City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, good evening everybody. It's uh 6:30 on May 4th. May the force be with you and uh I did did it. So we will start with a flag salute. Please call the meeting to order. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, all the members of the council are accounted for tonight. Uh, is there any announcements? Any additions to the agenda? Julia,

just one. Um, for those of you that aren't aware, there's a replacement page 13 that was at the dis. Um, so if you want to replace page 13 in your packet, um, James will go over the numbers, but it sounds sounds like there was a few numbers that were off.

Okay. Anything else? Okay. Is there any declarations of ex party contact, conflict of interest, bias, etc. Don't hear any. That leads us to public comment. And I do have two requests for public comment. Is there anybody else before I call on these folks? Okay. Before I call them, I'm going to read a statement. The council will now receive public comment. We value the time and initiative members of the public take to share their thoughts with the council. The council's role during public comment is not to immediately respond, but to listen. If there is a follow-up necessary, we will direct city staff to do so. Remember that we all model the way for our community and we ask that everyone share their thoughts respectfully. Um the green forms here and they'll be limited to three minutes uh per um thoughts and we'll start with the chamberlins please. Norin and Larry.

Sure. Yeah, please. told you.

So my com my comments tonight are directed u mostly at planning and uh actually all of you though too. I wanted to talk about cottage zoning. The codes right now in state don't have that. You have, you know, low density, medium, high, but we don't have cottage. And why is that a good idea for state Oregon? Well, first of all, a lot of the cottage zoning is for seniors. Uh, it can be for any age, but potentially for seniors. Um, it's a really neat concept. Uh, a lot of it is actually like in a circle and the garages can potentially be in the back and then you have like front porches and you have little courtyards in the front. Um, it depends on how the design is done, but um, it uh, in terms of units, it's like 6 to 12 units per acre typically. Um, it looks like I believe Portland has one of these and evidently Stton was close to it a while back on your previous planner and then he it didn't get submitted. But um there is a need here in St. We've been here 50 years. We're old and we have seen the need all around us of different housing here. The Marion Home has been around a long, long time and it's a very old facility. We just had a relative there and I probably shouldn't say this but the first thing they told him after they signed up was don't drink the water. That doesn't sound like a good place to live in terms of you know livability and seniors and especially sick seniors. Um anyway there there is a need and um I know some cities might be scared of saying cottage zoning. Please don't be scared. We really would look forward to this. there is a low impact on the

schools. Might be a little more fire impact because 911, we need them sometimes, but all I would say is that uh I think uh it really can help our city to have livability. We just toured some of these today, my husband and I. We drove over to Mount Angel and uh oh my goodness, it's beautiful. They're about 900 to a,000 ft. Their pricing for a onebedroom was $2,200. It includes all utilities except electric. Um, and they built them in 2018, so they're fairly new. That's just one development, too. You know, there's many, many more. But um, we ourselves are po facing this annexation in our area and um on Park Lane. And evidently, Clutch is entertaining this idea of cottage zoning and that kind of a cluster housing. So, we're looking forward to it. We live right there and we may just check in. We'll see how it goes. It could have some real benefits to our community though, especially in terms of livability. We don't always have that as seniors and apartments don't always answer our needs. So,

that's that's all I Thank you. Thank you very much. And just a little shout out to Julia. Thanks for visiting the pool the other day. That was very nice. Thanks, Naren. Larry, are you gonna speak? Okay, thank you. Nick Robba.

Good evening. My name is Nicholas Robba. I live at 920 East Sanam Street. Thank you guys for being here, mayor, counselors, and community. I have a brief update on the community efforts supporting state and parks andpool.com. Over the past few weeks, we've made strong progress in outreach and awareness. We've distributed 100 yard signs throughout the community, helping increase visibility and spark conversation amongst residents. In addition, we printed a thousandformational pamphlets. These are now available for pickup by community members who want to help share information, talk to neighbors, and canvas their neighborhoods. What we're seeing is encouraging. People are not only engaging with the issue, but stepping up to participate. This is becoming a true grassroots effort driven by residents who care about the future of our parks and pool. Our focus right now is simple. Continue expanding awareness. keep information accessible and make it easy for people to get involved. We appreciate the council's time, mayor's time, and the community's time. These are the beautiful pamphlets that we have right here. So, if anybody would like some, they know where to find them. Thank you.

Okay. Thanks, Nick. All right, that moves us on to consent agenda from April 20th, 2026 city council regular session minutes. What would council like to do? Mr. Mayor, council, I move that we accept the consent agenda as presented. Seconded. There's a motion and a second to accept the consent agenda as submitted. Any further discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. Motion carries. I.

Five to zero. Thank you. Uh that leads us to presentations. Uh Julie, you want to do this or? I I will just introduce um from the Maran Soil Water and Conservation District if you want to come up and introduce yourself. And she has a presentation. Okay. Thank you. Welcome.

Hi. Just one moment. I'm going to set myself up here. So, I'm Angela Plowhead. I am the current uh chair director of the Marian Soil and Water Conservation District, and I'm here tonight to share a little bit about the district. And I really appreciate you all allowing me to come and give you guys an update on what we've been up to this past year.

I'll let you do it if you want.

Open. Okay.

Let's see. This is brand new, so we're trying something. There we go. So, here's a map of our district. Um, our district is divided into five zones across Marian County. Um, each zone has a director, which is an elected position. We also have two atlarge members, which are also elected members, but they do not have to live in one of the zones. uh this current election season in 2026, we will have five positions that are um up for reelection. So that's zones one, two, three, and five. And you can see them laid out here on the map, as well as one of our atlarge positions. If uh anyone is interested in running, I would encourage you to visit our website where we have details on how you can um put your name in the hat and run for election. The district is made up of the Midwamic River Basin as well as the um properties that run within that boundary. Um there are over 60 state and federal agencies and educational institutions um and other organizations that we work with to conserve natural resources across the county. Our mission.

Okay. Our mission um at the district is to partner with people in support of thriving lands, clean water, and healthy habitats. And we do this through our planning efforts, our technical assistance, and our educational programming, our strategic plan, which you can see a picture of here on the left. And um it outlines the district's five years goals. So that's uh year 2024 through 2029. And it serves to ensure that we perform um and that our partnerships are in alignment with our district mission. Our goals are to inspire conservation, promote healthy soils and clean water, create healthy habitats and productive working lands. And we do this by establishing and maintaining effective partnerships as well as promoting organizational health. On the other side, you'll see our annual report, which um all of the council members uh have a copy of there. And I've also left some copies if the public wants to see um outside in the front so everyone can have a copy if they would like. And so this updates everyone on what we've been doing this year, how we've been meeting those goals, how we've been utilizing our funds, and that sort of information. So, our strategic plan and our annual report highlight the variety of projects that we've done throughout the community and in these in our district and provides a snapshot of uh our grant programs as well as our funding sources uh to our community as a whole. And much of that includes the the grants that you see here that we award every year. And so that's our conservation assistance grant, our cover crops grant, our special projects, our clear grant, which is the conservation learning

education and resources grant, and we also have a partner grant that we have been uh piloting. And so over the last year, we awarded uh $469,390 in funds to support conservation projects in Marian County. And because of the success of these projects, we do hope to continue to increase our our funding each year. That's one of our goals. So, this is just a little bit of a highlight of some of the things that we've done this year. So, one of the things that we recently completed is our native plant sale. So, we've had two of those and where we offer bare roots and container plants at two different sales. uh to the community, to the public. And the figures here show the conservation that we've done through that. Um we've had uh 310 community members that we sold over 8,100 plants to. Um, through that we had over or about 80 volunteers and um I'm sorry, we had 25 volunteers that volunteered about 80 hours worth of time um for those plant sales. We were able to generate over $10,000 in revenue and we raised $6,500 for our scholarship program that we um give out to college students that are seeking higher education and conservation. You'll also see our little habitat project um that we actually have uh three of them here in Marian County or here in Stton. Um we have a number of them throughout the district, 130 throughout the Marian County. Um one of the ones that we have here in Statton is actually our own building. Um which I'll

show you here in just a moment. And through that we certify uh community partners that are creating um residual or I'm sorry resistant uh I'm getting tongue tied tonight. I apologize for that. Resilient landscapes um that increase our uh habitat connectivity in urban areas. And so how those work is that people will let us know that they want to be a certified site. So these are oftentimes found in neighborhoods um or community parks or gardens where they will have a list of things that they can do to certify and then we our uh technical staff will assist them in that and then once they have reached the certification level then they'll get a placard that they can put up and people can come by and see what they've done. So, this past um March, we had six staff and 14 volunteers that assisted with our building, which is just a couple of blocks from here. And they helped us do things like plant a a variet a variety of native species and um ensure that our building in and of itself is demonstrative of what it is that we're trying to do. So, one of our larger scale projects that we're doing is the um throughout Maring County as a whole, but the city of Staten is also been benefit of this is working with Orcan to create soil health subs around the state. And so Marian County has been selected as one of those uh hubs and Oran and the soil health network aims to provide farmers and land owners the resources they need to ensure long-term soil health and climate resist resilience.

