City Council - public_hearing

Yes, that's right. That's right.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

So that must have been done before I saw it, because I don't remember that.

And then it was, you know, prioritizing local entrepreneurs and stuff like that. So the language that's drafted that way was more comfortable.

how was the rest of the evening down there

Really good. We got to, like, the time. She always has to. She always has to see herself. This is her. She needs a translator. You guys got to go. She needs a translator. The police are really helpful and flexible on that. You can be under the table and I can. Yeah, so let's. Yeah. You've told everybody. I know they were trying to project it. I think they put that over the floor. Oh, just the watch group. Oh, okay.

I think we said six.

I think that one was six. They're talking 12,000. I haven't seen any data on that. And we want to have the sort of geo-location.

I think it was probably another week. There wasn't really as much of the spillover from the festival on Friday and Saturday as I think they were expecting. That's what, that's what, that's what. Well, he did so well.

I think it just happened to be a nice sweet spot with the weather. It was a great day. Yeah. It would have been rainier, crazy hot. Yeah. That's what it sucks about running home. Yeah. That's so good. Thank you. i think people still wouldn't come down but there would have been more people like stopping That's an indication of how much better people will actually thrive.

Thanks for your time. I appreciate it. I am. I told you. None of us are butchers. No butchers. That's funny. That's funny. I knew that was funny. She did. Yeah. . . . Wow.

I drove through it today, I think they're still breaking down, but you know, things look pretty good. There are some . That's right. Are you sure? Yeah, it's neat.

. Well, good to see you. That was kind of a big project. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There we go. I don't want to hear it. This might spin off a . Yeah. um That's right, that's right. Well, you know what? Thank you. Thank you. I don't know, he never said it to me.

This meeting of the Eau Claire City Council will come to order. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

City Clerk, please call the roll.

Council Member Brewster.

Here.

Gregor.

Here.

Johnson. Mboga. Miller. Here. Orth.

Here.

Otto. Here. Reed. Here. Schoen.

Here.

Serrano. Here. Werthmann.

Here.

All right. Thank you, City Clerk. And thanks, everybody, for being here. Welcome to the Monday, July 27th meeting of the Eau Claire City Council. Tonight's evening is focused on public discussion items. We'll have public hearings on five agenda items today. And there are copies of the agenda in the back of the room for anyone who wishes to follow along with the meeting. And there are also sign up sheets for individual items if folks are interested in speaking. So the way it'll work for each item is that there will be a staff presentation on each of the items. And then there'll be time for council members to ask questions. And then we'll open each item for public comment. And the sign-ups in the back we'll prioritize first. And then we'll open up to the council chamber for anyone who maybe didn't get a chance to sign up or decided to speak. at a later time. And you'll have up to four minutes to speak and you'll be able to speak once per item. The lighting system at the podium is such that the light will be green for the first three minutes and then it'll flash yellow for the last minute of your time and then it'll start I'll return yellow for the last minute and then I'll start flashing red for the, once you're out of time. And if you could just stay at the podium for an extra couple seconds in case council members may have questions for you. And then if you would prefer not to speak, there are blue comment forms in the back of the room. There's also a way to email council members or use the comment form on our city website, which is EauClaireWI.gov. And so there's other ways to reach out to us before our legislative session tomorrow at 4 p.m. So as we get started here, our first agenda item is agenda item number one, public discussion, thank you, on an ordinance amending chapter 10.24 entitled special parking restrictions of the code of ordinances of the city of Eau Claire to create quick stop parking. And I'm not exactly sure what we have presenting on this item, but I have perhaps our city manager, Dave Solberg. DAVE SOLBERG I can jump in.

Thank you, city council members. And I don't have the presentation here, but basically quick stop spots for downtown were contained in the last parking study. And it used to be called loading zones, but we wanted to differentiate between a loading zone that people would associate with a truck unloading materials to go into a restaurant or a business and wanted to have spots that could be used for parking food delivery, DoorDash, stuff like that, as well as if you're dropping in, picking something up yourself, whether it's retail or whether it's a restaurant, as well as loading, although loading is encouraged to be around on the side street since that'll be a larger use of the street, but it still does occur on there. This ordinance is a recommendation of the parking study and is something that we're hoping will increase the convenience and the customer service in the new revamped downtown parking program that'll accompany with paid parking on August 1st. Unfortunately, I don't have a map here, but generally speaking, There was one spot per block is kind of what the goal was. It was worked through with the businesses. We wanted to let the businesses have a lot of control over where the spots were located. We, you know, staff weren't really tied to a specific location as long as the businesses agreed on it because restaurants will be on different sides of the block, different use with restaurants. with businesses and the reason why with the quick stop is just to create the different image of it and to try to make our parking program a little bit more hip and cool. With that, I'd be able to answer any questions and if there are some questions that I can't answer, we'll get you an answer before you vote tomorrow morning, or tomorrow afternoon.

