City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, I'm gonna go ahead and call the meeting of the city council to order. And if I could flag the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisibley andice for all [clears throat] audience here today and we have a building here. I want to do I want to mention that we have counselors online. We have Mayor Joe and counselor Steven Matthews are online. Anyone else? Okay. All right. So our first item on the agenda is public comment. We have members of the public comment. If you have comments specific to it, I would encourage you to wait until

Mr. Can you hear us now? We can. It's a little muffled though. Can you hear us? Yes. It's not very clear or loud. We can hear you. It is feedback though. [clears throat] So, when Christine muted her computer, now we can't hear anything. So, the council chambers are still showing muted online.

Legitimate quorum. There it is. You got it now. All right. You can hear us now. All right. Yes, we can. Much clear person. Eric Kirby, are you speaking in general? agenda. Did you want to wait for the public hearing? Oh, that's urban urban renewal. Sorry. All right. We'll wait until the the public hearing. Okay. So, we don't have any public comments. So, we will move on to the consent calendar. And how would the count the council like to proceed? I'll make a motion that we accept the consent calendar as presented. I'll second that.

Right. We have a motion to accept the consent calendar and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. I. All opposed.

Motion carries. Our next item is a presentation from the Kouspay School District. Doesn't look like he's here. He was here last meeting. All right. Um, if he comes in, we'll go back to that. Right now, uh, we have a presentation of the audit for fiscal year 2425 by Tara Camp, CPA of Clear Trail CBAs. So, I will turn it over to Tara. Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and fellow council. Can everyone hear me? Okay.

No, it's really quiet. Oh, no. We can hear you well online. Yes, we can. I can't hear the the council chambers very well. Let me see if I can turn up my volume. Mr. Mayor, can you hear Tara online? We can hear her loud and clear, but you can't hear the council chambers.

I can hear you now. You You are much clearer. So [clears throat] All right. Well, thank you for having me here this evening. My name is Tara Camp and I'm an auditor with Clear Trail CPAs and we are the financial statement auditor for the city. And so I'm here this evening to present the results of the June 30, 2025 financial statement audit. So, what I'll do is go over the governing body letter that's issued with the audit and I can also take questions at any time and if there's anything that's not clear or that you can't hear, please let me know. So, the purpose of our audit for this city this year was three-fold. We perform the financial statement audit and that is where we're testing the financials created by management in order to determine if they're fairly stated. Secondly, we perform the Oregon minimum standards compliance audit and that is where we're looking at various laws and regulations to ensure the city is comp in compliance with those. And lastly, this year we performed the federal single audit because the city received more federal funds during the fiscal year. That requires us to dive really deep into some grants and look at the compliance requirements to ensure the city is in compliance. So the results of the city are excellent. For the financial statement audit, we issued an unmodified opinion that is a clean opinion with no reservations. For the Oregon minimum standards audit, we found no exceptions or issues requiring comment except as noted on page 94 of the audit report. There was

some very minor procedural budget items we picked up on. And lastly, for the single audit, we found no items of question costs and no non-compliance. So very good overall. This year, the city implemented a new accounting standard called Gazsby Statement 101 for compensated absences. It's a new reporting model for all governments to record um compensated absences. So, that's reflected in the report. And other items that we're required to communicate is that we had no difficulties in performing and completing our audit. The city and the finance office are always wonderful to work with, highly professional and do excellent work. So, I want to thank everyone there for their very hard work. It's a lot of work getting an audit done and getting such good results. We also had no disagreements about accounting or auditing items. Lastly, in our letter, we cover future accounting and auditing items coming up. There's always new accounting standards every year and so we'll work with the city to make sure that those are implemented timely for the future audits. So overall, excellent results and I would be happy to take questions if you have any. I don't have any. I was able to review the audit uh prior to the meeting. Do any other counselors have any questions? And seeing none, then I would Oh, Carmen,

I just said none here. Okay. Uh, how would the council like to proceed? I'll make a motion that we accept uh the uh audit for the fiscal year 2024 2025. I'll second. All right. We have a motion to accept the fiscal year 2024 or 2024 and 2025 audit and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries.

Tara, thank you very much for your work and uh appreciate all the work that staff did to get this ready and uh appreciate you being here tonight. Thank you very much. Have a good evening and we'll see you later the next meeting. Thank you.

All right. Our next item on the agenda is our semianual presentation by the Kuz Bay Northbend Charleston Visitor and Convention Center and Janice Long is here to present. Thank you very much uh Mayor Benetti, city council members, uh city staff and members here in the public. It's always a pleasure to be able to uh present to you uh our semianual report. So, let's see if this will work. I think it's going okay, good. So, a couple of things. Um I usually try and start with the budget. Uh as a reminder, the Visitor and Convention Bureau um markets our area as Oregon's Adventure Coast. We are funded through the tra transit lodging tax TLT that comes in through the city of Kuz Bay, the city of Northbend, the Kwell Indian tribe and Kous County for an area around Charleston. We receive 39% of the lodging taxes that are collected. Um so that's what we have to do the work that we do. And with the monies that we get from the for the VCB side of things, um we have uh marked a 26 to one return on investment for the monies we spend to market and advertise our communities. So I'm showing you this because we did do a supplemental budget at our last board meeting. We added about $91,500 to our fiscal 26 budget. This was from carryover from the previous year as well as some grant funds that we received. um that we did not budget for because we did not hear in uh far enough in advance when we were doing the budget. So, we received $42,500 from Travel Oregon to help with our new website and making it completely accessible for everyone. We also received um what we had budgeted $20,000 uh for the holiday light shuttle. We

received 23,000 for the shuttle this year. And so that's also added into the supplemental budget. Uh any monies that were carryover by the visitor information center on this chart, it's uh denoted as VIC uh went into the VIC budget for this fiscal year. So when we ever have carryover, we try and make sure that the carryover because the agreement we have with the city of Kuzbay to run the Kusbay visitor information center is separate from what we do for the VCB. So that's uh the funding. Uh we have spent we have 53% of our income and we have only spent about 40% of our um expenses to date. This is an interesting slide. I have never shown youall this before, but every month I get a report from our advertising agency that shows the top searches that bring back our website as one of the top five response or results. uh Google searches Steve Prefontaine and Prefontaine is the number one search result every month. So I looked at the two months when we actually promote the Prefontaine memorial run. This year just happened to be the 50th anniversary of his death. Um we had 27,000 searches in the month of August for Steve Prefontaine or Prefontaine. There were 33,000 searches in September for Steve or Prefontaine. And in all of 2025, 324,000 times somebody searched Steve Prefontaine and Prefontaine. 50 years after his death, he is still a really popular search term. And that's why we do a lot more running promotions with our um marketing that we do. Uh just wanted to share some things since the last time we saw you. This is the Bay Area Fund Festival. This is what

we did for uh marketing that big event. Uh digital run of site homepage takeovers with our media partners. Um Google SEM is search engine marketing and retargeting. Uh newsletters, social media. Now these are sponsored. So these are other media's newsletters and social that we are on. Uh, we also did some additional targeted advertising in Denver and San Francisco for the pre-run this year, targeting, of course, runners to see if they would come in on those flights that we have. [snorts] Um, between the two months of our of our marketing for that, we had 13,000 page views on our website for the Bay Area Fun Festival, Cruise, the Cuz the Prefontaine Memorial Run. Uh, the Santa Shuttle was extremely successful this year. We took 5,342 patrons to the lights on 19 nights of the shuttle. The shuttle ran Friday, Saturday, Sunday, plus uh the holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year's Eve. If you compare it to what we did in 23 and 24, in 23 we had 21 nights. That was the longest run of holiday lights because of when Thanksgiving fell. And we took 40 a little over 4,100 people. The next year we had 19 nights like we did this year. So in 24 we took almost 4,400 patrons. This year we almost added a thousand to that and we had to add a third bus to Saturday nights midway through the run because it was so popular. I went out there on a Saturday and the line was like all the way to Monkey Business. So it was it was a long line. We also received $23,000 to pay for the buses. Um also mark uh marketing for holiday lights. huge for us. November, December, that's our biggest campaign. Uh again, we did all of the digital things, digital run of site, homepage takeovers, print. We also do broadcasting uh for

