopt that in the Energy Code, not the Residential Code, because the appendix NB slash RB already covers the buildings under the Residential Code. This covers other residential buildings. that are taller than three stories. So anyway, just want to clarify that. And then the next one is electric ready construction. So we had proposed, there was already in the proposed amendments an exception written in there allowing one and two family dwellings to request an exception from this if they're triggered, if their electrical calculations indicate that a 400 amp panel is needed. But we updated that to add triplexes and fourplexes to that as well. And again, the intent is to reduce costs by not pushing homes into that higher electrical panel. The next one is EV charging. So again, we updated the scope of these appendices to extend standards that were for one and two family dwellings to triplexes and fourplexes. We also clarified requirements for other building types, basically just clarifying different heights and amounts based on the building size that was already in the table. And we clarified parking space calculations, so there was some conflicting information there, so we fixed that. And then just to clarify, for the extending EV charging standards for one and two family, two triplex and fourplex, basically if they have a garage, they have to install a 240 volt outlet, that's what our current code says. If there are no garages, then they can share one outlet, so that's an EV ready space. And then the last one is, oh, I'm all done, so thank you, never mind.

Okay, Mayor and Council, Vice Mayor, everybody, good to see you again. Just really want to sum this up, I think, with a couple key points building off what we saw last week. Best available science, really looking at what our community needs to look like in the future to reduce our wildfire risk. Deconflict our existing code that has three different construction standards and make sure we don't run into situations where we have disagreements over which standard one building should be versus another, really simplifying things and enabling builders and city staff to set our community up for success. The objective, as I said last week, is simple. We want to make the safer choice, the easy choice. I mentioned last week IBHS has the wildfire prepared home designation. They also, I didn't mention this, but they do have a wildfire prepared multifamily designation as well. So multifamily buildings can apply for that qualification. We've met with multiple HOAs that manage condos and apartment complexes in town that are running into some of the same challenges with insurance. We also want to deconflict some of the vegetation guidelines that we have within the our different codes And again, we are asking for a zone 0 which is a 0 to 5 foot zone around the structure with no vegetation Beyond that the the we code doesn't dictate terms. There's a forest stewardship plan That's included as part of our forest management plan within the city that developers are required to submit that was approved back in and we've had a form of a forest stewardship plan under different names and different details for over 20 years as part of the resource protection overlay. So that is not a new program, that is a streamlined program that is much simpler than it used to be. So really, like I said, aligning with best available science, deconflicting our existing codes and getting everything in alignment and enabling both city staff and builders to do the right thing.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Chris Jack, your fire marshal.

So just going over the fire code, a lot of the amendments that we continued carried forward from 2018 version, we did remove some from the base, they're now in the base code, didn't need those. The two main ones we kept, electric vehicle, having the disconnects that are signed for emergency responders to get to, and then also some direction on the emergency responder radio systems, meeting larger buildings or underground levels, putting in the conduit and junction boxes so that's easier to put in. Other than that, we didn't really add any changes. As a reminder, the fire code is also adopted by the state, so we're kind of given some guardrails by what we can do on the fire code with them.

All right. Council saw these estimated cost impacts at the September 8th work session. As you recall, we had mentioned that these were planning level averages based on the best information available and that actual costs will vary considerably depending on the project. Staff considered costs throughout the amendment process. where we identified opportunities to reduce costs without undermining the safety, resiliency, and energy performance objectives of the codes, we tried to incorporate those adjustments. And Michelle will now speak and put those building code costs into a broader context of the city's housing and climate work through the last cap.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Michelle McNulty, Planning and Development Services Director. So just a quick reminder, there was a lot of conversation last week about this adoption of these codes and the LASCAP conversation. So just a kind of a quick reminder of what the purpose of the LASCAP or Land Availability, Suitability, and Code Analysis Project. It was first a, you know, just a land inventory, understanding what lands we have available. What are the environmental constraints to developing that? And then looking at all of our development codes and understanding where the barriers to achieving our housing and climate goals. I do want to remind everybody that this is not a one-to-one relationship with the building code. It will be dependent on the type of project and the size of that project. So the impacts of some of the changes we might make might have a different impact to a single family. cost of development versus multiple single families being built in a subdivision versus multifamily. But what are we doing right now? We're updating the building code. We do this every six years. This is status quo, this is what we do, this is good practice in the industry, and it's also in line with every other, not every other, but a lot of other Arizona cities. And the energy codes are kind of online with what we've typically been adopting. At the same time, as you saw tonight, we are continuing to bring zoning code amendments that we can, that are making impact, that are a result of the last cap, planning community development. You'll be seeing in the next month proposed changes to the zoning map amendment process. You're also going to be seeing other code changes that we need to make, like to our lighting ordinance and to group living changes. But then what you will be seeing in a larger scale is the phase one last cap proposed amendments. So last cap has been broken into two phases. Really what that means is phase one is looking at residentially zoned districts. Phase two is looking at commercial zone districts. With that phase one, you're gonna be seeing, it's gonna be a big conversation. You're gonna be seeing very big changes. We'll be talking about parking reform, increased density throughout our zoning districts, residential zoning districts, and you'll probably be seeing engineering standards. But what I can promise you is that you will not see options or scenarios, I can't remember what we called that in previous presentations, three and four with the energy code, without seeing the full context of those last cap changes and the bigger picture of how if we add where we can also make things easier or reduce. So thank you very much.

Sorry, forgot one thing. Vice Mayor Sweet, you were right last week. I re-ran my numbers on gutter covers. The $500 was looking at a combustible gutter cover, and the proposed code requires a non-combustible gutter cover. And running the numbers from a Home Depot package, that bumps us up to about $800. So thank you for finding that out for us.

Thank you for clarifying.

All right, so our next steps with September 8th was the council work session tonight, September 15th is our first read. And if council approves the ordinance on the first read, the next step will be the second read on October 6th and final consideration, followed by implementation after the adoption process is complete. And that concludes our presentation, and I want to thank all of the staff, the community members, industry representatives, our boards, commissions, and our partners with Coconino County who have contributed to this process. This has been a significant effort to update six years of construction standards while balancing safety, resiliency, energy performance, affordability, and practical realities of building in Flagstaff. Staff's recommendation is to move this proposed 2024 suite of building and fire codes with local amendments forward on this first street tonight with a final consideration scheduled for October 6th. We're happy to answer any questions you have.

Thank you. Council member Matthews.

Thank you, mayor. Um, you know, I just want to start out by saying we had a presentation from sustainability in February, um, to kind of go over some of the options and what they were thinking of. And then, um, This is a lot to digest. We got the package when the community gets it in Thursday. And we have Tuesday to then, I know it was a work session last week, but I appreciate staff responding to my request about adding the triplex and fourplexes into the IRC code instead of the triplex. Commercial code. Thank you so much. I didn't realize how many other layers it impacted so I appreciate the work But again, you know when we're getting some of this With just a few days to absorb it. I appreciate you guys pivoting and incorporating that in because that's my research showed about a 80 to 100 thousand dollar savings on what the energy codes are the building codes will be next year and But I do have some more just other questions now that I've had a couple of days to absorb this all. I remember after our last major fire and the Wilson's house was not burnt down. It was over in Dhoni Park. But oddly, the foam insulation that they used turned the house into inhabitable because of the toxic fumes that it released. Is that the same, and I have a few questions, but is that building standard for the walls, is that the same as what they used out there? Because I know their house, they were so happy that it wasn't burnt, but the heat melted the foam and now they had to tear it down.

So council member Matthews, that is an option. So there's a variety of different types of ways to accomplish insulation. So it could be an open cell foam. It could be a closed cell. It could be your standard bat. It could be blown in denim. There's a whole variety of different options that a person could use.

I'm just curious, why would we even allow that option? Because I don't think the Wilsons knew that risk. when they opted for that and then lost their whole house. So I don't know if that's an additional discussion, but I remember it was pretty devastating.

I think Neil would like to speak to that.

I really have not researched what goes behind the wall at all, but I can't say a non-combustible siding will resist the radiant heat and the direct flame in embers in a much more effective way than I'm guessing what was on their siding on that house. I don't know that house to be specific, but that's one of the intents behind the non-combustible siding is everything else behind it is that much more protected.

And since you're up here now... The noncombustible material, like if, you know, everybody in my neighborhood is about nine years old, the neighborhood, but we all have decks. And I know that when I had my home hardening inspection, they talked about fences not being wood, but that's a significant cost if we're not going to allow wooden decks at all, is that correct?

The proposed code would require non-combustible material for a deck, correct?

Do you have a guesstimate on how much a deck would cost with non-combustible? Is that always metal or is that...

There is synthetic products. I didn't run those numbers because a deck is not a requirement of a single-family home, multifamily. In any of these situations, that's an optional feature, and it's one that, if not done smart, can add significant risk to the wildfire rating of that house and the neighboring houses. That was a pretty good discussion during our Board of Appeals process that might have been One of the longer discussions that took place amongst the members and the decision, you know, there was contractors and builders in that group was that they understand that putting a wooden deck on a structure that is not maintained properly, that is not. you know, clear it underneath effectively and can add significant wildfire risk, not just to that structure, but to the entire area. And moving away from wooden desks, wooden decks to either patios or stone features at the time of building, whether it's the concrete pad extends out or just something other than a wooden deck is something that we all agreed was worth moving away from.

So continuing with that conversation, like I just added to my back patio an extension of my, you know, the concrete and then the patio covering, which was wood. If it was an addition like that, of course I didn't get a permit. Never mind. No. That would require, I wouldn't be able to do that today if I did want to do it legally.

You know... In our code, we don't have exemptions for existing buildings to either expand or improve upon wooden decks. It's just we don't even get into it. So if you wanted to add a deck, it would need to comply with the new non-combustible material.

Thank you. That's all the questions I have. I'm going to have some comments afterwards. I want to wait for a public comment, but I do really appreciate the pivoting on the triplex and the fourplexes. I really appreciate that. I had another amendment, but after talking to Lee and getting some emails, I learned another side to it. So I'm not going to bring that one up, but I appreciate all the hard work, especially on the triplex and fourplexes was a big deal. So I really appreciate that. Thank you.

One last comment, we do have the option for people to request an exemption for heavy timber construction. So if somebody did want to build a log cabin of some sort, they can request and we can discuss. But if it's something that's going to increase wildfire risk to those people around them, we would have to have a pretty serious discussion on why would we approve something like that. But we didn't pull that out as not even on the table. So that is something we can discuss with the builder.

All right, we're gonna take public comment. Mark Howitt.

