City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I'm going to call tonight's Cobble City Council meeting to order and welcome those of us are joining uh either in person or online. So, thank you for being here. Uh first on the agenda is going to be invocation which tonight will be offered by Matthew Foresight um from the Valley Church. Uh please stand if you're able and join us in prayer and then the following the pledge of allegiance.

Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your great grace. We thank you for the grace of life that we have breath in our lungs today. And we thank you for your grace to this community, for Caldwell. God, thank you for our mayor, Eric Phillips, and for the whole council. And I just pray your wisdom, your peace as we make decisions and steward what you've entrusted with us, Lord. So, Lord, we commit this meeting to you tonight. and I pray that you would be glorified and you continue uh Lord to have your way in this city for protection and stewardship of this land that you've given us. We pray all this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

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. Thank you, Matthew, for that. We appreciate it very much. Um, next item on the agenda is roll call. Clerk, will you please call the role? Councelor Tilmont, here. Councelor Stodd, here. Councelor Register, Councelor Register. Councelor Register, are you muted?

Okay, we'll come back. Councelor Williams here. Councelor Algood here. Councelor Denber here. All right. Um, Council Register, can you hear us? All right. Moving on. Next is conflict of interest declaration. And are there any members who have a conflict of interest declare relating to any item on tonight's agenda? All right, seeing none, the next is going to be a special presentation. Is Michael online yet? So this from Michael Keith, vice president of Zans's public finance. We'll be discussing bond financing. President, can you guys hear me? Yeah, we can hear you.

Okay, perfect. Thank you so very much, Mayor, members of the council. appreciate the opportunity. Apologize that I cannot be there in person. I'm traveling today, but wanted to take the opportunity to update the mayor and the council on progress on the second cell uh of the city of Caldwell's uh bond authorization for its fire bonds. And so, uh, I was gonna run through a quick presentation, uh, kind of, you know, for the council's benefit, uh, and talk about just kind of and remind the the council and maybe a couple of new members, uh, of the authorization and what we're trying to accomplish, uh, and how we're going to accomplish it, uh, over the next several weeks. So, if we can go to the next slide. So, we've already sold some of this. So, we're going to talk a little bit about the series 24 2026, which are these bonds, a little bit of a bond sale over view, uh, bond ratings and bond markets, kind of what it means from a tax impact versus what we said to our patrons, uh, when we originally put this on the ballot. Uh, and then kind of wrap up a little bit with interest rates and bond sale schedule. So, next slide, please. Next slide. So, as a quick overview for the council, remember you guys had an authorization that was provided by voters November 2023. The council or sorry, the city received a 66 and seven and a quarter. So just over that 66 and 2/3% and that authorized the city to go and borrow $17.3 million um in the markets to fund projects

within the city. Uh in addition to that, it also gives the city authority to levy special tax to repay the debt which is over and beyond uh your annual general fund taxes uh that you guys levy. So um kind of three things right gave us authorization to borrow up to 17.3 million over 20 years uh gave us that tax levy capabilities uh and a special tax uh to repay this. At the time when we went and put the election together, the bond election ordinance together, uh we had a put together assumed at the time rates were 3.95% over the life of this these bonds with an estimated tax impact of 13.92 uh per 100,000. Now, one thing I wanted to point out, so the in the middle of this slide is what we call the official statement. Uh this was the official statement for the first series of bonds, the 2024 where we sold um by par 11.22 million, but just to remind the council a little bit of bond math here that uh although the par says 11.2 million, we actually delivered 12 million in proceeds. And that's because uh during the bond sale, we have something that's called bond premium. Uh and you can generate enough premium to help cover costs. uh and then anything over that you have to reduce the bond amount uh so that you don't exceed your authorization of 17.3. So at the time you you issued in 2024 you used up about 12 million uh of that authorization which provides us with 5.3 million for this current cell uh that we are working on now. Next slide please. So, similar math. Uh, we're going to deliver $5.3 million in proceeds. Right

now, the preliminary PAR, anticipated par amount is 4,835 from a borrowing perspective. Again, these are general obligation bonds, which means that these are backed by taxes, uh, special taxes led by the city. We are anticipating a closing date, delivery of the funds to the city, uh, April 21st. And just like we did with the 2024 Monell, we're going to do this through a competitive sale method. And I'll talk a little bit more about that on some future slides. And then we'll get this rated again by Moody's. So next slide. So quickly for introductions, um just a reminder for the mayor, the council, uh our relationship with the city is that top line as your municipal advisor. So, our role when we do these financings for the city is to act as a city's fidiciary and help you kind of work through uh the markets, uh how to sell bonds, make sure that you that we're um adhering to federal tax laws as well as local tax laws, uh and that we are choosing the best method of sale for the city that's going to deliver the best results for all the things that the city wants to accomplish. uh including if it's low as rates, a certain structure, certain timing, um all those things. So, our role is to to help advise, you know, staff and council as we work through this process to make sure that we are accomplishing all the things that the city needs to accomplish on this. And you guys can take some comfort that we're doing that at um the most efficient and cost-effective way. The other the other piece of this bond council uh which in this case is Skinner Faucet. They are not your general city council. They are a specific council for um

issuing debt. Uh and they they do a couple things. They will provide and develop a bond ordinance that will get passed that uh will be not let me back up uh that will get presented to the council at your next meeting for consideration to move forward with this bond sale. Uh and they also provide a very specific opinion that the markets need which is the taxexempt opinion uh that says that we've met all of the federal requirements to issue these as taxexempt bonds as well as state requirements because the state follows federal law in this case. So they are also taxexempt uh in the state of Idaho. So, we're working with we have been working with uh Skinner Faucet along with staff to kind of put this together. Um underwriter in this case will be hired through that competitive sale process, the bidding process. uh whoever gives us the best bid will become the underwriter who will sell the bonds and from a trustee position that's the bank that that is the liaison between the city and the investors and make sure that the funds gets to whom is supposed to get paid on the bonds. So next slide. Let's go ahead and go to next slide. So this brings us to the current issue uh that we are working on for the the city. Uh and so this is a preliminary official statement that we are preparing currently for the city. And just for the benefit of the of the council and the public, um a preliminary official statement in the bond markets really just means that it is the prospectus, right? It's the perspectives like similar to if you wanted to go and purchase corporate stock you wanted to understand about that stock there would be a perspectus that would be provided

to you so you can understand that company's financials what they do what type of an investment it is and that's the equivalent in our world that we call the preliminary official statement and it's preliminary because we have not locked in final rates maturity schedule and some of those things that gets done through the pricing process process, but all the disclosure that's in there, um, information about the city, information about the tax exemption, uh, how it's going to get paid back, uh, some demographic information about the city, all that will be completed before we what we call post or circulate this uh to potential biders to bid on this. Um, so it's an important document. It becomes the city's document. We work alongside with the city staff to to prepare this on behalf of the the city and it is a document that will ultimately be deemed final by the city uh and presented to you know the council uh likely at its next meeting. Next slide. Let's go ahead and go to next slide. So just quickly on what drives your cost of funding uh in the markets one of course and no surprise is market rates like what's what's happening in the municipal bond markets what's happening in the tax exempt bond markets um so these things like that we had just happened in the United where the United States has declared war on Iran that those types of disruptions can move markets. Um, and those are the things we kind of track as we're working with the uh the city staff to um work towards the what we call the pricing data on this. Credit rating um is another big piece of this and but really just kind of boils down to credit

quality. So the credit quality here is the tax base of the city, right? you you are covenanting within your bond ordinance to levy a tax that's sufficient to repay the debt. So from a structural perspective, you know, we look at the financials of the city, but also what does that tax base look like? How diverse is it? How is it growing? What's underlying that? How good how what's the strength of the the local economy? Those were all things that that drive credit quality on this security type. We talked about market conditions. We kind of covered that a little bit. These bonds are taxexempt, right? Again, uh so the city's providing tax exempt bonds in the marketplace, which there's an incentive for investors to accept a lower rate in the marketplace because they don't have to pay taxes on it. Um and then structure. So things like coupons, interest rates that are on these call features, you know, how we size the deal are all things that kind of deter help determine um kind of how the bonds perform in the marketplace. Next slide. So I don't want to dive too quickly too deep into this but uh from a from a rating perspective we as we did in the past uh we will go out uh to the market or not the marketplace sorry to Moody's investor service and have these bonds rated much like we did for you know the 2024 bonds. Um, we anticipate that the city will continue to have kind of that double A rating. And so if you can see kind of that Moody's table, uh, the top rating is AAA. The next best rating group of ratings are those double A ratings, which is where the city will likely land just given its, you know, strong financial performance, uh, the growth, the continued diversity in the marketplace. All these things have been positives for the for the city as you

continue to grow. Uh and so we still would expect the same great results we got in in 2024. Next slide. So diving a little deeper into how are we going to sell the bonds. I mentioned at the top of the slides that we're going to go through what's called a competitive sale. There are really two ways to sell municipal bonds. There's what's called a negotiated sale and a competitive sale. The difference being on a negotiated sale, the underwriter gets hired upfront. So, you go through an RFP process to select your underwriter. Um, you put that underwriter in place and then they become part of the team. And so, they would be selected at now and be working alongside us. Um, the other way is through a competitive sale where the underwriter is not selected until we've completed everything on the transaction. We're ready to take it to the marketplace. Uh and then we have underwriters competitively bid because of the strong rating of city of Caldwell. Uh the strong backing of the property tax. Um a really straightforward structure. Everything aligns with this going through a competitive sale and taking advantage of the ability to have underwriters bid on this and and drive down the borrowing costs. The times in which you would do potentially a negotiated sale is if we were in much more volatile markets, uh it was a more difficult credit, um more challenging structure. Any of those types of things really require much closer work with an underwriter, but again, we don't have that in this case. And so, competitive sale is the recommended sale method that's probably going to give you the best rates. um as we move closer to that date, the things that we will continue to keep an eye on

is is the strength of the market. So key economic releases, what's happening with rates? Uh do we see significant increases, decreases? Um again, do we get to a market where we don't think is stable and we're not going to be able to sell bonds? We're not there. You everything is still stable even with the um the war that's going on. But we'll continue to monitor that and work with staff. If we see anything different, we'll recommend a different timing for the bonds. The other things to drive interest rates, supply and demand dynamics. It's kind of economics 101, right? You know, how much cash is chasing after uh the amount of bonds that are in the supply, right? That's in the in the marketplace. So depending on those supply demand dynamics drives how you know possibly how many bids we get uh strength of those bids uh and as well as the global financial and political trades which we talked about um as we're working towards that one of the things that we will do is look at comparable transactions to start to see where we think this is going to land and are we going to meet the metrics that we want to meet on this from a timing perspective. So what that really means is that we will do research on deals that have already priced in the marketplace with similar characteristics to the city's bonds and make sure that we are you know going to be in that that ballpark when we uh go to sell these bonds or you know maybe sell through it and get stronger stronger uh follow through for those. One of the other benefits of being in Idaho because there's so much scarcity in debt as the city's well aware it's extremely hard to get to that supermajority and so not a lot of general obligation debt comes out of the state of Idaho that tends to create an additional attractiveness um for selling these bonds when people look to deser versify in different states and so another advantage that we have you

know living in Idaho um the other thing we'll track your pricing goals you know bond resolution or in this case bond ordinance. Um what are those tax rate goals that we're trying to keep keep track of? Uh if there are any long range planning goals that we're trying to keep track of and proceeds target which we talked about which is 5.3 million. We'll keep track of that as we're moving through this. Next slide please. on the day of sale. So, what does that means that the day we open it up for bidding by underwriters? Um, we'll have a check-in call to review market with city staff. Um, expected bids will be either 9:30 a.m. or 10:00 a.m. Mountain time on this. Um, we And so, what that means is that by 10 o'clock, uh, what you're seeing on the right is an example of a bidding list. Uh, and it'll list the underwriting firms in order from TIC. So that TIC stands for true interest cost, which is really kind of nomenclature in our world for what your where your ultimate borrowing cost is on the bonds until we're going to accept the lowest bit, right? The lowest borrowing cost, the lowest TIC. Uh, so in this particular case, it was JP Morgan Securities. You can see that TD Securities, Wells Fargo, Robert Ward, RBC, Hilltop Securities, all firms that we're very familiar with um you know, bid. So, we'll continue um to kind of monitor the market. Uh but would anticipate strong bids again for you know this size. Um one thing that makes this one a little different uh is the last bond that we sold uh was over 10 million. This one's under 10 million. What that means is there is an additional IRS rule that says that if

you're issuing less than 10 million within a calendar year, you can issue what's called bank qualified bonds. What that really means is there's beyond just the tax exemption. There's additional incentive for banks uh like science bank or US bank or Wells Fargo bank to hold those bonds and they can do what's called uh right off the carry. So they may bid more aggressively for these bonds um uh as a as either a bank securities or for bank holders uh on these. So, an additional benefit that we have on these bonds that we didn't have on the on the last bonds on this, um, once we get the bid results, we'll select the bidder. We'll provide a verbal ward to that selected bidder once we've verified that it that the bid met all of our parameters. Uh, there's something that we put together called a notice of sale. The notice of sale outlines all the bid parameters that any of these underwriting firms have to meet uh in order for it to be uh an accepted bid the day of pricing. So, we'll review that uh on your behalf, make sure that this that the winning bidder did indeed qualify their bid. Uh and if they did, we'll give the verbal award and we'll kind of move forward with that underwriter uh on pricing day. uh and pricing is anticipated to happen right now on April 7th. So next slide please. So who buys bonds? Um rod categories are you know the largest largest holders of municipal bonds are are individuals. Uh now those are done through you know different types of accounts. um whether you hold a personal account at Charles Swab or you have professionally managed

funds that buy securities on your behalf. Um but over two trillion of the the municipal bond market is held by individuals. The second largest category is mutual funds, right? That buy municipal bonds and long-term investments. We talked about this already. the third largest category, banking institutions, insurance companies are another one that tend to hold a lot of municipal bonds. Uh and then other some of these kind of what we call SMA accounts and other thing types of accounts uh kind of make up that that other category on that next slide. Go ahead and go to next slide. So from a tax impact perspective, so remember at the top of the presentation we talked about the original authorization which was at 17.3 million. We had anticipated projected an interest rate of 3.95%. Which which meant that about over the 20-year period there would be about 7.6 million of interest cost and the tax impact to taxpayers to repay those bonds back would be $13.92. If you go to the June 27th, 2024 date, so the original bonds uh that we sold using today's market value, um the interest rate that those were sold at was 3.57%. So we were below 3.95%. We got $12 million of authorization. The tax impact for that bond at a time was $9.58, which meant on an average home price of 389,000 after you netted out the homeowner's exemption, um it's about $25 annually or about $2 per month. Rejected right now, and these are rates as of January 14th, and rates have actually come down a little bit since then. Um the projected rate would be

3.75% for this new bond. Uh again delivering proceeds of 5.3 million um tax impact of $4.15 per 100,000. So about $10.96 uh 91 cents monthly. If you go to the total column, uh, that puts this all together to kind of compare apples to apples, uh, to get you to that 17.3 million. And of course, comparing that back to the election resolution, uh, that we put in front of voters, uh, the expected interest cost is about 7.3 million. So, it's about 300k less than what was anticipated in that bond election. Combined, the blended rate of those two deals would be 3 63%. Um, again below that 3.95 resulting in a $13.73 tax impact. Uh, and for the impact on a home for $389,000 about $36 annually and $3 a month. So sir, right now we are below what we had told taxpayers. So, we're outperforming uh what the rates were uh in 2023 when we went to the voters uh and got this voted in and got our authorization. So, we're headed in the right direction. Next slide, please. So from an interest rate perspective, uh just really quickly to wrap this up for council, um the top slide or sorry the top table graphic um has what's called the 10-year Treasury. So the so the US Treasury bond uh which is in red and what we call the AAA MMD.