this one. We have QR codes on our broadcast advertising as well as on our print. Um and uh I'll get to that in just a second. But we also do again the SEM, the remarketing, social, and newsletters that are sponsored of somebody else's. We also do billboards along the I-5 corridor for Holiday Lights. It's a big event for us and we want to bring people here in the winter. So, you can see we worked with 11 media outlets plus the billboards and we had 31,000 page views on our website for Holiday Lights and people were getting information and and clicking off to book their tickets or coming. Um, also from the broadcast and print ads, we had another 409 clickthroughs to our website. It's harder to catch that QR code when you're on TV. Um, we also have our own owned media. These are the things that we control. That's our website, our social media, our blog, um, and our newsletter. And from our social media ads, so we also pay for ads on social media. From our social media ads, we had 105,000 impressions and 8,700 clickthroughs to our page from just our social media. This is what we're running right now. We had a very successful campaign Denver to OTH uh that ran all summer long and so we thought, you know, we've never marketed in San Francisco because it's a really expensive media market. Well, we decided to try the same campaign. So, it's basically the same graphics and and look, it just says SFO to OTH. Uh our targets included quick trips, people who were searching quick trips, regional flights. Uh we're currently uh we're also doing a bucket list campaign out there. Uh we launched this in South San Francisco, which is closer to the SFO to the San Francisco airport and on the BART route. So that's the Bay Area Rapid Transit. Um we've only had it up for a

month and a half, but I only have numbers for December. And we had almost 900 clickthroughs to our page. um which was really impressive in my opinion. Other campaigns that we have running, uh the unpack once is our bucket list campaign. Uh we also uh crab feeds coming up in case y'all don't have it on your calendar. Valentine's Day is crab feed in Charleston. And of course, storm watching is a big one that we um do at this time of year as well. So, those are all running right now. This is our new campaign. We're so excited about this campaign. This is called the local vacation loot winter uh promotion. So what we did was we worked with our hotels uh to um include these kind of discounts um to people who stay for two nights. So somebody has to book a two night stay with this promotion and they'll get $120 worth of vacation loot. And I'll explain what that is in just a second. This is our rack card that's going to go out to everybody who requests a visitor guide from us over the next two months. The promotion runs February 1st to March 31st. Um, and we are doing, of course, all the same kind of advertising, digital and Google ads, homepage takeover, sponsored social, sponsored newsletters, and our owned media. This is sort of what our ads look like. So, what we're trying to promote is not only coming and staying in a hotel, but doing some of the adventures uh that we have, fishing, kaying, and uh going out in the dunes. We have eight hotels. This is a hotel only promotion. So, our eight hotels are participating. We have 10 restaurants and seven outfitters. What they'll get when they book this um two night stay, they will get two $50 coupons that they can use toward um the cost of an of a charter fishing, an ATV rental or a tour or the kayak. So, a a I think it's like a half day or a full day kayak rental. So, they get

two of those or they can dine out with it. So, they get an option. They'll get a a coupon that they can go to any of our three museums for free for two. And then they'll also get a 20% off discount coupon for the Kuzbay Visitor Information Center and the North Bend Information Center. We both sell merchandise. So, um that's what they'll get and we are really stoked about this promotion. Um when they book, the hotel will then call us, tell us they have a booking. we will get their packet ready with a welcome letter and all their coupons and then we'll take it and they'll have it ready for them when they start or when they when they get in. And I always end my presentations with the stats for the visitor information center. So, we had a really good year. Um while it appeared that uh occupancy in our hotels was down, we still saw a lot of people coming through the visitor center every month, especially during the summer. We saw 21,457. That's one of the highest years we've had since before the pandemic. Um, and since the advent of all the digital stuff where people are like, I don't need to go to the visitor center. I'll just look it up on my phone. Um, we found that people were coming back. Our volunteers gave us 2700 hours of their time over the last year. We mailed 11,700 visitor guides. Now, those are leads that come to us not only from people asking for our visitor guide off of our website or calling our phone number, but through Travel Oregon. So, we get leads from Travel Oregon. And we sold almost $33,000 worth of merchandise, which is really awesome for us. So, um we don't make a lot off the merchandise, but it brings people in and it gets our city's names and our logo and our brand out into the world. So that's my presentation tonight. I'm happy to take any questions and as always anytime anybody has questions, you can always

call me. Well, thank you so much. Yes, [applause] great presentation as always and uh we appreciate you coming and giving us an update and all the work that you're doing to bring people to our community. Does anyone have any questions? I I do. And you may not know the answer this chance, but of of the people that came to the visitor center, you say our occupancy was down a little bit, but you had increased u people coming into the facility. Were you able were you able to ascertain are those people that have their own vans, you know, the the little

sprender vans and doing their own camping sort of thing? So, we did start asking and we're actually going to do a survey every quarter with people who come through the visitor center asking them how they heard about us, where they're staying, and some other general questions. What we heard was a lot of them were camping or they were staying in vacation rentals. Okay. So, while the VCB and the visitor information center still benefits from the funds from those if they're in our taxing district, our hotels are what we track. And when the hotels are down, it looks like we're all down. Yeah. So, thank you. Thank you. I'm curious if Prefontaine is the number one search, what's the number two? Oh gosh. I'm just curious what

I'll have to I'll have to go back and look at that. That that one actually changes every month. So, it just depends. Um, but I'll I'll go back and I'll get that answer for you. Okay. [laughter] Well, cool. Anyone online? Well, I'm just an advocate of uh you know, tourism and Janice does a great job. I go back and remember in 2016 when we didn't have anyone and Janice came on and it's gone uphill ever since then. I mean, we've plateaued maybe at this point, but uh it it brings a lot of revenue in. So, in many ways, uh as you know, Stephanie at the airport and with the other agencies in the county that we work with. Thank you. Thank you so much for bringing this information to us and being here tonight.

Thank you. Yes, thank you. I'm sorry. Can I can I mention one thing that I and Janice I forgive me if you've said this. I think that one of the things also to remember is while occupancy is down in our region, it's down throughout the state. So, uh this is not um just something representative of our area. It's really down across the entire state. Uh and so I just wanted to make sure that people recognize that as well. Thank you, Councelor Denovo. I did not know you were on there. I apologize for that. Oh, I just hopped on, so I was in a meeting. So, my apologies for being late.

Oh, that's okay. We're glad you're here. All right. Our next item on the agenda is our action items. And I did add uh an item that was not on the original agenda. Uh we did do we conducted interviews for our design assistance team prior to this meeting and we had uh four applicants for four positions that are open on that uh committee and two of the people that applied are already on that committee. Uh Ryan Tus and uh Arianne Lions who is the chair of that design assistance team. And then we had Lydia Hines apply. And I don't think is she here? Lydia is here. There she is. And then Kyle and I'm I'm sorry I don't have his last name.