And so you can find out more about that on our first Friday podcast which is put onto our YouTube channel. And so if you go to our website, there's a link there under first Fridays where you can find uh a link to that YouTube channel. And so the the district is currently working closely with Orcand and land owners to address water quality concerns across the district. And that involves things such as uh planting uh streamside buffers uh stabilizing soil and reducing runoff and other inputs into the streams that create uh fluctuations in temperature and also just improving overall river habitat. So some of the work that we're doing through that is with um the how Prairie Creek and Pudding River wershed which is about 17,000 acres and that's located about 7 milesi east of Salem. So um in between here and Salem and it has three tributaries that uh go into the Pudding River. That's the How Prairie uh Creek, the Krauss Creek, and Walker Ditch. So, one of the capacity grants that we have done that I'll highlight here just quickly is with the North Sanm partnership that we have done with the North Sanm Council to assist in extending outreach to community members. And this was one of the capacity partner grants that we have done. We've also partnered with them on several other projects throughout the Sanm Canyon uh to remove and limit the spread of invasive noxious weeds. U most recently that was done at the Brighton Bush Hot Springs Retreat Center just a

couple of weeks ago. And so people can learn more about the noxious weeds in our annual report here. And this summer we'll be also collaborating with them on a project to tackle uh aquatic invasive species. So we're heavily involved right now with education around the emerald ashbor. And so it's an invasive pest that's been killing ash trees across the district and across the state. And so those have been identified here in Marian County. And so we're wanting to educate land owners and others who might have uh this pest on their land, how to identify it, and how to control for it. And so this past Saturday, we hosted a workshop where we were teaching people how to trap and giving them traps so that they can identify if they have them on their property. We had 15 traps that were dispersed to community members and we're helping them to utilize that as citizen scientist to help be part of that control of the emerald ashbor. So here you'll see a picture of um our building. And so we just commissioned this mural that was done. The landscaping that was done uh that I mentioned earlier, you can see here. Um we really want to contribute to the community and just in beautifying um what it is that we where we are. And so uh we've had a number of projects that we've done with the help of volunteers and people in uh the community here along the river there and um just around our building.

So I would like to um just point out some of the specific state and involvement that we've had uh through different partnerships. So I mentioned earlier the North Sanmon watershed council uh we contributed materials to the state and heritage tour last week. Uh we've been actively involved in the America uh 250 volunteer challenge which is happening now through June 30th. Um, part of that was through the Earth Day uh conser conservation pledge. And then annually we host a booth at the Sanm Summerfest. And this past year we had 126th grade students from Cascade Middle School that participated in learning about uh salmon and biology and the life cycle through our salmon watch. And so we absolutely look forward to more community uh engagement and involvement and education. Um certainly we want to get more people involved in our little habitat project and so we would encourage them to reach out to us if they would like to be involved in that and we certainly appreciate the partnership of the city of Sten. So, thank you for having me and I'm happy to take any questions you might have.

Angela, I have just one question. Is the Army Corps of Engineers a partner with you all? Um, they we we collaborate with them, but we do not have anything to do with the draw down. Okay, thank you. That's not us. Thanks for the question, thank you for the presentation. Council, anybody else? Angela, thank you very much. I used to own a little eery across the street, so I saw the progress of this landscape. That and Fourth Avenue looks great and thank you for the detailed report tonight. It's very nice. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you for having me. Thank you, Angel. Thank you. All right, Julia is the chief or

Yeah. Next, I'll have the chief come up because she has the next three presentation topics and she can introduce them. So, I want the red button, red light. And lucky for you, I don't do all three presentations. I just get to intro them. So, I have the pleasure of introducing to you our newest um staff member, and I'll let him do his introduction, but Officer Blicker was um hired last month, sworn in last week, and he's been out on patrol, um and will be starting his FTEP, um this week with Officer Leonard. So, Officer Blicker.

Hello, counselors. Thank you for having me. Uh, my name is Off Officer Christian Blicker. Um, I'm sure you want to know a little bit about me, uh, considering I'll be patrolling your streets. Uh, I was born in Phoenix, uh, then lived in Oregon the majority of my life. Uh my family is kind of diverse uh in the fact that my dad uh came over as a foreign exchange student. So uh I'm first generation uh American on my dad's side and so I kind of have that history with me. Uh and then my mother and uh that side of the family has lived in Oregon their entire lives. Uh my passion has really grown uh with law enforcement uh since a young age uh being in uh you know certain situations that you know came up where law enforcement really left a a lasting impression on me and when I grew up I was like I want to be like that you know and so go going through school uh that I kind of had that in mind uh went to school at Lynbenton Community College for uh law enforcement forcement, uh, criminal justice and then, uh, life kind of got in the way. So, uh, turned to construction, uh, and so I had been doing construction for about 10 years, 11 years, and, uh, always had, you know, the seed in the back of my head that I wanted to go into law enforcement. Uh, I decided to pursue that, uh, after owning my own business, uh, and then going through several, uh, big life changes. And so I joined uh Lynn uh Lynn County Sheriff's Office, worked there for a short time, and then uh decided to move on over here. Uh I'm hoping to uh integrate myself with the community, be a part of the community, be a part of the people here. Uh you know, I want to provide unbiased policing and provide

excellent service to everyone in the community. And I just want to try to, you know, be the best uh that you guys need. Uh yeah. Awesome. Well, thanks for choosing us. Yeah. You have any questions for me or I have a question? Go ahead. Did you say uh where your dad? Uh my my dad came from Denmark. Oh, cool. Okay. Yeah. So, uh, he came over as foreign exchange student and then, uh, decided to stay because he liked, uh, the US so much. Awesome. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks, Christian.

All right. You get me back. So, um, mayor, counselors, and staff, just for the record, Gwen John's, chief of police with city of Stton. Um, so triband, dualband, UHF, VHF 800, analog, digital, P25, truncated, Simocast, the list goes on. These are all the words associated with radios and radio projects. So, tons of terms that we've kicked around for months and years in radio conversations. Um, I'll try not to get too technical, but give you some details um and do an overview of our county county radio project. So, in Marian County, we have two dispatch centers that serve our police, fire, and medical. WVCC primarily serves Marian County, Salem, Kaiser, and Jervis. Metcom serves Woodburn, Silverton, Almsville, Turner, Stton, and Hubard. And Metcom also serves multiple fire departments in Marian County as well. So, two dispatch centers kind of creates um its own kind of uniqueness and complications. Um then we talk about dispatch centers and radios. So dispatch centers provide the service uh answering the phones, talking to officers, getting people to the scene, getting information. Uh each department has been responsible for purchasing and maintaining their radios that are carried on their person. So they're mobile or sorry they're uh portable. And then what goes in the car um which we refer to as mobile. And then we also usually have a base station or two. So the radios we carry um we purchased in 2017. They're digital VHF

P25 compatible. Um for our purposes, they're a good radio and functional. um as conversations over county projects um happened over the years, we try to make purchases, you know, back prior administrations on what might be compatible to eventually a future county radio project. Um when I started six years ago, I heard about the county radio project, heard that it had been talked about for years and even decades. Um, so as I started kind of getting more into the conversations and understanding all those concepts, I threw out at you when we started. Um, conversations have gone gone a lot of different ways. Uh, the county radio project though is bigger than equipment, bigger than just these radios. So it's about coverage, about safety, interoperability, how we all talk to each other. Often Stton's just talking to Stton and to our dispatch center, but at times we need to talk to county, we need to talk to Lynn County, um we may need to talk to fire or medical. So um this radio project is about a system. So the towers that cause the radios to interact with each other, the systems that go into the dispatch centers, um and installation in the cars. So it's a whole system. It's not just the purchasing of radios. Um, on a larger scale with departments using different equipment, sometimes we're not able to communicate because someone's got a different type of radio or is working in a different dispatch center. So, really, we're wanting to communicate as a whole county. Uh, especially like police to police. Um, that's a big thing. In 2022, uh, I became member of

the Metcom board, which is our dispatch board, and eventually on the executive board as well, and then started attending Marian County staff meetings. Um, the conversations, like I say, had been going on for decades about the radio project and kind of wishful thinking and then working through the different problems. So, how do we get here? the Beachy fires. Um they took damage two Marian County radio sites and in that that kind of caused the county to have to push forward. Um they got ARPA funding and then um that really expedited um this need and this push and this want and desire to to get everybody in the county on one system. So as you can imagine, the money part of it really spurred a lot. Um, a quick brief timeline. February 2020 20 This mic does some weird stuff. February 2022, ARPA funding became a reality for Marian County to pursue the project. October 23, um, RFP went out. Then a lot of other conversations and working with vendors. um the expected deployment um July 2026. I think that's been pushed out a little bit. Uh and migration of September 26. So really late fall of 2024, Maring County suddenly expedited the project and started pushing things forward. Um what we're going to be going to is a 7800 system. Uh 7800's really good for emergency services. Um there's a lot of different arguments on, you know, digital is good, but 7800 for emergency services is kind of way a lot of agencies are going. Um they've had lots of conversations about truncated and

other options but uh what would happen is this Marian County is going to be the large funer behind it and then we will join as users. So there'll be a user fee and what that user fee will cover is building the system because we can go out and buy any radio we want but if it doesn't work on our system it's useless. So, it's building the system that a 7800 triband radio would work on. The user fee will cover installation into our cars. um operation on the overall system, regular maintenance, um warranty repairs, scheduled replacement. Um if we didn't have the county project, if us alone as state and went out and bought 700 800 radios, uh my estimate very conservatively would be a 100,000 to 136,000 just for the radios. That's not installation. Um, and that sure doesn't put us on a system. So, uh, joining a county radio system lowers costs for the equipment, building the system. So, what does this mean? Here's an example. Uh, if Marian County, they had a call um, within the last few weeks. Uh, they went on the radio in Marian County and asked for code three cover. their officers, their deputies were being shot at, our guys in the car could hear that at real time. So, if we didn't have a compatible system and county is moving to 7800, if we didn't join, we would be reliant on county to call our dispatch center, our dispatch center to get on the radio. As you can see, that can delay if it's something where they're having to relay significant detail or

information. There could be a loss uh or miscommunication because every time it passes through someone, there's a possibility for that message to be changed a little bit or something to be left out. So for us, our belief is this is the right thing for us. It's uh fiscally responsible and helps us to that goal of everyone communicating on the same system. Questions, comments? All right, I have a question. Oh, yeah. Go ahead. Um, thank you.