MMD is stands for municipal market data. All that really is is in our world it is the Dow Jones Industrial U kind of index that we track in terms of the direction of of bond markets. And as you can see uh to the right uh that has been trending down. So, it's been trending in the city's favor recently, uh, helping to kind of keep those borrowing costs low, uh, as we work towards getting this to market and rates locked in. So, again, we don't lock interest rates on this until we price, which is that four. Right now, it's going to be that April 7th date. The bottom graph just kind of shows the the range of rates. Uh so the red being the average MMD uh over a period from 2012 to present for a one year three year all the way up to 30 and then that red bar um I'm sorry the blue bar is current. So when you look at the current uh short is a little higher. Uh the positive on that is that proceeds that means you're earning more in your proceeds uh because you're investing at short-term rates until those funds are spent uh for the project. So that actually helps the city in this case. Middle we're almost right on top of what the average has been and still longterm we're still a little high and some of that has to do with still some inflationary concerns long term in the marketplace uh in terms of where rates are um potential oil shocks and other things. But again we're in we're in a good spot uh in terms of rating. Next slide. So, from a from a calendar perspective to kind of wrap this up for council, we are currently working on the the rating presentation. That's the presentation

that'll go before Moody's to get these bonds rated. We're anticipating having the council at its March 16th meeting um consider the bond resolution which is a parameters sorry not resolution ordinance in this case for the city um to potentially adopt that parameters ordinance which will give us authority to continue to move and lock the rates in on this deal. From there we'll wrap up the preliminary official statement uh and get that posted circulated to underwriters. Uh we'll do our pre-pricing call, check-in call with the city staff on April 6. Uh everything looks good, we'll go forward into the market and take bids uh through that competitive sale process on April 7th. And then on April 15th, uh we will finalize legal documents, send those out to the city to have them signed. And then April 21st, we'll close the bond issue, transfer the funds to the city to complete the project on that. So, um, kind of a quick overview. Apologies. I can't currently see the the council. So, please ask any questions for me and I'd be happy to answer them if there are any.

Uh, thank you, Michael. Questions from council councelor Stoddic. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mike, Chuck Stoddic, how are you today? Good. How are you? Good. See, I didn't quite get the uh the explanation of a TIC. Would you repeat that again? What it stands for? You bet. You bet. So, TIC stands for true interest cost.

And if you kind of dig into how bonds price, um, the city will have a 20-year loan, right, that it's going to to get in terms of repayment of this $5.3 million. However, each one of those payments will be divided up into its own individual securities, right? So payment one will be one year payment two two-year and each one of those will have a different rate on them as we move out the curve as a result of that what happens to get to the borrowing cost right that gets blended all together um present value back and comes up with that true interest cost. So, what that really means is like if you were to go into, you know, mortgage, right, and get a mortgage rate, that's your annual percentage rate, uh, that's going to be applied to the bonds. It's your borrowing cost.

Okay, great. Uh, the other question I had, when buyers look at cities, does the, uh, tax base ratio make any difference? For instance, if they're high in residential development versus industrial commercial, does that make any difference to the buyer? It does and it makes a difference uh to the rating itself as well.

Yes. So, for instance, um you know, your your market value size and diversity, uh back to kind of what you're going through, like if it's all residential, um you know, it could still be a strong tax base, but you know, there's not a lot of diversity, right? So, you're all tied you're you're tied to home prices, right? And if home prices, as you know, go down instead before, right? your whole tax base or most of your tax base suffers from that that one one market concentration effectively. So the more diverse right if we have commercial farmland other types of taxpayers means that's more diverse right and so if if home values go down and commercial properties are staying stable or going up right that that tends to minimize right the decrease uh and and vice versa. So yes it definitely makes a difference.

Okay thank you. Good thing councelor Stoddock we got all that commercial coming on 2026 in Carter council any other questions councelor Tmont council register can you hear us have you been able to we have confirmed she is uh present just getting unmuted can you hear me now affirm okay yeah I'm here and I don't have any questions thank you

all right um with that no further questions thank you Michael um helping us better understand the bond process and the market and such. Um, next we're going to have a presentation from an Idaho transportation department representative and this will be coordinated through Haley, our city engineer, um, to better understand this next topic of Farmway Road to Par Lane along Highway 55.

All right. Good evening. Um, I've got a presentation for you today. Um, thank you all mayor, uh, council members, uh, for your time today. I'd love to give you a overview of our project that we have up and coming that we're planning right now. Currently, uh, it's State Highway 55, Peril Lane to Farmway. This would be phase two. Um, I'll give you a little bit of background of myself. I am the resident engineer that is going to be overseeing this project. Um I've been with ITD for about seven years plus a couple years in this position here. Um and we'll kind of dig into this project. So as an overview um right now uh we are um comp we have completed preliminary design um from this section from Per to Farmway Road. It represents phase two like I said of this widening project along 55. Um this phase two will encompass about four and a half miles of widening. Um includes uh five major canal lateral crossings uh 13 pipe crossings, two drains with minor structures. Um we will be widening to five lanes widthwise with 8ft shoulders on either end. Um and then also we will be um realigning the curve at Hoskins Road there um as you're heading out towards Mars. Um currently the project is funded through Rideaway. Um we are right now still unfunded as far as construction dollars right now, but we'll get into that a little bit later as far as the timeline, the schedule there. Um, but currently the overview, apologize, I I've got clicker there. I'll get to my slide here. Uh, but most

of the information I just described was on there widening. Uh, we're also um constructing an eastbound auxiliary lane between Riverside Road and Farmway Road. Uh, and that will um help alleviate some of that. We'll get into those details as well. But to give you an overview of the traffic data that we're anticipating out there, um we've got some information there as far as uh 2019 traffic volumes. Um so you've got your average daily vehicles per day um out there um in the darker blue section and then our projected in 2055. Um so we've got some increases from ranging from about 36% to about 23% um there. Um so you know you're paired to Hoskins you're going to see about a 36% increase. Um whereas on the um east end there of that section you're going to see around a 23% 27% increase over those years. Um some of the one of the major features that we mentioned earlier is this um auxiliary lane there. Um and that's going to extend from Riverside Road to Farmway Road on the eastbound section. Um this is ultimately to accommodate and improve the safety in that section um as it relates to your sight distance. So, you're going to be able to uh make those right outs, the right turn movements onto state highway 55 from the Riverside Road more safely um and effectively there. Um the reason why is the vertical grade out there as you're coming um eastbound. It it's it's a hill. So, as you're looking westbound trying to observe traffic, you're you're going to need that extra time and the extra space. So, we're providing for that

safety there. Um, yeah, allows motorists also to reach those safe highway speeds um prior to merging as well. Reduce those rear end conflicts um and those speed v variations. Um, another one of the the highlights that we have included in this project is we have been working um as as you guys had mentioned h with Haley um on an agreement with city of Caldwell that has been signed and uh implemented um as far as the design is concerned. Um, and that includes constructing some of the undercrossings for future water line and some of the irrigation there. Uh, including the intersections at Wagner Road, um, Riverside Road, and then the Burus lateral. Um, uh, Wagner Road, we're going to have, uh, a north south water main crossing. It's going to be about 12in pipe, um, encased with steel as well as a east west crossing of Wagner. Similarly on Riverside we'll have a north south 16 inch um with steel casing east west with 18 inch with steel casing. The burst lateral um is still somewhat proposed at this point but um that will be just a casing that will be going east to west underneath that lateral. Um another one is Hoskins Road intersection. Um ultimately we we looked at this quite a bit. um the current design or current highway does not meet the safety and sight distance needs um in this section for the speeds that that we're seeing and implementing on state highway 55. So, we've addressed some of those sight distance safety considerations through um a revision to the vertical and horizontal alignments. So the the elevations of the road as

well as the a larger curve um to provide that safety element um as well as a right turn dedicated right turn onto Hoskins off of 55 as well as a acceleration lane there for traffic entering the highway at Hoskins. Um to give you an overall view of the project schedule like I mentioned um uh we started this and or we've got some a corridor study um for environmental that we're working through that was um completed in 2022 started in 2019 fall of 24 we completed our preliminary design activities um and then one of the big things I want to highlight here is our public meeting that we have upcoming this month on March 11th 2020 26 um where we can find out even more details. We'll have uh quite a few boards um highlighting all the elements of the project, allow people to come ask questions, provide comments. Um that'll be on March 11th at 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. there at Valley View Middle School in Caldwell. And then uh into the future here, we are working to complete final design activities and are anticipating that in 2026 um that fall. So this fall uh spring of 2027, we're anticipated to start the rightway uh purchasing um of of the needs of the project there. And then um as mentioned earlier, um right now construction is currently not funded. Um but that will be identified in the future once that um has been identified. So in closing um again want to invite you as well as um everyone else to our public openhouse meeting at 4:30 to 7:30

p.m. Valley View Middle School on March 11th. Um and then there's a few uh piece of contact information. And if anybody wants to find out more or follow along in the process, they're welcome to visit itd.idaho.gov project55pair. Um or you can also reach out um at info@ 55pair tofarmway.org um or even give a call at 208-4771379. So that's uh the overview of the project and be willing to take questions as needed. Thank you, Andrew.

Thank you. Council questions. Councelor Tilmont. Um just one quick one. Yeah. Originally Middleton to Farmway had a combination of lights and R cuts. They took the R cuts out. They're now just right in or write outs only. Um are there going to be any restrictions from farmway out to par or are they all going to be open intersections?

So we don't Yeah, for that first phase that you're mentioning um which is being constructed currently and is anticipated in 2028 as far as completion there that has some access control. We've got median sections there. this section of the highway. We will not have uh medians or any kind of um yeah median separators, traffic separators in that section. So, currently no. Yes. Any other questions for council? Can you just explain the casings? I know what it is, but just explain to the public what that means when you're going to put those casings in.

Yeah, of course. So, um, these casings are basically sleeves or, um, just protective, um, pieces of pipe that the water lines will sit in in the future, um, to accommodate, um, potential future development needs. Um, and they're they're going in now um, in order to reduce costs and help um, expansion in the future. So ultimately they're just protective um covers for the water lines and the utility lines that will be placed in the future.

So for those that don't like road construction, that's a good thing and we don't have to tear those major intersections up again. Um I am glad to see the well one the expansion but to the uh there's a lot of traffic that goes through there and I imagine there'll be more over the years but I do like that auxiliary lane at Riverside. That's really nice. I go to lake, go out to the Canyon County landfill and others and it is a challenge right there. Um, and just to clarify on the Hoskins, that's something that for sure will be a thing. That's a pretty dangerous corner, but you guys are going to have to buy up that property.

Yeah, there will be quite a bit of uh property acquisition there um to accommodate the design needs to meet the safety standards and everything there. So yeah, that is the um like I said, we went through multiple iterations, different alternatives for that section. Um and that is the one that has been uh determined to be followed through with currently. Thank you. Any other questions from council? Did you have anything, Haley, to add to that?

Um mayor, council, uh no, I was I was just getting ready to respond to the casing, but we did you did a great job of explaining it. I just wanted to also iterate that the reason that we're putting water line out in this area, I know that this is not in our area of impact, but when we did our water master plan, we did master plan out in this area for water. Just knowing that in 10, 20, 50 years, we could have water out here. And so that is why you are seeing those water casings so far past Farmway Road. Thank you for that. Anything else? All right, moving on. Thank you. Great. Thank you.

Thank you, Andrew. Um, next up on the agenda is audience participation. Just to quickly clarify, the section of the agenda is reserved for citizens wishing to address the council regarding city related issues that are not on tonight's agenda. Persons wishing to speak, we'll have three minutes. And just please refrain um any comments and we're just going to have one speaker, but for the public, just refrain from attacking council, but you can speak to the subject. So with that, um, Jean Krying, please come forward. Thank you.

Good evening, Jean Krybring. I want to take this opportunity to thank the current administration for a renewed outlook and transparency. It is truly refreshing to have our mayor record video updates, highlight various businesses throughout Caldwell, and have the city of Caldwell Facebook page offer more information. Granted, all of us are pretty fed up with the road closures, but it is nice to be reminded of the detours prior to heading out. Those reminders aren't one and done. They are updated weekly or bi-weekly as needed. I know that not everyone is on social media. However, for anyone listening, you can sign up for email updates, too. I get them. In addition, I appreciate that the popup asking why I am visiting the website is now tucked in the lower left hand corner, not obnoxiously plastered in the middle of the page information. Similarly, thank you for the town hall meetings to gather oral testimony or feedback concerning the quiet zone. I just hope the council will take a step back to assess safety and the backwards process. And finally, the comments email was a brilliant idea. It allows citizens to voice concerns, share comments, or ask questions. It could free up unnecessary emails to counselors, too, with the emails being forwarded to the appropriate personnel. One problem. I did a search on your website and looked at various pages, but I couldn't find this information or a link. I would strongly encourage you to advertise this email address on your website, especially since everyone is not on social media, perhaps in the footer, on the homepage or clerk's page or even all

three. Again, thanks for the positive changes and constant communication. Thank you, Gene, for that. Any questions from council and it? Can we make that happen as far as the comments? Um it's on the council page. Okay. Yeah. And then anywhere else we can tuck it in.

Um that has been a great feature. It has freed up the clerk's email because there's a lot and they have a lot of work to do. So thank you it for putting that together. And thank you for the comments, Jean. Um next on the agenda is consent calendar. These are routine items that are grouped together to be approved on one motion unless a counselor moves one or more of the items to remove from the consent calendar and considered separately. First, are there any motions to amend the consent calendar tonight? Mr. All right, councelor Algood. I move to amend the consent calendar and remove items 10, 11, and 15 and move them to new business for further discussion. Second.

Do we have a second? We have moved and a second to amend the consent calendar by removing items 10, 11, and 15, which will be considered during new business. We have a roll call vote and the counselors can cast their votes on the motion. This one will have to be done by me. All good. Go ahead. Clerk Tilmont. Yes. Stodd. Yes. Register. Yes. Uh Williams. Yes. Denenver. Yes. All right. That motion is approved. I'll now entertain a motion to approve the consent calendar as amended. So move. Second.

Moved in a second. All right. Um all those are we going to same roll call.