Thank you, Mark Howitt. I've served on your Fire Safety and Board of Appeals for a long time. I resigned at a protest, and we can get into that. But there's several issues here that are going to affect affordable housing. I kind of want to break it down for you really quick. So the IRC and the IBC, adopting the new versions of those are probably going to add 1% to 2% of your cost to built. Not huge. Most of that relates to the snow loads, going from a 60 to 70 pound snow load. Not a big deal there. Where we're going to increase a lot of cost is with the IECC, which is your energy code, and then also with the WUI, which is the Wildland Urban Interface. It's supposed to be an interface where the forest meets the city. But they are wanting to declare the entire city an interface, which defies the meaning of the word interface, obviously. If everything is the interface, then there is no interface. There's so many things in the WUI that are actually going to increase the cost to build anywhere from 20 to even as high as 40% on your cost to build. And while I respect the fire department about the idea about decks not being necessary, that's actually entirely not true. So we build on a lot of slopes out here. I'm a builder. To get to a front door that is 10, 15 feet off the ground, how do you get up there? A deck. Wooden stairs, typically. Trex composite decking. You would have to do an all-metal staircase to get up there. That cost to do all metal in a deck is double, and I've run the numbers twice, is double the cost of a regular deck. The most popular company you've probably heard of, Trex, actually dropped out of the business of doing metal framing, because it just wasn't practical. Nobody was going to pay for it. It was twice as much as wood framing. Also, when you build a residential home, you're supposed to have multiple ways of escaping from the house, front door, back door. Again, when you're on a slope, one of those sides is going to have a deck serving that door to get out. If all the building Lots in Flagstaff were flat, yes, true, you wouldn't need a deck, but were not flat. And a lot of the remaining lots are actually difficult to build on because they are sloped. You do have to have decks. So that's not exactly true by the fire department. Non-combustible materials for siding. That leaves us only with rock, stone, stucco, or cement board siding. Cement board siding, in our business, we charge 20% more for it to install it over regular siding. It's very brittle, it does not work well in high wind areas. It breaks, it blows off. I'm gonna run out of time real quick here. But the biggest concern we have is that the IECC and the WUI, the Wilderness Urban Interface, those are gonna drive up the cost the most. I would recommend that council address each one of these codes separately and vote on them separately. And you may need different amendments than what I already been proposed. I'm out of time. I have a whole list of things I could talk about. But if you have any questions, I am an industry expert in this, ICC member and a builder in town.

Thank you. Jill Stevenson.

Short and sweet. I was here last week when you were doing the work session about the building and energy codes and I was very encouraged that the majority of you were supportive of the Sustainability's Department recommendation that you go with code number two, option number two. And I was even more encouraged that many of you wanted to go with option number three. And I hope that will be in the near future when the sustainability department feels that it is workable. So thank you very much for what you're doing. I appreciate it. I think our climate will appreciate it too.

Thank you. Michelle James.

Hello, Mayor and Council. Michelle James, Executive Director, Friends of Flagstaff's Future. We wrote, FQ brought a letter of support for adopting the IECC report. Our code changes for 2024 last week, and I'm here again tonight to say that we urge the adoption of the IECC conservation code, base code, local appendices, and radon mitigation. Reducing emissions from buildings is critical to meeting Flagstaff's climate goals. Let's remember we have that climate neutrality plan. Adoption of the updated base code is an important step in continuing the trajectory of our climate goals, of our city's climate goals. This updated energy code is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from new buildings by 12 to 20%. while assisting with reduced energy cost in new residential and commercial buildings. City staff have conducted extensive outreach to stakeholders. Very impressed with working with Genevieve and her explaining all of this, which is very complicated and I actually somewhat understand it now. The 2024 energy code was created by national building science experts with a rigorous process. This updated code has been adopted in at least 12 Arizona cities. to date, including Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa, and Tucson. Adoption of the code is in direct support of our carbon neutrality plan. F-Cube urges you to adopt this updated code as proposed. Thank you. Thank you.

Tyler Denim.

Good afternoon. Tyler Denham with Flagstaff for Affordable Housing. I'm mostly here to reiterate my comments from last week and support for the staff proposal. So this process sparked a lot of tense conversations about housing affordability and sustainability. And we feel that staff have done a great job in balancing those two and we do want to see the current proposal go forward. We're especially grateful for all the additional work that went into finding ways to compensate for those costs increase. And I particularly want to call out the rush over the past week to incorporate council member Matthew's suggestion to extend the IBC up to fourplexes. That is a national best practice and can result in fairly significant savings for triplexes and fourplexes. Yeah, happy to see this go forward. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Eli Chamberlain. Mayor, he had to leave. Okay. Council, we had ... Council Member Garcia, you had a comment after public comment?

Yeah, a quick question. Thank you. Mike, I'll start off with the question that came from the comment, and that is if this plan is adopted today, when will the new 2024 updated suite of codes go into effect for the development community?

January 1st, 2027.

Thank you. With the current road construction of John Wesley Powell Boulevard extension now underway, we are on the cusp of what I've always called Flagstaff Part 2, where we will be seeing a massive development in all housing types and development in general. It's important for these codes updates to be present when this substantial infusion of development happens. I'm interested in looking into a stronger efficiency in code for development in the future after the land suitability study and code analysis project has been completed. and we have a better understanding of what makes sense to add into those. But besides that, I support the proposed 2024 suite of code amendments. Thank you.

Thank you. And Sterling, I saw a C.

Yeah, Mayor and Council, if you wanted to move forward tonight with the amendments or to incorporate the amendments as you've discussed, it would just be during the resolution that you would make a motion to read Resolution 2026-47 by title only for the first time with the amendments discussed and approved by Council this evening. And I can put that in the chat so you can have the language.

Thank you. Council Member House.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to say thank you to everyone that presented tonight on this. I know a lot of work has gone into pulling all of this together, and I'm particularly impressed by the amendments that were made to clarify on triplex and fourplex development and other considerations that were clearly put in over the past week. I think it's very reflective of the engaged process that was gone through on all of this, to listen not only to council discussion, but also broader community conversations that were continuing beyond that session. I know that there was a letter we received from the Arizona Multi-Housing Association. I'm not sure who this question would be for, but I'm wondering if considerations about the the particular impacts or what they called disparate implications for multifamily development were taken into consideration as well. I see Genevieve getting up. As part of the amendments that were being brought forward.

Sure, and can you remind me which, I know they had a couple of points. Are you talking about EVs or just other things just generally?

I don't remember all of them either. I know one of them was EB perceived as a requirement and there were a couple other things as well, but any consideration that was given to that, I think it's just the core question there.

Sure thing. Yeah. So one thing I did want to clarify, let's see, where was it? Let's see, what should I put up here? Okay. Number one. not to go into too many details, but I mentioned last time that for the EV charging requirements, most of them were for EV-capable spaces. So that's just the conduit underneath the parking spaces, not the electrical infrastructure. And so in their letter, they were citing the requirements in the commercial code, but we actually have slightly less lower requirements in the residential code to make the residential energy code. So that's one thing that multifamily can benefit from. more EV-capable spaces, fewer EV-ready spaces. So that lowers costs there. So that's one thing to clear up. They also mentioned exceptions for EV charging for multifamily. I believe they mentioned them being for single but not multifamily, but they're actually just for multifamily, not for single family. So in that way, those help reduce the cost potentially of building EV charging spaces if those exceptions are met. I can pull up the letter if you want a little more detail, but I'd have to grab my computer. But basically, we just overall, we really did try to just think through where can we balance costs. And I think one big point is that by allowing multifamily to use the residential energy code instead of the commercial code if they want to, so they really have the option to use either one, there are a lot of opportunities to lower costs there. And then I think in addition with the triplex and fourplex amendments, that gives an additional... For those building types, they have the option of doing the IBC or the IRC. And if they go in the IRC, then they can have access to some of those appendices that were originally made for one and two family dwellings, but that can apply to triplexes and fourplexes. So I think generally, we did try to build in as much as we can to kind of provide flexibility for different developments.

Thank you so much. Yeah, that answered the question really well. Okay, go ahead, Neil.

Oh, I just wanted to add, because I know in that letter they mentioned concerns about our WUI code as well. There's economies of scale there, building up versus building out. So we would probably see significant cost savings per unit in the implementation of our code in a multifamily housing construction method compared to a normal home. So cost savings if you know we're building out a siding package that's actually cheaper right now it's going to be even cheaper if you're building higher instead of out one roof instead of multiple roofs fewer gutter costs and then we did receive a letter I think you guys just received it before the meeting but. Justice Jones, who's the Senior Fire Disaster Mitigation Program Manager at International Code Council, we work closely with him, and he sent us the info saying that the one to two percent building cost increase is predicted to be stable for a multi-family as well, if not decreasing a little bit. We try not to over-promise, but it should be per unit even a little bit less.

Thank you very much. That's helpful additional context, because I think overall, like the main, you got the letter, didn't you?

I forgot about something, but I'll let you finish.

Yeah, just the main reason I asked that question and was going into that was just, to reiterate that so much thoughtfulness has gone into this process and the engagement of different voices along the way and different considerations and really looking at the broader picture of the implications of adopting this code, how it applies to sustainability, affordability, the development of new housing and other things within our community and so forth, I think is very telling of the work that you all have done to bring this forward. And I'm just very deeply appreciative of all of that. Please.

Let me add just one more detail I forgot. Let me go. I did add another slide. I did mention radon, and so I just wanted to clarify. I did research this a while ago, but just clarify that the EPA does not recommend soil testing for radon to determine whether a home should be built radon resistant. It just can't really accurately predict what a home will be like after it's built, and it can be quite costly because multiple tests need to happen. One of the things that per the EPA, it's a lot, you know, we mentioned it's a lot easier to build in those radon mitigation features at construction. So that's single family and multifamily. And I just talked about them being more effective too and more aesthetically pleasing in terms of where they can be placed. And so, you know, single family, the proposed amendments include those radon mitigation features for single family and multifamily. For single family also requires a test. So basically anything under the IRC, so single to four units, requires a radon test to make sure that that this mitigation is working. And if it's not, it does require a fan. Again, the idea is that a fan isn't going to be installed most of the time. And the amendment for multifamily actually doesn't require the testing. So it is actually a little bit less in multifamily than single family, just because that's what's in the codes and that's what the experts are recommending. So just wanted to clarify that as well. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor.