What is the um like the timeline for this? Um, so as of right now, um, they're suggesting that next summer we should be, um, moving forward to like outside the Maring County, uh, staff and deputies being on it, then they would move the other agencies onto the system. Okay. It's a huge and we've already budgeted, you know, we budgeted with that thought in mind, so we're set up that way. That's going to be my next question. Thank you. You're welcome. Anybody else? Thanks, Chief.

You're welcome. Yep. And Lieutenant Meeks gets to speak with you about legislative updates. And as he's coming up, um this is something I asked for. I he pro uh Lieutenant Meeks uh provided an update about a year ago, maybe a little bit longer, and it seemed to be well received. And really, we just want him to go over any things that have changed recently that changes the way they do things. And so that's that's the intent. We'll try to do that um at least um when there's a long session, but if there's major changes in the short session, too, we want to make sure we give council an update. Thank you.

All right, mayor and council. Uh so yeah, Julia pretty much said what what I'm talking about, not uh just hitting the high points, the things that that affect us. Um, in the last year or so, there weren't any uh really big um like landmark court decisions. So, I'm mainly just going to cover uh the some of the legislative stuff and and again, just the just the things that that affect us the most. So, not an exhaustive list. The short session was only 35 days, so they didn't have a lot of time to to come up with a lot of stuff. They came up with quite a bit still. So, I'm not going to talk about the expanded use of transient lodging tax revenue. Nothing like that. So, um, the first one that that came up is HB441. Um, so, uh, just another introduction. So, uh, sometimes when we look at, uh, at legislation and law enforcement, there's wins that help us and there's losses that that maybe kind of kind of hurt us or or hurt the hurt the the criminal justice system. So, uh, this one has has a little bit of both. Um, so the first one, changes to driving while suspended. Um, so before this, if you were convicted of like reckless driving or criminal mischief, you could have your license suspended criminally, they remove that. So I consider that a loss, at least on the reckless driving side, that if you're driving recklessly, maybe you should have your license suspended at a criminal level or at least leave it up to the judge to whether they do it or not. So um, the next one's a win eluding police. uh they they increase the sentence for um eluding when it causes injury or if it's a it's a repeat offense. So that it um there's a there's a grid um with sentencing and it it ups the the sentence guide the sentencing guidelines. So that one's a win help discourage people from eluding.

The the next one is mainly I would say just for inflation. Uh they increased the the levels for uh theft and criminal mischief. They just up upped them. Uh they increased the the dollar amounts. In this one, there was a bunch of of stuff that included talking about sentencing and court procedures and my eyes glazed over on that one. So, and it didn't really affect us. So, um all right, the next one, uh I'd consider a win as well. Uh swatting enhancements. Um it's becoming, you know, more common swatting is when they when they somebody will call 911. um reporting a crime to like harass or get back at at a third person or whatever. Um so they increase the penalties if to a felony if it leads to serious injury or death. So um makes it quite a bit more serious. the the next one. Uh I I know the uh the the intent behind it, but but really um for law enforcement to have masks and identification really have little effect on on us locally. I mean they the only time I ever wore a mask was was uh during CO and um so now now they're now they're saying that we're not supposed to wear masks before they were told us we we needed to. Um, yeah, this one really wouldn't have um a whole lot of effect on on us locally. It doesn't change anything we do, but I I think it was mainly directed at at federal agencies, which um with the supremacy clause, it's arguable that it might not affect them anyway. So, that one's kind of weird. Um the next one leading up to the the uh uh ballot measure 114 the implementation uh I I looked at some of the drafts. There was like all kinds of language about this one and they all they did in

this one is is they delayed it till till January 1 of of uh 2028. It should it should say not 2018. Um I I can say that when we looked at the requirements that we would have to do with with our police department, we weren't ready yet. So, um this this was good that they uh that they delayed it um so that it it gives us time to to prepare. It also gives uh time before for the courts to to work through all all the appeals in the in the Oregon Supreme Court. So, Mr. Mayor, go ahead. Thank you. Um Lieutenant, I was wondering what do we need to do to prepare for implementation if if you know. I'm not sure. Sorry.

Um so, there's a couple things. one uh that they have to get a a permit to purchase a gun, so that has to go through the police department. There's a a background check they um will have to be done. There's, you know, of course, a lot of paperwork. There's fingerprints. Um there has to be a a uh ability for them to to go through some some training. Um so that that all has to get all the that has to get worked out. Um, in regards to this House bill, does this come along with state funding for those services that we will have to render?

Uh, no. So, um, that that was one of the things that that they were looking at at changing um or or updating that did didn't make the didn't make the the final bill. There were looking at increasing the the amount. I can't remember the exact amount. It was like from 60 to to over a 100red. Um, so that would help with with some of those those staff costs. Um, so that was one of the proposed changes that that didn't make it that they'll they'll have to answer at some point. Thank you.

All right. Um, the next one uh could could be a little impactful. Um, the hearsay exempt exemption for human traffing trafficking victims. So, um, they've they've uh made these changes. So in court you you can't uh say what another person said um unless there's an exception. So they they've done this for domestic violence which which has been uh very helpful um for for uh for us. Um so they just made the same exe exemption for for human trafficking human trafficking victims. Um and looks like it's it's somewhat similar to the the same rules that we have to follow for for domestic violence. But, uh, it it really makes sense when when you have a victim who's who's who's really a victim that may have a hard time speaking for themselves that that we we can speak for them in certain situations. So, that that'll have there won't be a lot of people that have an impact, but the ones that has an impact on it, it'll be super helpful. All right. Uh, Crystal's law. Well, this one was was um uh the purpose of this is is to make the uh uh the big the big uh corporations uh tech corporations listen to us a little more. So sometimes we'll we'll put in a a subpoena and they're like we'll get back with you when we want. you know, it it can be it can take a long time. And uh so this was spurred by a domestic violence case out of out of Colorado um where where they uh didn't get back with the law enforcement uh in a timely manner. So this just sets rules that that the tech companies have to get back to us. All right, this one this one was really difficult for me to understand. It's it is really uh it for for me it was pretty confusing um what what a uh a micro mobility device is. It just adds

for me it adds to the confusion of of all the other lists you know the the scooters the the ebikes um so you you we have a chart that you know whenever I deal with it I have to look at the chart and and go like okay which which one of these is is this this device that they're using. So, in my mind, this this complicates it even more, but it it tries to define what a powered microobility device is. Um, it does a couple of other good things. Um, it sets age requirements uh for different classes of ebikes. There's class one, two, and two, and three, and it gives age, um, different age, uh, like 14, you can ride one, 16, you can ride the other. Depends on on how powerful the bikes are. Um, one thing that that could come up, it it does give some allowance for local governments to to um the authority to regulate on on um places they own the sidewalks and and trails and streets. Um, if if you have a helmet helmet offense, they can wave the first one. I don't know if that's good or bad, but Oh, the uh yeah, they threw us threw the last thing in there. the they uh directs ODOT to perform a 5-year study on milk trucks and if if you want there's a it's oh it's it's a it's long in there too. There's all kinds of things about the about the study.

So sorry just so milk trucks like really milk trucks that's not a name for some one of these things. It's just literally milk trucks.