Yeah, thank you City Manager Solberg. We have a question from Council Member Mboga.

Thank you, Council President. So my question is how these locations were selected and how the enforcement would work?

So enforcement largely is going to be and also if they're out there enforcing when they're going around and they happen to see a spot and somebody's still there half an hour later, 45 minutes later in the same loading zone, they may get a warning first and then ticketed later. But we're not going to have somebody you know, just watching each spot to see, you know, the stopwatch to make sure they're at 15 minutes. The locations of the individual spots were worked on with the business owners to try to get them located if there's, I know there is a wine shop in downtown that had expressed interest in having because people pick up the product and it's right next to a restaurant, so DoorDash, so it worked to have one closer to there as opposed to down the block. A movie theater probably wouldn't need as much of a movie theater or like Lutheran Social Services downtown wouldn't need one closer to them. But food or maybe a jewelry shop that may be doing pickup orders as well for that. And we didn't want to have two or three. We wanted to try to keep it to one spot because we didn't want to have a whole block, an unnecessarily large number of spots that wouldn't be in revenue service.

Another one that came to my mind, could this space improve the accessibility to the seniors and the people need to do quick stop and go?

It could, like if you're dropping somebody off, depending upon the, I guess if you're dropping somebody that may have some mobility limitations, and they're going to say, you know, going to a restaurant, you can drop them off in this spot. They can go to the restaurant and then you park in the parking ramp or park a few blocks away. So they will be able to help with that. If you have tags in your Mobility Limited, you can park, you know, wherever you would like. If you have the... the placards in your car designating that. So yeah, it should be a little help for that for just drop off somebody or your friends or whatnot. Let them get the table, let them start and then one person can go and park the car and perhaps walk a little bit longer and use the ramp or so forth.

Thank you. Council Member Miller.

Thank you, Council President. Thank you, City Manager. Two questions. One, how many, do you know roughly how many total quick stop spots that are allocated for the city?

I don't have that total. I would say on average probably a little bit less than one. 22. I would say generally about one per block, maybe just a little bit less than one per block.

Okay. And then these are designated quick stop only. They would not be able to be used for regular parking. It would be quick stop only? Correct. Yep. Okay. Thank you.

All right, Council Member Otto.

Well, thank you, Council President. Have there been any objections or statements of approval from DECI or other members of the business community?

Any type of formal approval at the DECI meetings that I've been at, this has been a relatively recent stakeholder group with everything going on. So it hasn't been brought up for like an official approval, but it was worked on. DECI was helping with the bids, generate consensus on it. And I haven't taken any in the manager's office, any complaints or emails from businesses saying, you know, I don't, We don't like this. This has been worked on in conjunction with the downtown employee parking permit program that will be in the ramp and then paid on street parking as a package. And generally it's been moved through and the least popular is going to be the paid on street parking, but it's been moving through the process without a lot of objections to my office that I've heard. Thank you.

Okay. Any other questions from the council?

And I would just add these quick stop spots are free. So you, you pull in, you don't have to pay to, you don't have to put in 15 minutes worth of pay to have those. Um, so you pull in, pick up your stuff for free and then leave.

Okay. Well, I think that's all of our questions for now. Thank you. Thank you. City manager Solberg. And I don't think I don't have anyone that signed up to speak, uh, for this agenda item. Number one on the, a quick stop parking. So is there anyone in the gallery who would like to speak to this agenda item? Yeah, please. Yeah, please come up to the podium. You have up to four minutes. Please state your name and your address, please.

If I say good citizen and citizens of the United States of America, is that acceptable?

Sure. be happy to follow up with you too if needed.

Okay. My thing is I understand why you're doing this, but I don't understand why you're doing it. If you can't enforce it, why are you creating it? Why are you creating it? You can't enforce it, so you're creating an ordinance that you can't enforce, basically.

So the idea... is having some paid parking brings in some revenue so that you have a way to enforce the paid parking program. So happy to speak with you about it afterwards too, because it's not necessarily like a Q&A.

I'm just curious, because you're creating an ordinance that you can't enforce, but you're going to push it through? And you've done a lot of this stuff recently I don't want to get into it because you're right to be disruptive. I just don't understand. You're creating something that you can't enforce. Why would you create something you can't technically enforce? Now you're going to say, now we're going to take law enforcement off of all these other issues, just enforce this. Somebody does it 15 minutes. Somebody does it 10 minutes. Somebody does it 20 minutes. How are you going to enforce it? That's my question.

Yeah, I think it's something that we can discuss as to how that would work in terms of the enforcement at our meeting tomorrow, and that's okay.

Thank you.