Vice Mayor. Thank you, I just had a couple of comments. Thank you again to staff. I do really appreciate that you've worked on finding a balance with safety, sustainability, affordability, so I really appreciate that. This wasn't easy. As we move from 2018 codes to the 2024 codes, I would love a way for builders and contractors to be able to give us feedback and for us to be able to respond to them because this is, you know, it's a jump and I would like to be sure that we have open dialogue on what's working and what's not working and what maybe some consequences are and how we can better things Thank you for working on Last Cap and bringing small things to us as we go. Time is of the essence, and I think that that's really valuable, and we did it tonight. Thank you, Tiffany, again. And finally, you know, we did declare a housing and a climate emergency. And I think finding the balance is crucial. So for me, that means urgency, having measurable results, and a willingness to adjust when something isn't working. And I think that we are definitely doing that. So thank you again for all of your work.

May I say one thing? This is actually for Councilmember House and Councilmember Sweet. This morning we had a Grand Canyon chapter meeting for the Arizona building officials, and we are actively working on a training program that we will be starting to provide up here in November. This will be for our design community, our contractors, as well as any other individuals that would like to attend this. So that will be coming up very soon. We are working on a curriculum and getting some instructors. So I just wanted to follow up with that.

Thank you. I appreciate you adding that on. Council Member Matthews.

Thank you, Mayor. Michelle, I just want to thank you and your team and the whole staff that worked on this. But to bring the conversation back from last week about Last Cap, As it was stated last week, and one of the speakers made mention, there are some council members that want option on the energy code three and four. And that is fine, and I've been pretty steady on saying I'm 100% for full efficiency if it doesn't impact the cost of housing. I have a gas car, don't have the money for an EV car. I live in a fairly modern house, but I can't afford a full efficiency house. Housing is our number one emergency. And so I am thankful that through, since February, we have had really robust conversations about keeping this at option two, which is still an impact to our housing cost. Housing affordability is our number one emergency. We have two emergencies. but I'm told time and time again, we can have both and I believe that, but putting the cart before the horse and doing anything more than we did today, which is already a bump, would disregard the balance in making sure that we can offset these increased building costs with other processes to help offset that because that is our biggest struggle and it's been the biggest struggle for decades. I appreciate you saying that out loud here again tonight. And housing affordability, all this is comfort and safety and all that stuff, but people have to be able to get into the house. So thank you so much for all of that work. I really appreciate it, and I appreciate you saying this in a public forum where our citizens can hear that. that we will prioritize that before we even consider any other upgrades to our energy code options and have that information, so thank you.

If I can, thank you for that, and I want to thank you all for having the conversation with us this whole time. I kind of feel like we've been remiss to note, and I should have noted it when I spoke, that Well Housing isn't sitting up front, they're here in the room. Jen Michaelson is here, Sarah Dar is online, They're part of this conversation, whether we're talking about last cap or the building code, and they are actively part of what we are doing moving forward. And so I just really wanted to make it abundantly clear that the team who has been working on this, which includes planning, building, safety, sustainability, housing, is the team that is moving forward as we make all of these changes. So the band is staying together. Thanks.

Good news.

All right, I'm looking for a motion.

Mayor, I'll move that we read resolution number 2026-46, I mean, I'm sorry, 2026-24 by title only for the first time.

Sorry, that was 202647, correct?

I was reading your notes. Oh, sorry. 47. Yes, okay. I move that we read resolution number 2026-47 by title only, including the amendments that were discussed tonight with council. Is that good enough?

And approved.

And approved. And approved by council for the first time.

I'll second.

Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? City clerk?

A resolution of the Flagstaff City Council declaring as a public record that certain document filed with the city clerk and entitled the 2024 suite of building and fire codes and related amendments to city code title four building regulations and title five fire code, which includes the following codes as amended. The International Building Code, 2024 edition. International Residential Code, 2024 edition. International Existing Building Code, 2024 edition. International Mechanical Code, 2024 edition. International Plumbing Code, 2024 edition. International Fuel Gas Code, 2024 edition. International Energy Conservation Code, 2024 edition. International Swimming Pool and Spa Code, 2024 edition. NFPA 70-National Electrical Code 2023 Edition, ICC A117.1-2017 Standard for Accessible and Usable Buildings and Facilities, Uniform Housing Code 1997 Edition, Uniform Administrative Code 1997 Edition, Uniform Code for the Abatement of Dangerous Buildings 1997 Edition, International Fire Code 2024 Edition, International Wildland Urban Interface Code 2024 Edition, and the related amendments to City Code Title IV Building Regulations and Title V Fire Code as amended.

Is that it? All right, so the ordinance reads just as it does in the agenda. Who would like to make that motion?

Mayor, I'll move that we read ordinance number 2026-24 by title only for the first time.

I'll second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Aye.

Here you go. Here we go again. An ordinance of the city council of the city of Flagstaff amending the Flagstaff city code title four building regulations and title five fire code by adopting by reference that certain document entitled the 2024 suite of building and fire codes and related amendments to city code title four building regulations. and Title V fire code, and fixing the effective date of the codes and amendments, repealing all sections of the city code in conflict with this ordinance, preserving rights and duties that have already matured and proceedings that have already begun under the prior codes, providing penalties for violations, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date.

Thank you. All right, we'll move down to B, consideration and adoption of resolution 202645 regarding the curbside management plan.

Good evening, honorable mayor, vice mayor, and council members. Are we waiting for vice mayor's suite? No, okay. Hello, sorry, I was distracted. I'm Gail Brockman. I'm your parking manager for the city of Flagstaff. This next item on the agenda that we have is a reading for adoption of a new curbside management plan. For the past nine months, We have been working with an amazing consultant team, Dixon Resources Unlimited, to assess all of our current operations, gather and analyze data. We've engaged with the community as well as internal partners to develop a plan and recommendations. This evening, I do believe we have two members still hanging in there from Dixon Resources Unlimited to present the curbside plan for you. It's going to be Vanessa Soulsby. And then she does have team members, it looks like, to answer questions if we have those at the end. So we'll get right to it.