Milk truck. Yeah, I I threw it in there because it it was part of the bill. So I thought yeah I thought it was kind of humorous too. So, um, this last one may be the most most impactful on on on us at some point. Um, it's for automatic license plate readers and the, uh, before this, there was a lot of uncertainty about about license plate readers because it is, uh, there are some legitimate, serious privacy concerns with with license plate readers, but it's a very valuable tool for law enforcement. So, this really helps helps put some guard rails in there. Um and it was it was a compromise uh between those those those two um uh those two issues. Um so it restricts it to a law enforcement purpose. Um we we can uh and it permits it for criminal investigations um for to help with privacy that the data can only be be held within for 30 days unless it's part of an ongoing investigation. I can't share it with with in most circumstances with federal or out of state agencies. Um there's there there's a few additional limits and restrictions in there. Um the other thing that's that's uh important is it exempts public disclosure. Um that that was one one big uh um concern is because the the license plate they they take a picture um of of the license plate in in a lot of circumstances. And um I don't know that we want all that information out in the public. I don't know we would have released that anyway but this puts it in in an OS that that that is um exempt from public disclosure. Um so again it is a uh um a pretty powerful technology um and there are there are privacy concerns but but it really can help law enforcement out a lot. So, this this really um set down some ground rules and and I I think one of the benefits is that is that councils and and people across the state can can

uh uh rest more assured that there are a lot more guard rails um when when law enforcement uses it. There's a lot more checks and balances. So, Council Art, thank you. Um where are these like license plate readers in your vehicles or where are these located? Um, so they're they're on uh on polls just throughout the the whole US just different communities have them. Um, do we do we have them? We do not have them at this at this point. No. Okay. Would we have to uh like approve of that before they were placed here? I think it would be part of the process. Yeah. Okay, good.

We would we would uh have I'm sure we would talk about it more. How do you figure out where they are? You keep the secret away. They're they're they're out in the open. Um if you know what to look for, they're they're a camera on on a pole pretty much. Um, I don't know if there's any databases that that show where

I' I've just been hearing a lot of uh again privacy concerns and like mis like mislabeling of cars um people getting like stopped because because the is the machine is the machines are uh like not reading license plates right or someone put in the wrong license plate and someone's getting like stopped continually because uh police officers think that the person has a um a warrant out for their arrest and they don't. So yeah, I'm just curious. Thank you.

Anybody else? Lieutenant, is that it? That's all.

Thank you very much for the update. There is no public hearing tonight. That moves us to number eight on the agenda, which is general business resolution number 26-010 directing preparation of updated storm water design standards and authorizing intermation. That's a mouthful, Barry. I can't hear anything with this. Try this.

Some have to be red, some have to be green. Right. Uh, mayor councilors, I am the interim public works director, Barry Buchanan, here to talk about the storm water update. Um, some background for a start off. Well, what we're looking for from you guys tonight is support to in actual fact move forward with updating the storm water our storm water code design manual and uh and specifications that we use for storm water background. Uh we have adopted the Portland swim document which is the storm water management plan. Um we adopted that on the basis of the an agreement with San Die water control district uh in about 2014. Um since the did I get the date wrong Julia?

I was just okay. Um so in about 2014 we adopted the Portland swim standard. Since that time, Portland has an extra fact separated its standard uh out the swim standard out to have the source protection and the overall controlling pollution control issues separated in the document. So they now have two documents when we and the swim is referred to as the stand standards and implementation requirements as opposed to the source protection stuff. uh Senium and Water Control District would like us to in actual fact update our documents or adopt directly the port Portland system uh so that we in actual fact are covered in both both source protection and the utilization or of the first part of the manual. Um we agree that this is an actual fact is we should be doing this. I'm sorry, Barry. It It's really hard to

No, it's like a It's I don't even know how to explain it. It's It's not you. It's like that microphone does something weird in the room. Shall I move to that table? You turn maybe turn that off. I don't know. It It's kind of an ongoing

make any difference. Take two. Okay. Do you want me to start again or just continue? Okay. Continue. So, as it stands right now, oh, now we got to whistle. Um, uh, the Portland stand I'll start at this point. The Portland standard has been divided into two pieces. As it stands right now, we effectively follow the Portland swim which negates the source protection uh part of that standard um which gives us a little bit of problem in administering our code or any storm water code within the city. We'd like your agreement to be able to move forward to u modernize our own documentation so that we can in actual fact have just as a modern document would have a separate source protection element a uh guidance as far as the design items are concerned and an update on the code itself. So what I'm looking for from you tonight from council is a decision to in actual fact move forward to advise us to upgrade our documents in line with modern practice associated with the stormwater uh documentation that we have inside. And I'll also add that part of what is being um pro provided in this resolution is that authorization or authority essentially to in the interim before we come forward with an ordinance adopting the standards that you're authorizing staff to interpret consistent with with this intent.

Thank you. Yes. Sorry, Julia. Yes, that is an that is probably the most important part of this exercise is to give us authority until the documentation is the national changed to mo model ourselves on that practice. Okay. Um there's an opportunity for public comment on this resolution. Okay. Council. Yes, Mr. Mayor. Council Patty.

Thank you. Uh Barry, uh so like over the years uh with the wastewater code, I'd say I hear like if I had a top five issues of things that people come to me, constituents, this would be one of them and how restrictive this is. Is this a good opportunity or is there any way to make this less restrictive and ownorous on citizens in Stton as far as reertification on on systems on their property and things like that? I mean, I I've heard frequent complaints about that.

Okay. As as it stands as it stands right now, I I'm going to make one correction on what you said. You said waste water, but I believe you meant storm water. Okay. So, in the from the storm water perspective, we believe that our standards as they stand right now are in in good standing in general comparison with other districts and and organizations of our size. and of of our complexity. So the standard that we're actually using is a mirror of the uh code used in Portland which is um does have greater and bigger implications and we would like to in modernizing our documentation we'll rightsize it or scale it to an actual fact make sure that it's um scaled to our size city rather than specifically the Portland u Portland documentation. In saying that the standards will generally remain the same that we in actual fact do have uh good control over source water source protection and an ability to control flow and discharge quality to to our natural water courses. So, just to clarify what I'm hearing from you right now, are you saying that the I think it's bianual where public works folks come out and check out these these systems on property? You're saying they do that in other communities?

Uh, yes, they do. Yes, there is a a general certification and reviewing and investigation on on uh bio swales on domestic discharge points on um detention basins on water control manuals um water control containment basins god I'll get it right and man manhole quality control manholes so yes they are checked and and inspected on a regular basis.

Okay. Well, I am one of five, but it would be my hope that we could see these lessened as far as restrictions of how often this is done. All these things, it just seems like it's a lot for the property owner to deal with. And that's just from what I' I've heard from my constituents. And so, I would encourage you as you develop that if there's any way to implement lessening of the restrictions, that's what I would like to personally see. We'll definitely look at it so that it can be evaluated. No question. What's that? Sorry, I can hear you. We will evaluate it and look at it in detail. Thank you, Barry.

And I'll add this will allow rather than us having adopted the Portland Swim standards, it will there will be our standards and I like um Barry said rightsized. Um and I think there is a lot of willingness on the Sanam Water Control District's part to not necessarily mirror um Portland. I think my understanding is when theou um was was done that was sort of the gold standard but not necessarily the only standard and so I think this will um allow us to have some conversations and see where we where we can maybe make some modifications.

All right. Well, I have a question and I appreciate councelor Patty asking it the way he did. Um so I want to understand this correctly. Are you saying it's our standard is going to be a modified version of the Portland standard? Our standard, no, our standard will be right sized for us and by that by by that I mean the Portland standard will be our foundation piece of material but it won't be we will not use it specifically or directly as we have in the past. Okay. And in your um in your staff report you talk about the fiscal impact. Yes.

And you say long-term savings are expected through reduced disputes, clear reviews, and better aligned infrastructure requirements. Can you elaborate on that? Yes, I can. Um, as far as the overall cost is concerned toward to us, the the standards exactly as you pointed out are a little bit more restrictive in Portland than what I would anticipate that we will have at this at at our juncture or our use and therefore there will be a cost saving associated with that implementation of a modernized standard. So, do you You get a lot of disputes today? No, we do not hear a lot of disputes.

Okay. Councelor Sims. Um Barry, so if uh when we adopt if we adopt this, would it have to be approved by based on theou with the Sanam Water Control District? Any any adoption or changes that we make? Senium and Water Control District would work with us on natural help formulate the document at the at the onset of the document. It would be you guys at the table in front of me would be approving and accepting the document finally. Okay. So the request isn't to accept a document as it stands today. It is to be able to write a document that's approvable by by you the council.

It'd be approved by us but it' go through Sanmium Water Control. Make sure where they will be part of the stakeholder team that comes up with the final document. So, they won't in actual fact be dictating the document, but they will be helping formulate the document.

And I envision we'd probably have some sort of some sort of an agreement. Um, because we do have theou and through that we made certain agreements. Um, and as I I think I've mentioned in the past, ultimately we're working on a a something different than theou and IGA that um is defines things a little bit better. um given modern times, if we if those two don't align, I there would probably be some sort of a umou addendum, I guess, from the district basically saying that they um they don't oppose these changes. Um but I I think based on, you know, Barry's discussion of including them throughout the process, I don't see that being an issue. I have had brief discussions with with SNM water control district about what we're doing and they did not have an objection and conceptually.

Okay, good. I mean I I think it's really important that they get a chop on it and look at it and agree to it because we we'll just end up coming back to this later. Agreed. Yeah. Okay. Anybody else? Council works next. Council work. Thank you. Barry, I just had a question about this whole thing. So, this came about because Portland standards have changed. Yes. Okay. So, this opportunity came this is this is a recent opportunity to do this. Relatively recent. It's not yesterday, but it is relatively recent that the like when rel like last year

I think we became aware of the issue within the past year. Okay. And the reason I'm asking is because this is um actually what I've been asking about um almost for eight years and um is is for some sort of like like coming to the table and and discussing this or figuring this out and it's from okay actually what so what you said to councelor Patty and then what you said to the mayor like you said to him that the standards aren't going to change but then you said to the mayor that they are going to change because we can okay set them ourselves. So I just find a little bit of contradiction there.