Oh sorry vote electronically. All right. And that motion passes. All right. The next item on the calendar is going to be public hearing on the reszone and development agreement for T-Mod Homes that was continued from the February 17th, 2026 city council meeting at the request of the applicant. All right. Would you please come forward? And just to clarify, this is old business. Good evening. Um I'm Michael Fe uh representing T-Mod Homes and um Freedom 50 Development. Address is 2667 East Gayla Court, Meridian, Idaho. Um good evening uh mayor and council members. Appreciate you taking time for us this evening. Um Freedom 50, we couldn't think of a better name, so that's what it's called. There's 50 doors, so seemed like a good good name to start with. You note that our application this evening um has been approved by uh planning and zoning and recommended by staff. What we're seeking is to reszone this from a C3 to R3 um and with a special use permit. Um this map just for proximity um you can see the big red star where the the site is located right by Walmart on the west edge of Walmart. Um, you'll note the Ashton Place Apartments that are to the I'm going to say the west, but I think it's actually to the south. And then, um, anyway, just for future reference in our conversation here this evening. Um, just a few things to summarize the

project. Um, it is a 3.9 acre property. Uh, we're proposing 25 uh, duplexes, twotory units. Um, the density is 12 12.8 eight units per acre. Um, and we'll go further into that. The importance of that is with a R3 zone, it could be quite a lot more dense than that. So, we are proposing less density than this zone would allow. Um, some other things here, um, as far as open space, um, we've exceeded significantly the amount that is required. Um, for this, originally it was perceived, I don't know if we had a miscommunication that these were threebedroom, but they are two-bedroom units. And so um the parking is sign is significantly overparked at least as far as code is required. I don't know if anyone ever feels like apartments are overparked but this has you can see quite a few few more units that are required stalls. Um 40% of the parking will be covered. Um we have added amenities like the playground, the dog parks, cover picnic area. There's a full circulation sidewalk through and then of course we have the trees and landscaping. And then uh per the request of staff and the PNZ examiner uh we did add an on-site manager's office which we'll show a rendering of that uh further in the presentation. Uh this site was previously approved for a three-story 96 unit apartment complex. Um that's when the C3 zone did allow multifamily. Obviously with the change to the comprehensive plan um it's no longer allowed uh which we're seeing in a number of cities these changes. So, just wanted to draw attention to what could have been built here and was approved and permitted. Um, couple things here. Um, this is uh what would be considered a remnant infill parcel. Uh, perfect for diverse housing needs. It meets the goals of the comprehensive plan. Um, again, this is

for 50 units. The R3 zone does allow up to 100 units. And so, um, we are, what we're requesting would also be limited by the special use permit. So, what we're not going to do is seek an approval for 50 and then try to sneak 100 in, right? We'll we'll self- constrain with the special use permit. Um, which is, you know, roughly a 50% reduction in density over what is allowed. Um, the other thing we think is is a nice transition. And it is a nice change for the um for the neighboring community is it is going to a twotory instead of three. I know that a lot of times neighbors don't like that third story and how intrusive it is into their backyard or their back window. Um as a note though, there is a a canal that separates this subdivision from the neighbor. So there's I think there's 150 ft from the back of these units to the to the fence line of the houses behind it. So there's a there's a there's a big gap there. And so going to the to the twotory really does create some relief for the neighbors. Um and again uh this does align with Caldwell's comprehensive plan housing goals for the missing middle as it's uh designated in your comprehensive plan. Um as a side note, these units are um you'll notice that this is represented by T-Mod Homes. T-Mod is a modular home um company that is started right here in Caldwell, Idaho. And our plant is where the old uh big tech trailer plant used to be. That's where we're moving into. And we will be manufacturing these units. And our objective with this is to there's a lot of cities we could have chosen, but um as a group, as as a development group and as T-Mod, we've invested heavily in the city of Caldwell. Um we've done a lot of different development projects in the city. Um, we did Sun Creek RV Park. We did the Epic Shine Car Wash that's here in the city. We did Sky Ranch Medical

Office Building, which is Kitty Corner from the new DMB Supply that's on 2026. Uh, we have a light industrial commercial project on Chicago Street. And so, so we chose Caldwell on purpose. We like this community. We've invested heavily in this community. And the the objectivity of T-Mo is to bring attainable housing not just to Caldwell, but to Idaho. Um, interestingly enough, of the 10 major modular home manufacturers in the United States, six of them are in the Treasure Valley. Not one of them makes units for the state of Idaho. Every one of them is shipped out of the state. We will build first in Idaho. And we have, you know, gone to great lengths to to create a unit that will work um, financially for residents here. It doesn't have to be California where $300 plus dollars a foot makes sense economically in those markets. So with that, we'll bring a lot of jobs to the community. Uh we expect um in this first year for it to add about 50 jobs as we continue to grow and expand our operation. That will bring 100 plus jobs uh to the community. And um and it will affect a lot of other jobs. That's direct jobs. It will affect a lot of other jobs uh in the state just because of materials and resources and other um suppliers that we'll lean on to provide material to build these units. One of the things that um sometimes with modular there's the connotation that it's cheap. Um there's a reason it's cheap, but I promise you that as you walk through these units when you get a chance, there isn't one thing about them that will make you say, "Oh, I see why they're affordable." You won't know the difference. They'll heat on a candle because they're extremely well insulated. They're very They're steel built. They're built with materials that they'll look good 30 and 40 years from now. They're not going to look like they need to be repainted in 5 to 10 years. And so anyway, a vote for this project is also a support of a company that's going to do great things for the city of Caldwell and for the state of Idaho.

Um, you'll note in this map here, the two highlighted purple areas are R3 zones. You notice that they're in very close proximity to the the area that we're seeking to reszone to R3. So there's the one that I pointed out earlier that is the apartments um to the again I believe that is to the south. I think is north south. Um and then the lot that is in behind Walmart. Another thing about um this property is in a commercial zone. You notice the weird triangle shape in the back. It makes it makes it a unique piece of property to try to do something with. Um the other thing is that this property is has no access to either the road um to the right of it or to the Walmart parking lot. And we've done developments in most the western United States and we know that Walmart is not going to give us an easement to access their parking lot from our lot. That will not happen in this life for the next. So, so as a result of that, it makes this property unique and part of the reason we proposed this is we think it meets your comprehensive plan. Um, but secondarily, because we're developers and we do a lot of different kinds of development, we're not putting T-MOD here and these units here because it fits our needs. If there was a higher and better use of this, we do lots of kinds of development. We're not duplex developers just looking to shove a project into where we can make it fit. We think this is a great fit for the community, for the location, for the lot, for the traffic, and other things. Uh just quick review, here's the site plan if you want to take a look at that. Um one of the things you'll notice the um at the bottom of it there, there was parking that extended further. We actually had even more parking in here, but we shortened that up a little bit to add to more open space and create, you know, for all intents and purposes, a place where you could realistically play catch or throw a Frisbee or something instead of just meeting the uh the

constraint of the open space by square footage. We we created an area that's more open and then added that that um covered picnic area there as well, a gazebo. Um, here's a just a rendering, an architectural rendering. Gives you a pretty good idea of what the community can look like. You can see that these are um well-designed, good-looking units. They will be um very appealing in the community. Um, you'll notice here that on the different ones, you'll notice especially where like you can see the light tan, the brick or the other surface with these units, we can change the different material types to get so that they don't all just look the same all the way down a row. We can add architectural differentiation and color themes and things that will make these so it's just not cookie cutter and doesn't just become row housing. Like if any of you have been to Vegas and driven through a neighborhood, if there wasn't a number on it, you wouldn't know which house was yours. Um, just some additional views of these. This is a a view if you were driving through the neighborhood. You can see the visual appeal of these. Quick look at the floor plan. Again, it is a two-bedroom, two bath, 1250 ft. Um they're they're very large um units. You can see just how spacious they are, how big the bedrooms are. They do have covered patios or um or balconies. Um they they are um fire suppressed. Um as I mentioned a minute ago, these these are actually built with steel structures and they're have spray-in foam and then have foam on the outside of that as well. So they'll be very energy efficient. We're actually um we can't find an HVAC unit small enough so that it'll be oversized for the unit because of how energy efficient that they are.

Um here's the the uh on-site off um manager's office that will be there just to um put site equipment in and have a space for a manager to be on site. Um some things uh just to go through here uh in in relationship to your comprehensive plan. Um this is you know is a mixeduse center which allows highdensity residential in the R3 zone. Um in this mixeduse center and this R3 zone commercially is not required. The comprehensive plan explicitly states mixeduse centers do not require commercial. Um, as far as an infill mandate from your comp plan, it aligns with the land use principles found on page 33 and 98 of your comprehensive plan to develop underutilized or vacant property and reduce uh sprawl. Uh, housing diversity fulfills housing goals page 34 by introducing missing middle duplex housing stock. Um, and then as we go to the special use permit, um, as I stated earlier, this is a voluntary cap of density, uh, with the R3. We'll have the 25 duplexes, the 50 doors. Um, and and again, as I I mentioned, um, the the special use permit will bind us to stay within that that density. As noticed, uh, is, uh, is included in your comprehensive plan. I'll just read this. It says mixed use centers are located on Caldwell's most heavily trafficked roads and provide a transition from these roadways to less intense areas. Housing can be accommodated in mixeduse and medium highintensity residential projects that create a transition from surrounding neighborhoods. Single-use residential projects should occur infrequently. Um and then um as I pointed out before, R3 in this area as precedents in in close

proximity to what we're requesting. Um this transitional use I think is a great transition between the commercial um things that are on the corner in Walmart and the neighborhood. Um the size again going to a two-story instead of a three creates a a more appealing transition for neighbors. And then the reduced density which also reduces traffic um of the different commercial or or highdensity residential things that are here. This will provide probably the lowest traffic impact of of a zoning that would be allowed here either C3 or R3 for that matter. Uh just to go through points um the only um deviation that we're asking from for the plan is that there um that this is all housing that it is not there's not a um commercial component to it but otherwise we meet all the other tenants of your plan. And you'll notice um first one uh promotes infill development as referenced in 3298105 of the comp plan addresses housing and affordability needs as 3497. Diversity of housing stock u duplexes are not uh a common as it's either single family or multipplex uh developments. Um it enhances the quality of the community uh both in variety uh affordability and um the location of it uh orderly growth and infrastructure efficiency using existing infrastructure and walkability. It is a location that people could you know walk to some of the amenities they need which again cuts traffic which is also always a concern of development. Um again I think it's a great transition. it has minimal impacts and disruption of you know especially compared to other development uses. Um and I and we think this is a quality residential project is

is encouraged um by your comprehensive plan and then the density we think is appropriate for the spot and could be much higher and being close to an intersection like that I don't think anybody will complain about having less traffic than could be there close to this intersection. So uh in summary here uh staff findings because a con comprehensive plan does not require commercial and proposed development is compliant with outlined residential gross density of the mixeduse center place type staff finds the overall proposed development plan is generally consistent with the goals and policies from the adopted comprehensive plan. So um the conditions uh city council we're asking to approve waiver of commercial frontage requirement for section 10-05-03. Um no other code deviations requested uh on our part and T-OD agrees to all site specific requirements that are in the staff report. Um, and then just just a snapshot of some of the the financial impact that not just this development, but T-Mod as a company and other um projects that we'll do in the community will have for the city of Caldwell. So, I stand for questions. Uh, thank you from the applicant for that. Council, do you have questions? And just to make the public aware, this is a quasi judicial hearing. So after hearing from the applicant, we're going to hear from staff and then we'll open it up for public hearing and comment from there. Council council are all good.

Uh yes, sir. Um was there any discussion about a secondary emergency access? Is that was that I mean how did that come about that we just have one one access? Yeah, the the way that we dealt with it is by doing fire suppression in all the units. And so we we met with the fire chief and there was consideration of a second access, but by with the fire suppression, it was found it was unnecessary to create a second access. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. And and I I saw in some of your elevation photos in in some places in the uh units you had like detached sidewalks and things like that. Is that your intention to have a detached sidewalk from the curb? Yes.

Uh I think we would put it up to the curb. Yeah. At least inside the development. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thank you, councelor. All good. Counselor taught it. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Do you know have any idea what the pricing might be on these units? Are are you going to sell them or rent them or just rent them or This particular development will be um a rent community. Okay. Have any idea what price range you might be in? They'll be in the 1,800 range. Okay. Yeah. And uh will there be somebody that uh will be on the property that is part of this development or nobody will be lived there that owns it or anything like that or

No, I mean we'll have a third party manager and the manager we're we'll be using is in the valley and manage other properties for us and they do a great job. So um but I don't think that it's not a project that's big enough to to typically have someone who lives on site. Okay. Was there a traffic study done on this? I don't know. Have we done a traffic study in the past? Yeah, it wasn't required is what I was told. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Any other questions from council? Uh I had a question. How much parking? So we have 25 buildings, correct? And 50 total units. How much parking do we have per space and total parking?

Well, we have more than um two per unit. Code requires one and a half because they're twobedroom. So we have 108 and 75 are required.

And does that include guest parking when with that stat? Correct. Okay. Um I think that's it. Okay. Thank you. All right. Next. Sorry, council register. Hold on just a second. Yeah. Just real I just want to clarify. Um I believe at the hearing examiner meeting you had said there would not be somebody on site and then it sounded like during the presentation there would be but then now it sounds like there won't be. So I just want to clarify will there or will there not be somebody on site in that office? There will be somebody there especially in lease up so in the initial stages and at times there will be a manager on site but um I would not say that there will be a full-time manager on site. Okay. Thank you.

Yeah. And can you delineate the difference between what you mean by full-time versus whatever rate you'll have them there? Well, there won't be somebody there 8 to 5 Monday to Friday in that office. Okay. But if issues, they'd have a point of contact, I would imagine. 100%. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Any other questions from council council register? No. Thank you. All right. Seeing none, we're going to move on next to the staff report. And somebody looks like he's doing much better this week. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes. First off, I'm not dying anymore. So, well, I mean, I guess we're all dying, but we're definitely glad you didn't.