Great. Thanks so much, Gail. Good evening, mayor and council members. Unfortunately, or fortunately, it is just me this evening. My other team member, our data lead, Cameron Clark, had to hop off the call only a few minutes ago. to pick up his newborn from childcare. So it'll just be me this evening, but I want to say on behalf of our entire team that's been working on the curbside management plan, thank you very much for your consideration of this item. Our time together this evening will include a brief recap of our project goals, our scope of work, our project timeline and process, information, all of which we covered in more detail back at our work session in May. I will spend a bit more time talking about the data collection and results of our data collection efforts. That was in process when we last visited with you. And then we'll wrap up and talk about our recommendations, which are largely unchanged from our work session discussion However, we have made some refinements based on stakeholder input and our final rounds of data collection. Next slide, please. We can go ahead and skip right on to the next one. Thanks so much, Gail. So just to quickly recap the goals of our project, as your consultant, partners, and team, we were tasked with three distinct goals, the first of which was to evaluate the existing Park Flag program, as Gail mentioned, to do an operational assessment, to look at use of technology, policies, and asset management. We were also asked to look at curbside access and to define strategies to help optimize that space for the benefit of all users. And finally, to make sure that we were doing our work within the context of the community, providing opportunities for input wherever possible from a variety of stakeholders. Next slide, please. This slide is an attempt to provide an overview of that nine-month process that Gail mentioned. You'll see a note at the top. Our intention was to wrap up and finalize our plan a bit earlier this summer, near the time that we presented as our work session. However, I'm really grateful to the city staff and to our process to allow for additional time to both collect one more round of data that got into more of your summer season, as well as to have a conversation with some of your commissioners, as well as members of the DBA Board of Directors. We feel that the information learned in both of those efforts was included to provide a better final product as part of this planning effort. We did kick off our project in earnest at the end of last year. We were on site to conduct an operational assessment that included a wide range of activities from job shadowing staff, performing a desk audit of all of your existing programs and policies, We had some initial stakeholder touch points and soon thereafter began collecting parking data, just looking at where folks are parking, how long they were staying and how full both your on and off street parking assets were. Throughout the spring, we looked at your existing technology, We had multiple stakeholder touch points, both in person and online, and then we wrapped up with some additional data collection and engagement this summer after we visited with you all at the work session in May. Next slide, please. Since we did a deeper dive into these three key tasks back in May, we didn't want to not include them, but I also did not want to repeat a lot of the same information we've already visited with you about. But again, those three key tasks we touched on in detail back in May were the curbside needs assessment, again, the job shadowing, staff interviews, the desk review of existing policies and programs, Stakeholder engagement was dotted throughout the process, kicked off again in December. We had a project steering committee that included city staff and members of the DBA staff. We also had some in-person engagement with some members of the DBA, as well as some conversations with companies that provide local services, so commercial delivery services. Uh, we also had a, the, uh, city's first, uh, parking experience questionnaire went out online, had just shy of 500 responses. Um, and then we did a, um, hosted a couple of conversations in late June, um, with, uh, we invited the, uh, several members of different city commissions, um, as well as we visited with the DBA board of directors, as I previously mentioned. And finally, our technology review. We looked at your mobile payment technology, pay stations, the handheld devices that are used during enforcement, just to take a look at what is currently being used in any plans for the future. Next slide, please. When we visited back in May with you all at the work session, we were just getting going on our data collection efforts for our second round. We did collect data in the winter, but we also understood and understand the importance of seasonality. My own personal experience, as I mentioned, last time managing parking, transit and fleet services for a resort community, understanding how important the seasonal shifts can be for the parking experience for both residents and visitors. And so we wanted to make sure that we collected data in the summer as well. And so we collected data across the downtown and south side neighborhood areas, park flags, service area on and off street. We looked at permit areas, we looked at any unregulated areas where there's free parking, loading zones, and we collected data, again, looking at parking occupancy and turnover at 9am, noon, 3pm and 6pm. And again, those data collection rounds really focus on the winter, December and January. We started a what I would say late spring, early summer collection in May, and then, as I referenced earlier, made a kind of game time decision to collect additional data in June and July based on what we were seeing in May. And we also included some historical data that was provided by Park Flagstaff in the year of 2023 just to try and get more year round information. Next slide, please. So the next two slides are going to show the winter collection again that December January collection period and then the next slide will show you the summer collection period and what I want to note for you Mayor and Council this evening is you will see on the left side of the slide you will see some numbers related to on and off street occupancy. On the right hand side, you'll see a map showing different colors of that occupancy. And what we look at as an industry is an 85% threshold of if parking creeps up around that 85% occupied. So it means that to the average parking consumer like you and me, if we go to a parking block face, so a block downtown, is there a space available for me? Typically, if you get over that 85% occupied threshold, it's really hard to find that space. And so as an industry, we have adopted the 85% threshold as where we try and keep parking below that. And if it goes higher than that, that's when we tend to start to look at additional management strategies. And so what you'll see with the coloration of the map is Anything that say, you know, in the blue or in the green, that means there's plenty of available parking. It doesn't happen until you get into the orange or the red coloration or the yellow and the orange coloration that things start to feel a little tighter. And as you can see from your slide in the winter collection, which we're showing all of the times collected, so the 9 a.m., the noon, the 3 p.m., and the 6 p.m. are all together in that colored graphic. That color variation that you see, where there's a little bit of red, a little bit of orange, but still plenty of green and blue, that indicates from just a quick snapshot that there are spaces available. Even if there's busy areas a block or two away, there's a space for you as the next parking customer. So when we look at this slide and we look at the winter, we were not seeing anything that indicated to us that additional management was needed beyond what was currently happening with your existing program. Conversely, if you go to the next slide, Gail, and we look at the summer collection, you're going to start to see some of that red and the orangish yellowish color tend to peak in a little bit more, especially on Friday and Saturday and towards the evening hours. And so, What we like to see, as I mentioned when we visited previously, is we like to see colors on our map. We like to see if there is higher occupancy within a few blocks away, is there available parking, some of the greens or blues or even some of the yellows. So we really like to see a variety of different coloration when we're looking at these occupancy maps. The one other thing that we looked at with our data collection it's not only how full are your facilities or how available the facilities are. it's how long folks are staying once they come in parks, we look at turnover, which is incredibly important for a commercial district, because if spaces are remaining occupied all day. then that means there's not a space for the next parking customer. And so we looked at the length of stay, which ranged in the summer was slightly over two hours up to the winter. You were seeing longer lengths of stay in the downtown area. So you are seeing turnover and churn with some localized hotspots of high occupancy above or at that 85% threshold. that we like to see in, especially in a vibrant commercial district like downtown Flagstaff. Next slide, please. So everything that we learned from our curbside assessment, our stakeholder engagement, and our data collection, all of that information feeds into the recommendations that we shared with you back in May. But what I want to do over the next few slides before leaving plenty of time for questions and comments is I want to share some things that were refined based on what we learned in that later spring, early summer data collection, and also what we heard in our conversations with some of your commissioners and the DBA board. Next slide, please. The first of our seven recommendation areas is operational enhancement and personnel development. This is, in my opinion, really the foundation of the plan. and i've highlighted two items here that we did share with you previously however they have been um i would say refined for the better again based on these additional few months that we've been working on our project with your very capable staff and i want to say um before i share a bit of flavor with the recommendations when we look at your operation i think your staff should be very, very proud of the operation that they are running. They are obviously very customer focused and very community driven and have service at the very core of what they do. They understand that in order to do their jobs effectively, what the number two bullet point on the slide is, they really need to recruit and retain the best parking aid staff that they can to effectively regulate and manage the assets that you currently have. And they understand that. And that is something that they take a lot of pride in recruiting and retraining really capable customer focused staff people. And I think that is something that we really need to highlight and continue to support them in their efforts to make sure that they can manage and monitor your existing on and off street assets as effectively as possible. The second thing is I cannot impress upon you as mayor and council this evening, something that I know your staff knows well, which is the collection of regular parking utilization data. That is really, really the foundation for everything else that your program is built on top of. And I know a lot of thought went into creating the program back in 2017. I've read the documentation and the vision was very clear and it was really in line with parking management best practices. And The one tweak that we would suggest after working with your team is just to continue to collect regular winter, spring, summer, and fall data year over year to understand any changes, any patterns, and to really call attention to areas where you want to make sure that you are pricing your parking effectively, whether it's pay to park or permits. making sure that you understand all of the different types of spaces and how they're being utilized. I think it's important to call out that we'll be adding the monitoring of ADA space utilization and turnover as its own category. That's very important to see how those spaces are used, how long FERCs are staying, and to include that in your bigger data picture. And I think that the last thing I'll say on this is, again, just congratulations to your team for their customer focus, for their drive towards operational excellence, to their documentation of their business practices, their training, and their communication. I think that we talk with a lot of parking programs, municipal, university across the country. Your team is doing a really great job. Next slide, please. Under technology and equipment, there is one adjustment to our recommendations that I wanna highlight for you this evening. When we were last together, our top recommendation was to address required pay station compliance updates with investment in some of the more customer focused technology improvements, for instance, touchscreen technology. And we were really focused in on trying to help staff determine and understand the best way that you could extend the life of your existing assets. And really, you have pay stations that are about 10 years old to make sure that if we need to make required payment regulation updates next year, can we also loop in some customer-friendly improvements and just extend the life of the existing pay stations However, over the past few months, again, the great benefit of some additional time with the project, some additional challenges related to pay station operability and reliability, the user interface, some back office challenges for your team have been raised, and we have shifted our recommendations and are encouraging staff to consider replacement instead of retrofitting. This is a process that would need to be done with great care through RFP, but we want to make sure that we're not just looking at what's right ahead of us. Yes, in 2027, there's required payment upgrades to the pay stations that you have currently that has to be made, but I don't want to get tripped up on the short-term fix. and look at a long-term investment. If you're going to spend money, looking at the pros and cons of making a, yes, more expensive, but longer-term investment could really benefit the customers in the long run and have technology that is more reliable, easier to utilize, and a better investment for the future. So that's one. adjustment that I'd like to bring your attention to this evening. Next slide, please. For the accessibility and infrastructure recommendations, we do not have any adjustments or refinements. However, I did want to take a brief minute to extend our appreciation to the Commission on Inclusion and Adaptive Living and Barrier Free Flagstaff Commissioners joined us in June for a really productive conversation about a number of items that are not on this slide, but I wanted to highlight them for you this evening. In addition to making sure that we are calling out data collection needs and the utilization of your existing ADA spaces. We also. talked with stakeholders about including the number and location of ADA parking spaces on the park flag website, which I know has been done. And then I know staff are working on identifying if there are additional opportunities to add on street locations for parking and van unloading for ADA spaces. And so there's a number of things happening behind the scenes that I wanted to flag here tonight. Next slide, please. The next two slides, I believe, do not have additional refinements to note, but I did want to just recap quickly. The customer experience recommendations are all centered around making sure that staff is regularly engaging with and proactively reaching out to customers, whether it's talking about ways to increase the convenience of mobile app adoption, continuing to do a regular customer touchpoint and then using the results from those surveys to monitor success in program and policy adjustments. I know that Park Flag has already shared information on their website about their parking and traffic uh, investments for the community enhancements. Um, I Bravo, I think that looks really great and getting the word out about how, um, they are supporting the greater good downtown. And again, just partnering with existing resources to make sure that the word is getting out about what parking options exist from free to paid, how they can be accessed, um, with a special focus on seasonal visitation. Next slide, please. For signage and wayfinding, these recommendations also center around alleviating and removing any anxiety around where can I park, how long can I stay, and is this public parking? I think there are some quick wins as well as some longer-term investments to help really ensure that if anyone is coming to downtown Flagstaff, They know what parking is public and available to them, how long they can stay, how much it's going to cost, and whether that's for a regular parking event, coming down to grab a cup of coffee, or going to a special event or something happening downtown. All of the signage and those visual cues for both motorists and then motorists transitioning into pedestrians should be consistent and branded with the park flag branding. And next slide, please. The one item I wanted to highlight under policy and program development that has been not necessarily refined, but it's been it's evolving based on not only what we learned in our later rounds of data collection, but also in some conversations with members of the Sustainability Commission and Strong Towns. who we also want to appreciate or extend our appreciation to for their participation in our open house. I think that those conversations for us really just drove home the importance of collecting regular seasonal data and then using that data year over year to define a transparent and predictable process for making adjustments to the program, whether that is Looking at different pricing, I do realize a new rate adjustment just went into effect. But again, the time to start thinking about future policies and programs is right now because as many of you probably know and your staff knows well, parking management is a very fluid exercise and things change. Whether that is the busiest areas because of a new development, whether that is the hours of operation because things in your downtown are shifted or there's more student activity in places. It's a constantly evolving, almost living organism. And so that collection of data will provide you with that year over year outlook on which areas need to be managed more, which areas may need to be managed less. And if you did want to look at different types of pricing strategies in the future, that data is really your foundation for having those conversations. And the last thing I'll say on that front is making significant program changes like adjusting pricing or moving to something where you have different pricing strategies, that is ultimately a city council decision. And so we have encouraged staff to continue, if they are able to continue to collect data, to share that information with you all as city leadership, and with the public. So it is a very transparent process. What's being collected, why it's being collected, how it's changing, and to allow everybody that's interested to have access to that information and understand the decision making process. And then finally, next slide, please. I want to wrap up with curb management. And we are really, we continue to recommend a balanced approach to curb management. Several of our recommendations were supported by stakeholder input, including, we were well discussed in May, making sure that if we do have additional 15-minute zones, that they are in the right locations, that we're not removing existing loading zones. and that we have increased communication and monitoring from our park flag parking aids to ensure that spaces that are marked for loading or that are marked for ADA use are effectively monitored. So those spaces can be used for the folks that need those access for unloading, et cetera. And then the final note is, maybe a higher level note about the intention of this plan. This plan was designed not to be something that is read and implemented front to back in a very linear order. Parking management, again, it is a little bit more art than science. And our goal was to provide your very capable staff team with a playbook of recommendations that are tailored to your existing program today where you may want to head in the future and that will allow them the opportunity as you know the individuals who work in and know the ins and outs of parking and curb access in Flagstaff every single day your staff knows that and you all know that and your community knows that better than anyone we want to make sure that this plan is flexible enough so it can be reviewed, it can be prioritized, and it can be utilized in a way that makes the most sense for your community. And that is how it was designed. Again, with our background and experience working with communities across the country, but also with several practitioners and former agency managers working on your team to create something that is actionable and implementable for your staff team. So with that, again, thank you very much for your time. I would be happy to answer any questions and also would defer to Gail and or David in that process as well. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Vanessa. All right, we do have some questions. Do you have anything that you would like to add, Gail?

No, I do not. Vanessa is an amazing, she's been an amazing, the whole group has been an amazing consultant team and we've really enjoyed working with them and them sharing their expertise with us.

All right, first up we have Council Member House.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Gail. Thank you as well. So a few of us had an opportunity to participate recently in a conversation with the Southside neighborhood. And I noted at the beginning of the presentation that a lot of the study was focused around the downtown and Southside parking. One of the things that came up in that conversation was the neighborhood impact when The south side is essentially utilized as a free parking option versus downtown with downtown benefiting from the programming while south side may bear some of that parking burden without any of the benefit. I'm wondering how that kind of presented itself or if it presented itself in the research that was done. Um, so what exactly did the research show about that utilization? Um, and are there recommendations within this plan that take this into consideration?