Okay. No, no fair catch. Um to council Patty, I believe I did. Yes, I probably said that the ch they're not going to change specifically or in in great grave detail. Um we are going to and and I believe I said that we're going to use the Portland swim document as our basis for for our document but then I clarify rewrite the document um other than sit down and and discuss what is appropriate for this town and make it the right size for this document for this town. Like we don't have a massive watershed that we are looking after. We don't have um uh discharges to a ma ma ma major river complex. Those sort of things will go away. Um they are discussed in the swim as it stands right now. So we will be getting rid of those things. how we in actual fact treat the water on a day-to-day basis. Our water water our manhole quality manholes may be similar. Our detention basins may be similar. Um our water gardens may be similar but the general concept is to right size it for state as opposed to be adopting directly the Portland standard.

Okay. Can I suggest for Okay, so kind of a just an example that I have in my mind on um North Santam. There are um duplexes that were recently built and there is like a detention pond that they had to build that is basically the size of one of the duplexes. If we changed our standard in the future, would they still have to do something that size? in that something similar to that

potentially yes potentially yes they would have to remain that size may be appropriate because the volume of water that we're trying to control we're we're looking at impervious imperous collection services and therefore we're trying to control the rate at which the water flows off those imperous surfaces to our natural water courses

so what we're doing is detaining that water uh and slowing it down on its discharge so that it goes to our natural water courses at about the same rate as it would have if that was beer land. And therefore the amount of impervious service because it has concentrated that water into a concentrated area. We've now got a a a solid mass rather than an open mass for that water to go into. That water then goes to that catch basin and slowly discharges out to our water course. So potentially for the size of the building, the size of the catchment area, it is potentially possible that the basin would stay the same. Now are there other ways that we can look at that? And are there other flow control mechanisms? Potentially yes. And they are the sort of things that I want to get incorporated and change into the document if if possible.

Okay. I think that's that's what I'm looking for. And I I'm not going to speak for councelor Patty, but I I second what he said earlier of trying to find other options and making it easier for um residents. Yeah. Yeah. Ditto basic. Sorry. Go ahead. Thanks. I just wanted to say that that's exactly what I'm talking about and I don't want it to be the same size. Like I think I think that's it it's very an ownorous restriction and it's fiscally just almost impassible for a lot of new development. And at least that's my from from what I'm hearing. And so I would like to look at ways to save costs for people who are having to develop it develop that

understand what you're saying and we will definitely look at it. But I can't promise you that it's going to get smaller ongoing process. I cannot promise you that it's going to get smaller. That's why you guys are there. Can't promise you I'll vote yes 100%. All right. Any other council discussion? I just want to get clarification on one more thing, Barry. So, what you're asking council to do tonight is agree to move forward with the revisions to make it specific to our code.

Yeah, that is correct. is to look at, investigate, visit all the document as it stands today. Look at how it should be appropriately put together for the city estate and and separate out two pieces that are currently controversial at the moment, which is the source water protection and the overall standard themselves and the code piece. So that we have effectively three documents and put those together under the guise of what you were asking for council of Patty that uh we will look at advantages that can be put in place but I do stress that um area surface area detention is one of the and flow rates to natural water courses is one of the controlling factors and that is basically based on a a containment flow criteria. Yeah. So, it is difficult to adjust what you're asking to adjust,

but we will look at it. I'm not I'm not closing the door and I am saying that we will find whatever other methods there are if there are other methods to do that. Okay. All right. Council, let's get a decision on this.

Can I ask one more? I'm sorry. One more clarifying question. Go ahead. Council work. You're preparing this and going to bring it back to us. Yes. Or Okay, that's it. Then I move to adopt resolution number 26-010 directing preparation of updated stormwater design standards and authorizing intermations. Seconded. Okay. Okay, there's a motion and a second to adopt resolution number 26-010 directing preparation of updated storm water design standards and authorizing interimm interpretation. Any further discussion? Melanie, can you pull the council? Councelor Hayes, yes.

Councelor Ort, yes. Councelor Patty, yes. Councelor Kerry, yes. Councelor Sims, yes. Motion carries. Yes. Thank you. Thanks, Barry. All right. Third quarter financial update. Mr. Brand.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Council. For the record, James Bran, the city's finance director. This is the third quarter finance update for the bienium. So, these are numbers through the end of March. That's uh nine months. So this is uh 37 and a half% of the way through the budget. Currently we've received about 19% of our budgeted revenues. So that seems like a bad number right now, but I do want to remind you that we have a lot of budgeted numbers that um include SDC's and grants that may or may not occur this bianium, but we did need to keep them into the budget. So, if we if we remove those one-time large uh revenue pieces, we're actually at 40% of our operational revenue. So, that would uh appear to be a little ahead of schedule. And that can basically be explained by the property tax income that we've received most of that annual income in November. So, we're about right on target, I'd say, on the revenues. So, three through three quarters, um, our revenues have exceeded our expenditures by about $2 million. I'll talk a bit about, uh, the expenditures now. And on the expenditure side, we're about 16% of the way through the budget. um which seems really low, but again, if we remove those SDC's, grants, and transfers, um we're at about 28% of the budget, which is still quite a bit under. And um most of that can be explained by the delay of a lot of the projects, many of which are underway right now. Um but without the city's engineer, it has really delayed a lot of these projects. Um, but Barry's been giving you updates on them and I'll just

kind of briefly talk or just give you a summary of a lot of these projects, just listing them actually. Um, so we have the HUD grant which is getting underway. It's the downtown development grant. Um, we have overlays um for some of our streets. There's the Shaft Wilco intersection that's um still being discussed. We have a large grant for Mil Creek Park which hasn't begun yet. Uh there are wastewater projects, some of which have been done and and more that are um on the way including some electrical upgrades at the plant and an SB grant at the plant. We also have a a Vatcon vehicle that's been ordered and we'll be paying for that soon. um continued projects for pipe upsizing for the wastewater distributions collection systems and then we have the ASR project that is coming underway shortly and then the storm water detention facility. So, a lot of large projects that are still on schedule to be done, many of them this bianium. Um, but we've just had some delays in some of those projects. Then, uh, I wanted to bring up to date on some other things going on in the finance department. We've signed on with, uh, Aldridge CPAs and Adviserss. So, this is a new auditing firm we're excited to work with. They're um out of Salem. Um they're going to be meeting with us on site. We've had some um Zoom meetings with them and um we're looking forward to start that relationship. We are also considering partnering with GPA. This is government portfolio advisors. Um they would be helping us rewrite our investment policy which I added to the to our uh policy document, our finance

policy document recently. um looking forward to this day, but they're gonna if we do, um some of these longer term investments, we'll have to rewrite it again. Um which is part of the process. So, um we're still discussing how this relationship would work with them. Um we have a meeting later this week, but I'm excited um to to partner with them and and look for more ways to just earn a better interest rate on a lot of our funds. And then some good news late last week. We are finalizing our recruitment for the court clerk. Um it's not confirmed yet, but we have uh working on the the final details. So we've found a candidate who's accepted the position. So we're working through that. So hopefully I'll be introducing you to that person at the next meeting. And uh we we are we've scheduled the midbian budget committee meeting um for August 10th. So we'll be preparing uh documents for you then to look at how the first year of the bienium has gone and we can make changes to the budget at that time or just address any financial concerns that we may have in the midbenium period. Um I'd be happy to take any questions if you have any. I'll just add um so I know councelor Ortit sent an email um suggesting that we have the budget committee meeting sooner um because of the levy and James and I discussed and we certainly ultimately up to you but we were envisioning that if the levy did not pass um that we would have a meeting sooner to discuss but if it did pass that we would just stay with the August 10th date because there wouldn't be the need to do it sooner and the reason why he wants to do it in August is that that allows him to have the full fiscal year information. So, it'll be more

productive if we have it in August, but obviously um we'll if the levy doesn't pass, we'll need to have some conversations sooner. Okay. There's an opportunity for a public comment on third quarter financial update. Okay. Council discussion. Mr. Mayor, Councelor Sims, this question is directed more towards Barry, but um I'm looking at the street fund expenditures and we're at 90 9% spent. I mean, are we going to be able to spend what we budgeted for this two-year period on the street repairs that we had planned on?

Julia, forewarned me. You're going to ask you're stealing um one of the staff announcements anyway. So go ahead and and address that now. And oh sorry is this working? Okay.