Tomy. Tom Kyle. All right. Yes. Tom Kyle. He's been in the community for quite a while. He was not make able to make it to the interview, but um we did have his application. So, uh, at this point, um, I would take a I would entertain a motion. Uh, I'll make a motion that we, um, accept the four applicants to fill the seats. Two of which are, um, reappoints and two are to fill empty seats for, uh, Lydia Hines and Thomas Kyle to fill the empty seats and Arian Lions and Ryan Tus to be reappointed to their seats. Second.

All right, we have a motion and a second to accept the slate of candidates that applied for the position for the design assistance team. And are there any Oh, I'm sorry. No, no, no. Cool. Uh are are there you had you had something you wanted to say.

I just uh want to add uh and acknowledge a maybe perceived conflict of interest. Lydia Hines is my wife. So, I'm just throwing that out there. And that is just a perceived uh conflict of interest but we checked into that and there is no conflict because there is no financial gain from that position. So all right so we have a motion and a second. Any other discussion counselor Kilmer I just want to make sure did councelor Kribbons is uh Tom Kyle is he being recommended for this committee as well? Yes. Okay, thank you.

Um, and just to clarify, uh, Councelor Denovo, there were five applicants, but one withdrew. Okay, thank you very much. So, the four that he mentioned, um, in his motion were the ones that um had applied and interviewed with the exception of Thomas Kyle. Thank you. All right, any other questions or comments? All those in favor say I. I I All opposed. [clears throat] Motion carries. Welcome and thank you. [clears throat]

Thank you for your service too as well. So our next item on the agenda is a public hearing for consideration to approve the vacation of South 15th Street Ride ofway north of Pennsylvania Avenue. And it would require enactment of an or ordinance. And Jennifer, you're going to take that.

Thank you. Yes. Um before I start, Christine, do you have the ability to pull up an attachment associated with the um staff report? It's the South 15th Street GIS exhibit. [clears throat] So, while she's doing that, um on October 7th, city council on behalf of property owner Compass Communities Englewood LLC initiated a rightaway vacation request for a portion of South 15th Street just north of Pennsylvania Avenue. The vacated ride ofway will facilitate the construction of the proposed development of the property previously known as the Englewood Elementary School. [snorts] Comments were sought from all city departments and there were no objections. Comments were also solicited from local utility companies and there were no objections. As the vacation is with 100 ft of the shoreline, the city is required to seek input from the International Port of Kus Bay. The port commission considered and approved the vacation application at their November 20th commission meeting. Lastly, city staff has received no public public comments for or objections to the proposed vacation. So, if it pleases council, hold a public hearing to take comments and if desired, enacted ordinance providing for the vacation of South 15th Street Rideway just north of Pennsylvania Avenue. The [snorts] ordinance will only be enacted if the land use application for the Englewood development is approved. [snorts]

All right. Sorry about that. So, this uh I'm going to go ahead and open up the public hearing um and take comments uh regarding the ordinance providing for the vacation of South 15th Street Rideway. Uh is there anyone who would like to make a public comment? Since we have no comments, I will go ahead and close the public hearing. And how would the council like to proceed?

I'd like to make a motion that we uh enact the ordinance providing for the vacation of South 15th Street right ofway just north of Pennsylvania Avenue. This ordinance will only be enacted if the land use application number 187-25-0000154- PLNG is approved. I'll second. Second. Sorry about that, Troy. You jumped in too soon. Okay, we have a motion. Mr. Mayor, did you Yes, I seconded.

Oh, okay. We have a motion and a second uh to enact the ordinance providing for the vacation of South 15th Street rightway just north of Pennsylvania Avenue. The ordinance will only be enacted if the land use application is approved. And a second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Oh, that's right. We have a roll call on this. I was going to be so good and remember that. So, Christine, will you do the roll call? An ordinance providing for the vacation of a portion of South 15th Street found in southeast one quarter of southeast one quarter of section 3 township 26 range 13 west of the Willilament Meridian Cous County Oregon. Mayor Benetti

I. Councelor Kilmer I. Councelor Stevens. Hi. Councelor Kribbons. I. Councelor Neberl. I. Councelor Matthews. I. Councelor Denovo. I. Ordinance number 591 will be duly enacted upon the enactment of the other ordinance.

All right. Thank you. Our next item on the agenda is a public hearing to consider type 4 land use application number 187-25-0000154-Png uh map amendments PUD uh slcup Englewood Housing Development requires enactment of an ordinance and we do I read this procedure now or before I open the public hearing or do we do a report? No, you just keep reading. It'll open the public hearing and then I'll give a report.

Okay. Thank you.

All right. There's uh some measures that I have to do for um official purpose here. And so I will now open a public hearing on the land use application that I mentioned before. Today is January 20th, 2026 and it is 6:35m. My name is Stephanie Kilmer. I am the city councelor and the presiding over the meeting. The city council will make a final decision on this application based on the complete record, including testimony received at tonight's public hearing. These proceedings are being recorded. The hearing will be conducted in accordance with Kuzbay development code and state law. For anyone wishing to speak, we are asking that you use the signup sheet that has been provided. When called upon to speak, you must state your name and address for the public record. We ask that each speaker limit themselves to no more than three minutes. Pre, please remember that all presentations will be timed. You will be informed when your aotted time is expired. All speakers exceeding the time limit will be asked to immediately conclude his or her remarks. To minimize repetitive testimony, organizations are encouraged to have only one person speak for the group with other members of the organization standing to show their support. Each person may testify only once unless called back to the podium at the request of a city council member to respond to a question. Thank you for your cooperation. Also, the city council is required to disclose any conflict of interest and exparte contacts we have had with the proposal or applicant. That is whether we have spoken we have any financial or other personal interest in the proposal or whether we have spoken with anybody

about the proposed outside of this hearing. Do any council members wish to make disclosures personal or financial? anyone online? Uh, are there any challenges from the audience as to conflicts of interest, exparte contacts or bias related to any member of the city council and we did not have any challenges. State law requires me to tell you a number of things at the beginning of the hearing. First, the applicable substance substantative criteria that apply to this application are contained in the notice of public hearing, the written staff report and will be identified discussed in the oral staff report. Second, your testimony, arguments, and evidence must be directed towards these criteria or other criteria in the comprehensive plan or development code that you believe apply to this application. Third, failure to raise an issue accompanied by statements or evidence sufficient to afford the decision maker or other people an opportunity to respond may preclude preclude appeal of a decision on this application based on that issue. City council will make the final decision. A decision of the city council may be appealed to the land use board of appeals, also known as luba. We will now hear from staff Chelsea and the applicant who will go over the staff report.