Thank you. Council member house. That's a great question actually. Um, unfortunately our study time period did not include a lot of when any students. were there. I know that NAU students, I don't want to throw anyone under the bus, but I know that it's parked by a lot of students that live off campus and they're looking to go to campus and they're parking in that area. I do think that the numbers that we did collect did not paint the whole picture as far as NAU students are here and they're present. We've collected data in the past, the study data is different a little bit than what we've looked at in the past, and we did share that with Dixon Resources. But just from a team, a Park Flag perspective, we do see the difference when NAU is in session versus when NAU is out of session and the students are utilizing the free parking in the area. And we do our best, right now it's a busy time for Park Flag parking aids to help educate the students in the manner, not only the manner that they're parking, but where they're parking. We do a lot of warnings and a lot of education down on the south side when school is back in session. We do still have our residential program in place that is a program, if you're familiar, through a petition process where block by block residents can petition to have a zone created and implemented and managed on their street. at no cost to the residents. So we understand and we understood at the beginning of the implementation of the program that we were gonna see some pushing out more people in the residential zones looking for free parking. So we do our best to let residents know we do handle a lot of residential phone calls, questions, complaints, the whole gamut. We try to keep the residents informed that we do have this It is extremely difficult, I do believe, in that some residents still live in the house that they own on the south side. Some residents are rentals. They're property owners that live in other states, that live in Phoenix maybe. So it's difficult for them to understand the situation. So when it comes to that petition process, it is difficult. But that is available, and we thought maybe we would see an increase of parkers in those residential areas all over the district with the increase in the parking rate. And it's been nice because we haven't seen the increase like we thought we were gonna see. We do see the students back parking in the residential zones, but we're not seeing a lot of other parkers in those zones. So hopefully that answers your question.

It does. Thank you so much. And apologies, Vanessa, I meant to say thank you to you as well. I just blanked on your name for a second at the beginning. But thank you as well for the information and presentation.

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Council Member House. And to wrap around Gail's comments, I believe that you know, at a few times during our planning process, we outreached to Southside Neighborhood Group and were unable, unfortunately, to connect with them. However, the good news is that the plan, again, is really, really flexible in that it recommends that we need to collect additional data, have additional stakeholder conversations so we can really hone in on areas that need additional management. And while Gail is absolutely right with the data that we collected, even into the summer, we still saw fairly low average occupancies in those areas. We are not seeing the full picture. And I think that the plan allows enough flexibility to really focus in on the south side, the areas south of Route 66 as almost their own study, like micro study area to make sure that the you know, the residential permit program, the monitoring, the hours of operation really fit that neighborhood, which my colleague and I walked almost every street multiple times during our visits. It feels very different than the commercial area north of 66. And so I think the plan provides flexibility and direction on how to hone in on specific strategies that would be appropriate for the mix of residential campus, really fun, you know, bars and restaurants in that area versus trying to lump it in with the areas, the really heavily commercial areas north of 66. So I appreciate the comment and think that the plan provides for further, more nuanced study going forward.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor.

Vice Mayor. Thank you. I've been downtown pretty much every day for the last 25 years, so I love this conversation. Vanessa, I'm wondering, and I had to step away for a second, can you go over again the 15-minute flex zone? Is that for unloading and loading, or is it for a customer who wants to zip in and get a cup of coffee?

Yes. In short, thank you, Vice Mayor, for the question. Yes, the intention of the zone is to be very flexible. We heard from during a number of our stakeholder conversations that the additional or the addition of some 15 minute drop in drop out areas would be useful in the downtown and it would be additional areas that we would not be recommending to remove any existing or move an existing loading zones. And Gail, I don't know if you have other thoughts on that particular question.

Yes, I'd love to make sure I answered it. Since you're familiar with all things COVID downtown, they would be similar to what we had during COVID, our 20 minute pickup zones. So they wouldn't be specifically for whatever business they were in front. They would, in front of, but they would be intended for anybody that planned on any sort of drop off, pick up, run in, sign some paperwork, grab a coffee type of business downtown. So it would be very similar to those 20 minute zones that we had previously.

I know we've had a lot of community input that those would be helpful, and I agree, so thank you. And hopefully there's a lot of robust conversation about that, and it can happen soon. And I just wanted to comment on the parking aids. They are wonderful. However, we don't often have them filled, the positions filled. And this poses such a a weird, interesting tug and pull because we met with a business and they had an employee that got a warning and they were frustrated that they got a warning because they had been parking in the same spot for months and hadn't gotten a warning until we hired new parking aids that were going out and now we have the staff to give the warnings and the tickets. And I just think we're doing a very big disservice to this program when we don't have the continuity and we're losing revenue, we're frustrating our people that are parking. So I'm really glad that this was part of the study. And I know it's not easy, but I'm glad we're looking at it and trying to see how we can get them to stay and have that continuity and hopefully retain the parking aids.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Sweet, for saying nice things about our parking aids. And yes, it is very difficult to manage the 64 square blocks with essentially one parking aid right now. I have my lead parking aid hard at work answering emails and phone calls and then gets out when they're able to. So you never really know where we're going to be. We could be at the airport. We could be south side, north side. but I am excited to say that we have a new parking aid starting today. So we are up one more, and we are definitely in the process of hiring one more full-time and possibility part-time. We'd love to see some weekend-specific parking aids getting out there and doing some more ambassadorship over the weekends.

There you go. And if I could just add real quickly, we wanted to thank the council and city leadership for in our last budget cycle, we did ask if we could create a second tier of parking aid, which will allow for some growth in the process. So where we had parking aid one, we now have parking aid one and two. That means that some of our more experienced staff can actually get that bump up as they get certifications, as they get more experience. Really hoping and I think we're seeing already some benefit to retention as well as just creating that sort of path so we've also been working a little bit with our partners in PD to Talk about how the background check can work because as some of you may know Becoming a parking aid is it takes a significant amount of background check because they are law enforcement in some way they're civilian officers within law enforcement. And so that process takes a long time for folks that are competing in the wage market with some other entities that don't take any time. And so that has been a challenge, but we really are grateful that council and leadership were able to help us to create that pathway for the parking aids and I really think that's going to make a difference over time I do feel for Gail she is constantly recruiting and interviewing and and that makes it hard to work on some of the bigger questions because so much of that time goes to interviewing but I think we're making progress we appreciate your help and we're going to continue with the recommendations from Dixon to look at ways to make that even better as the years go forward but it has been a challenge

Thank you, I appreciate you commenting on that, and I do wanna say that even though we have a lower staff right now, they are everywhere, even if it's just the one. I see the parking aids everywhere, so I'm just grateful that they're doing such a great job, thank you. Council Member Garcia.

Oh, thank you, madam mayor. And, um, I, my question is the second biggest question that I get as a council member, the first being, can you put a police officer in my front of my house? So that way nobody speeds up and down my road. The second biggest question I get as a council member, surprisingly enough is, um, and I'll, I'll rephrase it a little bit, but what is the expectation of community members that run into kiosks that are not working when they show up there?

Yes, that is, um, that's a very good question. Thank you. Council member Garcia. The kiosks should work. The kiosks should work, right? We're paying a vendor for the kiosk to work. But unfortunately, their communication issues, they run like giant cell phones, so they drop phone calls. There are some kiosks located near the train tracks where sometimes the train interferes with communications. But I don't want to make excuses for why the kiosks don't work. Sometimes they don't. When they're not working, they should be displaying, you know, please use next kiosk. And I understand that that can be extremely frustrating as well because you're walking from block face to block face to pay to park. So we are definitely, you know, we recommend if you see a parking aid and you have a chance, go ahead and let them know what's going on. You know, we can try to help them out as best that we can. You know, some people may say, hey, I'm going to use the app, but I have to go inside.

I also want to help Gail with this because this is something I've been dealing with a lot. And we are going to be adding some stickers, Mayor and Council Member, that gives somebody an ability to call and let us know that it's not working. They also get a report every morning where they get any malfunctions on a kiosk. It's the first thing they're doing every morning is going out and fixing it. that malfunction. If a kiosk cannot be fixed, they're hooding it so that someone knows, oh, I can't even, I'm not even going to walk over there and use that kiosk. I'm going to go to the next one. And I apologize. I didn't introduce myself. Heidi Hansen, economic fatality director. I just wanted to help. Gail know because I've been speaking with her and Dave a lot about it this past year, and these are some of the things we're gonna do to resolve that issue. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Heidi. I think that'll be really beneficial to have that sticker on there for people to have a better understanding. And I've had community members say things like, well, I just took a picture of the error on the kiosk and moved on with my life because I don't have time to walk around the neighborhood. looking for stuff. So I let them know that they were still probably not in compliance. But that's just what I'm hearing from the street. And I just wanted to pass that along to you guys. I'm sure you guys are well aware of it. But thank you for that clarification and creating solutions that will help us in the future.

I would like to add to that. We do have a website. I mean, not a website, but an email address, parkflag at flagsfaz.gov. And we appreciate all phone calls, emails, let us know. I know the visitors aren't gonna know, but we appreciate the photos because then we know exactly where we need to go because not all communication errors are reported to the back office. So sometimes it's based on whether or not our parking aids are out there and they see a light flashing on the kiosk because it might not be a reported instance. So we love all of the information, the communication. We are open to avoiding citations, reducing citations to warnings. and just helping people figure out how to pay maybe the next time. So yeah, we're very open to being ambassadors more so than ticket writers. So thank you.

I know Gil has a bunch of us helping, hopefully helping. I wanted to also mention that one of the things that we've talked with Dixon about is text to pay and various other payment sources. We're also looking to move to a different app. I think there's been some complaints about the previous app. And one of the ways that we can help address when a kiosk is down is by people using the app more. You probably saw in the recommendations that pushing, once we get the app dialed in and it's working well, we'll be doing something of a campaign to help get more use of the app because the app's going to be, no matter where you are in the parking district, you can function with that But we're also looking at text-to-pay and some of these other functional areas, too. So not only the checking the kiosks every morning, not only the hooding, not only the sticker, which IT, I believe, is actually helping to create a text box, which will be able to receive a text telling us from a customer immediately that they're having a problem with the kiosk so we can get out there. We're still working on the tech with that. But these other methods of payment that can make it easier for folks as well because we know convenience is key.

I'd also like to add to that. ParkMobile will be our new parking payment app. We're just a few days of testing away from implementing that and going to our public outreach to let everyone know that we will keep Flowbird for a little while. So if you love Flowbird, continue to use it. But we'll be phasing over to ParkMobile as our new parking payment app in the near future.

Awesome. I can't wait to download that app myself and use it. Thank you.

I think that no one loves Flow Bird, but I could be wrong. Council Member House.