Okay. Um the answer to that question is yes we believe we will spend the funds in the bianium. There is a change however am I allowed to say this Julia? Um there is a change change however on how we're going to approach this. We had in actual fact in visage that we were going to uh undertake the work in Westtown this this um this summer this construction period. We have been advised that because we've joined Hollister to this exercise as we requested uh direction from council on which street we should move forward with as our additional street. Now that we have joined Hollister with um uh Westtown we that we have been advised to in actual fact separate the two elements of the job. The job is ADA ramp and overlay and the ADA ramps are about 33% of the cost of of the job. If we separate the two jobs and add the two uh ADA ramps together and the two overlays together, we can actually fact get more work out of it because the way that uh the contractor will work that if we have an ADA contractor, a flatwork contractor working with a um contracting a overlay pavement contractor, they will add their percentage of this guy's work to their work. And by separating them, we can avoid that additional pro possibly up to 20% cost and therefore get more work done for the same amount of money. So what we're in actual fact doing right now is combining the two ADA portions of the job, Hollister and Westtown, and the two portions of the overlay Hollister and Westtown as well. We will be doing the construction for the ADA ramps

between December and February of December of this year through February 1st of next year and then the overlays will be done in May June next year prior to the completion of this budget period. That's the plan. So to answer your question, councils, yes, we fully intend to spend the budget.

Thanks, Ferry. And I would love to just get input because that that is the plan. Um, from a financial standpoint, it makes sense. We can do more with the same amount of money. Um, but from a um visual standpoint, it's it's not doing that those projects this year. Um, they still would be doing the slurry seals and or crack sealing. So, there will be roadway projects being done this summer. Um, and I I guess I wanted to get a head nod that you are agreeable with this or um if you you wanted to really put you guys in a bind. If you want to do um less um it sounds like they could expedite the west town, but then we will not be able to do as we won't be able to do more for the same amount of money. So, I just wanted to make sure that you understand that um and get feedback from council on that.

Mr. Mayor, uh thanks Barry. I just had a quick question. Uh in regards to our last meeting, the county had just mentioned that they were interested in some cost sharing agreements for maybe the ramps because they'd already be in town doing that on first. Was there any opportunity to spend some of these funds on that and adjacent roads? because it sounded like there was pretty cheap design work going into those and I don't know I have to be quite honest and say I have not followed through on that at this time. I don't I could we Yes, I will follow through and get you an answer. Okay. Because we're missing out on an opportunity there. Yeah. I

so we we have been we have partnered with the county partnered um on some improvements that they're doing on Shaft Road. Um and I know that they had initially asked if we wanted to partner on our uh Third and Fern Ridge project, but we were on separate timelines. And so that that was really the ones that they had talked to us about partnering on. Um, we can certainly explore whether or not there's opportunities still to do do that this season. Yeah, I apologize because I had not caught up on the first street piece.

Miss Thank you, Mr. Um, for the ADA ramps, is there any opportunity for like the safe routes to school to like combine any of that together? I wasn't sure if any of that could overlap.

So, sort of um the the challenge, as I understand it, is that when you do a major reconstruction project, you have to do the ramps. And so, we might be able to roll the cost of the ramps into the safe streets for all project, but that's not going to get us any money by the time we want to do that. So, that's really a funding thing. Um that said, we will be um submitting later this month for our the safe streets for all um request for the 15 to20 million worth of street improvements. Um and we're planning on bringing that to council just to share with you what we're proposing to put forward um at the next meeting. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, Barry.

Okay. Thank you. It's a discussion item only. Anything else? All right. Thanks, James. Appreciate it. Thanks, Barry. phone. Oh, wait. Go ahead. Move on. I was going to move on. Go ahead.

Um, okay. I personally I'm okay with the compromise of the August 8 or excuse me, August 10th date. um if you know for whatever reason our levy doesn't pass, I most certainly think that we need to do it before August and figure out um how we want to move forward and what our next steps are. Uh but also I would like to talk to the council to consider codifying the dates that um the off year that we have. So like this off year um that we have a specific um expectation of when we're going to have our budget meeting and the in between times because that wasn't that was something that we talked about and that was something that was a um a main concern of mine and a big deal but we didn't talk about specific dates because I think the um maybe understanding was that it was going to happen at the same time and so we moved it. Uh, I understand why we moved it, but I really think that we need to have it um for the future so that people know why know why we're doing it. We know we know that we want it done. Um, but in the future they might not know why. So, I'd like us to consider that. What do you guys think?

That's some head nods. Looks like Can you bring that back, Julia, at some point? Yeah, I'll have to talk to James because it's not currently nothing about it, I believe, is codified in terms of the So, we'll have to figure out how to memorialize what it is that you're um asking for. So, I'll talk with James and see how we can put a little structure. I think that's what you're wanting is a little bit more structure um in that the bianial budget process.

Yes. Okay. to have a specific date and if it's in August and that's what we want to do and that makes it um like for financial reasons so you have all the information like that's completely fine with me I just want to have the expectation that we we are going to have it every year yeah it can be any point during the bianium but if you really want an update after the first year then I would recommend mid August mid to late August as a range okay can I just clarify that though it's not just an update. This is like the opportunity that we have to make changes if necessary because that was something that we we talked about that that was important that we have.

Yeah, certainly. And you can make changes at any time. The council can do that without the budget committee, but I think the intent when we talked about having this meeting was an annual update or a halfway, you know, checking the numbers and just revisiting with the committee how it's going. So, I'll talk with James and we'll I I I think I understand what you're asking. And I just want to make sure that staff understands this is not an update. This is this is an actual like a mini a mini budget committee meeting with the opportunity. That's you were on the committee. That's from my understanding what we wanted. I totally get it.

Okay. I want to make sure like we're not like when you come back to me I don't want it to be like we're going to have an update. I want it to be this is our opportunity to do this. So if I what if I understand what what I think you're getting at is you want the ability to propose or discuss budgetary changes. I think what we're not going to present a new budget. We're not going to present proposals. you want an opportunity for the budget committee to come together and say um we think we need to make these changes in this way. So it's more youudriven than staff driven. Yeah. So Sure. But it I mean it's not I'm not saying that we're going to do that. They just have the opportunity and that was my understanding of

of the meeting every other Yes. every other year. And I think still having it in August gives us more information so that when you um propose something, we have real real good information. But we'll we'll talk about how best to present that in a way that I think memorializes what you guys have conveyed to us and makes sense to us. Thank you. It works. Thanks. All right, let's move on to the next item and that's the DLCD hapo staff discussion of state regulations.

And I'm going to have um Jennifer sit where James is and Barry gets to stay up there because unless you don't you can come back up. You I just think I have something else um in the staff announcements um and then Jennifer can introduce our friends. You don't want to be on the hot seat, Barry? No, they're they're going there. So, um, good evening, mayor and city council. Um, my name is Jennifer Sisiano, the community and economic development director of St. Just for the record. Um for this agenda item we have representatives from DLCD and HAPO which is the housing accountability and production office. They're that office is part of DLCD and they're here to present housing planning in Oregon and how it applies to Stton. Uh they'll walk with through the state's housing framework including the Oregon housing needs analysis and the tools available to the city. As you know, the city has several recent annexation requests primarily for residential development. Um, DLCD had provided comments for those applications and through coordination, ongoing communication with them, they offered to come and speak tonight. So, I felt it would be beneficial. So, I took them up on that offer. Um, I hope this helps to clarify some recent changes in state housing law and provides you with an opportunity to ask them questions directly. Um, yeah. So, it's uh Sean and Jana. Thank you.

Excellent. Thank you, Jennifer. And, uh, uh, Mayorwigley and members of the council. For the record, my name is Sean Edging. I'm a housing planner at the Housing Accountability and Production Office. Yeah, that is a weird mic issue. Um, and I'll pass it over to my colleague Jenna to introduce herself. Different heights. Um, good evening, Mayor. I I think it's better if you actually hold it a little bit away. I think it gets a little boommy if um people are speaking right into it. Okay.

Um, good evening, mayor and counselors. My name is Jenna Hughes. I'm a housing and growth management analyst within the housing division at the Department of Land Conservation and Development or DLCD. Great. And hopefully from here it's audible but not too close to the mic. Okay, great. Great. Uh well, if you could uh if you wouldn't mind. Yeah. Moving to the next slide. Thank you. So, great. So, for today's discussion, uh Julia and Jennifer had invited us out to discuss a little bit about housing planning in the context of uh some development activity that's occurring in the city of Stton. And we wanted to talk about that in the context of a couple of things. One being that uh you know and we'll talk about this as we get into the presentation around decisions that were made a long time ago that have a binding effect on the city today and also opportunities that we have to you know engage in planning for the housing needs for residents in the city of state and what tools are available uh to to support with that. That's something that we're gonna we really want to emphasize in today's presentation is really um you know planning for the city of state's housing needs is something that we actually have a lot especially recently to help support the city in in doing that. And so as part of this presentation we're really going to start out by kind of setting up some of the context. So who are we? Why you know uh what do our different kind of components of DLCD? What do we focus on? What is some of the context of why we're here? kind of some basics around, you know, how comprehensive planning works in the state of Oregon. And then, um, I'll pass it over to Jenna to talk around some changes that happened in to state law in 2023 that really kind of reoriented how we plan for housing in the state of Oregon. And then we'll kind of bring it back to talk through how that affects the city of state and and how the city uh can, you know, basically undergo a process to plan for their housing needs in the future. um and hopefully highlight some tools and resources that could help this that the city could consider to help support that process out. Um but I'll start with setting up the context if we can move to the next slide.