I'm not dying as fast as I was two weeks ago, so I'll take that as a win. Um, so again, first project before you tonight is Freedom 50, SP25-7, and Z2506. For the record, I am Joe Dodson, the principal planner here at the city of Caldwell. Wait, let me click my own stuff. Two clicks. So, the subject site is about 3.9 acres located near the intersection of Ustick and Cleveland. And it has a very specific address of 411 Christian Lane. And I will try not to reiterate everything the applicant has already said. The parcel's currently vacant and has been for some time from my understanding. Nearby uses do include Walmart to the southeast, multiple fuel stations within the vicinity. There's a lot of commercial retail drive-through restaurants nearby as well as some light industrial uses and a healthcare facility on the north side of Eustic. To the west southwest there is single family residential and multif family residential. And then uh to the east in general is Cleveland Boulevard as we know is one of the major commercial corridors within the city. As far as the comprehensive plan, the site is designated mixeduse center. And you can see on the map as you transition from Cleveland to the west and southwest, it changes from mixed use center to the yellow, which is neighborhood 3, and then to neighborhood 2, which is like the brownish color. And that's again delineating the less lesser of intensity as you head southwest from the commercial corridor into the quote unquote interior of Caldwell. Mixed centers are intended to be hubs of intense commercial activity. This is directly from the comp plan, just to let you know. Um to attract people from all over the city and beyond. The area should include denser housing options, especially in areas with current or future transit service and where commercial areas and major thorough affairs transition to less dense residential place types. Housing is not

a primary focus of the mixeduse center, but can be accommodated in mixeduse and medium high-intensity residential projects that create transitions from surrounding neighborhoods. Single-use residential projects should occur infrequently as the applicant also quoted. As far as the design characteristics of projects within the mixeduse place type, limited residential uses may be located between commercial areas and lower density neighborhoods and should be situated along streets to avoid a gated campus and ensure connectivity between neighborhoods and commercial areas. Neighborhoods can vary in scale and height, but can be up to six stories in areas near major gathering points and transit stops. Obviously not proposed tonight. Attention should be given to how buildings uh transition, specifically the building scale, meaning overall horizontal size, but also height. Building scales should uh include gradual increases in height and considerations for sight lines and compatible architectural features to help blend between projects and building types. For residential projects uh within the mixeduse centerplace type, the gross density within the comprehensive plan is 10 to 25 units per acre. The applicant is proposing 50 units on 3.92 acres which is approximately 12.7 12.8 units per acre which is close to 10. So the lower end of the overall allowed density. Also to note the proposed C or sorry the existing C3 and the proposed R3 are listed as compatible zoning districts within the comprehensive plan. The subject site was annexed into the city in 2019 as part of the Rush annexation. It was annexed with the current C3 zone. It had no development plan at the time of annexation. The subject site has sat vacant since 2019. In 2021, a previous landowner and developer received a special use per approval because you could do multif family within C3 at that time to do 96 units known as latitude 96. That SUP

expired last year and so a new developer is seeking subject approvals tonight. As noted, the applicant is requesting to reszone to R3 for the purpose of constructing constructing a multif family large-scale development per our definitions. Purpose of the R3 zone is to provide areas that allow for multif family, town home, row housing, mixeduse buildings, and live work units. Single family may be present, but only in small lot infill or cottage court development. This zone is situated along zone being R3, major streets such as collectors and arterials, and is also generally located near pedestrian connections and commercial services. The requested R3 could be a compatible uh location for this zoning due the proposed transition of land use and density between Eustic and the single family that exists to the west southwest. As far as the layout, the applicant is proposing what planners would call a medium highdensity res highdensity residential multif family development. Again, 50 total units, 25 buildings, so two units per building. The proposed Freedom50 project does not include any non-residential uses or mixeduse buildings along Eustichk which is an arterial roadway. Where the comprehensive plan does not specifically require commercial, the city code does. So the proposed development is technically not compliant with all code requirements. Hence the inclusion of a development agreement request because that's the only way that you can not comply with the code in that way outside of doing a PUD which is unnecessary for this type of project. So with their development agreement and their proposed application, they're proposing 100% residential due to the multiple reasons that they outlined within their narrative as well as the presentation that you already heard to not include commercial along Ustik. So with that, council would have to through the proposed DA determine if the proposed development complies with the overall intent of the comp plan and code. Despite that discrepancy,

the proposed development does provide parking and open space in excess of code as noted and at the time the discrepancy within the staff report about the parking is I had not seen a floor plan. So I just assume the worst which was three plus bedrooms and therefore that's why the staff reports 100 unit or 100 spaces would be required. But if they're all two-bedroom and the applicant's correct, it'd be 75 spaces plus 10%. So actually be 85 88. Sorry, I'm can't do math right now. The other way. 75 83 spaces total and they proposed 108. So they are in excess of the minimum code requirements. Went the wrong way there. The development will take access off of Eustik Road which is a major arterial and the access being the only location that was approved and to the secondary access that was discussed because of the number of units. However, as the applicant also noted, getting an easement or access to private lanes, specifically a company like Walmart or a bigger company, it's not always the best idea to require something like that you cannot guarantee will occur. So, the applicant and fire chief discussed just sprinklering all of them. And that's one of the conditions to ensure we have the fire safety. Traffic impact study was not required due to the number of units proposed being under 100 and does not trigger uh 100 peak hour trips. So no TIS was required. Uh in addition it was significantly less about half the density of what was previously approved. Um besides that future building permits would be assessed with development impact fees. So traffic impact fees as well as life safety impact fees which is applicable to every building permit. These are other site and development standards that staff reviews. As you can see, they're consistent with everything except for the landscaping, and I didn't list it in here, but that commercial requirement along the frontage. The landscaping is just minor landscaping condition requiring additional

vegetation along the west boundary to comply with the multif family land use buffer requirements. All utilities are available or may be available to serve the subject sites and includes sewer, water, irrigation, and fireflow capacities. engineering staff report did not outline any issues with providing utilities for the site. Public comments. Um we obviously send this out with through a public agency memo to outside agencies. Valley View School District was the only outside agency that responded. They provided general information on the overall district enrollment concerns. Um and then outlined which schools anticipated children of the subject development would attend, which would be Central Canyon Elementary, Summit View Middle, and Valley View High. Again, they haven't been sending letters saying no development, but they have been sending letters saying, "Hey, by 2030, we anticipate current enrollment numbers to impact the schools again and put them over their enrollment numbers." This comment about no public comments received is inaccurate. As of 5:45, a gentleman called right before the hearing. He's a land owner on the north side and said, "As long as it doesn't affect my zoning, I'm all for it." And so this obviously is not affecting his zoning, but he is in support of the project otherwise. And his name was uh Steve Rice for the record. I believe the hearing examiner did hear this. Uh she actually heard it twice at December 23rd hearing and then on the January 13th hearing. The first hearing, the examiner reviewed it and the original plan submitted did not comply with a number of landscaping elements, including some buffer widths. she wanted to review that in greater detail. So required them to make some modifications and continue the application. And then at January 13th hearing, she did recommend approval uh with all of staff's recommended changes which is outlined in the council staff report and conditions of approval. And then since that hearing, the applicant has revised or further refined their site plan as

well. And that's what you are reviewing tonight. So, in conclusion, staff has found that it's in conformance with all codes minus the conditions of approval and everything except the commercial requirement along the front edge, which they're requesting to not comply with through the development agreement. And with that, I will stand for any questions that council have has. All right. Thank you. And glad you are doing better. Um, all right. Question for council. Councelor Stodd.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh Joe, probably a question for Robin. Uh a couple of months ago, I asked you for the ratios between residential, commercial, industrial, and they were 8515, something like that. Uh residential on the on the projects that we still had left that were approved but have left to develop yet. Yes, that's correct. We had a percentage, it was like 80% residential and the rest was commercial. However, the commercial values were much much higher than the residential. Okay. But this will still add to the residential percentage being a little bit out of whack with commercial industrial. It would. Yes. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, councelor Stoic. Council Williams.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Joe, to my knowledge, since we've passed our comprehensive plan, we have not deviated from it. Um, am I missing something or does that sound accurate? And maybe Robin can chime in if you don't know. Councelor Williams, I would say nobody's requested any comprehensive plan map amendments. That's for sure. And generally, I would say we've been pretty consistent with the comp plan and what it outlines. Now, to be clear, the comp plan is in any jurisdiction is very much considered a guide. It's not a thou shall, it's a thou should and then you have the code to back that up, which is why the code has some very specific requirements regarding those goals within the comp plan. So just to be clear, we have not deviated from our comprehensive plan to date. Is that accurate?

I would say that's accurate. Mayor and Councilman Williams, that's correct. We have not had any comp plan amendments. We have not deviated from that.

Okay. Uh and having said that, this is a code deviation, which you've explained to us. So I just want to make sure everybody understands that. uh even though housing is allowed in the comp plan in this area as it exists, that the the challenge is whether or not to require the commercial on that odd lot right up there on the front. And I think the the struggle with that is always what we want and what we can get are probably two different things. And so I appreciate that clarification and I thank you for your work on this.

Very welcome. Thank you. Uh, thank you, councelor Williams. Any other questions from council? Question for staff. Um, there's an island right there, right? U as you go up to Ustic and the boulevard. Does this stretch back that far? Do they have a right and a left turn out and then a right in and a left turn in? Mr. Mayor, I will default to Haley to confirm, but I don't believe it goes that far back. Um, Mr. Mayor, council members, Joe is correct. that that median that restricts left turn movement does not extend to this access. So, this access would have the ability to use both left and right.

So, if they come from the boulevard, they'll have enough space to make that left turn in, especially if several vehicles are coming home. It shouldn't back up traffic. That is correct. When this intersection was completed, you can um if you're looking at the web map, you can see that this access point has already been constructed. Oh, it's a little bit hard to see here because we've got that red line, but you can see there's a little bit of a curb cut there just to the east side of the canal. So, that access point was already strategically placed um as part of previous public works projects.

Okay. Thank you. I just want to make sure that folks don't have one way in and one way out and they can go both directions. Um all right, thank you staff. Thank you.

All right. Now we'll open public hearing. If anyone signed up to testify, now is their opportunity to speak for three minutes. Please start off by giving us your name and address for record. And before we start the public comments, I'd like to remind everyone that this is a respectful forum. We will not allow applause, booing, cheering, or other inappropriate behavior tonight's meeting. Anyone that does not um abide by that will get gabbled out of order. And with that, we end this quasi judicial hearing. We're going to start in favor. So, we have six people signed up in favor, but only one wants to provide testimony. Mike, you already All right, we already got you covered. All right, there is no neutral and we're going to move on to opposition. Jean Kried and three minutes and the clock um will be right there. We'll go ahead and get it started for you.

It'll be less than three. Jean Cried, I taught for 44 years. One concept drilled into us for behavior management in our classroom is to be consistent. As soon as you break the rules or allow a slight variation for one, you have lost your credibility. The same thing applies to the award-winning comprehensive plan. As soon as you make exceptions, you need to continue to make exceptions. If it's award-winning, then please follow it. Don't allow variances and zoning changes. It is for this reason that I am opposed to the housing development being considered. Kudos to the developer in thinking outside of the box on the building materials and investing in Caldwell. And I looked in the um this is off my thing because it changed from what Joe said. According to what's in the council packet, it said the modular building is non-compliant with architectural design because of the coloring and such, but Joe said it was compliant. Um, and then the school system, according to the plans, uh, your packet, the school system is concerned about the added student population. And so my feeling is all of these cons issues should be a concern. So, thank you for your time.

Thank you, Jean. Council, do you have any questions for our speaker? All right. Staff, would you like to just address that? Clarify. Mr. Mayor, council. Yeah, with I'm not exactly sure where you're referencing and I apologize. I know in the I don't know which page it was on, but it just said non-compliant after architectural. I did look through all of those pages in the council packet. Oh, you Sorry.

She's correct. There's a table that I apparently did not update. Apologies, but I updated the analysis below and they are compliant. I do apologize. They are compliant with the architectural standards, but I did not update the table. I will do that before anything gets signed. I apologize. Thank you for calling that out, Mr. Mayor. Councelor Tilma.

Um Joe, that's on page 314, just so you know. All right, with that, um, now we will have our applicant come back up for rebuttal. Give you five minutes. I would say uh as far as the comments of not amending the perfect comprehensive plan. Um obviously a comprehensive plan is designed to be conceptual and there's a reason there's special use permits. There's a reason there's development agreements. There's a reason there's planned unit developments and ways to do carveouts without changing the entire plan. So making a modification to this location does not modify all C3 zoning in your comprehensive plan. It's a small carveout which is allowed. It is legal. It is lawful for this amendment to be made and it is a highest and best use of this location with its depth with its uh access secondary access issues to the other properties with the weird shape in the back. Um I appreciated what um council member Algood said is like what maybe it was Williams even that said what you want and what you get aren't always what what turns out right. And and in this particular property, it's so narrow and deep and weird shaped in the back that even though it's a C3 zone, I I don't know who's going to go in there. You might get something on the front, nobody's going to go in the back because of access and narrowness of the property. So anyway, I would say that a vote for this amendment is not uh blowing up your beautiful comprehensive plan. It's using the laws and the tools that you have in your bag to make the amendment u for this great project. All right. Questions from council.

Mayor. Yes. If I might just clarify for the record. This request is not a modification to the comprehensive plan. We are not modifying the comprehensive plan. This is an allowed zoning district in the comp plan. The modification they are asking for is from our city code regulations. Uh council, any questions on that? All right. Thank you. Oh, sorry, Council Register. We have to remember that she's I'm just curious what kind of conversations you've had with the schools.

Well, I I think that um student count issues exist everywhere in this valley and will infinitely. And so, um this adds to the tax base. It adds to the dollars that go to schools to help build more schools. So, yeah, it adds to the student count, but we won't be the first or the last to do that. and we could go way more dense than we're going. So, we're actually adding half the number of potential students that we could by zone. Yeah. So, I'm curious what kind of conversation you've had with the schools.

Well, we've we've discussed the project. They're aware of the project. They didn't they didn't say they love it or hate it. They I mean, they just made note of it. And as the staff has said that they just said, "We're growing. We're going to continue to grow and outgrow facilities we have." But we didn't get any negative feedback or push back from the district.

Okay. I was just looking through some of the requirements here. Um that just says that the proposed use will be served adequately by essential public facilities such as schools and others. So I was just curious and making sure you've had those conversations. Um I I did read their letters, so I was just making sure. Yeah, we were requested to to reach out to them with our original application and we did so. Thank you. And I have a question. Um, as far as busing, um, have you guys had any conversation on what it would look like for a bus to come in there? Is it going to stop out on Ustick?

Well, there's plenty of room for a a garbage truck to get in and out of there. So, I would say that means it would be easy for a bus to get in and out of there as a 26 foot wide roads. um adequate radiuses and stuff. So if they needed to pull in there for safety, other things that would be possible for sure. Okay. Thank you. Anything else for the applicant? All right. Thank you. Thank you. Since we have completed the public hearing, I will declare the hearing closed and the council can discuss the application before making any motions and voting. Councelor Denver.

Uh Mr. Mayor, thank you very much. First of all, I appreciate the uh the applicant bringing this proposal forward, and I'm going to encourage my uh fellow council members to approve this application, and this is why the application is favorable to me. Uh first of all, it truly defines an Enfield project. And as you drive by that property, you can see that this is quite possibly the highest and best use for that uh that piece of property. And uh it's not that I am familiar with it for any other reason other than it's just part of the city that we drive by and it's part of uh uh it's part of what we want to see developed in the right way. The other thing that's important about this project is the is the fact that we have this unique opportunity to uh to bring together uh a business in our community to to fit a housing need. These prefabed housing units are uh uh are a remarkable thing and and like you said there's none of them who are none of them are built in Idaho. So it would be they're built in Idaho. None of them are built in Idaho or put together in Idaho. I think the last one we had was Indie Dwell and they're on the College of Idaho campus if I'm not mistaken. So this is a great opportunity to bring a local company's product right here to Caldwell. And I do like the uh I do like the design of it. So, um I'm going to encourage my uh my my fellow council members to uh to approve this. It looks like a good project all around. So, uh having said that, I will sponsor for approval bill number 77, ordinance number uh 3729. Okay.