I actually really like Flow Bird, but it's for the reason that I'm going to ask about, which is payment methods. So will the Park Mobile app have that extensive range of payment methods? And I ask that because the reason that I use the Flow Bird app over the kiosk is My bank switched to the bank card is Discover and the kiosks don't take Discover cards. So I was having to pay with a credit card every time I wanted to pay or park downtown versus just being able to pay with my bank card. So does the new app have like a full range of payment options?

Yes, they should have the full range including Google Pay, Apple Pay. We'll have the text to pay and that will all be through the new park mobile vendor.

For the new pay stations, are those budgeted for this fiscal year or are you asking for it for next fiscal year?

Good question. Thank you, Mayor. We have money budgeted over the next two years to do upgrades. So we do have a small amount of money to do upgrades to our kiosks. So we could use that to do what our vendor calls a rip and replace, our current vendor. So what... We could start going out with an RFP. We could work with our current vendor. They do have updated kiosks that they could provide us. And they have provided us with a quote on what that would look like to remove our current kiosks and replace them with updated touchscreen kiosks with 5G modems and upgraded solar panels and the whole nine yards. So we do have money allocated for upgrading the kiosks. we could move from just upgrading that front panel, which is what we had intended on doing, to upgrading the whole machine. But we will, to add to that, if we want to replace all 100, now if we look at replacing fewer kiosks, and we have a smaller kiosk footprint and move more towards the mobile app, we could save money there. But if we are looking to replace all 100 kiosks, we are gonna need to rebudget for that.

Thank you. And I would imagine that some enforcement would get tense when you have like people who are parked to unload things or whatever and your parking aids are asking them to move along or telling them they're not in the right place or whatever. So is there additional, training for them or is there no conflict and they don't ever have to come face-to-face?

I wish I could say there was no conflict. Unfortunately, they do see conflict. We do take advantage of several different training opportunities throughout the year. One of those is through the Southwestern that swapped a Southwestern Parking and Transportation Association. They offer frontline training every year and that is usually in Phoenix so it's easy for us to get to and participate in that. So I send new staff especially to that training every year where they talk about de-escalation. They talk about frontline enforcement for more of an ambassador type position instead of just writing citations. So we do participate. In that yearly, there's a bigger conference that do have breakouts for our frontline professionals. So we attend those when we can. And then we also use IPMI as another online source. It's the International Parking and Mobility Institute. They have an on-demand education center for all of our frontline staff. And we like to take advantage of that. We are members of IPMI. And with our onboarding process right now, we are actually using several of the videos from that platform to use in our training and our onboarding with our new employees. But we're constantly trying to keep up with, just like with Flag PD, we wanted to train and know to better serve your community.

Thank you. I don't see any additional questions, so I will entertain a motion.

Mayor, I move that we read resolution number 2026-45 by title only.

I'll second. Any discussion? All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? City Clerk?

A resolution of the Flagstaff City Council approving the curbside management plan, providing for delegation of authority and establishing an effective date.

I move that we adopt resolution number 2026-45.

I second.

Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? All right, moving down to Thank you both.

Thank you.

Moving down to item 10C, consideration and adoption of ordinance number 2026-21. Good evening, Mayor.

Vice Mayor and Council Members, my name is Carmen Pryor, Real Estate Specialist for the City of Flagstaff, and today I bring before you the ratification of easements, right-of-ways that were acquired, granted, or reserved by the City over the past year, and a few from the years past. These property interests support the essential essential public infrastructure, including utilities, drainage, slopes, and urban trail systems. Staff recommends approval of the ordinance, and I am happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Any questions, council? All right, I'm gonna take public comment. Andy Fernandez.

Okay, well they didn't have the specifics on here. I want to reiterate, you used to have the RFPs and actually the full staff reports so the public could see them over here. So I'm going blindly because I don't have the staff reports like I used to get them when I was a council member. And like I said, you know, I did put D and it was two of the comments I wanted to discuss. One was item B and then the item C. And this one, like I said, the heading is so evasive, you don't have the full staff reports out here, so you can't see them anywhere. Now, the scenario is that my complaint is, because I see the scenario here stipulating, DEDICATIONS AND RIDE-AWAYS AND SUCH, AND I'VE DISCUSSED SCENARIOS LIKE NOT ALLOWING VEHICLES TO BE PARKING IN THE ALLEYS BECAUSE IT MAY BE AN EMERGENCY, AND THAT'S WHY I EVEN SAID A WHILE BACK THAT YOU COULD PUT GATES AT THE END SO PEOPLE CAN'T BE DRIVING IN. THEY DON'T HAVE ENOUGH PARKING IN THE FRONT, SO THEY'LL GO TO THE BACK.

NOW, THE OTHER SCENARIO IS... MR. FERNANDEZ, DID YOU HAVE COMMENTS ON ITEM C?

YEAH, THAT'S WHAT I'M ADDRESSING. LIKE I SAID, ITEM C HERE SAYS ratifying a grant for reservation of easements, formerly accepting dedications of right-of-ways. So that's what I'm addressing, because I say, I don't know what the specifics you're speaking of, so I'm going in general. Like I said, like the... the ones I initiated when I brought in the turning lanes at Lone Tree, at Schweitzer Canyon, at 4th Street, at Steve's. Over here, I said on Cedar and West Street, heading westbound on Cedar, that safe way, if you get turning and heading right, and that scenario where they put in that curb to come in that apron is right on the street, so that disallows a lot of movement, just like at Schweitzer Canyon. At one time, you could fit up to 12 cars because the idiots with the city went and manipulated that scenario and put the new apron in there, You can only put in four or five cars. That's pathetic. So that's what I'm addressing. I'm addressing those items. Also, like I say, I wanted to address the previous item. And I say, well, actually, the water scenarios on the affordable housing, because that's been my key baby since I ran for mayor here in 96. And in Congress and also as the candidate for the... Congress, City Council, and also for Justice of the Peace, which I was number, out of 16 candidates for the Judge Pro Tempo position in Page, Arizona, I was number three. So I have some credentials that have facilitated my scenario. And I say here, it doesn't say anything, so I was trying to address these scenarios correctly. Now as for the other scenarios, like I said, you know, you're talking about parking, And downtown's a lot of traffic. Yeah, I know. I understand. You have scenarios where downtown, you have the one-ways on San Francisco Street. The Republicans pushed the scenario with the Southside Businessmen's Association for 14 months. And then they said, OK, try it one time, one way. If it doesn't work, we'll go back. Well, the next year, Vince from Keith Close and a few others, they came and said, hey, look at all of them, 38 to 57%. Thank you. Your time is up. Thank you, Mr. Fernandez. Your time is up. So we are moving down to... Actually, September 15th. So we're looking to read the ordinance by title only for the first time.

Mayor, I move that we...

We read ordinance number 2026-21 by title only for the first time.

I'll second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. The city clerk.

An ordinance of the city council of the city of Flagstaff ratifying the grant of easements and rights of way, formally accepting dedications of easements and real property interests, providing severability authority for clerical corrections and establishing an effective date.

Thank you, Carmen.

Thank you.

All right, next up is discussion items 11a, Water Conservation Ordinance.