I appreciate it. Anyone else would like to speak to this agenda item number one on the creation of quick stop parking? All right. Well, thank you. We'll move on to agenda item number two, public discussion at an ordinance amending table five entitled yield intersections of the code of ordinances of the city of Eau Claire to add yield control at several intersections. And we have our engineering director Leah Ness to present on this item. Welcome.

Good evening, council. The seven intersections that are being brought forward to you today are currently all no controlled and recommended to have yield control implemented at the intersections. All of them are local street intersections, and I can go through, they were included within your packet, but I'll kind of touch on each of the locations here. The reason for bringing these forward, we received a call or concern from a single individual or maybe multiple individuals at each of these locations, which prompts us to do further investigation at these locations. looking at them all being local street intersections for a classification we look at the traffic volumes we look at the land use in the area of the intersections we look at site visibility there's a number of things that we look at in going to determine if it's going to be a stop control intersection, a yield control intersection. And what we're bringing forward tonight is all changes to implement yield at these intersections. So within the Third Ward neighborhood at Garfield Avenue, The intersection of Roosevelt Avenue and Coolidge Court are proposed to be yield control. They're both T intersections and would keep Garfield as the priority movement through those intersections. These are the first yield signs that would be implemented within the third ward area neighborhood within this area. The second set of intersection, or second intersection location is in the Otter Creek neighborhood. It's not an active neighborhood, but on Springbrook Drive at Ridgeway Drive. Again, another T intersection. Lower traffic volume on Springbrook and Ridgeway Drive is in between Pearl Road and East Hamilton Avenue. Runs as the the major road north-south. They're connecting those two higher priority roads The third location is the Upper West Side Neighborhood each of the neighborhood associations that is active were notified of the proposed changes within their neighborhoods this intersection is at Hawthorne Drive and 13th Street and And then in Campus Drive at Spiros Lane, this is not within a neighborhood association, but located just south of Gulf Road. And then the last set of locations is on Mercury Avenue at Virginia Lane and at Edgewood Lane. And this was a result of neighborhood discussion within the airport neighborhood between the police department and neighbors and the result is looking at implementing yield control at these couple of intersections after we did our review we worked with the police department on enforcement related to these change police department and engineering both support the recommendations that are being brought forward to you and i can take any questions if there are any

council member in boga yeah thank you council president thank you director nice i have a few questions here but i will go one council you know asking my first question oh what is the estimate cost of installing these new signs the cost of installing a sign uh

Well, at the intersection, we call a locate in, we put a post in, we put the sign in. So the labor to install and probably I'd say about $200 per sign with post. So that plus labor would be the cost.

Okay. Then am I? Okay. Then my next one is, are the seven recommendations equally supported by your Department of Engineering data? And are there some which have stronger case than others?

I would say the seven that we're bringing forward is our recommendation. There were locations that we looked at that we did not recommend changing control. These intersections, when looking at them, the volumes between vehicular traffic and pedestrians, bikes, the use of the locations, the visibility, we didn't anticipate that they would meet stop control warrants and that's a checklist that you have to go through at these locations using our engineering judgment we recommend the seven intersections that we're bringing forward to you but there were intersections that did not make our list that weren't prioritized the same so i would say that these would have equal priority

All right, Vice President Schoen.

Thank you, Council President Greger, and thank you, Director Ness. I have actually just a question out of curiosity. The ordinance that was included in our packet, is that a complete list of all the yield intersections in the city? Or is that partial?

This is the current list that we have within the ordinance. There may be some that are yield controlled that aren't included, but to our knowledge, without making additional revisions, this is what we have within the ordinance at this time.

Thank you. It's fewer than I would have expected for the city, the total city, but thank you. Mm-hmm.

Council Member Mboga, you have more questions? The last one, the last one.

Okay. So, thank you, Director Nass. So, for me, the question I want to ask, is there specific safety concern which you have been reporting to these all streets, all intersections?

I would have to go back to each location to see what the safety concern was, but that's typically the reason why the concerns are called in is either a crossing concern for visibility with pedestrians, going to school, or... someone entering, exiting the neighborhood, using this intersection on a frequent basis, and having a close call. We get a lot of different concerns, so I would have to go back and let you know on each of the locations.

Thank you, Council Member Amboga, and thank you, Director Ness. I think I actually have a question myself. Okay. So when yield signs are just being introduced to a neighborhood maybe for the first time, is there any extra education that you're planning to do? I know that usually when a new sign is added, there's like a flag at least that goes up above it for a period of time. but sometimes I feel like there's since there is an overall low number of yield signs in Eau Claire maybe when compared to stop signs like I just kind of wonder about you know the education that may be needed could you speak to that a bit in terms of what the plan may be for that

Yes, there's different ways to bring forward the awareness of a control change. We can place flags on them. We can, again, reach out to the neighborhood associations and let them know. We can let the schools know around the areas that these are identified as safe routes to school. So they can pass that along to the parents. We can reach out to our buses and student transit, some of the larger users of our systems that use the local streets to let them know of the control change. And there's always the idea of doing like an educational outreach type of thing with the police department to spread the word. They have a great social media following and that might be a way that we could work with them to get the word out as well.