So, as Jennifer mentioned, we're actually um both from DLCD. We're both part of the Department of Land Conservation and Development. Uh but we're actually two different distinct divisions that exist inside of uh DLCD, but we're both housing focused. So, I wanted to spend just a little bit of time kind of understanding the differences of that and actually why are we both here, right? because it's there's a reason. Um, so both HAPO and uh DLCD, we were, you know, created by the legislature in response to Oregon's ongoing housing shortage and and supply crisis. And really, we both have kind of directives around helping uh provide local governments in partnership with local governments, cities and counties um plan for housing production, affordability, and choice in their communities. Uh we do that in a number of different ways. We provide uh guidance and technical assistance, funding resources, things like that to help support cities in planning for those types of things and taking action to facilitate those. But we have a couple of different focuses. So the housing division that Jenna works in is really one that's focused around long range planning. So thinking about, all right, we're looking out into the future. What do we expect our housing needs to look like? What kinds of housing do we want to plan for and where? And how do we uh make that a reality through the actions that we take? Right? what actions are we going to take to facilitate those outcomes that we want to see. Uh in contrast, HAPO um is much more focused on individual development applications. So if there is something, you know, an actual proposal for the development of housing that occurs on the ground, our specialization is really around that intersection of that development project with different laws that the legislature has passed to help facilitate production outcomes on the ground. Um and also to help folks navigate different state agencies. Right? There's a whole bunch of different agencies that touch on the development process. It can be really difficult to navigate. So, we provide navigation services to help uh kind of bridge some of those gaps. Um, if we can move to the next slide. So, we want to talk a little bit about

the context of why we're here. And, you know, we understand that the city of state has experienced a number of development applications in the past couple of months that have really brought up a lot of questions around housing planning. Um so for context and we'll get into this a little bit. There was a planning process that occurred a long time ago uh for housing and um you know kind of a as a consequence of that occurring so long ago it makes it very difficult and uncertain to plan for housing needs today um on the ground and makes it very kind of difficult uh uh to to have certainty as to how that looks. And something that we really wanted to emphasize in this presentation is really kind of three points. The first one is that uh both DLCD and HPO are here to kind of help the city navigate that complexity. We want to start definitely by thanking Jennifer and Julia for working with us. They've been very excellent to work with and um uh very you know just have a lot of high remarks for for the work that they've been doing to help uh the city navigate that complexity. Uh but two other points is that we really want to emphasize that this is something that the council can solve through planning for the residents uh of city of the city of state and planning for those housing needs, determining what they are, right? Um and the I think the last point that we wanted to convey is that we have a lot of different tools and resources to really help the city do this. This includes um a lot of different uh tools to help that planning process, tools to help facilitate production or the development of different housing options in the city of St. but it also includes funding. We're kind of in the middle part of the funding cycle for the bienium. Uh but every bianium there's kind of an open call for resources to help uh local governments, especially smaller communities like the city of state and uh do that planning work. So those are some messages that we really want to emphasize in today's presentation. All right. Yeah. Thank you. Whoever's on the

Great. Thank you. Can I ask a question? what sort of funding like what what's an example of funding that you would help cities with? Yeah. So, there's a couple of examples.

So, um I'll divide it into just our two sides of the equation. Um there's other funding sources that are out there that we can help navigate to, but I think for simplicity, we'll just focus on two. So in the housing division, they focus a lot on providing uh funding and resources to local governments to do planning work. So if they're planning for housing under goal 10, which Jen is going to talk about in a couple slides here, they have a bienial funding pot that uh local governments are able to apply for to do that planning work. Say, hey, we want to plan for our community's needs. Um or we're interested in an urban growth boundary amendment or we want to plan for infrastructure and public facilities to help support production. uh the housing division has resources that are basically available to help support uh those planning efforts on HAPO. Uh one of the funding sources that we have available to us is really around uh helping cities fund kind of say code work. Say if a city has, you know, code that maybe hasn't been updated since the 1980s or 1990s. And of course the laws have changed a lot since then. That can be a real risk for cities um in applying kind of outdated development codes. And so we have resources that are available to help say update that code to comply with different laws that the legislaturator has passed in the past couple of years uh to reduce some of that legal risk that can happen. So those are just a couple of examples. Obviously there's other state agencies too that control different pots of funding. Examples include Business Oregon with say things like infrastructure funding or you know ODOT with transportation funding, things like that. Um, and so another kind of service that we provide is helping kind of navigate or put those pieces together uh between those different state agencies, though we don't control those funding sources, if that makes sense. Does that help address your question?

Great. And we do want to be sensitive to time, so I'll continue working through this. Hopefully, we'll be able to get through it. Um, so before I pass it to Jenna, I did want to take a minute to talk a little bit about the planning process. And I think one of the points or the one a place of kind of ambigu ambiguity that that kind of happens uh or is kind of face the city of Satan is facing right now is one that a lot of cities face. Um but it's one that can be addressed with basically planning. Um and the short of it is in the state of Oregon we plan for what our communities look like through a comprehensive planning process. And one thing that's kind of unique to Oregon is that these comprehensive plans are legally binding. So what that means is if you undergo a process say for example planning for housing which happened in the city of state in 2010 uh that process occurred 16 years ago right so when they finished that process they adopted a comprehensive plan and land use regulations that are now binding on the city they're legally binding. So what that means is that decisions that were made a long time ago can be binding on the city today. Of course that can be addressed by updating those comprehensive plans which is supposed to happen on a regular schedule but you know a lot of cities especially cities with you know uh less resources maybe limited planning staff or planning resources and this is you know very common for for smaller cities might not have the resources to be able to update that document. So if it gets outdated that can create challenges because not only uh do the uh estimates of like housing need for example become old over time right like say 16 years ago was when they estimated housing needs for the next 20 years in state and we're almost at the end of that planning period and we don't we know that certainly needs look different today right over 16 years but in addition laws for planning for housing have also changed so what we even call needed housing what we're planning for has also changed because the legislature adopted different laws to plan for housing in a

more holistic way. Um, but what I wanted to emphasize here is when we do this planning process really the kind of relationship that happens is a kind of relationship that exists between the state and local governments. Generally speaking, the state sets broad goals right for how you know different kind of general priorities that we think are important for communities. Generally say we want to plan for enough housing for our residents. We want to plan for ample economic development opportunities for, you know, jobs, things like that. We want to plan for different kind of natural resource protections or open space, things like that. And then cities really kind of do the big leg work of taking those goals saying, "All right, well, what are our specific communities needs and how do we actually plan for that in the future?" And then once they do that they adopt a comprehensive plan and they uh kind of effectuate and they implement that comprehensive plan through land use regulations which are binding right and so once you have development that actually comes through the doorway it's not so much you're trying to decide on an individual basis reacting to the development project well what should this look like that process has already happened and it's happened through the comprehensive plan. Um, we'll talk a little bit about how this can be ambiguous as, uh, you know, uh, analyses can kind of get out of date and as, you know, uh, decisions that were made a long time ago might not necessarily reflect the needs and priorities of the city today. Um, but I think we also want to talk a little bit about how state law has changed over the past couple of years really around housing. And so for that, I'll pass it over to Jenna.

Great. Thanks, Sean. Um, so Sean gave an overview of, you know, what the planning process looks like generally. I'm going to dive a little bit deeper into housing planning, um, and some of the key updates that, um, uh, to how housing planning is is done in Oregon. Um so housing planning is governed by statewide planning goal 10 um which is to provide for housing needs um including inventorying buildable land and planning for the quantity of housing that's needed at a variety of price ranges and rent levels. Um next slide please. Thank you. So in terms of how this was implemented under the previous goal 10 framework um historically housing planning was guided by the population forecast from the population research center um which which was then used to project housing need at the local level and the focus there was really to ensure there was sufficient land capacity to accommodate that that uh population projection. Um, however, this process also underestimated need and didn't adequately account for housing uh that is affordable for different income levels. And so that really fell short of what goal 10 is aiming to achieve. Um, and as a result, this contributed to decades of underinvestment in housing and has created a lot of situations for Oregonians where they're unable to find the housing that they need in their community. Um, so next slide. So in comes the Oregon Housing Needs Analysis or the ONA. Um, as Sean mentioned, in 2023, the Oregon legislature passed House Bills 2001 and 2889,

which codified the Oregon Housing Needs Analysis or the ONA. Um, and this significantly changed how housing planning is done uh under goal 10. Um in short, the ONA consists of a collection of policies and programs that implement goals 10 housing and 14 urbanization. At the state level, our department DLCD along with Department of Administrative Services and Oregon Housing and Community Services are responsible for estimating and allocating housing needs. Um, facilitating goals 10 and 14 implementation and tracking housing production outcomes. Um the program also emphasizes local actions to affirmatively further fair housing. But at its core really ONA is a partnership between the state and local governments to remove barriers and increase housing production, affordability, and choice. Um next slide, please. So with the passage of House Bill 2001 that created this new definition for needed housing um and that's reflected here on this slide. Um and that specified that needed housing is housing by affordability level um as described in the state's housing need allocation which I'll describe on the next slide. um as well as the types, characteristics and locations of housing that are needed to accommodate that allocation. Uh perfect. Um so in terms of how needed housing is determined then at the local level under this new framework instead of relying on the population forecast cities will now