Mayor and and counselors, I'm sorry to interject. Um, council Denber, would you mind just go kind of going through the approval criteria for the reszone and and when you make the motion, go ahead and make it with the approval of the development agreement as well, please. Does that make sense?

Okay. Uh I make a motion that we uh approve the proposed project because it uh uh it is consistent with the comprehensive plan. Uh the amendments are consistent with the uh the proposed zoning in the district. Uh the intensity of the development to the new zoning district does not expect or create a significant adverse impact and the information provided from the agencies having jurisdictions over public facilities to this side are adequate. Uh so based upon that I make a motion that we uh we approve this project uh including the uh the development agreement. That was that suffice. That was perfect. Thank you. Good job. Councelor Denber with that. Do we have a second? Second.

All right. A motion to second. All right. For those voting tonight, um you now may cast your votes electronically. We get discussion. Correction. Any additional discussion on the motion and the second? Mr. Mayor, councelor Tilma.

Um, just for the applicant, I absolutely love the product. I love the idea of what you're doing and I love this project. I literally drive by this every morning, two to three times a day because I live up on Florida and you stick the unfortunate partic in general and this area should be mixed use. The mix is disappearing. It's becoming almost all residential. This is a prime piece of commercial real estate and especially if down the road Ustick does get its interchange to the freeway, this will be even more a more sought-after piece of commercial property. Yes, it has a rough entrance and I wish you would have done the commercial up front, maybe 15 to 16 units in the back with some pads up front that I maybe could have gone for. At this rate, I can't see doing a code variation on this for that specific reason. I believe we do need the mix. I believe this is a prime piece of commercial real estate. Right now, I believe we could use this and in the future, I'm seeing the long-term future. We develop this now, we lose it. We're not going to come back and bulldoze it later to try to build a commercial pad. So, with that, I will be against this for long-term commercial use. So, thank you.

Thank you, Councelor Tilmont. Uh, councelor Denver. Oh, sorry, Mr. Mayor. Um, councelor Register, go ahead. Just so you know, I do not have a way to vote electronically. Uh we will do electronic here and city hall and then you your name will be called by the clerk.

And then I have a um a quick comment. Um I still worry about the schools and I just went through all of my notes um with legal and one of the um things that you can deny something over is because it doesn't serve the schools. I can go back and read it if I need to. Um, I I actually like the project. I like the design. I like the idea, but I also agree with councelor Tilmont that if we change the zone and give it away. And there is a potential for commercial, especially with all the things that are happening in the city, we could really be hurting ourselves. And then in addition to that, um I do feel like we, you know, it's we've been very um supportive of the comp plan when we want to when we say it this meets the comp plan and that's what we have to do. And then if we say, well, it's not what the comp plan exactly says, then we say, oh, no, you don't have to follow it. So, I also believe in the consistency aspect as well. So I don't know if something could be changed there so that you know it does kind of fall into the parameters but that's my just the only thing I wanted to say.

Uh thank you for that. Any additional council register? No thank you. All right. Anything else from council councelor stoic? All right with that um we have a motion and a second. Mr. Mayor, just a just a bit of h housekeeping. Stand by for just a second. We have feedback from somewhere. Councelor Register, are you able to push mute?

All right, go ahead. Try again. Um I I just want to be have have it be clear for the council that if if there is a denial vote, it does need to be identified which the criteria won't meet and also there needs to be an opportunity to provide feedback to the applicant of what what the could be done to to have an approval. So what what I hear now from council register is that she she is proponent that it does not meet uh for the schools but I don't want to to put words in her mouth that that it is. And then the same thing would be for counselor Tilman of what criteria are not being matched here. You have the sheet in front of you. We just need to be able to make that record and then also be able to provide conditions for that that the applicant could have if the vote does be in the negative that they could come back and and meet the criteria.

Oscar, I have a question about that. There there is an SUP with this, correct?

Yes, that's correct. Yes. Okay. So, I'm looking at an email when you and I talk and it's kind of a recap about SUPs and one of those says that the proposed use will be served adequately by essential public facilities and services such as highways, streets, schools, parks, police, and fire protection. And it goes on. So, it the problems that we've been having with Valley View School, the overcrowding, does that count for that? Uh, I I just I'm I'm going to look at over to to Robin and Joe. I believe right now the motion is for the the approval of the zoning map amendment. Am I correct on that? Is that the motion that's in front or this is the motion in front?

That is correct. Right now the the motion is for the zoning map amendment. Um because um the reason that one's being done first, just so you know, is because if there's not an approval to reszone to an R3, then the SU becomes a moot point because you can't do residential in a commercial zone. Makes sense. Anything additional, Oscar? No, I and I just just to be clear, I just want to be able for the council to have a good clean record on on what the vote is and what the reasons may be. Okay. Okay, I have another question. So, does the council have have a reason to not reszone something?

Yes, this is unlike an annex an annexation request, this this would need uh to be able to show why it does not meet the approval criteria set out in the code. Okay. Um, unfortunately, I don't have the notes because I'm not there. So, I don't I don't know what the requirements all say. Is there a way to send that over or read them again? Right now, I'm I'm Mr. Mayor, Council, I'm I'm going to look through really quick. I think they may be in the packet. I mean, I know that there's uh something in front of the council, but generally I just

Oh, you just forwarded. Oh, I'm sorry. I'll I'll take that back. I think the clerk is informing council register. She just sent it to you. Okay. Um Well, I can take a look at it real quick or we can just move on there. Um, thank you, councelor register. Councelor Williams, Oscar, could you clarify for me? Can we use a potential future condition to deny it?

I my my answer, this will probably be a lawyer type of answer for that. You might might not be wanting, but we have to look what's in the record and what's in the record before you. So if if your view of what the record is from the school tells you that there's a concern, but but right now and and I will defer to our experts on the land use, I don't know if that that's an SUP criteria and not necessarily a reszone criteria. And I'm looking over to see if I need correction on that. Um, mayor and councelor Williams, what I would say is yes, you have to use the criteria that's currently there, but this one is unique because the reszone is associated with a development agreement that they are requesting waiverss from city code. So, the council can approve it if they feel like it meets all the criteria on here. The council could also deny it based on the fact that it doesn't meet what was envisioned in the comp plan which is implemented through the city codes which requires commercial along the frontage.

Thank you. Oscar, I have one more question for you real quick. Can you hear me? Okay. Yes. Okay. So, in the paperwork that they just sent over, one of the requirements for the zoning map amendment reszone at the bottom says the information provided from the agencies having jurisdiction over the public facilities needed for the site indicate that adequate public facilities exist or are expected to provide or to be provided to serve all uses allowed on this property under the proposed zone. So does that include the schools?

I believe it should council register. So I I think that if the if the concern was for the schools and that that evidence is there in the record to support that then that would be that that finding could be under under that fourth criteria. Thank you. Uh anything else from council? Councelor Tilmont are you? No, I'm good. All right. So, we have a motion to second and council members can now cast their vote electronically and we will do a voice vote with council register. Register whenever you're ready.

Do you want me to go first? Sure. Yes. Okay. I am going to vote no. Can you just restate the between the comp plan, the zone, and the reason we can deny or approve?

Of course. Um, mayor and council members, on your sheet that I gave you on the front, there are four criteria in which you can approve or deny. Um, this one is unique because of the development agreement. So you can approve it based on you feel like it meets all this criteria or you could deny it based on the fact that they're asking for waiverss of city code which would come under um the proposed zoning map is not consistent with the comp plan land use map and its established goals and policies because the goals for that area was mixed use. All right.

Uh, thank you for that, Miss Collins. All right. I'm going to agree with um two things. One, this is there is a good um I believe use of housing we could use in the back of that. But just like councelor Tilmont mentioned, especially where it butts up to Walmart and the commercial area that's up there, I'm going to vote in denial um because the proposed zoning map amendment is not consistent with the comprehensive plans land use map. Would that be correct? Um you would say you're going to um deny it based on deny the zoning the reszone based on the the comp it's not meeting the comprehensive plan visions for a mixed use because in the mixed use

the residential is a supporting use and not a primary use. Yes. And I have to state my corrections if if we were to Yes. Mayor, you would want to tell the applicant what they could do to bring the application back for reconsideration. Okay. Um, with that, my Sorry, it's Joe. Sorry. Go ahead. And Director Collins can correct me if I'm wrong. The

I always bring this up. Um, council can also approve with conditions, especially with a development agreement. So there could be the require instead of denial of what's the whole thing, you can also approve it with the requirement to have commercial along the frontage in place of all those units or you can be very creative in your approvals and denials there, but it's possible. All right. Um Robin, go ahead.

Um Mayor, I'm I'm sorry, Joe. I I will have to disagree with that because that's changing the material scope that was presented and published and that could require a traffic impact study. So, we would have to deny this and then they would have to come back around because there could be some public out there that is in opposition to the commercial as well. Okay. So my recommendation would be to revisit the commercial along that corridor and then in combination with a residential and then that could come back before council for reconsideration.

Um no they would have to go back through the process again. So they would have to redesign their plans and submit back and go back through public hearing through the planning and zoning commission and then council. Okay. Thank you. All right. any further.

M Mr. Mayor, um I I think it would behoove the the entire council to to engage in deliberations about potential conditions for the applicant to be able to make and if if there are any other the the only thing I I know at this point that that staff has direction to is and I just want to confirm is concerns about the school and and uh and the fourth criteria and then also about not meeting the comprehensive plan uh alignment. So, if those are the only two, if there was a something else for direction for staff, but I I think if there's more than just that uh advice or or insight for the applicant, now is the time that we'll need to be staff will be need to told to include that. Thank you for that.

I think Director Collins has something. Sorry, Director Collins. This is actually a question for legal because I'm sorry, I'm not sure I know this. So, the original motion for was for approval and it was a tie and the mayor is breaking the tie, but do we need another vote in denial or him breaking the tie? Is that just enough? Breaking the tie is sufficient. The the breaking of the tie would be sufficient. Thank you, Justin. All right. And with that, um, we're going to go to open up council for recommendations. Mr. Mr. Mayor, councelor Gilman. Um,

if I had to give any kind of direction to the developer with this product, I understand the issues that they're having in the triangular section in the south looking at their plat. If they were to look at their um L1.2, so your second phase,

stand by just a second. Can we bring that back up so we know what they're talking about? Um this is on page 351 of our packet. So if you'd like to go there to look um the second phase basically in the back if that was still residential with commercial in phase one I would have had which is up against you stick I would have probably had no problem with it along with a second access strictly for road closures. I always have a hard time with residential if there's only a single access because you have to do road work. Now all of a sudden you can't get to your house. It creates all kinds of nightmares. Um I like to see a second even if it's just a secondary access onto Ustick just to have for road closure issues long term. Even if it's a ballered access

Oh, okay. Like I said, I'm just saying what I would like to see. That's not a make or break, but that would be one of those where I would still like to see some commercial in this. So, anything else from council council register? Nothing here.

I would just agree with councelor Tilmont's and we could have staff revisit that too. Um, councelor Tilmont's request. Uh, yeah, I think with it being that close to the commercial, the commercial up front along with all the residential in the back. I mean, it's the rest of it looks great. We just want to continue that commercial variance along there. And then if you would like to bring that back um as we get through the process then we can revisit that request at that time. And with that um next on the agenda, do we need anything else? Good to move forward. All right. Next on the agenda is new business. And first the you guys need to take a recess. Yeah. If we could do a fivem minute recess.

All right, we're back from recess. Next on the agenda is new business. And first, council is going to discuss consent agenda items number 10, 11, and 15 that were removed. First item is the purchase of gravity budget software in the non-budget amount of 18,250. And for the council member asked, this be removed. Do you have any questions or things to discuss on this issue? And that was councelor all good.

Good evening city council. So um both these softwares I'll kind of just go over them both at the same time and then if you have any questions you let me know. So I don't know if you recall a couple years ago in the budget finance said hey um next year we're going to start replacing softwares. Um and that's kind of the start of this process. It takes us a long time to go through softwares and really look at uh what we need and what the analysis was. So this is almost a two-year process and this is just the start. Um so the first one the gravity budget software the request is for in fiscal year 26 this fiscal year uh 18,250 and then in fiscal year 2027 the annual fee will actually go down 10,000 but there is a onetime fee um of 28,350. So, for next year, there'll be a bit of an increase, but overall through the next uh 2029, there'll be a decrease in what we're paying compared to what we're currently paying in our budget software. um for the utility billing software. Uh currently we pay Springbrook which is been with the city for 20 years and it's permiss based and it's very outdated has a lot of workarounds and so this is going to be the start of the new finance software and we're rolling out utility billing first. Um it was budgeted at $150,000 and so the total cost of the implementation is 207570 but it's going to be spread out over this fiscal year at 147570. Um and then next fiscal year will be the remaining cost um as we continue to implement it. Um because we we did not want to go over budget. Uh, but I'd be happy to answer any questions for you on either of these.

Thank you, Raylin. Counselor, all good. Yeah, Raylin, that and that was my question. I saw that, you know, the the money this year was unbudgeted, but then we're also signing up for $200,000 in the future.

Is that $200,000 that we would be signing up for budgeted somewhere? I mean, is it or would that is that unbudgeted as well? So with the open gut software that we currently have for budget software, yes, we currently pay that. Um we pay around $75,000 every year that's in the finance budget. And so ongoing every year for the Gravity software is is 64,000. So there is going to be that reduction like I said in the finance budget after the first year because there is a onetime implementation fee.

So I'm sorry, which portion is unbudgeted? Just the small 18,000. 18,000 yes, is unbudgeted and really only 8,250 of that is is additional funds because we had some cost savings in another software that we were able to switch out. So, we have already 10,000 in our budget that is cost savings that we were not going to spend this year anyway. Okay. And and and you're answering perfectly. That's I just wanted to make sure we weren't having to make room next year for something. Sounds like it's already covered. Yes.

Okay. The only one that's not covered and I will say it will be additional is in the water the utility billing finance. So currently for Springbrook we do not pay a lot for the permit space but the new software that we will be paying for is about $70,000 a year but we we had the 150,000 in the current budget for underwater to ask for this software. And so next year's budget will be a reduction because it'll only be the 70,000 ongoing. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh thank you, councelor. All good for your questions. And do you want to just elaborate the benefits of the software?

So right now we're on premise based, which means that right now we we have to be on the network. We cannot work anywhere. And then also there's a lot of workarounds, meaning for example, especially in utility billing just for water shut offs. We have to make those phone calls when water sh shut offs happen. We print the list and we make the phone calls as people make payments. With this new software, as people come in and make payments, it'll automatically update the list to the texts that are out in the field. So, they're not going to houses that they need to go shut off because they've already made the payments and it will reduce their workload. It'll it'll increase the communication. So, that's just one benefit. Um it will also allow for a lot more efficiencies um and a a lot more readability within the billing system for just specifically utility billing. Um so that's for that one for the open gov. um the the readability of the budget book will be there's a lot of workarounds I have to do right now on the back end to just get the budget book out to you guys and that doesn't even allow me it takes hours and hours of setup that doesn't even allow me to really do an analysis because it takes so much programming to just put that out there and so now this new software already has that formatting set up so I don't have to do this hours and hours of formatting and I can just rule do the analysis work that is really what's required of me. So,

uh, thank you for that. And just so council's aware, when I talk with Rayland and other staff, we're really focusing on investing in technology or software that can help reduce that workload and make us more efficient. And hopefully, it would be cheaper, especially to consolidate programs if we're using multiple. So, um, just be aware of that. All right. Um, do we have a motion for item number 10? Mr. Mayor, I would move that we approve both items 10 and 11 as they are together is what is presented anyway. Second.