Okay. All right, thank you. Let's see. I don't think anyone has signed up to speak to this agenda item either, but is anyone in the gallery would like to speak to agenda item number two on the yield intersections? All right. We'll move on to agenda item number three, public discussion on an ordinance amending table eight entitled parking prohibited of the code of ordinances of the city of Eau Claire to restrict parking on South Barstow Street. or sorry, South Dewey Street from Better Way to 150 feet north, and we have Director Ness again. Thank you.

This one might be a little bit easier to look at. The exhibit that was included in the packet, this is just codifying existing no parking pavement markings and the redesign of South Dewey Street with the library construction project, including a bump out on South Dewey Street. We're having some issues with people parking along the bump out within the travel lane, which is also included in the city ordinances for no parking, but really will allow us to place no parking signs near the access points along South Dewey Street right here, where there's some vision concerns. There's some elevation change throughout this short section of street, and this will help improve the safety by implementing no parking in this area. There is two-hour parking to the north on both sides of the street, and then on the south side of Dewey Street, or the south of the proposed restricted parking area, there is fire parking only related to our fire department's use. And I can take any questions on this if there are any.

Okay, Council Member Otto.

Thank you, Mr. President. So there's already no parking here, and this makes it easier to enforce?

We'll be able to sign it as no parking better, and there was painted curb out there, but just not the compliance wasn't there. So I think by having this in the books and having it signed as no parking, we'll be able to enforce it better.

Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Mboga.

Thank you, Council President. Dr. Nass, how did you guys reach out 140 feet? How did you select that?

That is the distance to the existing two-hour parking zone.

Oh yeah, please.

Yeah. Are we going to lose any parking space in this area?

We will not lose any parking spaces in this area because the east side was yellow curb painted for no parking. The west side has been reconstructed, so there should not be parking within the travel lane. So as it is right now, we would not lose parking spaces.

Thank you. Any other questions from the council? Okay, thank you, Director Ness. And I don't think anyone has signed up to speak to this agenda item either, but anyone in the gallery like to speak to agenda item number three? All right, we'll go on to agenda item number four, public discussion on an ordinance amending chapter 10.48 entitled Truck Traffic Regulations of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Eau Claire to restrict the route along Fall, Summit, and Spring Streets between Birch Street and Bellevue Avenue. And we have Director Ness to present on this item as well.

Thank you, this is my last item for tonight. This is related to restricting truck traffic from Birch Street to Bellevue Avenue on the three streets, Fall Street, Spring Street, and Summit Street. Recently with the Birch Street reconstruction project, we added rapid rectangular flashing beacons at the intersection of Birch and Fall Street and found that truck turning using Fall Street was damaging. We had some equipment damage from turning truck movements with our equipment out there. There are alternative routes for truck traffic through the neighborhood using Putnam Street inbound and then outbound using Madison to Germania to Birch. So we have reached out to the businesses that have truck traffic using this route right now, and they seemed to understand the need for changing the movements through here and recommending to their truck traffic to use the alternate routes. This also is... within more of a residential neighborhood. So it seems to make sense to identify a more direct truck route for trucks accessing the businesses. The couple of businesses that we did talk with were Sonico and then Ventec. And I can take any questions related to this if there are any.

Thank you, Director Ness. We have a question from Council Member Werthmann.

Thank you, Council President. Director Ness, could you rename which streets would be best for ingress and egress?

For inbound, it'd be using Putnam Street to Madison.

Putnam to Madison.

And then outbound would be Madison to Germania to Birch.

Madison to Germania, okay. And is there, go ahead, follow up. Yeah, please. Is there a beacon? rapid rectangular beacon it's not on Putnam is it it's the other one is on Cochran maybe I just wanted to double check I know there's another one near that Putnam intersection you're correct I'd have to confirm the location of that but I can get that for you for tomorrow but it's not on Putnam no from what you know okay not that I recall all right um

Councilmember and Bogan How many pardon

How many damage which have occurred? You know, you said the main reason you are doing this one, the trucks are damaged, the median. So how many incidents has occurred?

I would have to look at that. I know that we've had at least one incident. I don't know if there have been more, and I was not directly involved with that case, so I'd have to look to see the details on that. Thank you, thank you.