Okay.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Bringing it on home. Tamara Lawless, Water Conservation Manager, here to talk about some proposed changes to the Water Conservation Ordinance. Okay, just a brief overview, recap of the ordinance, kind of as it exists. So it was originally passed in 1988, some forward thinking back in the 80s. and gave us some options for lowering potable, that's important, potable water use during times of water scarcity, And then after there was a drought in the early 2000s, that was when we enacted the every other day watering that we do now based on your address as baseline. So I stuck in the graphic that we put all over things, banners, newspaper, magnets, basically showing that even addresses water on Sundays, Wednesdays, Fridays. Odd addresses water on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. And no one waters between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. And also no one waters on Mondays. We have staff that actually enforce the ordinance. So drive around looking for people watering on the wrong day for their address or in the middle of the day or on a Monday. And then we also have in that original ordinance options for escalating restrictions during times of water scarcity based on our production capacity. So during the 2024 rate study, council had some conversations about, you know, what can we do to increase reclaimed water efficiency? So as I mentioned before, potable water is currently not covered at all in the water conservation ordinance. So we had a customer focus group with participants from, you know, NAU, our parks and rec team, many of the golf courses in town, Snow Bowl, FUSD. to chat about, you know, what would it mean if we expanded the water conservation ordinance to cover reclaimed water in some capacities? That was kind of like over the last year and a half, we've had a series of meetings with that crew, with the Water Commission. We also had a meeting with that customer group at the Pine Canyon. They also showed us kind of their like operational efficiencies there. That's what the picture here is from. And so from those conversations, we said, okay, here are some code changes that we think make sense for wrapping in reclaimed water. So one thing that we are proposing to add would be to change to prohibit the irrigation of reclaimed water during those peak evaporation hours, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. So no irrigating with reclaimed water in the middle of the day during the warmest months. That's important because some of the golf courses and I think even some of our parks have said during a very, very dry winter season, there might be circumstances where they might have to try to irrigate that grass just to kind of keep the roots alive. And that has to happen in the middle of the day because otherwise it's freezing in the middle of the night. So just talking about those warm months saying that we're not irrigating in the middle of the day And that change would be beneficial for our team because right now when we are driving around, if my team sees some spray heads fountaining in the middle of the day, we kind of have to pause and check the GIS and say, is this a reclaimed user or is it a potable user? So if we say nobody is supposed to irrigate in the middle of the day, that makes it a little bit easier for us to enforce the code. There is also a definition of wasting water in the ordinance as it stands. So basically it says wasting water is to use or expend water thoughtlessly or carelessly, such as allowing it to run into the street, allowing it to pool or pond, irrigating during a rain or precipitation event, not repairing leaks. And so we would, in this proposed change, say that reclaimed water also cannot be wasted. so that we can enforce if we see like an active leak that doesn't get addressed, we can say, you know, this counts as wasting water and you need to address it or you can be fined. We would not be proposing every other day watering for the reclaimed users. You know, we hear operationally that often, like for example, at an athletic field, there might be an event that goes many days in a row and they're not watering during that time to make sure that the field is not saturated for that event. And then they catch up by watering multiple days in a row after that. So we're not looking at that part of the code, just the not essentially not that you're getting in the middle of the day. However, if you give a mouse a cookie, so once we have not opened this code up for changes in the 10 years that I've been in my position. And so during these conversations, I said to the Water Commission, you know, while we're talking about opening up the code, do we want to look at things that other areas in the Southwest are doing to look at those changes too? And they said, let's do it. So I have some other ideas for you to look at and discuss tonight. One of those is a recurrent issue that has come up during my time in this position, which is people will call and say, I have a lawn, my HOA is kind of implying that I need to keep it, even though I would really like to put in something more DROUGHT TOLERANT OR LESS HEAVY WATER USE, MY BILLS ARE HIGH. I WOULD LIKE ANOTHER OPTION. WE HAVE SAID IN THE PAST, WE DON'T REALLY HAVE A LEGAL WAY TO ASSIST YOU AT THIS TIME. One thing that we would like to bring forward for consideration is to say that a homeowner association or HOA cannot require a resident to maintain a law. We would propose a 36 month kind of delay for compliance with that. And that would, you know, in theory give any HOAs time to develop new standards saying that, okay, if a lawn is not the only option, what is the new option that we would develop for this community? We did do some initial research into the CCNRs or the covenants conditions and restrictions for communities and we had a hard time finding any that prescriptively said a lawn is the only option, but we know that residents have essentially gotten that So this would kind of cover that type of case. First idea. Okay, next. California has completely banned what's called non-functional turf. So a non-functional turf, so an example of non-functional turf, it's like turf that is not being actively used for anything other than just the visual aesthetics. So an example, I took this picture here in front of the Chili's on Milton. So it's grass that's between the sidewalk and the road, or grass that's so roadway adjacent, like between a parking lot and the road, that probably nobody is sitting there enjoying it, running around on it. It's next to a high speed street. Any of those areas and the way they were worded their law in California was not that you have to remove it, but that it cannot be irrigated. So you can't be applying water to keep it alive. Again, I think we would propose something like a 36 month delay on that. And, you know, I was thinking we could potentially develop like a partnership on like a seed mix or something where like a native grass alternative or something could be planted over, overseeded. change to something that needs like minimum irrigation and still has that kind of like grass look. And there is potential that if either of these ideas were implemented that we could also pursue additional rebate funds for both. That is a big part of our program is like providing funding for changing over to things that do use less water so we could look at getting one-time funds for a year or two to help kind of switch over some of these properties that would be affected by these. Okay, a few more ideas that we talked about with the Water Commission. So a restriction on future artificial lakes. So potable and reclaimed water cannot be used to fill artificial lakes larger than 1,000 square feet. So that's kind of like looking at those larger bodies of water, not saying that Joe homeowner can't have a little pond or a water feature on his property, but like things that are larger things that would get grandfathered in would be like the existing maintained bodies of water that we have in town. Functional bodies of water would not be included in that. So for example, sometimes a golf course, we'll have a lake or a pond on the property that's irrigation storage and it's connected to their irrigation system. We're not talking about that type of body of water, but more of a aesthetic type body of water. Pools and spas will not be covered by this future restriction. And then another one that we talked about was saying potable reclaimed water cannot be sprayed into the air for strictly decorative purposes. So we're not talking about splash pads. I think, you know, community recreational splash pads are awesome. We're just talking about like a strictly aesthetic use, fountaining water into the air, just because we do have very high evaporation here. And then there are a few administrative changes that we would like to make while we have the code open. So one is that we would like to add in an exemption process for active and programmed athletic field turf. So I mentioned that we weren't proposing that reclaimed water would be subject to the every other day watering. A handful of city parks and a handful of schools and I think even maybe a few of the NAU fields are currently watered with potable water and so I have heard over time that they have issues with trying to do the every other day watering because of that like multiple days they might not be able to water and then they have to catch up and so we just want to add in a process for those areas to be given an exemption basically they would like submit a form to us saying why they need that exemption and then we would ensure that they were doing kind of like efficiency best practices and and ask that they put up a sign saying like this field has an alternate watering schedule and here's the reminder of the schedule for everyone else. Just some like community development has been renamed so we need to do that. Renaming in the ordinance. Right now we have a way that we can give fines for people that violate. We wanna add in that they have to be 18 months violation free before that resets to zero so that if like two summers in a row the same, you know, customer has an issue with violating the ordinance that we wouldn't reset them back down to zero until they've gone 18 months. Right now, the initial fine for first violation is $25. And that's been that way for a long time. So he said, maybe we should talk about increasing that initial fine now that inflation has caused, you know, $25 to not be worth the same amount that it was before. So potentially looking at that FIRST VIOLATION DOUBLING FROM 25 TO 50. ONE OTHER THING THAT WE LOOKED AT IS IN KIND OF LIKE THE RESTRICTIONS THAT ARE IN PLACE IF WE'RE IN A WATER EMERGENCY. RIGHT NOW THE LANGUAGE OF THE CODE SAYS THAT WE SHALL RESTRICT STANDPIPE USERS TO THOSE WITHIN A 25-MILE RADIUS OF CITY HALL. WE WANTED TO CHANGE THAT WORD TO MAY FROM SHALL SO THAT WE HAVE THE OPERATIONAL CHOICE TO FIGURE OUT HOW DO WE KIND OF ENFORCE THAT AND MAKE THAT DECISION. So just to conclude, Water Commission is in support of these additions and changes that we discussed, but really wanna hear council feedback, your thoughts on these ideas before we actually bring ordinance language to the table. I'm gonna go ahead and return to the Water Commission this week and give them your feedback before I bring kind of the final draft in for a first read on October 20th. So anyway, your feedback is super appreciated, essential and welcome, thank you.

Thank you. All right, first up, we have Council Member Matthews.

Thank you for the presentation. Wow, it's a lot, and you're ready to just take it to the Water Commission and come back. I don't know if we're going to be ready for that. I'm thinking of the aquaplex. Their pool has a fountain. Maybe I missed it when you first started talking. Are we in a critical...

place with our portable water you know I think the reason that we kind of brought that to the table with the Commission was just more of a this is our community ethic and are there things that we should look at restricting for the future to sort of put that stake in the ground and say like Flagstaff is this this kind of place where we use water in this type of way and Um, you know, I think we're in a great place with our water planning. Obviously it is an expensive resource for us. And so thinking about kind of the optimized ways to use it, but to your question about the aquaplex fountain, like that is a recreational use. So, um, the, the proposed water, what's that?

It has a fountain that sprays water.

Yeah. Right. The kids run through, right? Like it's part of the, so I would say that that's like a fun recreational type of use and that this is strictly about aesthetic type uses like a Bellagio type type fountain not a kids running through a sprinkler type fountain like continental oh yeah aaron was just reminding me that some of the some of the like long-term efficiencies are part of our kind of long-term strategic plan too yeah so um okay lee has his hand up maybe i'll pause while he where is he He's online. Hi, Lee.

Hi, I'm over at my office with Citizens Academy tonight, so I'm sorry I'm not there in person. To answer your question, Council Member Matthews, in the actual wording of the ordinance that's being written is an exemption for splash pads. We've worked with pros on this. They've reviewed this before. We sent it over to you and others. So the fountain at the Aquaplex is exempt from these bans.

Thank you and isn't there one over at Continental? In their one of their lakes.

I am not sure if there is if it's an aerator to keep the water cool for wildlife, it would probably be under the umbrella of functional rather than decorative, but that would be something that we would have to look into.

OK, kids, that was that's what I was thinking. I know that some of the golf courses have. some type of aerator or something that maybe looked decorative, but it's actually functional. So anyway, I could go on with a lot of questions, but there's a lot that you covered. And I don't know that I feel comfortable thinking that you're going to come back with an ordinance read. I'd like to digest it because there's a lot. And I have no idea the unintended consequences of a lot of things that you offered up here that sound really good on paper, but it's just a lot and it was fast. So I'm gonna just say that now to know that when you come back, I'll probably push back just to be able to digest it more because I don't know how this all, like we're going ultra fast speed and I don't know that that's necessary right now. I'd like to digest it and process it over time, so.

Council Member House.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you so much for the presentation. The only thing that I had or that kind of gave me a little bit of pause was the language around HOA lawn language, which is not something I thought I would ever say. But I feel like that's something that might need some very specific or clarifying language to blanketly say that they can't, I forget now what the exact language was on the slide, but you know what I mean. Cannot require residents to maintain a lawn. I think like the definition of maintain might need to be Part of that consideration and just clarifying some of that language but other than that I I'm happy to see a lot of this coming forward and and part of your considerations and I Yeah, I look forward to seeing more. And as it's drafted out, being able to take a closer look and see exactly what the language is calling for or stating in a proposed draft. So thank you. Great.

Council Member Spence.

Thank you, Mayor. Would it be possible, first of all, I appreciate your presentation and I think these are all of your ideas that you've presented are very much in line with what we should adopt. Would it be possible to also forbid misters at restaurants that are down in Phoenix, you see a lot of misters that are cooling outdoor dining areas. It would be my preference that we consider forbidding misters in Flagstaff.

Definitely willing to bring that conversation to the Water Commission. I would say that At this time, like to me, some of the low hanging fruit are things that like are strictly decorative, right? Whereas I'm sure there are arguments that a mister could be considered like a function for like health and safety. So just putting out that that perspective has existed for us that we're kind of like looking for those more easy wins. But like I said, we have an ongoing dialogue with the Water Commission on the topic and I'm happy to chat with them about that.

Thank you.

Council Member Garcia.

Thank you, Mayor. On slide seven, we talk about the 1,000 square foot limitation. I'm assuming, which I never should, that that's not arbitrary. Living in a desert southwest location, we lose much of our water to evaporation, so that must have something to do with it. But my question is... Does that only, is that only for like new developed lakes or?

Yeah. So the way that, you know, we like had the original, we're kind of like working on a working draft. So basically it says it would be for the existing maintained bodies of water or grandfathered it. So we're not worrying about anything that's already there and full of water and functional. We're just talking, you know, about things that are going to be built in the future or filled in the future.

Okay, and is reclaimed water an unlimited resource for people who might have these type of lakes or who have golf courses, or is there an allocation that is limited because of our production?

Maybe Lee could answer that if he is able to.

Hi, thank you for the question, Council Member Garcia. No, reclaimed water is not unlimited. It is very much a limited resource.

Okay, thank you. That helps me understand that the reclaimed water portion, if that was to be filled within any size of lake, that they would have to be within their allocation as well. At this point, I don't have any more questions. I'm excited that we're moving in this direction and I can't wait till it comes back to council so that way we can understand the Water Commission's recommendations.

Great, Vice Mayor. I know we have public comment. I just had a quick comment that I was in the meetings with the different water users and let me tell you, they were robust conversations and our department did a great job of having people from all sectors and nothing was untouched and nothing was unsaid. I feel like we really dove in and I just want to make sure that everyone knows that and same with the Water Commission. Really good conversations. If you want to go back, I think they're online, and you can watch those meetings. Thank you.