All right. Motion is seconds for 10 and 11. Do we have any discussion on the motion? All right, with that clerk, you advise roll call. Yep. This one will be a voice vote. All good. Yes. Stodd. Yes. Tilmont? Yes. Williams? Yes. Denber? Yes. Register? Yes.

All right. The item number 10 and 11 both passed unanimous. All right. Um, now we're going to move on to item number 15 that was removed from the agenda. Mr. Uh, go ahead.

Um, I was the one that asked to have that uh pulled from the agenda for discussion as well. Um, one of the things that was deleted from our current policy was comments in support of opposition to political campaigns, candidates, ballot measures of any kind. And um kind of just like Miss Kried mentioned earlier in in public comments, I I I'm really interested in keeping our our our social media site um very professional and user friendly. And like she says, she goes to it to check traffic updates and road closures. I'm worried that if we start allowing lots of discussion about a million different things and political candidates, whatever else, that it's going to clutter that to the point where people will will avoid using it just because it, you know, it's an information page the way I see it. And I'm I'm worried that it'll turn more into a general discussion page. And and so that was the reason I asked that we discuss it tonight.

Uh thank you, Councelor Algood. This is our public information officer, Jax. Would you please love to elaborate on that?

Uh, so we could certainly add that back in, but it does increase risk when you start deleting comments for a couple reasons. So, say for example, I did see one comment and I deleted it and maybe another one just didn't get caught for whatever reason. We have a good team. We do keep eyes on social media, but you know, it can happen. We get a lot of comments on some posts. So that's when your risk increases when you maybe delete one and not other another because you want to always be viewpoint neutral. That's when you know you can get caught up in a first amendment lawsuit. So for that reason uh I I did leave it off just because I'd like to leave off as much as I possibly can to align with the first amendment obviously. So um you know up to you if you'd like to add that back in. I'm open to it and we will obviously do our due diligence to try to delete all of those uh you know political type comments.

Okay. I mean even if even if it goes to the point of just telling the media telling the public please don't that's this is not the site for those type of comments. Again this is a site for public information um that you know I I don't want to burden your staff with with a lot of extra stuff. It's just I want the site to be useful to the public w without the minutia, you know.

Yeah. Uh mayor and council members certainly we do want it to remain uh mostlyformational and there's always an opportunity to uh you know the let the public know without it being in this policy you know what we intend from this page and uh still keep it open to conversation and engagement. So uh you know open to whatever the will of the council is. What does everybody else think? I um council or legal, would you first like to add anything into that before we go into comments?

Mr. Mayor, Council, I I don't necessarily have anything to add to that. Um my I I guess I do have one request that is I think what would be best served for the city if the if the council does want something altered or changed is to maybe uh come back with this so we have a chance to do legal review and vet through instead of through a motion or something with council but or if council wanted to approve the motion with a direction for us to add but I think we're going to have to come back regardless and so if that's something that that that the council wants us to to revisit we can certainly do that and bring it back. Um, mayor and counselors, I will tell you I don't see a lot of the political commenting. It comes and goes depending on, you know, what what month we're in, obviously, but I'm not seeing it overwhelmingly on our page.

Uh, thank you for that. Any motion or sorry, any further discussion? Councelor Stodd. Yeah, Mr. Mayor, I think I agree with Council All Good. I don't know if we can put a uh a statement in there that'sformational only. I you know I don't know either but gosh I'm I'm just speaking for myself just a quiet zone. My goodness I I bet I go through 50 of those things a day and I sure as heck would hate to see our site go to that. So and I think it will if we allow it to do so. So just to clarify when you say 50 is that emails or Facebook comments? Uh both. Roger that. Um Mr.

Sorry. Um, I'm going to go with councelor Williams and I'll go unless you want to let her go first.

Um, I agree with councelor Stoddic. I I think one of the reasons we're not seeing that is it's our current policy, but I do think we want to protect what this is is a fostering that for all of the community information and public outreach and communication. And once we loosen the belt on this, this could turn into just a complete political discussion page. And I don't think that we have to and council can investigate it for me, but I don't think we have to let it become that and still be able to run a city page for a city purpose. So, I'm in agreement with Councilman Stoddock and Councilman Allen.

All right. Councelor, thank you, Councelor Williams. Councelor Register.

Yeah. I just had a quick question probably for legal um kind of Char brought it up. Um I was sort of always under the impression that public pages had a different set of rules I guess um reference the first amendment. So I think that would be something to look into. I know when social media first came out and I worked on a social media team for a public agency that we were not allowed to remove comments or anything like that. we could have a disclaimer, but we were really opening ourselves up to a lot of problems. So, I guess that's the only question I have as long as we're not inadvertently causing a first amendment issue.

Um, mayor and uh council members, so I'm in agreement with councelor register. I I don't delete comments. I don't think I've deleted one since I've been here. Maybe a post. There's been a post that we've had to re uh remove for a reason. Um, but it's been very few. Um, so yeah, it's if you're removing every, we're talking political post, so I'm going to continue to use that example. If you are unilaterally removing every political post on your page, then you're going to be pretty safe. I'll I'll refer to legal, but as I understand it, that's where you minimize risk. Every single one gets deleted. So again, we increase risk when we maybe let one slide, you know, accidentally obviously. So yes, it it's it's definitely a risk.

So what you're saying, just to confirm, is all or nothing. So you have to remove all which would require a person to do that. Sure. And we're certainly willing to do that work. Yes. Yes. Or none. Correct. Council register. Go ahead. Yeah. Just a quick follow-up question. chart. Is there something that says if you have a uh social media policy that's posted on your page and that it specifically says that there's no political posts, then are we covered legally? I know there's things where like you can't cuss, you can't, you know, say certain things, um that kind of stuff that I think is part of policy.

So, does that cover us legally? I mean, I maybe this is a better question for Oscar, but um from a social media standpoint, does the uh I can't think of the word, the policy or whatever that we post, does that keep us clear from any of those violations? Uh, mayor and counselors. So, a policy does not trump first amendment rights. I mean, in the easiest terms, and I'll let uh council weigh in on that. Thank you. I I think there

this it's a it's a first amendment obviously is a very important uh right that we hold in our society and in our nation. Uh and social media is one of those places where it can be very difficult. I I do believe our our current social media platform is is designated as as a quasi open forum which does allow some some space to be able to moderate comments and and that's what we have have had and and do have. Uh so there there is a a moderation that's available in the law that but it require it does require a diligence to to to Char's point. Uh and and so it's a matter of what the council wants to devote staff time to for diligence and we're certainly willing to go back and look at that and see what it be. So there there is a third option. There's a there's an option under the first amendment where you allow everything and just let it go. there's an option for this kind of quasi public forum and then there's also an option just to not allow comments period.

Okay. And then um my other question I think probably going back to Char um when this comes back I would really like to have your professional opinion on um if we should what we should do. Um I think that's the your expertise. So I'd like to see that. And then there was um another comment that I had that now has slipped my mind. So I think mostly I I just want to be careful about um opening ourselves to any unnecessary litigation if we change something that you know could be seen as inhibiting voices. That's all.

All right. Thank you. Um, just to clarify, so when are I talk often about our near peers, is this pretty consistent this change with near peers and if we were to do something different, would we be an outlier now? Uh, mayor and council members, no. This is best practice. This is, um, with done with research, uh, several seminars I've been to, it's pretty in line with, uh, what everyone across the country is doing. And that would include any court rulings on these matters. Right. This is founded in court rulings and has case law to support it. All right, councelor Denber.

Mr. Mayor, thank you. Maybe this is a question for anybody who wants to answer it. We uh we read the statement the mayor does when people come in here and say you can't call people names, you can't be rude, you can't be you can't clap, you can't applaud, you can't do all this other stuff. Are we inhibiting people's right to free speech when he gives that statement legal? That's a good question. Uh, Mr. Mayor, councel, no, I I think there there are decorum expectations and when there where things like that, it's not necessarily limiting the the first amendment right to do that. We we also have to have an opportunity for the the body here to do business and to provide a neutral forum for for all people who are in front of the council. So,

can we make an equal statement that says the decorum of this uh site is to prohibit? I mean, we're going to, you know, use the same standard that we want some sort of decorum that we can impose the same standard that we would have imposed here when people come in that we would impose on the mayor, councelor Disenber, I I I believe so and and correct me if I'm wrong, I'll defer to chart. I think that already does exist.

Uh, mayor and council members, it it does exist. um it more or less says, you know, this is a place where, you know, you gain information and it and it has some rules and and you know, parameters around it. Um but again, those rules don't trump the First Amendment. So, if someone wants to go on there and say um some bad words, certainly not going to delete that. Facebook might. I'm just wondering if I if I make a statement online that say I am asserting my first amendment rights. M whatever it is I want to say whether or not that's fair game.

It it is if they if they don't uh go against any of the what I've listed below or on this document. Correct.

Mr. Mayor, just to add council Denber, um not all speech is protected first amendment speech, right? And and so there are varying degrees and and it's I I think and for me personally in law school, First Amendment was one of the things that just made you cringe with the different ways of what speech is considered free speech, what is not. There are so many different factors and determinations that come into place. It's really hard to give a blanket statement of what will be protected and what not. It's very fact-driven and fact specific. So I I think to your questions, a lot of the things that we want to prohibit would not necessarily be considered speech or an exercise of the First Amendment. And so that's why we would have the ability to limit those.

So just to clarify, we can if there's threats of violence, illegal activity, obscenity, sexually explicit content, pornographic, um promote or advocate for organization to illegally discriminate based upon race, age, religion, gender, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any legally protected classes. Uh links to malware. I know spam's a common issue on a lot of public Facebook pages. Um, comments containing actual defamation against a person either is determined by a court or comments that are patently defamatory by easily discoverable facts when the public figures a threat and then conte that violates illegal ownership interests of any interest or entities such as trademark, patent, and copyright. And that's what we're looking to clarify tonight. Right,

mayor, council members, that's correct. Sorry, Council Tmont. Uh, Mr. Mayor. So Oscar, I've seen it on a couple of cities. So basically, if we wanted to totally cover ourselves, then we would want to take your third option and just basically shut commenting off. Correct. And be purely information.

Mr. Mayor, Councelor Tilont, speaking from a pure risk assessment, I I I I think that yes, that has value to think about it in that way. I think u on the as I understand it there's other downfalls as far as um uh publicity of our site and ability to find it. uh if comments are sure off and my understanding is the algorithm kind of turns us in off and so uh the exposure to the city's social media and I think uh Char could probably speak more to that but my understanding is our our profile would sink accordingly if that were to happen but as you say on on a kind of a risk analysis of are we going to violate a first amendment if we tell everybody they can't have comments on our page then I don't think there's a risk there we'd probably have to go through a procedure and a process to be able to to get to where we turn them off, but entirely possible.

Okay. I just was asking because I do know there are some cities around here that have no commenting and it was my next question was going to be the algorithm, right? Yeah. Mayor, council members, um yes, what council advised is is basically true. So, um I would argue, you know, if we don't allow our citizens to speak on Facebook, then why do we have it? Um, and yes, if you if you don't allow commenting, the algorithm will eventually just stop promoting your page and it will just go by the wayside. So, it's it's a bit of a risk, but um, again, the commenting is no longer a risk.

I would agree with that and thank you for that. I mean, then you run into the facts and and I do see it both ways, just FYI. Um, I've been dabbling in social media for quite some time. I appreciate and love the First Amendment. Um, but I do understand what each of you are saying for. And I think too when it comes to public and transparency, I think because we didn't start out with no comments, that then runs the risk of further inflaming the public and creating unneeded chaos. So, it's just balancing the two. Um, but it's always what this legislative body feels best and then obviously in coordination with legal. Um, with that, council are all good.

Yeah. So, can we just simply publish some guidelines? This is what we'd like to see. Since you're not deleting anything, it wouldn't change anything basically. So, just put the guidelines out there of what we would like to see and call it a day. Uh, mayor and council members, yes, I can certainly promote that on our Facebook page. Can that be done when people request our page or request to follow it? You can add in some of those guidelines just requesting people at least try and abide by this. Uh, they like and follow us. So there's not really a process for like maybe like the Caldwell community and crime page where there's like a process to get on that page. So it's a little bit different.

Can you just go back through and verify that it's not a and I believe you're correct just to double back and then we can let council know. But if that's possible, I can see that being advantageous just setting those rules. But people still are free to speak. But councelor Tilma, um, two things. One, Charlie then on that real quick. Can we pin to the top of the page? Yes, I So you could set up just an information and say these are the guidelines and pin it to the top so it's always the first one up, right? Mayor and council members. Yes, that would be one strategy. Like right now, for example, I have careers posted. So yes, we could certainly pin that there and that would be a good reminder for people um when they came to our page.

Okay. Then Mr. Mayor, based on what we've been talking about, I'd like to go ahead and um make a motion to approve the resolution adopting the amendments to the city of Calwell social media policy. All right. Thank you, councelor Toman. Do I have a second on that motion? Second. Second from councelor Stoddock. All right. Any debate on that motion and second? All right. With that, uh, Madam Clerk, can you Sorry, I I apologize. It looked like councelor Williams wanted to Councelor Williams, please.

Thank you, Oscar. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, if I'm understanding your motion correctly, because if I'm going to vote on it, I want to be sure I know what we're doing. We're approving this policy with what caveat or with what additions or with what substractions? What? Okay, my let me clarify and I would I agree. I probably didn't state because I just read what was written, but along the motion as written or as previously stated with the amendment of at least um pinning our um

criteria to the top of the page, but as written. Do I need a new second on that or I I suppose just for for belt and suspenders. Can I get a second on that motion? Modificate with the modification. Check.

All right. Motion a second. And just to clarify for those listening in or out in the public, we're not asking to restrict free speech. It's just going to be these rules, which are you can look up um on tonight's agenda. And we're just going to ask kind of a more of a gentlemanly agreement to um please have your conduct reflected as such on our page if you're so willing. Is that correct? All right. Um any other further discussion? All right, Madam Clerk. Tilmont. Yes. Stoic. Yes. Will all good? Yes. Diner. Yes. Register?