All right, any other questions from the council? All right, well, thank you, Director Ness. So I don't believe we had anyone sign up to speak to agenda item number four either. So would anyone in the gallery like to speak to this item? OK. We'll move to agenda item number five, a public discussion of the Riverbend Redevelopment District and the core reinvestment redevelopment district proposed by

redevelopment authority and we have our community development director aaron white to present council good afternoon council president gregor and council members um as this is the third time we're going through this presentation i'll look at the cliff notes and kind of go through it quickly a quick recap for folks who might be tuning in streaming who haven't seen this before we are proposing two redevelopment districts moving forward for the rda the first one again is the river bend district kind of southern southwestern quadrant outlining green it is an area that includes mixed use development or some mixed use mostly commercial some medical some heavy industrial along the river so a variety of different use types the areas that we're looking to kind of address We are, again, looking to clear out some of what the state terms is blight. It's obsolete platting and planning obsolete street design. There are some buildings that are underutilized, underdeveloped spaces. These are the types of elements that are defined by state statutes, meeting the criteria for blight establishment in our day district under state statute. The conditions looking to address, again, Shopko Plaza would be an example one that was given. The Sacred Heart was an example one that was given as underutilized spaces. The development of the district would allow for operations when they enter to assist property owners with redevelopment or move redevelopment forward. Again, I would reiterate that there are no existing projects planned or defined in this area. We are simply establishing the criteria for blight. The second district is defined as the core reinvestment district. Again, this area has a number of the same types of features. There are some dilapidated structures in this district. We also see a number of nonconforming lots, obsolete planned lots in a variety of areas within this district. Looking at the housing survey conducted by the health department every five years through this area, number of properties that have housing needs and have condition needs that could be addressed. So these are the conditions that we were looking to establish blight in that area. Again, kind of defining what these are, where they are, and that the meaning, the statutory requirements to define this area's blight based off of some of these conditions. And again, the attempts would be to improve and stabilize neighborhoods and improve these conditions by addressing those through the RDA, either as a property owner or as assisting property owners in moving projects forward. Anything related to street redesign, to redevelopment of obsolete lots, tear down or replacement or renovation of properties that have fallen into disrepair to help stabilize and bring these neighborhoods back up. And again, would once again reiterate that this one also has no existing plans or project in place. We are just looking to establish the elements of blight. Since the time we first saw this in June till now, we've had, this is our third public hearing on this in one work session. From outreach standpoint, members of Jonah have reached out, and I know there are some in the audience tonight looking to comment on this. There was a letter that was sent out to council regarding a different issue, but had a small reference to the Riverbend District in the bottom paragraph of that as a good project place for low-income housing again i'd reiterate that's not what this process is about but beyond that in the very initial intro in june where a couple of property owners called us after the news release and the public notice of this asking about hey our product our property was identified in in the report or in the story and we explain what we're going through the process and there's no actual projects to find, we've received little to no input from the public beyond the groups that we just referenced. So it's been very quiet in terms of this project and these districts as presented. So again, I'd be happy to answer any questions moving forward.

Thank you, Director White. Looks like we have a question from Councilmember Miller.

Thank you, Council President. Thank you, Director White, for that. The Coral Reef Investment District on the map, it looks like it's about 2 thirds of the whole city, approximately. I'll just pull that up again. And in the cover sheet, it's to identify property scattered across the city. It's not just a particular area. That's why it's such a large area. I'm just kind of curious, since this is to identify property scattered across the city, is there any reason why only 2 thirds of the city was done and not Could you theoretically have done the entire city in this core investment district and then any property that fits this category would have been subject to this? Or was there a reason you drew a line where you did?

A lot of it is, again, to make sure that we're meeting the criteria, the statutes established for blight. If you start pulling in areas that are newly built, that don't have street issues, they don't have poor street design, don't have obsolete type of platting or issues, those start bringing in question, are we really meeting the black criteria in those areas? So the regions that are focused in there, there are two qualified census tracts within this district. and a third district that about every two years becomes a qualified census tract this area captures the heart of what we see for obsolete planning particularly in the older neighborhoods where you see a lot of narrow lots that even after the ldo change they're still non-conforming which makes it hard for owners to invest back into their properties because that non-conforming nature so we really focused on areas that We could quantify through planning practices or through economics or different criteria that, yeah, this is the core area that meets those regions. We're obviously not gonna catch them all. There are always pockets or places that we didn't attract. The RDA can always look to do additional sub-districts or other districts down the road, but we felt this one gave a lot of opportunity to catch the core areas that we know see challenges. And the idea of the large district again goes back to being able to operate over an extended period of time without having to constantly say, oh, in previous districts, we've done a block or two. And then there's a property just outside that block. And oh, we can't do anything about that one. It's outside the district. You'd have to restart the process to do anything. This gives a little more flexibility to do more projects and more scattered projects.

Sure. OK. That makes sense. Thank you.

Council Member Mboga.