Council Member Aslan.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Tamara, and your staff and your team, Aaron, Lee. I just want to take a brief moment to commend you for the work you're doing. I remember the conversations around this a couple years ago. during the water rate study process. I also remember these conversations cropping up earlier than that a number of times. There was a development that Walter Crutchfield wanted to do. He wanted to have a lake on it. Council Member McCarthy and I lifted up some concerns around that, and staff was always very responsive to that. And these conversations around water what do we do with our reclaimed water are important. I firmly believe that water is water. And so any water conservation policy we have should include reclaimed water. And I just wanted to show my support for what you're doing. And I don't know that this is happening very quickly. I think this has been a several year long process buttressed by even further conversations even further back.

I had a question about the grandfathered nature. And I'm wondering, we have talked about at some point in the future direct reuse. So how have those conversations been when you're talking about reclaimed water?

Yeah. Erin, do you want to talk about it?

Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. Erin Young, Water Resources and Conservation Section Director. The conversations around direct reuse and reclaimed water came, well, many, many years, but most recently during our rate study. Talking about reclaimed water rates, members of the Water Commission pointing out that if we can scale back on reclaimed water use, That is reclaimed water then available for indirect potable reuse or direct potable reuse. One challenge we have, as Lee mentioned, reclaimed water is a limited resource. It's very limited for several of the dry months where practically 100% of the water is delivered for outdoor irrigation. That presents a challenge if we're building a facility for direct potable reuse where you need a continuous flow coming through a treatment plant. And if you have half a million gallons a day in the summer, but you have four or five million gallons a day in the winter, it presents a challenge for scaling a treatment plant, let's say. So the water commissioners at the time, Chairman Riegelman was very interested in how much can we scale back on efficiency with our customers to create that delta. And we haven't necessarily calculated what might be saved with what's been presented today. And I know Lee Williams with our legal team is considering our reclaimed water agreements and looking at the allocations. We haven't necessarily enforced those allocations How could that contribute to having more water available on the water management or supply side?

Thank you, makes perfect sense. All right, I'm gonna take public comment. First up we have David Chambers.

I think I can officially say good evening, mayor, vice mayor, and council members. I've served on the board of directors for Continental Country Club for nine years total, three of those years as president. And one of the consistent major headaches that I dealt with in all of those nine years was Lakey Lane. One of the questions that come up in the Water Commission meetings is how does this amenity lake ban affect Lake Elaine? Lake Elaine has been empty for about 10 years now, and involved in litigation back in the late 80s, again, litigation just recently, a settlement agreement was reached in 2023, but then this ordinance comes up. And there's some information I would like to give you about Lakey Lane. For more than 50 years, Lakey Lane has exhibited, first of all, I'm not on the board. I'm representing myself as an informed citizen. So just want to make that clear. For more than 50 years, Lakey Lane has exhibited a consistent pattern of failure. In 1974, the lake could not be filled when it was first constructed due to sinkholes. Major reconstruction was required again in 1981. A two-foot collapsed hole in the lake bed was discovered in 1988 and was repaired. Lakes continued, resulting in 1990 litigation with the Lakeside Legionnaires. As a result of that litigation, a new liner and concrete collar was added. Sea beach problems continued with as much as 200 million gallons being pumped into the lake annually until we stopped putting water into the lake in 2016. This is not a history of isolated maintenance issues. It's a history of repeated structural failures. Those failures are caused by the underlying geology. The lake sits on Kaibab limestone, a fractured rock formation with fault lines and joint systems that have a limitless capacity to absorb water and carry it deep into the earth. This is why liners, concrete aprons, and repeated repairs have never worked. The lake doesn't hold water because of the ground beneath it is fractured. There is a practical alternative, and I'm not gonna spend much time on this, but I guess I won't spend any time on it. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Michelle James.

Hello again, Mayor and Council. My name is Michelle James. I'm Executive Director of Friends of Flagstaff's Future. F-Cube strongly supports the proposed changes to the Water Conservation Ordinance. We are very excited to see it. These are things that are past time to have implemented. We support its increased attention, the proposal here, its increased attention to conservation of both potable and reclaimed water. As you know, F-Cube believes that reclaimed water is valuable and will only increase in value over time. in the near future and that that reclaimed water should be used for public uses such as public parks rather than for private uses. We strongly support proposed restrictions on amenity lakes and we believe these restrictions must include Lake Elaine. That's it, thanks. Thank you.

All right Council, any additional comments or questions for staff?

Mayor, if I may, Mayor and Council, one of the points that was presented tonight was a possible increase in the fines. That would require a 60-day posting on our website, and I apologize that I wasn't aware of that tonight. I did let know Lee, and I let staff know that presented as well that the earliest we could bring it back is mid-November as a result. If we're considering increasing fines, we'd have to post 60 days prior to a first read, so thank you.

Thank you. Oh Lee.

I thank you mayor. I just wanted to have a chance to respond to Mr Chambers question about how Lake Elaine might might be handled in the future. As water service director, I'm granted the authority to issue new reclaimed water agreements or to change reclaimed water agreements. But in this case, Lake Elaine has not been filled, but the argument has been made that it's been legally maintained. There's been ongoing litigation, and we're going to get back to that in a minute, ongoing litigation to get to a point where the lakefront owners or legionnaires, as Mr. Chambers referred to them, can refill the lake and have the lake in front of their property. So as water services director, as the steward of this public resource, do I think that filling Lake Elaine is a good idea? No, I do not. It's a leaky lake. The water goes into the ground, as Mr. Chambers said. However, I don't have the legal grounds to tell them no, that they can't refill it. I can tell them that they can't have any more water in their monthly allocation to refill it. So the water that goes out to the two golf courses and all of the lakes out there, that allotment we don't have the water. And even if I did, frankly speaking, it doesn't really align with our mission and values as a city, I don't think to increase that allotment. So we're in a bit of a tricky situation. If we were to pass an ordinance saying ban the lake, it hasn't been maintained physically. The litigious nature of this, the group that lives on the lake has will rear its head, we believe. So kind of in self defense I they can refill the Lake. I will add the acreage to their water agreement, but I can't give them any more water in there and their monthly allotment. If and when they do decide to do that, or if and when they ask for. Acreage to be added.

Thank you. Council any additional questions, comments? Do you feel like you got some direction that you can work with?

Yeah, I think so. I don't know if anyone wants to speak on whether or not about the fines. If we incorporate the fines, then we'll come back in a month later. I think operationally for us, either way is fine. So I don't know if anyone wanted to weigh in on that. If not, we'll just have a conversation internally.

Yeah. The law, you know, is that. So, yes. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, we are down to open call to the public, and I don't have any cards for that. So then we have announcements and updates, too, from council and city manager, and I'll start with Councilmember Matthews.

Nothing tonight.

Council Member Garcia?

Sure, it's already past my bedtime, so let's party all night. Last week, I attended the 4th Street Business Coalition meeting regarding future 4th Street improvements. At that meeting, Business Coalition and community members started their visioning board and strategic planning for 4th Street Business Corridor. If anyone missed that meeting, there is one more opportunity Wednesday, September 23rd at 5.30 p.m., Market of Dreams. I raced here today from the State of the Verde Watershed Conference down in Camp Verde. And you might be asking yourself, well, what does that have to do with Northern Arizona, Anthony? one you know this is one watershed that starts up here at the peaks and water has a tendency to communicate with other water until it becomes pooled so the water down there is the same water that we have up here and I learned a statistic today that the water that seeps through the peaks could potentially come out at What is that place called? Montezuma's Well in 13,000 years. So learning a lot from the water advocates down there and understanding that all water in this region is connected. On Thursday, I will be excited to see Council Member Matthews at the Justice 2045 Strategic Planning Forum. At this summit, partner agencies and community partners will be... charting a course for courts in Coconino County and resiliency for victim advocates. Lastly, Parks and Rec Commission meeting will be held at the Aquaplex Monday, September 21st at 4.30 p.m. Hope to see the community there.

Thank you. Council Member Aslan.

Thank you for attending that conference, Council Member Garcia. I was intending to go, but this week just got way too busy for that. I'm glad you're there representing the Coconino Plateau Water Advisory Partnership. Looking forward to the staff picnic tomorrow afternoon.

Vice Mayor. Thank you. Just real quick, we were talking about the Green Business Boot Camp earlier in consent, and I wanted to make sure that everyone knew the next cohort is scheduled for October 1st. And you can go to local First Arizona's website to learn more. The Green Business Boot Camp is open to local businesses interested in learning practical ways to reduce waste, save energy and water, and strengthen their operations through sustainable practices.

Council Member House.

Just one thing to say congratulations to our city manager, Joanne Keene, who was recently, I saw posted, selected as a 2026 Woman Achievers of Arizona by the Arizona Capital Times. I'm just committed to embarrassing you a couple weeks in a row, so you just, you know, you can take it. And speaking of embarrassing, I am not going to embarrass you, Council Member Garcia, if it really would stress you out, but happy birthday.

Thank you, Council Member.

Council Member Spence.

Yeah, I would like to share, after our proclamation two weeks ago on Smart Week, I did submit to the Arizona Daily Sun an op-ed piece, and it got published this last Saturday, September 12th. The headline was, Guns and Children, They Don't Mix. And I... Continue to believe that we should have every week in Flagstaff Be a smart week with regard to gun safety in our homes. So that was Exciting to see it published Thank you city manager Mayor council.

I just wanted to give an update we received word from a dot today that that they will be closing the Route 66 and Ponderosa Parkway intersection for a signal cabinet replacement. It's going to start tomorrow at 8 p.m. until midnight. So ADOT did send out a press release, but also just wanted to let all of you know when that area is closed, it does create congestion in other areas. So just be aware that this is happening. The second update is just a reminder about our employee picnic tomorrow. We are planning There may be some weather tomorrow, so I think the plan is if by 8 a.m., if it does not look good, we will likely cancel the picnic. Both Shannon and I are on a kickball team, so Mary will be holding down the fort, hoping that we both don't get injured during that game. But looking forward to seeing all of you tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you.

And Sterling.

Thank you, Mayor and Council, praying for lots of rain because I'm in the dunk tank from 1230 to 1250. Actually, I'd like to invite Nancy Davidson to come down. We just had yesterday our newest Senior Assistant City Attorney start with the City of Flagstaff. Nancy came to us as a well-seasoned municipal attorney. She worked for the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, and I wanted her to introduce herself to you.

Hi, Mayor and Council. I am so excited to be in Flagstaff. My husband and I are just so happy in our dog bubbles. And we're especially happy to be joining this team, the city attorney's team. And I'm just really excited. So, yeah. And the best part is everyone's been so welcoming and friendly. And I'm super nervous right now because I didn't expect to have to talk.

She's not as excited as we are. I can guarantee that. Thank you, Nancy. Thanks, Mayor.

You scored a great one, Sterling. Welcome. All right, we are, I don't have anything, adjourned.