Yes. All right, item number 15 uh passes. And I thought we were about ready to start out with the country zone. Um All right. The next item of new business is discussion of possible cooperation with the urban ral agency of the city of Caldwell for private redevelopment of the Sixth Street Plaza formal rightway of South 6th Avenue between Main Street and Indian Creek. And now we're going to hear from Mr. Mark Hilty, legal counsel for the Urban Real Agency.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, council. if you could go ahead and pull up that image. Um, I am here appearing before you tonight in my role as the attorney for the urban renewal agency of the city of Caldwell. Um, to talk about uh the possible redevelopment of a piece of property that is owned by the city. Um, if you look at the the image before you um you will see outlined in blue what formerly was the uh South Sixth Street rightway uh immediately adjacent to Main Street between Main Street and the Creek. um that the rightway was vacated a few years ago uh because there was discussion about this property being included in redevelopment uh in downtown by the council at that time. Um I believe not not depicted on this image and and immediately to the um well it would be adjacent to toward the the top left adjacent to that blue outline. Um there is also was reserved a right of way for pedestrian access between Main Street uh and the alley and then obviously the green belt along um along Indian Creek. The agency owns the property um that is labeled there I believe as uh 516 0 Main Street. 516 Main Street, Zero Main Street uh and is looking to redevelop that. That property is included in the central Caldwell area that was recently approved uh back in December. Uh so there would be an RFP to solicit development proposals for the redevelopment of that site. Um across on the other side of the city property is the property that is owned by DPRE which is the developer of the Tillian project. uh they have uh development rights on that property and would be uh working within those development rights to develop a a plan for construction on that site sometime this year with a current requirement that they would commence construction uh by December 1st

of this year. What the agency would like to do is talk to the city about its willingness to take uh the property in blue and potentially the adjoining uh pedestrian rideway and allow the agency to fold that into a larger footprint for redevelopment that would encompass uh all those properties that you see there from the 516 main uh on the the top left all the way to the Tillian uh the existing Tillian apartment building. and then see about um about whether there's interest in redeveloping that in an RFP. We have one developer who is interested in that larger project. Um Dean Pepe of DPRE is is willing at least to discuss that. Um but the city really needs to kind of weigh in on this in terms of whether it's willing to make that property available to be included in that RFP for the larger development. And so this is not agendaized as an action item. Uh the hope is that there would be some consensus among council members as to whether this is a possibility. And so happy to answer questions and and allow you to discuss it to to frame the discussion. I guess on a continuum you could say absolutely we'll transfer everything to the agency. Knock yourself out and we'll see what happens. That would be kind of one extreme. The other extreme would be to say thanks for asking, not interested. Um, I can use either of those answers um in in guiding the agency on how to proceed. There might be a middle ground. Um, as as your staff has discussed this, and this includes city staff and agency staff as well. Um, there there is is sort of a desire to preserve uh at least access between Main Street and that Indian Creek Bridge there. um even if it's, you know, a 10- foot pedestrian access, that might be something that you would want

to condition the use of this property on. Um we we gave I I Oscar and I gave the mayor the heads up uh about this topic on Thursday. He was concerned about where would the Christmas tree go. Um there there might be conditions of that regard in that regard as well. Um, and so, uh, anyway, I I don't have necessarily answers other than the agency would like to see this area redeveloped and folded into a nice large robust redevelopment project downtown, all of the associated tax um, job economic development um, advantages that that brings, but it's obviously up to the council. And so with that, um, that's the request. Uh, I think the discussion is a yes, a no, or a yes with conditions. And, um, I'd like to hear your thoughts and I'll try to answer any questions you have.

Uh, thank you for that. Uh, before we go with councelor Stoddock, just to clarify, when we did have this meeting, um, obviously with the limited space we have downtown, um, I wanted I like the segue from the bridge to Main Street, that's something if council were to consider maintaining that, especially as city property. Um, additionally enough space to at least continue housing the large electronic 70 foot Christmas tree. Um, otherwise we're gonna have to find another spot to put that which is potentially doable. It just further squeezes us downtown. So just something to consider meeting in the middle if you would so consider it. But we can have that conversation. And once again it's based upon the legislative body. So councelor Stoddock I'll go with you.

Thank you Mr. Mayor. Mr. Uh, how does this fit in? Not seeing uh Brooks's finished product on what he wants to do. Does he have any ideas about this land too or do you know? I have not spoken to him. Um, I know that I Chairman Porter is here. I don't know if he's spoken to him either. Um, I I will all I can answer is from the 30,000 foot view. He was interested and supportive as you know of this north area and generally of the redevelopment downtown. But I don't know that we've talked to him specifically about this project or if that discussion has taken place. I was not part of it. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Councelor Stoddic. Um, councelor Williams.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, Mark, I know this has been a challenge to get anything developed on the Tillian side especially, and even on the other side. I I think we've seen two or three projects come through urban renewal. I'm not going to hold to that. But that have tried um at this point what we have downtown is almost blight. Uh, obviously we're using it for parking now, which is which is sorely needed, but I'd be interested in collaborating in any way we can as a city to try and get a project going that can further bring that commercial and uh retail that we need uh in downtown. I like the idea of maintaining some sort of a pathway through there. I think it especially because it aligns with the bridge. There's there's good reason to want to do that. Um Mr. Mayor, with all due respect, I would hope we could find somewhere for that Christmas tree. The the tree has been different places in different times over the years. This is the most recent one, but um I'd be I'd be curious to know if we could f if I'd hate to not develop down here because we couldn't find a better place for the Christmas tree. But I' I'd be in favor of considering this, but I like your idea of at least that that pathway through there between Maine and and the bridge, but I want to encourage the development down there. If I can

just for clarification, I mean, obviously we have no idea what this project would look like, but a conversation we had is that if we were to maintain that path and additionally be able to maintain a section for that tree, which we could move it up um and not further reduce our winter and wonderland area, but we do shrink down that overall pad to help with the development. It would add to the ambiance and I would imagine the project that comes forth and they could go over the top.

Yeah. So that that's been another kind of conceptual idea. There there is um a developer as I mentioned that's been interested in this and talking about it. Now whether or not that's where this lands, we don't know because the agency goes through an RFP process where all the developers are invited to participate. Um but the the con the very I guess nent conceptual discussion um has included potentially air rights over and you know kind of above that I don't think above a 70ft Christmas tree probably is realistic but um the remainder of it the remainder

the remainder of it yes and and over if there was a walkway that could be incorporated you know as a passageway with with something developed above it that that's also kind of been discussed. Right. Um, councelor Denber, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Hilty, thank you. So, if I'm looking at this map correctly, uh, uh, 602 Main Street, the property with the cars on it right next to Tillian is currently under contract with Tillian for some sort of whatever they're doing, whatever it is, we iron out or whatever urban renewal irons out with Tillian. So, Zero Main Street and 516 Main Street are owned by the agency, the Urban Renewal Agency.

Correct. And so if we take this zero Main Street, the the subject of this conversation, and we add it to the other two lots, does that make the lot more favorable for somebody? Does somebody come and go, "Well, I have something in mind, but you know, as long as that Christmas tree is in the way, I'm not doing it." Uh I Yeah, to answer your question, I'm really not sure that that we know exactly what all you know, the broader development community would be interested in. We do know that there is a developer who has asked, "Hey, would you be willing to allow this entire section to be redeveloped? One of the moving parts is that DPRE Dean Pepe is going to have to agree to that." And he's indicated a willingness to do that and I know he's been in discussion with this developer. Uh the other part is is can we have access to this city property? Can it be included as part of the redevelopment project? U we have not had specific discussions with the developer about the location of the tree. Um um and and so I I guess I really don't know specifically if if preserving its current location or or some similar location perhaps closer to the bridge or the creek is problematic. I just don't know. So if we were to agree to let the agency have that whole lot for the purpose of uh uh marketing for whatever would be developed there, could the design feature or something in the contract for the design of that include an element which would either add a walkway or you know uh or some sort of a you know a prominent gathering area for off plaza stuff.

Yeah. Yes. And and that's the kind of that's kind of the this middle ground that I've talked about. If if the council is generally favorable to work something here but has some conditions or requirements or limitations, um the agency can incorporate those into the RFP as development requirements. I don't have any problems transferring it over to the urban renewal agency. Uh so far they've done a good job and uh I don't think they've misled the city anywhere. So I don't have any problem with it. Councelor Tilman,

Mr. Mayor, Mr. Hilty, um as far as the tree, I could always see it. It would be something that would add to the train depot putting it in the grass area. I mean, there's been a lot of people who have talked about bringing a live one in. We have a nice big chunk of life property there that would be perfect for planting something like that. Um the tree is not my issue. My issue would be some kind of a pathway between Maine and that bridge. That does tend to be a huge thoroughfare. Um mainly for the restaurants up on the north side, the what northwest side of sixth. Um, this is a huge walking path that people come in and out of, especially coming from the parking lot that's out front of city hall. Um, this is a major thoroughfare and trying to walk around Tillian is always a pain. Um, I like this the airright issue because if it is raining, this is a nice covered area. as long as it's well lit and we don't end up with a bunch of, you know, homeless encampment. That does tend to happen in these type of areas. Um, and maybe something a little wider than the bridge so that you do have a larger, especially during um the Christmas lights and stuff like that. We do tend to get a large flow of people through that area. Um, I actually do like the idea of giving away the air rights, doing something that maybe does have a crossover component to it, but I would like to continue to see some kind of a pathway to Maine from that bridge,

like a 10 foot or probably closer to like a 12 if we could do it just because of the mass amounts of people during Christmas lights. I mean, that is we do get a ton of people down there. um strollers and all sorts of things, especially if you're that's your major cross. That's a secondary crossing from the parking lot out here, especially trying to get over to the tree. Everything else if we did put it over by the train depot, which would enhance the train depot area during Christmas lights, I mean, this is what I'm thinking. That's still a major passage choice. So, whatever would tend to work from URA would actually I'd like to see something from it. See what they think. Yeah. Councelor Stoddock, do you think?

I guess I'd like to see what Mr. Brooks has in mind, too, just to see, you know, I don't know what kind of a developer

so undecided at this point, minus looking what a currently unapproved plan, but could be approved someday. Um, councelor Williams. Thank you. I I think given the fact that you said uh 602 needs to be under construction by when? Currently December 1st of this year. So if if um if this flies, there's going to need to be some additional time there.

So we we do need to keep things moving though again is what I'm I'm thinking. And I I don't know who's seen the the Roger Brooks plan or or not, but I had understood he hasn't come before us. I I recognize that and he needs to, but I had understood he included this uh this area of downtown is needing to be developed. Uh so I don't see us giving this to uh urban renewal as something that would compete with whatever Roger Brooks has in the overall plan. So, I'm in favor of uh entrusting the urban renewal with with the rightway here.

That's all good. Uh I just just in closing, I kind of agree with everything that's been said across the bridge on the south side. Um, as you're well aware being the urban renewal attorney, uh, we have a large development going in there that's also going to have a plaza there. Um, which again is going to make for a lot of foot traffic across that bridge. So, I believe it's a priority that that walkway stay. Uh, other than that, I would completely agree with um th this big dirt lot is just an eyesore and and I would love to see their urban rural agency put out for RFP and and see what kind of designs we can get.

Council register. Um, the only comment that I have, um, I mean, I'd like to see what kind of ideas somebody has for this, but I think, you know, we kind of joke about the tree, but I I just don't want to forget that we paid a lot of money for that tree. So, it was a lot of taxpayer money that went into that tree, and so we're going to want to make sure that um we have a place for it, even if it's not this place.

I agree. And just for council be aware that we may have to invest in make an investment where that would go in the future. Um as far as the RFP, is there been any consideration or talk about the parking? I mean this is going to make quite a significant project which yes economic development downtown would be good but we already have a parking issue. Is that something that's going to be clearly outlined that we need to address?

Yes. and and the RFPs that we've issued in the past, recent past have been all required the developers to provide a parking plan. I'm sure this one will too. So, exactly what that is may vary depending on what's being proposed, but there will be a requirement to provide parking. All right. Anything else for Mr. Hilty? All right. With nothing. Thank you. So, I'm I'm not hearing a heck no. So, let me let me get with Oscar um and maybe the staff and we will bring something actionable uh at one of your next meetings that'll outline some specific detail based on what I've got here. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, sir. All right. The next item on the agenda is new um still a new business an action an action item concerning a resolution approving a parking lease between the city of Calwell and DPRE LLC for a temporary parking on the Tillian project phase 2 site on Main Street and approximately South Avenue. This item has been Mr. Mayor correction. Yes, that that item was not ready for prime time so to speak and so it'll be coming before the council to the meeting.

So that item was removed from the agenda. Moving on, the next item on the agenda is action item for public hearing to consider proposed vacation case VAC26-00001 petition for vacation rightway request by the property owner which is the city of Cwell to vacate a portion of the city rightway located at the Cowell event center. rightway is a portion of the do can we go and read all that off or just move on? You you can move on.

All right. Um this rideway remains on the old plats and this vacation is to clean up the GIS map and just so council's aware um I spoke with some of our community partners and we had seen an issue on the GIS map system that caused quite a panic. So that's why we're here tonight is to clean that up and thank you. Go ahead staff.

Thank you Mr. Mayor Council again for the record. Joe Dodson, principal planner here at the city. So, yes, very simple request today. This is the rightway area that exists as current. It is um an old plat essentially an old grid from some of the original plat of the city of Caldwell. Goes through the field. It goes through multiple buildings, the rodeo grounds, etc. Um the funny story, the legal description of this was actually created multiple years ago and I believe was even heard by council at the time and then it just never quite got finished in some capacity. So, here we are again making sure we're dotting our eyes and crossing our tees to get this request before you. It's approximately 2.3 acres. Again, it's old right ofway that's not being used public rightway. There is no proposal to use it as public rightway. It will not have if this is vacated, it will not have any effect on any access existing any use of the sites or any life safety issues. Um, it is quite literally just a cleanup of this. There are some utilities within the easement. There are some existing easements. Sorry, there are some utilities within this existing right ofway. There are some existing easements and then there are some that will or should be created and that is discussed within the ordinance as well. That's the wrong one. Um, there were noted sorry a pan went out for this just as everything else that we send out. There were no comments received except from believe a couple utility agencies that said they did not have any utilities in there. The only utilities that we have are city utilities. Um there was no other property owners within the vicinity that responded to the PAM as well. Traffic commission did recommend approval of this during their February meeting because there are no plans to utilize this as rightway and it has not been used as right ofway for many many years. So there was no conditions of

approval or question by the traffic commission. So as proposed, it complies with all of our codes. It should not create any hazards or adverse impacts. And so the vacation request is before council. And I'll stand for any last questions you have. Uh questions from council. Councelor Denver. I just have one question and it's not really a serious question, but if I was to park my vehicle in the in zone, could it really be towed? Could it be towed? I mean, if I see your truck, I will might have to call. But if it's public right away technically, yeah, good luck getting in there, but you Joe, one serious one.

Thanks. So, thank you, Councelor Denber. Councelor Tilmont, Mr. Joe. Um, there are, just to be clear, there are no util or there's any utilities that are in there are clearly marked or are marked somewhere where they will know about them. Correct. Unfortunately, the pool we ran into um irrigation that nobody knew about. Right. So, I just want to make sure there's no utilities or anything else that's in these rightaways that we are vacating that are not clearly marked somewhere for someone if they ever come back to dig up the end zone. I will default to the city engineer on that. Uh Haley.