Thank you, Council President. Thank you, Dr. White. Maybe you have, in the previous discussion we had, maybe you have spoken on this one, but I'm just wondering for those people listening and to jog my memory, how will we balance the development How are we going to do that? How are we deciding to what, specifically? How would we balance redevelopment with preserving the neighborhood character?

Oh, absolutely. So part of that is pulling the neighborhood in as part of these discussions. If you look in past practices, the Cannery District provides the best example of that is when the master redevelopment plan was created for the Cannery District, Prior to approving that, we had sit-down meetings with the neighbor association, with individual neighbors within the community, and within the surrounding neighborhoods, also with businesses located within the district that was to be affected, to walk them through the plan, get their input, information from them to help drive what the RDA ultimately approved to do within those districts. That would look to be handled on a very similar basis, even down to say we have a vacant lot. And one block of one neighborhood has been abandoned, effectively abandoned by the owner for years. It's pulling the neighborhood down. We'll do outreach even at the neighborhood level, talk to the neighbors and find out what would they like to see happen in their neighborhood. Would helping redevelop this one space help improve the balance of their neighborhood and keep those folks engaged in that process, even down to the neighborhood level?

Council Member Amboga. The last question. Which properties are the highest priorities?

Um, we don't have any specific priorities and we don't have any specific priorities in any area. Um, what we'll do is look to see, um, part of the challenge we're looking to do in working with different, um, groups like the, the, uh, uh, health department that does housing inspections. We'll just look to identify projects or properties that, that are challenged, uh, whether it's, uh, physically challenged or we we've actually have identified few that we know the the owners out of state and the property is effectively abandoned with nobody living there nobody caring for it those would be the type of projects we'd look at first it could be that a neighborhood maybe comes to us say hey there's a you know abandoned house in this neighborhood or there's an old remnant of a commercial space and then what's now a residential area nobody's using it these areas that they they come to our attention we can start investigating see is there is there a role for the rda to play you know reaching out to property owners reaching out to the neighborhood and and identifying them that way but we'll use a variety of resources a lot of input from the community to kind of help identify where we should be looking and where properties might be available that that could be suitable for for assistance from the rda all right uh council member orth

Thank you, President Gregert. Director White, I am wondering if we could flip our discussion to the river bend. Sure. And it seems to me that there are quite a few residential areas within that district, like Stein and MacArthur, behind the old Shopko area. And could you just describe that process again for those individuals that reside in that area so that we can avoid displacement?

Those aren't areas we've even looked at. Again, there's no projects planned for that area. The primary drivers for this area are actually the industrial area around Short Street, the commercial space in and around there, the medical district on the north side of Claremont. Should a project include folks that do have residential in there? And we have run into this in one project in Cannery District where we purchased a greatly dilapidated structure that still had folks residing there. State law requires that the RDA and the city would have to relocate and cover all expenses to relocate somebody to an adequate and suitable facility for them to replacement housing. So that's required by state law. There's no way around it. We cover all costs. That's mandated by law. But again, These are not spaces that we're looking at. The fact that there's some residential tied into that is incidental. That small area is the only area that has residential in there. Some of that residential is brand new. All of it's well maintained and managed. at this point in time with current operators, current owners. It's older housing, but it's certainly adequate. It doesn't meet any of the criteria to even look at it as a blight project. Again, there's very strict requirements on what can even be considered a project under state statute. So it's not anything we're looking at. We're focusing on that development to the west and to the north as the primary.

Great. Thank you.

All right. Thank you.

Any other questions from the council? OK. Thank you, Director White. And we have three folks that have signed up for the public discussion on this item. And we'll start with Susan Wolfgram.

hopefully this is the last time you'll hear from me now on this for a while so good evening council president gregory and members of the city council my name is susan wolfgram i live at 550 graham avenue downtown eau claire and i'm representing again the core team perspective of the jonah affordable housing task force supporting an amendment to the redevelopment district plans so since june 9th you have received comments from me to date support of an amendment to provide guardrails preventing gentrification in the immediate and adjacent areas of the plans as councilmember worth was referring to primarily to safeguard vulnerable community members from potential displacement as Developments are proposed since June 9th Paul Savites and I have had a number of very productive conversations with staff on council members to add this amendment we have appreciated the accessibility and willingness of you to partner in the best interest of our community I genuinely thank you for that equitable development principles focus on mitigating involuntary displacement by protecting vulnerable residents preserving affordable housing and ensuring that community members guide neighborhood and district improvements intentionally as mr white was describing as well these strategies aim to balance economic investment with community stability and cultural preservation A community can generate needed tax-based wealth and prevent gentrification. However, the prevention guardrails must be intentional. This amendment is focused on equitable development versus gentrification to provide a more contemporary development language while maintaining the integrity of the basic principles of gentrification prevention. These principles are high level guardrails that can actually apply to any RDA development and we ask you to consider adding these to the city webpage in the general information section and perhaps under duties. Prevention guardrails need to be intentional, not assumed for good will. This macro high level piece might best be inserted in the introduction section of the plans. So again, the guiding principles of equitable development, what is equitable development? It is a planning framework designed to revitalize neighborhoods without displacing or excluding long-term residents. It ensures that investments in housing, business, and infrastructure generate tangible economic and health benefits for the original community, rather than solely catering to the new wealthier arrivals. The guiding principles, number one, protect and preserve the original community, vulnerable tenants and homeowners from displacement. Number two, encourage the participation of local and regional developers and investors. Number three, engage the impacted community early in planning and decision-making. And number four, focus on equitable economic development by prioritizing local businesses, vital neighborhood services, and local first-time entrepreneurs. Although we were advised this past Tuesday, July 21st, that an amendment was being crafted, using this language, we have not had the opportunity yet to see it. Therefore, as it comes forward tomorrow, we urge you to vote yes in the best interest of our community. And again, thank you for your willingness to work closely with community partners. Under time, that's a good thing.