Great. Thank you, Councelor Kilmer. So, uh, we are looking at a project what we term Englewood Housing Development Project and see if I get my Yes. So, there's a couple of um action items, couple of land use uh permits needed for this case. It's a planned unit development um for 30 units of workforce h affordable housing on approximately 2.21 acres of land. Um a planned unit development is something we typically see on sites that are constrained when you're really trying to maximize the the development of the property. Uh there a portion of these 30 units, they're going to be what we call zero lot line developments. It's where the the units will share a wall along common property lines that requires a conditional use permit. Also, [clears throat] excuse me, we're um it necessitates a need for amendment to your comprehensive plan map and the zoning map because the property is currently planned for higher density residential use and commercial use. and that zoning um similarly reflects that being zoned mixed use. The adjacent neighborhood is all small lot residential and so that proposal is to match the existing neighborhood and develop something that would be permitted in the existing neighborhood. This is just a quick look at the map. This map at the top is a comprehensive plan map showing the property is starred kind of orange. that just shows that it's planned for higher density uh development amongst all this lower residential density development. Uh the zoning map, the same thing. The zoning mixed use is purple uh in the middle of all of this small lot residential

development. So there's additional details in the staff report um and we can I can answer questions any questions anybody has. I just want to give a brief background. The site um as Jennifer mentioned is that known as the Englehood Englewood Elementary School site. That school was developed back in 1913. About a hundred years later, 2014, the school was damaged by a fire and abandoned. And then it took until 2023, to complete environmental cleanup of the site. And so I just wanted to kind of touch on the the partnerships that kind of got us to this point today that both the city um Kous County and then just community partnerships. Uh the city's worked with the county and with nonprofit and private housing developers on concepts for the site. Um the idea really being to to put some infill development in there that's going to u mesh well with the existing development. So providing a mix of two and threebedroom single units. Again, this site is constrained with steep slopes. So it does necessitate some flexibility with the design and the sighting. That's what that planned unit development is for. And then the proposal does include vacating that portion of unimproved 15th Street. And so that really is necessary to make this project um work. This is the site plan, a site plan of the proposed development. the you'll see coming off of Pennsylvania on the south and turning up South 15th Street. There's two units right here that wouldn't be possible without the vacation. So that's kind of what how that vacation is serving this development proposal. You'll just see that uh there's a culde-sac one way in. There are two ways or two ways in actually. Um this provides emergency access uh access to the back of these units. I I would say

in the front are more the smaller units and then as you go in the back you'll get some of the larger single units and the developer is here tonight. He can certainly speak to more of the fun details. Uh this is a slide just land use proceedings require certain notice. So this slide shows that that's been done. Department of land conservation and development was notified appropriately. We posted notice at city hall on the website and in the city's newsletter. We notified outside agencies and affected property owners within 300 feet of the site and then notice was published in the world newspaper. Uh comments we received uh Oregon Department of Transportation. Anytime you make a change to your comprehensive plan um map, they get a chance to weigh in and typically they're concerned if you're going from a lower impact uh planning designation like a residential to higher to commercial. we're going the reverse and so they're not concerned with the proposal. Um our public works engineering division, they've been working side by side with the developer. They have a list of conditions that um are being addressed or will be addressed. And so that's just uh their comments were kind of addressing the standards that we want to see in place with the development. And then the general public, we've received lots of emails, phone calls, inquiring. planning commission did receive oral and written testimony. Um the developers have been talking to neighbors, working with them to address their concerns. And so I'll let um Darren with Compass Communities touch more on that today tonight. But in the end, planning commission did conduct that first public hearing and ultimately recommends that planning commission approve the land use application just subject to continued coordination with the city's engineering department to address the um conditions. And then

an approval of the application would also necessitate um the need for enactment of an ordinance to to confirm those amendments authorized to the comprehensive plan map and zoning map. And so if you have any questions for me, happy to answer the are the developer is here and they will have more to to say. All right. Do any of the counselor or Mr. Mayor do you have any questions? anyone online? Chelsea, this has been an incredible amount of work. Excellent job to you. Thank you.

I would just echo that. This is uh really good to see something happening here and I'm really grateful to uh the developers for stepping up and uh working with the city to get this done.

Okay. Any other comments from the council? Any questions for the applicant? All right. Then I will uh go ahead and proceed to the public hearing. And first we will now hear from any person in support of the proposal. Again, each will have three minutes. And please state your name and address for the record. Do I have anyone in the audience that is in support of and we did not have any comments in support of. So we will now hear from any person opposing the proposal. Again each will have three minutes. Please come to the microphone in an orderly fashion and state your name and address for the record. Do I have anyone that would like to make a comment? All right, we will now hear from anyone who is neutral to the proposal. Again, each will have three minutes. Come to the podium. State your name and address for the record.

I feel like we should have a line of 50 people out there just formality of [laughter] what we're saying. All right. Um, all written comments received today are included in the record. Did we have one or was that on another We had three hearings tonight. So I we did uh receive a comment uh to the administration email box um really more related to sidewalks on Pennsylvania. Okay. And since we did not have any comments other than that, is there any rebuttal from staff?

Um, would council like to hear from the the developer and get kind of an update on how things are progressing, how concerns have been addressed. We have Darren who be happy to come up and speak. Darren, would you like to give us an update? Yeah, I would love that. Yes, I would love to. Uh, councilors, uh, Mayor Benetti, counselors, uh, staff, members of the public, thank you very much for the opportunity to visit. Um, I do have some slides. If you like, we can go through those pretty quickly. Something tells me I need to get a clicker.

Um, and I want to just start by saying, um, a very special thanks really to the city leadership for recognizing the opportunity, for recognizing the need for housing. Um, very special thanks to your staff for their teamwork. Um, we work with communities all over the state of Oregon and it's rare to find a team that works as well as yours do together. Um, they look out for each other. They really raise the bar which makes um, our jobs a little easier and a little harder at the same time. In other words, we can't get by with much. Um, but they also have helped tremendously to pull this together. And I think one of the counselors online said, "This has been a lot of teamwork." Yeah, it has [clears throat] been a lot of teamwork and we greatly appreciate that.

Before you move forward, um I want to make sure that the counselors online can hear hear you. Okay. Can you hear? Um yes, we can. Yeah. Very well. Okay. Awesome.

Thank you. So, my name is Darren Nichols. I'm a member of Compass Communities. I'm here representing uh our company. U I have two of my uh partners uh who are also members of Compass Communities. Damon Olsen is with me tonight. Aman's um a builder extraordinaire. Um also have Mark Shipman who is our real estate and legal counsel and as we like to say a recovering county planner. So um together we make uh you know kind of a a mly crew but we one thing about us as people is that we're committed to helping communities and people work together to solve problems. And so in that spirit, we attended the League of Oregon Cities Conference and there we met Mayor Benetti and we met several city councilors. We met Nicole and we just asked, you know, are there any issues in Cous Bay that we could help with? And they said, well, there is this one site up at the old Englewood school site that we've been struggling with and we'd love to put housing there. So that's that's how we happen to be here tonight was really just to start with a conversation among people about solving a problem. So, um, or or capturing an opportunity, I think, is probably the way to frame that. Also have a number of other, um, members of our team that are with with us tonight. I want to shout out, um, Eric Kirby is our civil engineer. Eric really is the brains and a lot of the weekend and night work behind, you know, figuring out how to carefully position 30 new homes in a very compact site. Um and then we have our um real estate expert here also. Julie Stevens is a member of the Kuzbay uh realtor community and Julie is helping us with a lot of good insights and she'll be helping us to find um people to put in those homes eventually. Who did I miss? Herardo Mahia is also with us. He's an intern from Oregon State University. Be graduating this spring with a a degree in marketing. Okay, I think that's I think that's all

of us. Um, so yeah, thank you very much. All right, so you know I turned it off when Thank you. Thank you. It's on the side, Janice. Thank you. There we go.