Uh yes, Mayor Councilman um Tilmont. We are aware of some utilities in the in this location and we will um follow up with this vacation with establishing formal easements over these said utilities so that they do remain to um clear. Um so yes, there are easements. We are aware of them. They are not I wouldn't say they're clearly marked like with paint like a dig line paint on the ground, but our GIS system does have these easements and we will be following up with an easement over them. Mayor, if I can note one other thing, Director Collins

with the along with the easements, fire department has conditioned this that the area will be the easement will also be for fire access. So, we're just basically just vacating this to give assurances to those around that that we're we don't plan on putting a street through there. Um, so we're vacating it, but it'll remain an easement. Um, and so there'll be nothing built in these easements.

Um, any further questions from council? All right, with that, um, we're going to go ahead and open up public hearing. if anyone signed up testifying. Now is the opportunity to speak for three minutes and I believe we have no one testifying. So with that, I'm going to go ahead and close public testimony. Mr. Mayor and uh council can discuss the application for making motions and voting. Councelor Tilmont. Mr. Mr. Mayor, I'd like to sponsor bill number 78, ordinance number 3742 associated with VAC 26-01 with a request for its move with a request to move for its passage by title only and approve this summary for publication.

Second. All right, I have a motion and a second for sponsoring that bill. And we're going to move back to voice voting or electronic electronic voting. And voice voting for council register. Councelor register. How do you vote? Yes. Just to clarify, that was a yes. Okay. Sounded almost like a no. All right. All right, the next item on the agenda, Mr. Mayor, just for the record, it did.

Yes, for the public watching and the public out here, that motion did pass. Was unanimous for that vacation. And hopefully our community partners can rest assured that we're not going to put a street through their facilities that they're currently leasing. Um, the next item on the agenda is an action item consider resolution 062-26 establishing and amending fees for Cobalt Police Department. Sorry, did that jump that much? Okay, go ahead. Sorry, Rain.

That's okay. Um, so, uh, I just have a few fees, uh, that were brought in the middle of the year. Uh, some of these were due to just looking at staffing and they weren't really considered while we were passing the budget. Others, such as the FBI background investigation fee, was increased by the state and that's just a pass through fee for us. And so we did increase it on our side. Um, so there's not a ton, but just to talk about them because there were So we had the FBI background fee, uh, some building fees, a new, uh, non-commercial kennel licensing fee, um, and a new plan review and data response fee, and police. So be happy to answer any questions on any of those.

Uh, thank you for that. Council, do you have any questions on the fees? Seeing none. All right. Thank you for that. Um Raylin, just a for a correction that did include the planning fee or sorry, the design review for police. Yes.

Yes. Um, just so council's aware, I did ask police to begin um, adding comments onto plan reviews. So, this is that fee that's associated with that to adjust for the time and effort that would be required with that. With that, um, we need to open up public hearing. Correct. All right. With that, I open up public hearing. And do we have any speakers on that? None. With that, I close the public hearing for public comments. And do we have a motion for resolution 062-26 establishing remaining fees for the Coal Police Department?

So moved. All right. Do you have a motion and a second? Second. All right. We have two seconds. Um with that. All right. Is there any debate on the motion? Council register. All right. Seeing none, would council please vote electronically. Cast their votes electronically. Councelor register. How do you vote? Yes.

All right. That motion and second is unanimous for approving resolution 062-26, establishing manual fees for the call police department. All right. The next item on the agenda is an action item to consider resolution 63-26 establishing remaining fees for the CWell Community Development Department. And with that who's Oh, no. Sorry. Who's presenting? Is there anyone? It's all the same. Oh, it's all the same. All right.

Okay. So, we can go ahead and move ahead then. All right. Um, do we have a motion on correction? Do we need to open the public hearing or just go ahead and move them all? All right. Thank you. Do we have a motion for resolution 63-26? Mr. Mayor, council, all good. I would make the motion for resolution 063-26 and 064-26 uh regarding the fees we just heard the presentation on and move for both to be approved. Uh, thank you for motioning both those agenda items and a motion to second. All right. Is there any questions from council on the resolution?

We have counselors with green lights just to confirm you're not wanting to speak. Council all good. I'm pushing. Sorry, your light was green. I just want to make sure you're all right with that. Um, go ahead and vote electronically and then councelor register voice vote. Councelor register, how do you vote?

Yes. All right, with that it's a unanimous vote on that. Um, skipping down the next uh action item on the agenda is consider bill 9 ordinance 3743 annexation of Paragan estate subdivision phase number six in the call municipal irrigation district. All right. Does council have any questions on that? All right. Seeing none, do we have a motion? Mr. Mayor, uh, council all good.

I move that uh I'll sponsor bill nine, bill number nine, ordinance number 3743, annexation of paragrin estate subdivision phase number six into the Caldwell Municipal Irrigation District. All right. So move. Do we have a second? Second. All right. Motion second. Council members can now votes vote cast their votes electronically. Councelor Register. Yes.

All right. That motion passes unanimously. All right. The next agenda item is action item consider bill 10 ordinance 3744 annexing Topaz Ranch West number two subdivision in the call municipal irrigation district. Does council have any questions on that? All right. Do we have a motion? Mr. Mayor. sponsor bill number 10, ordinance 3744, annexation of Topaz Ranch West, number two into the Caldwell Municipal Irrigation District. Second. All right. A motion is second. Any questions on that? All right. Would council please move to vote electronically and council register voice vote?

Yes. All right. Um, I believe the next item on the agenda is the finance report.

Council all good. I move that accounts payable in the amount of $3,930,48863 represented by check numbers 1 191483 through 1 191855 and electronic payments and payroll in the amount of $837,488.35 represented by check numbers 40721 through 40728 and direct deposits be accepted. Pay is approved and vouchers filed in the office of the city clerk. All right, that's a motion to second. Council, please cast cast your votes electronically.

Yes.

Thank you, councelor register. All right, that motion passes with finance report. All right, we're going to move to um council comments. Councelor Williams. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh we had uh uh Councelor Christensen from Middleton in here uh most of the evening and uh wanted to express our uh sympathies with the city of Middleton and the loss of their mayor and wish them the best in their transition as they move forward and go through some uh uh well some transitioning in the next I think 24 hours especially. They're going to be working on some things. So wanted to go on record for that. Um, also wanted to express my deep gratitude to Mr. McDonald and for his years of service to the city of Caldwell. Uh, a lot of sacrifice, a lot of phone calls in the middle of the night and, uh, a lot of dealing with us and, uh, thank you for everything you've done for the city and uh, your your fingerprint is indelible here. So while you may you may be moving on uh the remnants of what you have done are in perpetuity and the city of Caldwell is better off in in a lot of ways and so I just want to appreciate you for that and say we're the city of Cwell is a great city to live in and and work in and be in and thank you for your part in that.

Uh thank you councelor Williams councelor all good. Uh yeah. Um I hate to bring up this subject, but the the quiet zones. Um the city has acknowledged like 53 emails in favor of the quiet zones, 200 some in opposition to the quiet zone, but the city's never recognized the petition that was turned in. Um are we going to recognize that there was a petition turned in? Uh yes, I believe there is just a verification of that petition and then we can recognize that. Um, so just to clarify and we'll do a public post about it. We can follow up with that just to clarify that. So that's coming. I guess that's

Yes. Yeah. So um I can put together a list of like a a full number of in favor and against including those petitions. I believe there were some petitions on the against side as well. So, and I don't really care about like number six, you know what? I just want I I know there's been question from the public that we've that we've received it. And I know as a council member, I've received it. I just wanted the acknowledgement from the city that it's been received. So, the individual that submitted that petition reached out to my office and I spoke with him directly and told him that I could confirm that it was received. Okay. So, I'd be glad to put together a statement if you'd like me to. Perfect. That's all I was.

Uh, yes, council. All good. We'll put together a statement. And just FYI, the last meeting there was a email that was sent by the clerk that updated us as to the numbers at that time. So we just have to update the current numbers um to make sure we reflect as such um those four against and neutral. Uh councelor Nittenberg.

Mr. Mayor, thank you. First of all, I'd like to uh tell everybody out there that we have a still have a remarkable downtown Caldwell. Even though they're disassembling the skating rink and preparing it for the spring and the summer months, uh please take time to go down there and and patronize our our businesses that we have down there. They would they would appreciate us and uh just uh have a lot of praise for this great city that we live in. Uh thank you for that, Councelor Councelor Denber. And I would 100% agree that it's exciting for the spring coming and all the things that'll be going on downtown. Councelor Tilmont,

um I'd just like to echo what Councelor Williams said. Um I hate to see Rob go. Um I think we're losing another huge asset in this city and I just wish you all the well in your future endeavors. Thank you.

Thank you, Councelor Tilmont and Councelor Stodd. As Mr. Mayor, I just wanted to expand a little bit on councelor Augwood's request that some of the concerns some of my constituents had is that make sure that these folks that either signed a petition or did something else are definitely Cwell city residents and not county or pay or all that. So, we want to make sure that uh that's true when we have the total number of figures. So, uh copy that. we can just do a little more in-depth of a breakdown not only the totality of the two or if there's any neutral comments and then we can further delineate um between whether they are city county and break it down that way. Is that something we can do miss madam clerk?

That is absolutely doable. Uh it'll just take me some time. Thank you. Appreciate councelor register. Um I don't think I have anything else to add. Um, I ditto everything that councelor Williams said and also is Rob is Rob in the audience because I can't see the He is in the audience.

Okay. Well, I've already sent him emails, but I also just want to thank him for everything that he's done in putting up with all of us and all the questions and education that he's provided. And um as far as the quiet zone petition, I think that um it it would be interesting to see who has commented, but I do want to just also um remind everybody that the train horns affect everybody, not just if they live in the city, if we're looking at it from a safety perspective and um some other ways as well. So there is that but no other than that um I think that's it.

Um thank you for that council register. Just some updates. Um Blaine is open at 6 now. So that is wonderful to see that. So thank you for the quick work. Um I believe Chief U. When is when are you guys speaking? At the next Chamber of Commerce lunchon that's coming up here shortly. Correct. March 10th. March

March 10th. Next Tuesday, for those that aren't aware, Coal Fire Department is going to be presenting. So, if you'd like to come listen in and um get lunch, pay for lunch. I don't believe I remember the cost, but Chamber of Commerce would know. So, it'll be a great opportunity. Um wonderful to see the police officers that we swore in today. Um I remember and I'm sure councelor All Good, former uh Chief Allgood remembers back in the day when we had way more hair and all that youth. So, thank you to all those that are um electing to serve the city and we look forward to seeing them as they progress over their career. And I believe with that um I don't think I had anything else. Mr. Mayor, I thought you had something else.

Sorry. Uh two things. I just had a little brain. You know what? There. Um I do want to say thank you to Mr. McDonald. Would you come forward pretty please? I just I just want to uh thank you for your service to the city. I've had the opportunity to work with you not only back when I was with the police department here and there on traffic commission type stuff, but as a director of safety with the school district and now as the mayor. Um hats off to you. You are, you know, a man like no other. You know a lot. You handle your business well. It is a tough loss um to be losing you, but you are going to be right down the road at Highway District 4. Correct.

So hopefully we're able to have a wonderful bridge between the two entities and it'll be interesting to see how you progress there because you know you you do well here and I'm sure you'll do well there and you know this city like no other. So thank you to your service. I'd like to give you a round of applause for your service to the city and if and if you have anything to say uh in in closing.

I didn't uh I didn't plan a speech, but uh it's uh it's definitely bittersweet and I definitely appreciate the uh 16 years I've had to work here. Uh in 2010, I worked for a small company in Phoenix, Arizona that went out of business during the downturn. And then Mr. Orton was kind enough to hire me into the engineering department and uh and that seems like so long ago now, but here I am. Um I I just want to I appreciate everything uh the leadership of this city, the great things that have been done. Um the uh this this city has grown almost doubled since I started here, believe it or not. And it's just been an amazing experience. And I want to thank you all for your support and for uh your confidence in in me and my team. Um there are still many very very capable people here and so I may not be missed for very long but uh I I just appreciate everything. Thank you.

No, thank you for that. And you've done wonderful at our meetings. You're always very articulate. Um I appreciate everything you've done and uh yeah, so we just got what two weeks left with you. And yeah, the 13th. the 13th. So, once again, a loss. Um, in the meantime, I am, and I've stated this just in case council is not aware, I'm naming our city engineer, the acting public works director as we get closer to your leave time. So, we'll make that transition and they are connecting together um to pass that off. So, and that was on recommendation of Mr. Macdonald. So, with that, thank you for your service to the city and we will greatly miss you.

Thank you. All right, we got one more thing. This is a new thing. So, would you please come up, Justin? All right, so out front of city hall is a parking spot for city employee of the month. Oh, sorry. I was like, can I not say this? Um I you know since I've been here since January and even before um as I was going through the transition process uh this gentleman has you want to talk about the brains of this outfit. He is a wealth of knowledge. Um of course you too Rob right in the public works side but on the legal Scott side you are amazing. I appreciate everything you do. He's very helpful very knowledgeable. Um keeps an eye out for us for the state legislature items coming through and provides a good detail on that. So, I just want to say thank you and for the next till the end of the month, please um utilize that city employee city hall parking spot that we have out front. But I just want to thank you for everything you do. You've been wonderful. Thank you so much uh mayor for that recognition and uh uh we are blessed to have a great team here uh with Oscar heading the legal department and so I feel very fortunate to be part of the Caldwell team and uh I greatly appreciate uh how welcome you've made me feel these months that I've worked here. So, thank you very much and I am grateful for the opportunity to be part of such an outstanding organization.

Yeah, thank you. And thank you for what you do and of course I know Oscar appreciates you. Um I don't know what he'd do without you, but same for the whole city. So, thank you. So, enjoy that city hall parking spot employee of the month um for the month of March. Thank you very much. And this was for the month of February, but he's going to get to use it in the month of March. So, thank you. And with that, um, Mr. Mayor, Council Stodd, Council, I've worked with Ruin a lot, uh, Justin over the years with the Idaho Association of Cities and and I even worked with his family way back when when they I think they still grow potato seed, don't they? Northern Idaho, or have they quit?

Uh, they quit unfortunately. Okay. When dad retired, but yes. Yeah. Some of our best potato seeds came out of northern Idaho when I was a fieldman over in this. and uh it's uh quite a family and always appreciate the knowledge that Justin gives us and it'll go a long way on keeping us straight. No doubt about that. Thank All right. Thank you. I appreciate it. You may be seated. Um and with that now we're going to move to the next item entering executive session. Mr. Mayor, I've been given specific instructions by the clerk to read something very specific. Um, councelor Denber, go ahead.

I make a motion that we enter into executive session pursuant to Idaho Code 74-206C and D to consider the purchase of property not owned by a public entity and to consider records exempt from public disclosure and subsection A to consider a hiring uh decision. Second motion to second for executive session based upon those particular items of 74-206. All right. Would council first please vote electronically and councelor register verbal vote. Yes.

All right. It's unanimous. We are now in executive session. Thank you everyone for attending or watching tonight and have a good evening.