Yeah, thank you so much.

Okay.

It doesn't appear there are any questions for you. Thank you so much. Next on the list is Julian Emerson.

Good evening, city council members and city staff. It's good to see you all again. My name is Julian Emerson. I live at 519 Chauncey Street. I'm involved with multiple housing-related committees, commissions, et cetera, in the city. Tonight I'm speaking on behalf of the Jonah Affordable Housing Task Force. And I'm here tonight to speak just like Susan on agenda item number five. And specifically, I'm speaking in support of the language and the amendment that Susan and Paul have been discussing with city staff. And by the way, thank you to city staff for being open and willing to engage in this. That doesn't happen in every community, so we know that we appreciate that. This amendment focuses, as you just heard Susan say, on equitable development, and so I had to learn a little bit about what exactly does that really mean. And generally speaking, it means just what the name states, right? It's creating equitable results as much as possible for existing residents and not displacing them as part of neighborhood revitalization efforts. Equitable development works to ensure that redevelopment benefits existing residents of an area as well as the new ones. And this concept also takes into account tenants and homeowners who may be more vulnerable than others. It also involves residents of the impacted area in planning and decision making early on in the redevelopment process. And I'll skip that other language. And I acknowledge that avoiding displacement of inhabitants when you're doing redevelopment is difficult, especially these days. I know that all too well from my day job. Construction costs, building costs have skyrocketed. So trying to do redevelopment and not displace folks is a challenge. And I think the only way we can do it is to be really intentional about in how we approach it and how we think about it and in involving those folks as part of the discussion for what they want to see in their neighborhood and also what they're concerned about. Maybe I come from a little different place with this, with my background, because for years I've witnessed the unintended displacement of individuals and families from their homes. For years I've written news articles about people losing their housing and then struggling to find it here again. For years I've watched people unable to find housing here after they've lost it, depart our community to live elsewhere, oftentimes leaving family, friends, and familiarity. That is why city officials must be intentional in their approach and keep gentrification related challenges in mind as we development efforts proceed. That's why I'm asking you to approve the amendment tomorrow when you vote. Thank you for your consideration.

All right, thank you, Julian. All right, next is Mara Langrick.

Welcome. Good evening, Council President Greggert and city council members. My name is Mara Langrick and I live at 451 Lincoln Avenue here in Eau Claire. I'm a member of the Jonah Affordable Housing Task Force core team and co-founder of the Lived Experience Advisory Board here in Eau Claire. I'm here tonight in support of the amendment to add the guiding principles of equitable development to the redevelopment district plans. Over the past several weeks, Susan Wolfram, Paul Savites, city staff, and members of the council have spent a great deal of time working together to create an amendment that helps ensure growth and development happen with intention. I appreciate that willingness to collaborate because that's how better communities are built. As someone who has experienced homelessness, I see redevelopment a little differently. When I hear the word development, I don't just think about buildings or new investments. I think about the people who already live there. I think about the family worried about the rising rents that will force them to move. I think about someone who has finally found stable housing after experiencing homelessness and wonders if they'll be able to stay. Growth is important. Our city should continue to grow, but growth should never mean that people who helped build this community no longer have a place in it. And that's why these guiding principles matter. They remind us to protect vulnerable residents from displacement, include community voices early in the process, support local businesses, and make sure redevelopment benefits the entire community and not just those who can afford what's new. One thing I've learned through my advocacy is that good intentions aren't enough. If we believe that these values are important, we should write them into the plan because policies last longer than promises. I respectfully ask you to vote yes on this amendment. Thank you. All right, thank you.