Look at that. All right. So, talk just a minute just talked a minute ago about who we are. We really are uh collaborative community builders helping people find solutions. And that could be all kinds of different kinds of challenges, but we really enjoy helping Oregon communities uh work together to build better communities and I hope that shows tonight. Um this clicker is pretty heavy. Um so here's Englewood for those of you that don't know where Englewood is. It's in the south end of Cous Bay. We'll talk a little bit more about the site, but you can kind of see it's down there at the very south tip of the city limits. Quick history, Chelsea already mentioned this school was built in 1913. So, this site really served for a hundred years. It served as a public elementary school and then that school was burned in 2014 and it really at that point became kind of a dumping ground and um there's some activity. We've been doing a little bit of cleanup recently, kind of finding, you know, things that were left there. Um, but the city, uh, undertook a formal environmental cleanup, city and the county, uh, in which wrapped up in 2023. And I think this is where the city leadership and county leadership really started to demonstrate itself. Um, takes a lot of uh, vision, foresight, and frankly a lot of time and money to clean up a site like this. Um so in 2023, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality deemed it um no further action required. That basically then opened up the opportunity to start thinking about the future of a former school site. And then as I mentioned in 2025, we we started conversations in earnest about how we might work together to put put some homes on the site. And in particular, um we address these goals that you see here, provide housing that's attainable to the Kuspay area workforce. So for us that means homes

that people making 80 to 130% of the area median income can afford um on the on those you know on their household income. So that also requires a little uh work to make sure that we're keeping our costs down in order to pass those savings on to deserving individuals and their households. So um we also wanted to use this site which is a very unique site as a neighborhood infill which is you know requires some reinvestment and also to do that in a way that helps build the community and supports the the neighborhood around it. Uh but more than anything really demonstrate the art of the possible through cooperative partnership. Um and we've touched on that. So you're being asked to take five actions tonight. uh vacate the unused rideway, which really is the old school bus turnaround. It's kind of an oversized culde-sac that obviously is no longer needed. So, we're using that to put a couple extra homes in this neighborhood. And then, like Chelsea's already mentioned, amend the comprehensive plan from commercial to residential. Also amend the zoning from mixed use to small lot residential. and then adopt uh the layout for a planned unit development which will create 30 new lots in a neighborhood plat. And then the conditional use permit will allow us to put some some attached units, some attached homes. So they'll all be single family homes. Each home will be on its own lot, but some of those homes will be attached to each other. Um some of them will also be detached, but that's the that's the goal. So here's the school back then. Many of you probably remember it when it was there on the site. Here it is in 2014 after it was burned and partially demolished. It really became kind of a a dangerous site with all the materials just laying on the ground. Here it is in 2023, shortly after it was cleaned up.

All this all the old school and the contamination have been removed and the site's been cleared. And then here it is now. Actually, this is I say now, this is it's already old news. You'll see in a minute, but here's the site. If you're traveling up Pennsylvania Avenue, there's uh the intersection with South 15th Street. The site there is kind of straight ahead behind that power pole. If you go up Pennsylvania Avenue and look back down, there's the site there kind of on the left. It used to be the old school parking lot entrance. This gives you a little sense for the topography on the uphill. It's pretty steep. There's a bunch of mature fur trees and some vegetation, but that bank there at the upper end is pretty steep. Here it is in that school bus turnaround looking at the site which used to be covered in grass. Um just threw this in here. You can see that little lonely rectangle of purple down at the bottom. That's the mixed use. And um you see the next nearest purple is actually near downtown. So it's that zoning was really only appropriate because it was a school. Um once the school use was removed, it really is just a residential neighborhood. So, what we're asking you to do tonight is to change the zoning to reflect the residential nature. It's just a closeup of the same lonely little rectangle of mixed use. In the mixeduse zone, you could have things like a drive-through restaurant, a a bar, uh a commercial services establishment, things that generally you don't just put in the middle of a single family neighborhood. So, here's the site. Um this is the 1.91 acre site that's being reszoned. The entire site, which you'll see on the next slide, is actually 2.21 acres. Um, but part of it is already zoned residential, so we don't need to do the reszone on the whole thing. Um, so this shows you the whole site. It's a little bit hard to read on this slide,

but you'll see on the left, the kind of bigger rectangle is the part that's being reszoned. That's the actual school site. Then on the far right, that little kind of bumpout, part of that is an extra parcel that was owned by Cous County. The county just deeded that over as part of the site and made it made it part of the development. And then the little hatched area in the middle is where the rideway is being vacated. So together that's almost two and a quarter acres on three parcels. So we've talked about this a little bit. Just want to kind of tell you what it is that we envision here. This is residential. Uh we want it to be an infill project that has a neighborhood feel. It fits into the neighborhood. These will all be owner occupied units that are affordable to the local workforce. Um we'll add some neighborhood amenities. There'll be some shared parking. There'll also be a trail access to Illinois Avenue, which is just north of us. Uh we want to protect neighborhood existing neighborhood views. So you can see on the left hand part of this slide um these homes. This is a neighborhood called Engle uh sorry Pennsylvania Place. This is a newer neighborhood. Um and some of these homes along the bluff here actually have beautiful views out through these fur trees. Our goal in developing this site is to first of all leave the mature trees that you see on the site, as many of those as we possibly can. We think we can leave almost all the trees there. And for these homeowners here, our rooftops will be below their level of view, so they'll still be able to see out over the marsh. Um, and those are two two things that were important to us in designing the site. Um, this I'm sorry, my apologies. Boy, this is really pretty sensitive. So, we want to provide a mix of unit types and sizes. So, Chelsea mentioned some of these will be um two-bedroom, some will be threebedroom. They'll all have uh the potential for one and a half baths or

two bathrooms. So, they're actually very comfortable layouts built for individuals or um households. Some of them will be single story. The single stories will be fully ADA accessessible. We've got a design that enables people who use a mobility device, either a chair or a scooter, to freely move in and around their kitchens and bathrooms and bedrooms. Um so, some of them will be single level ADA accessible. Many of them will be twotory, some of them will be threetory. Uh so for the uh the more able, the spry, those of us that still have our knees and uh don't mind stairs, will be some slightly taller units. And you'll you'll see that in a minute. Ranging between 1,000 square feet and 1500 square feet. So these are, you know, modestly sized homes, but um a very efficient kind of package. So here's the concept. You've you've seen this 30 lots. It's a combination of some off- streetet parking. Um, every unit will have uh either a garage or a paved parking driveway. Most of them will have both. Some on street parking. There'll be there are a few spots here that where folks can park on the street or visitors can park on the street. Be sidewalks throughout uh and pedestrian access. And then like I said, we try to keep as many of the trees as we can. So, just a quick kind of look at what the neighborhood would look like if this is a 3D rendering. Kind of helps us visualize it a little bit. Just kind of slide through. This is what it look like from the Pennsylvania side. This is what it'll look like from Illinois. If you could if you could float up over Illinois Avenue, this is what it look like here from 15th Street. You see the connector through there? And this is the trail. Here's a here's a little closer view. You can kind of see the the trail coming down behind these homes and then it'll make its way gently down this grade and

connect to Illinois. So, the whole neighborhood will benefit from a ped a pedestrian connection there. So, this is a kind of a pastel version of uh the fiveplex unit. We have one fiveplex unit. These will be the threetory units. You can see we've got tuck under parking. And these will actually be enclosed most likely be enclosed garages here, but you can see the room for each. You'll have a park under garage. Then they'll have some extra storage back here. And then stairs will lead up to a main living area and then bedrooms up on the third floor. So, here's some of the things that we heard from from the neighbors and and really the community. I I think provided some very constructive feedback, which we appreciate. Um, we appreciate the accolades, but we actually value more the concerns and kind of questions that people ask because it's it's not our neighborhood, it's your neighborhood. And um folks kind of know what works, what doesn't work. And so um and also what's going on. So we heard um about traffic concerns about extra vehicles. Of course, there'll be extra vehicles. Um in 2022, our predecessors uh conducted a STRA traffic study that demonstrated that even with um 40 units under a prior um plan, level of service would still be level of service A or at worst level of service B. Um that means very good service on local streets. Um the the capacity is here to handle lots of traffic. Our traffic engineer is looking taking a fresh look at that to make sure that's still the case and we'll provide a letter to Jennifer shortly related to traffic parking. There's always concerns about parking. Um there is some concern that it would be difficult to park an RV or a boat at one of these um homes. That is true. Um it will be difficult to park an RV or boat.

Not impossible, but it will be difficult. Our sense is that if it's important for people to have space, they they will probably shop somewhere else. The market knows how to sort itself out. Um you can park a full-size pickup in any of these garages, but if you've got something attached to the back, um you know, you probably want to put it in storage or else look for a larger place. So, um that said, there are almost two full parking spaces for every home in this off- streetet parking spaces for every home in the development. So, um, yeah, we think there'll be lots of room for people to park and visitors to still come and visit. We'll have some parking, some no parking on one side of the street also to make sure there's plenty of room for fire access and for two-way traffic. Um, so the oversized vehicles, we've already addressed that a little bit. Um, we're taking a look at some CCNRs, whether it makes sense to put some CCNRs, sorry, that would prohibit um, oversized vehicles, trailers, RVs from being parked. We're kind of kicking that around to see how much um, how many rules it makes sense to try to put on this neighborhood and what's necessary, but we are taking a look at that site distance and safety on Pennsylvania. Oh, sorry, I missed one. Sidewalks and street lights. We'll have street lights and sidewalks uh, throughout the development. And um if we need more, Jennifer will tell us and we'll add more. But we this will be well lit and there'll be sidewalks on throughout the entire development. Sight distance and safety on Pennsylvania. If you're coming down Pennsylvania, there's a little bit of a rise above us and then a kind of a steep section of Pennsylvania. And it it is steep there, but we've driven it a number of times. You can see really well that section of Pennsylvania is quite wide, so there's plenty of room. Um, you know, our guess is just like the rest of the neighbors that are there now, people will learn to adjust and they'll drive safely. It's a it's a 25 m hour street

and we think that's enough to keep things safe. Uh, storm water issues raised by a number of neighbors. Um, that that is a challenge actually and we've discovered some broken pipes and some old um kind of quirky old systems. That's I think the best way to say on the site we're systematically working to either abandon those and replace them with new fully functioning storm water systems or in a couple of cases to take what used to be sort of problematic runoff and divert it into the city's storm water system. So we believe that through the development of this site some of the downhill neighbors will actually see less storm water around their places. um and we'll stay in touch with them as we go too uh to make sure that we're at least not making it worse and our goal is to make the stormwater situation much better. There was a question about seismic stability in at the planning commission hearing. Um we've had numerous geotechnical reports on the site as we've started to dig a little bit. There's actually a ton of rock below the surface. So our sense is that if it was strong enough to hold an elementary school for 10 and some years um with all and with all that rock it's a it's a safe site um that it's not going to slide and the geotech reports back that up. We heard some questions about the type of homes, the prices and surrounding property values. Um that's always a concern. These will be brand new homes. They're not large homes. They're not custom homes, but they're very nice. Um, I've been in a number of homes that we've built. I think any of us would be proud to live in. They're modern. They have, you know, tile floors. They've got all wood cabinets. They've got granite countertops. They've got state-of-the-art um duckless heat pumps that are super efficient. They'll have metal roofs. Um, we we pride ourselves in delivering a product that anybody would feel comfortable living in, and

these will be no different. the price point will be sort of straddles the average of the of the home prices in this neighborhood. So, we did a little math. If I remember right, the least expensive kind of place around us is about is a little over $300,000. The our units will start um offer the lower end will be offered at $225,000 ranging up to 325 between 325 and 340. Um we're still kind of working to sharpen our pestles on the single family homes, but um we're right in that we're right in that price point. So we feel like it it's a good fit for the neighborhood. All of these will be owner occupied. We're looking at some criteria for ownership that would require folks to live in the unit and also not own other property. So, this is really intended for um homeowners who have dreamed of owning a home, haven't had another opportunity, and this is an opportunity to get into the the home ownership market. And um so, we're working to kind of explore those kinds of criteria. But the goal is that, you know, local work local workforce who don't have another option would be able to afford a home in this neighborhood. And I talked a little bit about CCNR's. Um, one of the neighbors up above us offered us a copy of the Pennsylvania Place CCNR. So, we're looking at those and seeing if we can incorporate those into a similar set of covenants, conditions, and restrictions. This is a really dark slide and I apologize, it's hard to see, but this is what the site looked like as of yesterday. It's all been cleared off. Um, it's starting to look like a construction site. Um, and then as of this afternoon, it doesn't even look like this anymore. It's already been dug up. So, um, our crew is working hard. We have a local excavation contractor is doing a good job up there and of course this weather has just been incredible gift uh to work on the site. So, um yeah, we're moving some dirt and um here's what we kind of hope to be doing

over the next little while. Um if you all are inclined to approve the tenative plat this evening, then that would enable us to record that plat in February. that would create the lots and would then enable us to begin um applying for building permits. Um our goal is to have the site ready to build on by the end of March. Um we hope to invite you all to a groundbreaking, presuming the weather holds a little bit sometime in the early spring. Um and then begin construction in April. Um our our real goal is to see if we can have all of these homes built in this calendar year. So, we're moving quickly. We know that. Um, I've seen Damon and his crews do this before and I know that we can do it in Cous Bay. So, um, we're looking forward to delivering quality homes this calendar year um, and welcoming new neighbors to a new home as soon as we can. So, if you have questions or complaints about or concerns or questions, please reach out to me. I'm I'm Darren. Um, there's my contact information. If you're interested in learning more about opportunities to purchase a home, um, please reach out to our real estate colleague. Julie Stevens is here locally. She knows the market. She's very approachable, very easy to work with, and, um, understands part of the mission and is going to help folks get into a home. So, please feel free to reach out to Julie if you have questions. Thank you.

All right. Wonderful presentation. Thank you. Are there any questions from the council? Uh, councelor Kemler, I have a question. Go ahead, [clears throat] Sarah. Um, you spoke quite a bit about ensuring that these forms are that these homes will be affordable. How how are you going to do that and what are you expecting the price point to be?

Yeah, thank you for the question, counselor. um we're going to ensure they're affordable partly by just working with um your staff and we've visited with at least a half a dozen realtors in the area to kind of understand the market. And so we believe that we have uh we believe that we've achieved a price range that fits that 80% of area median income to 130% that I mentioned earlier. that that price range coincides with um homes priced as I mentioned at 225,000 and then going up into the mid300s. So um we've been working with a proforma that just consistently starts at that price range. Um that that is where we will offer uh these homes for sale. We've also um looked at um some criteria that the state of Oregon uses for home ownership opportunities to make sure that these homes uh that the buyers of these homes are eligible according to those criteria. So that includes um living in the home um obviously having some kind of local source of income and then not owning other property in u well not owning other property. So, these be first-time home buyers who don't don't own a another home. We feel like uh those criteria are um if they're if they're good enough for the state of Oregon, they're good enough for Cousay. We'll continue to we'll continue to explore those to make sure that these are um owner occupied by local folks who are, you know, fit fit that um income criteria. Any other questions?

I would just uh like to add that I'm really excited to see this uh moving forward and I really appreciated the update and the presentation. Um I learned a lot. So, thank you to you and your team, Darren. Really appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you.

All right. Any other questions from the council? I would just uh like to make a comment that um I appreciate that this checks off a lot of the boxes that we've had and since I've been on council, there's been a couple of properties that have been concerned uh concerning for the for the council and staff and uh uh those two properties are being taken care of. Um they were concerns not just for the property itself but for the neighboring properties and I appreciate so much attention to the details of those concerns that you heard from residents as well. Are there any questions of Chelsea?