All right. So that's the list of people that have signed up. Would anyone else from the gallery like to speak to this agenda item? All right. So we've gone through our five public discussion items. There is one more opportunity for public comment, and that's our public comment period. And I'll just kind of go through the explanation of that, because there are some folks that have signed up, and there may be others that would like to speak. So this public comment period is for items that have not already been covered on the agenda. And this time is for those living, going to school, or own property or a place of business in the city of Eau Claire to speak on issues, ideas, or concerns of citywide application. Speakers will have up to three minutes to speak and can only speak once. After two minutes, the green light will turn yellow, and then it'll start flashing red when your time is up. Also, this time is not for personal remarks of city personnel, elected officials, or any person affiliated with the city. Council members are not allowed to ask questions or comment during this time, and this time This public comment period is limited to 20 minutes, although the council can vote to extend it with a two-thirds vote. So I will start with the folks that have signed up already. I actually can't read the first name, but the second name is Sam. So does anyone, maybe the person that wrote their name that I can't read who signed up first, are welcome to come up if you'd like to speak, sir.

I don't know how this works. I'm pretty new to this. I read over your rules and I asked a gentleman here to try to help me and the fantastic lady here to explain these to me because these do not make sense. If you want to speak to them offline, I will. All I see is constitutional rights being violated. That's all I'm seeing. What I have to say is this great talk from the three of them. One of the things I'd like to address is somebody here a couple of months ago or a couple of weeks ago, I can't remember her name, she was talking about affordability and the housing costs here in Eau Claire. And I was flummoxed. Why was she using information from 2015 to 2020 to justify where we are at for our incomes and everything? It took me about 30 seconds to figure this information out with current relevant information. And it states that the median household income in Eau Claire is $67,395 for a couple, which equates out to $5,500 a month. And if you use the normal, typical housing rules, you would want to typically spend more than 30% of your budget on housing. So that equates to $1,700, and that's for a family making almost $70,000 a year. I can already tell you that most of the places here in Eau Claire, you're close to that if you go more than just a studio. The median income for me as an individual is $36,831, and that equates out to $3,070 a month. And their maximum housing is only going to be $920 a month. So now when you start adding in people who are in fiscal incomes, I know this is a tough thing to try to deal with, but when you start dealing with this, there are many people that I know here that don't even make that. So her comments was, is something like, you can afford to live in 70% of the housing here in Eau Claire? I beg to ask, where? Unless you're talking about the places that nobody wants to live that you're talking about in the blinded areas. I don't get that. I mean, the typical studio apartment right now is $1,033 to $1,120 a month. A one bedroom is $1,100 to $1,492 a month. A two-bedroom is $1,300 to $1,700 a month. So right now if a family needs three bedrooms that only has that $70,000 a year, technically they shouldn't be going past that. And a three-bedroom home is anywhere from $1,100 to $2,300. and i'll close it out with this my instance i live on a fixed income my retirement and my investments allow me to make six thousand dollars a month with that six thousand dollars a month i can only afford 1700 or 1800 a month for my rent in three years my rent has gone up 650 dollars and i've already been told it's going to go up again next year currently i am seeking to live elsewhere And that's one of the things the young lady said back there. They're driving us out. And I know it's not all your fault and stuff, but I'll let you go.

Yeah, thank you for coming in.

I'd be happy to talk about it because we're all facing budgetary struggles.

Yeah, we can speak after. I'm happy to. Sure.

Thanks.

All right. And we have Sam and Mike. Not. Not going to try to attempt to pronounce your last name. Maybe it's a little hard. Okay, Swords. Okay, thank you for joining us.

Thank you. It's my pleasure. I moved here to Eau Claire about a year ago. I'm a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. I teach computer science. And about once every year in whatever community I live in, I like to show up and have a little bit of a public service announcement about cybersecurity. And so, you know, there are four major risk areas when it comes to cybersecurity events. One is reputational risk. You get hacked, it's in the news, it's a big thing, especially if it's the government that gets hacked in some way, shape, or form. And so the question that I think is good to just talk about about once every year or so is, what is the plan to respond to it? How has that been updated in the last year or two years or so on? And having a discussion amongst the council about what gets delegated to staff to try to figure out on their own, the rise to the level of, you know, council having those sort of deliberations. What's the financial risk involved? Is there insurance that we've gotten about this? You know, how have we thought through those sort of things? Data loss as well as system downtime. And so I come here to, you know, chitchat a little bit about that and just to say, hey, once a year or so might not be the worst thing in the world to maybe bring in a staff member and, you know, have a conversation about it. And that's my public service announcement for the year. See you next July.

Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Appreciate it very much. Anyone else from the gallery like to speak or have any public service announcements they'd like to share? Okay. Well, thank you all for the short evening here and for the engagement. If there's no objection from council, this meeting is adjourned.

Yeah, yeah. Thank you.

Thank you so much.