Thank you Darren.

All right. Do any counselors or the mayor have any further questions before we close the public hearing. Got to get my script out. Make sure I do everything right. Okay. Then I will close the public hearing and the record at 7:13 p.m. Now it is time for council deliberation. The council has received the recommendation of the planning commission and has conducted a second public hearing on this matter. The city council may one take action on the matter, approve, approve with changes or deny or continue the hearing to a future date. How would the council like to proceed? I'd like to make a motion that we approve the land use application 187-25-0000154- PLMG based on the information presented by the applicant all evidence in the record to date and the recommended findings of approval as presented subject to condition that the developer continue to coordinate with the city to safe satisfy items addressed in engineering division staff report dated December 1st 2025. Five and two, enact an ordinance confirming those amendments authorized to the city of Cousay Kuspay's comprehensive plan map and zoning map.

Second. Do I have a second? Second. Okay, I have a second from councelor Denovo. So, we have a motion to approve I'm not going to read the whole thing. A motion to approve the land use application number 187-25-0000154- PLNG map amendments PUD slingwood housing development and Christine are you ready to do the roll call

an ordinance amending the city of Kuz Bay comprehensive plan map plan designation from commercial residential medium high density to residential low density and the zoning map zone district from mixed use to small lot residential for property identified as 1400 Pennsylvania Avenue tax lots 500 and 501 as shown on the assessor's map number 26S3. 13W3BD. Councelor Kilmer. I, Councelor Stevens. I, Councelor Kbins.

I, Councelor Nebergall, I, Councelor Matthews, I, Councelor Denovo. I, Mayor Benetti, I,

ordinance number 592 has been duly enacted. Congratulations. Now the work begins, [applause] even though it's been going on for quite a while, apparently. All right. Our next item on the agenda is a public hearing to consider enactment of ordinance amending Goosebay Municipal Code, Title 15, Buildings and Construction. And Marcy, you're up on this one.

Good evening. If it pleased the council, staff recommends to enact the ordinance to modify Kuzbay municipal code title 15 buildings in construction. It was last comprehensively updated in 2008 and references previous international code language relating to buildings and new construction. Um, as we've updated here and presented, it should help um, administrative rules and allow our property owners, contractors, public the support that we need to effectively administer our building codes program.

Thank you. And do we have any questions for Marcy? I don't see anyone online. So, how would the council like to proceed? Do we have it to have a public hearing on this?

Oh, I guess I guess we should probably do that, huh? All right. I will at this time go just try to get through it. I was just so glad to get through the last script. [laughter] I will go ahead and open the public hearing. Do we have anyone that would like to speak on this um update to the municipal code? And we don't have anyone. So, I will close the public hearing. And how would the council like to proceed?

Uh I would like to recommend that we enact the ordinance to modify the Kuspay Municipal Code Title 15 buildings and construction. I'll second. All right, we have a motion and a second to enact the or to enact ordinance to modify Kuzbay municipal code title 15 buildings and construction. You ready for the roll call? An ordinance of the city council of the city of Kous Bay amending title 15 of the Kuzbay municipal code buildings and constructions. Councelor Stevens. I. Councelor Kribbons. I. Councelor Neberall.

I. Councelor Matthews. I. Councelor Denovo. I. Mayor Benetti. I. Councelor Kilmer. I. Ordinance number 593 has been duly enacted. All right. Our next item on the agenda is Oh, almost touchy little thing here. Our next item on the agenda is the approval of the urban renewal ay's annual financial report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025. And Nicole, are you going to take that?

Yes, I'm going to take this. Uh the urban renewal district operates under uh Oregon revised statutes and one of those requirements is an annual report which is presented to the presiding entity the city of Kuspay um for your review and approval. Upon uh that it is then distributed to the overlapping taxing districts so they have an understanding of the work that's been done with the tax uh increment dollars that they've allowed to be set aside for uh projects in the city of Kuspay. This report um we are required to uh provide certain pieces within the report itself and you're going to find those towards the back. They're the financial data pieces. Those include the amount of property tax received both the tax increment and any special levy amounts including also indebtedness incurred during the preceding fiscal year. The purposes and amounts for which this money was received uh and how it was expended. An estimate of the amount of property tax revenue to be received and the indebtedness to be incurred in the current fiscal year. and a budget summary setting forth the purposes and estimated amounts for which property tax revenue and indebtedness incurred are expended and finally an analysis of the impact if any uh on the overlapping taxing districts. So what you have been presented to you is a little bit more robust than is required by uh OS. we could uh just show those uh financial um tables, but this agency uh has chosen to kind of expand and we go into a little bit more detail in uh what an urban renewal uh district can provide in a community. um kind of

have some discussion around the two district plans that we have in place and then provide some um visuals, some photos and some narrative around the projects that were supported supported in the year. So that is what you have before you. We are asking um for your uh acceptance of that report and then we will complete the process that there is a publication that goes in the newspaper along with uh distribution to the overlapping taxing districts. All right. Are there any questions from the council? No question, but just to say I appreciated the graphics and uh giving that context before and after. I think that makes it really clear to folks. So, it certainly made it clear to me. So, thank you.

Anyone else have any comments? None here. Thank you, though. I'd like to make a motion that we approve the Urban Renewal Agency's annual financial report for the fiscal year ended June 30th, 2025. Second. All right, we have a motion to approve the urban renewal ay's annual annual financial report for the fiscal year ended June 30th, 2025 and a second. All uh any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I.

All opposed. Motion carries. And our next item on the agenda is consideration to initiate a vacation for a portion of South First Street, the south end of Cous Bay. And Jennifer, thank you. Christine, can I trouble you to bring up that vacation exhibit in the staff report? Thank you. Um the existing [clears throat] waste connections transfer station utilizes a portion of the platted South First Street rideway approximately 540 ft in length located between Lockhart Avenue and Cobank Slooh. This segment of South First Street does not provide through access or broader vehic vehicular connectivity for the general public and Waste Connections owns all six parcels that abut this portion of the public rideway. Waste Connections is proposing upgrades to its transfer station facility and has requested that the city council initiate the vacation of this portion of South First Street. The proposed vacation is necessary to accommodate a modernized facility that improves their on-site connect circula circulation. If the council is agreeable, a straight a street vacation process could be initiated pursuant to Kuz Bay Municipal Code title 12.45. Council initiation of this vacation would provide an advantage by reducing the redevelopment and construction timeline for the upgraded transfer station. Upon initiation, affected property owners would be notified and the council would conduct a public hearing at a future meeting. Um, waste connections consultant Jay Harland is online. He's with CSA planning should you have any questions. [snorts]

All right. Thank you for the report. Uh any questions of either Jennifer or the gentleman from waste connections? Then how would the council like to proceed? Well, as the motion king, I have would like to initiate make a motion to initiate the process to begin a street vacation for the portion of South First Street between Lockhart Avenue and Cobank Slooh. Second. All right, we have a motion and a second to begin the process for a street vacation for a portion of South First Street between Lockheart Avenue and Cobank Slooh. Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I.

I. I. All opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you, counselors. And that is all we have under action items. So, I'll move to the city manager report.

Thank you. Uh thank you. I'll keep it a little bit short. Uh first of all, uh apologies for the challenges in the room tonight. I would note that the sound in the room is much improved from last time. So we did make some some headway, but maybe a little step back on the rest of the sound. We are continuing to work on that and looking at opportunities here in this space. So, uh, just a reminder that the, uh, Bay Area Chamber of Commerce annual awards banquet is happening on Saturday at the Kquwell Casino and Resort. Um, still available for folks to attend if you wish. Um, also, uh, reminder if there's any interest in attending, uh, water day at the cap, that's on February 2nd. Um it is all things water. So we would go there definitely to support um the work we do which is in wastewater and storm water. Um anything we can do to elevate our uh efforts here and needs um including uh setting up meetings with our uh representatives legislators there. Uh this year you've probably already heard and we are underway uh gathering folks from the community to uh come up with a celebration during the summertime for uh celebrating the country's 250th uh birthday. And then finally, I just wanted to comment um I know our auditor uh gave some feedback during her presentation. It was a little bit challenging to hear that in the room. Um but just to kind of acknowledge the work that's happened with the finance department. Uh we have we have a young team in in that uh department. And so not only did they uh complete the work and pass flying colors, we had a single audit this year which is anytime you spend greater than $750,000 in federal money, you're scrutinized to a different level and

they passed that as well. So I just want to acknowledge that work. uh really big give a big kudos to Brianna for stepping in and running fast and furious for a couple months before uh before audit came in. So that's what I've got. All right. Thank you so much, Nicole. And I uh agree we have great staff here and I appreciate that. Um, now I will move to the city manager's report. Excuse me, to the mayor and council comments. And how about we start with Mr. Mayor? You always have to go last.

Thank you. Uh, well, first of all, I want to uh reiterate what Nicole said about the audit. I'm always pleased that we get clean audits and uh it's something that's uh unique and and so uh we're proud I'm proud of that and I think we should be proud of the staff. Also, uh, the Inguid Development, uh, this has finally come to, uh, fruition and it's great to see. I want to thank the Compass Group for moving forward on this project. And of course, I want to thank the staff for making this possible. And so, I look forward to see it. We have a housing problem and this will fill the need. And uh, so I'm pleased to see that. And last, Stephanie, thank you for filling in. Appreciate it in my comments. Thanks.

No problem at all. Well, my mouth didn't work for a little bit there, but Councelor Matthews,

uh, yeah. Um, thank you. Um, I would just like to echo the, uh, appreciation for city staff who did a great job with the, um, accounting and, uh, our fiscal audit. That was that's a big job. But, uh, there's also just a lot going on. And I'm really really excited to see some housing coming through and all the work that's being done on that end, whether it's on the developer side or the uh city staff side. And I also am very grateful for all of the um input that uh community members had in in rel relation to that uh development that it's definitely important to be involved in any way that you can and to give that constructive feedback. Man, it sounds like um the developers really doing their best to uh you know, listen and try to address those concerns and definitely put me at ease with uh you know, our votes and what we have to do uh while listening to the concerns from the community. So, uh appreciate that and really uh happy to see things moving forward. That's all I have.

Councelor Stevens,

hi. Thank you. So, yeah, I echo the comments about the audit. Shout out to that team. It's a big a big deal and uh keeps our city in good standing for for future dollars and just shows that we're being great stewards of that money. So, thank you. Um also great to see the Englewood development moving forward. Uh, and this is something that I've spoken to both Chelsea and Nicole about, but I I'm still really curious to start looking at how we work on some of the blight, especially in downtown, whether that's a vacancy tax or a blight tax. Uh I'd really like to uh continue to put that at the top of a of a list because uh while we are seeing some new development happening, I know that the blight in downtown is also impeding future development. Thank you,

Councelor Denovo. Uh, I just want to take this opportunity to thank uh, Mayor Benedetti, uh, Councelor Matthews, and, uh, Councelor Kribbons and I all attended a meeting with the port of Kuzbay uh, last week and it was a great meeting and, uh, the, uh, port commissioners uh, were um, essentially gave us the nod. There'll be more conversation, but um big picture, they gave us the nod to uh proceed with the project on Front Street that I do not believe would impact uh those 14 parking spots. So, it was very encouraging uh and I just want to commend them uh again for really listening to the community, being transparent in that process. Uh and so I think it's not only a huge win for this community uh but a huge win for them as well. So, thank you. Councelor Kribbons,

I think everyone's kind of on the same thing. I just want to say I really microphone there. Is that better? Uh, I want to say I really appreciate our staff uh, and how they are

short staffed working with tight budgets and timelines and they're able to turn these big projects uh, and these changes in the code uh, on a quick dime so that we can keep moving forward with our vision. Uh, and it wouldn't happen without you doing it. Uh, and on top of the audit. Uh, and it's nice to see this development coming. It's nice to see the front street uh plan moving forward. Um I do want to echo what councelor Stevens said. I love the development we're doing, but I want us to not forget downtown, the core. We don't want to see a ring of development around the outside and then downtown just kind of go and and to uh disrepair. And so I I know we are focused on it and we want to keep that focus so we can keep the pressure there and so that the entire community is a is a complete community, right? So we address all of us that live here in our our community and call it home. Those are my comments. Councelor Neberall,

last but not least. Um, well, you guys have all said very similar things, so I'll just say that um it was very nice to hear uh Mr. Nichols mention how awesome it was to work with our team here and my hope is that that permeates out into the industry and we keep uh getting great projects out here because we got great people. So, thank you guys for representing us well.

All right. And I would just like to say again, um I I think it's all been said before, but thank you to our staff. Um and also thank you to the people who step up to volunteer. Uh appreciate all the folks that stepped up on the design team. I think they have some ideas and some of those things that councelor Kribbons and councelor Stevens mentioned that that maybe our design team which has all these great minds from different a v variety of backgrounds may be able to tackle some of those issues that we have in downtown and in Empire. Um but um I I think we can be creative in working as well with the economic vitality committee of the Kbay Downtown Association. I know that's on their their agenda as well. So I think we're moving forward and um if we can just get everybody together, I think maybe we can even further that. I do also want to take off my council hat. Oh, wait. No, before I do that, I want to thank Councelor Matthews um as well for stepping up and uh meeting with um Senator Mkeley uh last week. we had an opportunity to talk about economic development and urban new re renewal um not just um with Senator Mkeley but also um at the Chamber of Commerce Wednesday Business Connection and um it was a very positive experience. I've been to the state of the cities and uh Kuzbay just always is so positive when we present there because there are a lot of great things that are happening here. There's work to be done too. Um but I

thought that the presentation that councelor Matthews presented as well um not just the urban rural but talking about housing and and how those things tie together is very positive for our community. So, I just wanted to say thank you for him stepping up and doing that. Um, and getting the ear of a federal legislator. Um, so and then finally, I'm going to take off my council hat and I want to make sure that the council and the citizens of Kuz Bay are invited to an open house on Tuesday, January 27th at the uh Southwest Oregon Regional Airport, which is the Kous County Airport District. They are starting their 10-year master plan for uh the future. Um, it's that time again and the airport continues to grow. We've we've seen what an influx it has been over the course of of years, recent years experiencing record passenger numbers. Um, I've seen several counselors getting ready to get on those flights. So, uh, we appreciate that. But um it's going to give direction on where we want this to be in the future and and it will give direction to the board of commissioners and um the future leadership of the airport. And so that is on January 27th, which is Tuesday. I know that we have a a council work session, I think, that night, but um there will be other opportunities. It's from 5 to 7, so you still have time to pop by. and it's at the airport terminal. Um, you can pick up a handout or I can bring some for the council, but citizens are certainly welcome. This is your airport and we hope that you will take time to come. Just drop in and

talk to the folks that'll be putting that plan together. And that's all I have. So with that, I will go ahead and adjourn the city council meeting