use the state housing need allocation from the office of administrative uh the office of economic analysis within DAS. Um and the allocation measures housing need by going beyond just population growth to also take into account other factors um including historic underproduction of housing, homelessness and units lost to second homes and vacation homes. Um so it's much more um comprehensive and the allocation is updated every year um and includes a couple different numbers. The first is the number of unit housing units needed over the next 20 years. Uh the second is mostly going to be relevant to cities over 10,000 who have extended obligations, but it's the number of units needed in the near term. Both of these numbers are then segmented by income bracket. So there's now a clearer obligation to plan for housing that is attainable for every income level. Um however because this allocation really just provides the number of units some analysis and and community engagement is needed to actually get to the kinds of housing that is needed. And so that's that's a step where there's a lot more local discretion. Um next slide. Thank you. So, putting it all together, the new planning process looks like this. Um, a city will start by getting their housing need allocation from DAS and determine locally what needed housing types and densities um are are needed in the community to meet that need. The next step is to inventory buildable land and determine whether there's enough land capacity um to be able to accommodate those

housing needs. This is part of the larger housing capacity analysis uh formerly called a housing needs analysis. Um and that housing capacity analysis will then be adopted into the local comprehensive plan um which is then used as the basis to to then make future land decisions. Um and while cities below 10,000 in population are not required to adopt a housing capacity analysis on any kind of schedule, um updating these documents can be can be really helpful when it comes to the time of making a land use decision. Um it adds a lot of clarity because then you're making decisions based on the most accurate and and up-to-date information. Um and we are currently uh providing technical assistance and grant funding to several cities um below 10,000 in population to opt who have decided to opt in to this housing planning process. Um and we'll talk more about the end at the end about what resources are available. We talked a little bit earlier about what resources are available if there is interest in in taking that same path. Um but for now I'm gonna hand it back to Sean to talk a little bit more about the current context here in Dayton.

Yeah, thanks Jenna. Appreciate that. And so um so as Jenna mentioned right kind of explain the difference of the old system in comparison to kind of the new system and it's a very high level overlook. Uh but one thing to kind of emphasize is in the city of Sten, thank you for moving to the next slide. I appreciate it. Um when this process happened uh 16 years ago under the old system um the decisions that were made at that time were to have a comprehensive plan that has one uh kind of general designation that is just residential and then kind of three separate zoning designations that are kind of low density, medium density and high density. We'll talk a little bit about what that means in in a forthcoming slide. But really quickly, uh, one of the things that I kind of wanted to mention is that the, uh, comprehensive plan doesn't distinguish, right? If you have residential area that's in your comp plan, it doesn't say like, well, this is where we want to emphasize low density uh, residential, this is where we want to emphasize highdensity residential. Now, inside city limits, that's not a problem because these zoning designations are already established. we know where the low density, medium density, and high density is. But when you have lands outside of city limits, it's in the county zoning designation and when it comes into and when it's annexed into the city, you have to assign one. And the thing is any of these three d uh zoning designations is consistent with the comprehensive plan. So if an applicant comes in and says you know we really would like to do say for example a high density zoning designation or a medium density zoning designation it for the purposes of the comprehensive plan it is consistent and the challenge is if you're trying to make a decision about like well what types of housing do we need and where do we need it to be the short answer is we don't actually know what the city's housing needs are because they're 16 years old and the definition of what needed housing is has changed right but um I think one of the things that we you can talk a little bit

about is how kind of planning for those needs can actually open up a lot of options and opportunities and different ways of thinking about planning for the res the city of Stton's needs like housing needs in community in a different way than thinking about them just in say low medium and high density because it kind of underlies the fact that housing choices look very different today than you might we might have thought about them even 10 15 uh years ago. We can go to the next slide. So, I spent a little bit of time I wanted to get uh some uh examples of different examples of like developments that have occurred uh both in the city of Stton um as well as elsewhere in the midwamtt valley as well as one place that's outside of the Wamut Valley that I'll talk about in a second. Um and kind of just take a comparison to that in the city's existing zoning designations and existing kind of land use regulations, right? and kind of put them in context and to kind of visualize like what do they actually look like and and what does that mean for folks on the ground. Um so if I can just move from left to right on this just so you guys know what we're looking at and I will speak to cottage housing too in this as well.

Thank you.

Um so on the left here these were just two examples. I did a little bit of just like looking around kind of comparing the comprehensive plan map, the zoning map, and just like different areas around town to look for kind of newer examples of development in Stton. These were just a few examples that I found looking around. On the left here, these two photos, these are examples of lower density uh developments that exist in the low and medium density uh zones um that uh were built built relatively recently. Maybe not in the immediate past, but you know, generally speaking, this is what you would expect development more or less to look like in these types of zones. Um, I actually was not able to find an example of a duplex. So, I did uh want to also draw from other communities just to see what things look like. So, this is an example of a duplex that was built in the city of Independence. So, I wanted to keep it local. Um, and then as you kind of get up in the density chain, housing really starts to look very different and it can take a lot of different forms depending on how it's regulated. Um the next two in the kind of middle here are examples that I found in the city of Stton of uh uh developments that exist in the high density zoning designation. Um so this is kind of like where you're going to find the most intensive styles of development that exists in the city of Stton. Um, and generally speaking, there's, you know, some more or less, depending on different types of sites, it would generally max out at roughly about 30 dwelling units per acre, depending on site characteristics, a lot of different factors that I won't go into for brevity. But something I also wanted to emphasize too is that it doesn't necessarily have to look like that. It does because of the city's development code and the regulations that kind of are implemented on the ground. But there are actually a couple of other examples that I wanted to include to show how things can look different that are actually higher density than um uh the examples that we see on the ground in Stton. Uh the next two that we go up towards the right are examples that exist um also in Independence. They're the best at taking

photographs of housing, so that's why I drew from them. Um but these are of uh quadplexes and of town houses. So actually the total number of units for the amount of land that you have is greater uh than that apartment complex that you see right there even though they don't necessarily look all that much uh you know greater in size or that type of thing. Um even though they they do have a greater density. Um, and I think one of the things I really wanted to emphasize right here at the very right of the chart, uh, this is the one example I drew from from outside of, uh, the Midwamic Valley, and that's because it's my house. Um, this is an example of a triplex that was built, um, in my neighborhood. And you can see right here on the left there, there's actually a detached house that exists over there. And then on the right, you'll see that there's a thing that kind of looks like a house, but it's actually three units um, kind of front to back. You can see a for sale sign out there. That was my first home that I was able to purchase. So, um I kind of wanted to include this kind of for two two reasons. One thing I'll just kind of emphasize. Don't worry about that thing on the right. It's actually not legal to build in here in the city of Stton. But I did want to kind of emphasize that it can look very different um depending on the specific kind of built form and like what the city of Stton wants to see on the ground in um you know when it's planning for different housing needs. And really importantly, what was allowed in my neighborhood gave me an option to purchase a home that basically would have otherwise not been an option for me. Um because there aren't detached houses in my neighborhood that I can afford. Um and so, you know, this option basically provided a house that even though it's brand new, um costs about $300,000 less than comparable detached homes in the area. Obviously, there's trade-offs that come with it, right? Don't have much of a yard. to have a much smaller place, but it was an option for me that gave me my first home, and that's something I really am appreciative of. Um, and I'll also say that has a density of about 52 dwelling units per acre, actually, precisely. Um,

which is far more dense than anything on this list. Um, but it doesn't really look that way because of again the specific land use regulations that kind of facilitate that that development. So, I think what I really wanted to emphasize here is that housing does not have to look one way. Just because you have a high density zoning designation does not mean it necessarily has to look like apartments. Um actually and something I really wanted to emphasize now that was mentioned um another example of a housing type that I wasn't able to find an example of in the Midwamic Valley because it's technically only legal in Salem right now is for cottage housing or cottage cluster housing. So this is an example that would actually have a roughly comparable density to the apartment complex here of maybe a roughly about 30 dwelling units per acre. even though it looks totally different, they're individual small cottages that are uh oriented around kind of a common courtyard or open space that's in the center. Um and uh you know, one of the things I kind of wanted to point out is not only can this provide an option for a lot of different folks, maybe for example, seniors or people with disabilities who might want a different option as they you know, age, um but also can provide a more affordable opportunity for home ownership for young people. um opportunities for kind of more maybe kind of communal living space and and kind of a shared common courtyard with their neighbors. Um and of course, you know, a lower, you know, just a generally lowerc cost housing option that can just really provide options for folks. Um, and one thing I'll also emphasize too is that we um, and this will kind of move into the next slide a little bit is that we've actually produced um, tools and resources that are designed to help cities uh, implement these different types of housing if they want to if you know if they choose to go through that planning process to update what they plan for. We actually have an example of a cottage code that is designed for cities about this size uh, that um, basically can be taken off the shelf. it can be applied in uh different zoning designations to provide or legalize cottage options for folks. And that's a resource that's available right now. So, I just wanted to speak to that a little bit just to

kind of emphasize that like housing types don't all have to look the same just because it's in one uh density or zoning designation, but a lot of the decisions that were made 16 years ago kind of has solidified that and of course it can be updated. So, if we can move to the last slide and this is the part that we really wanted to emphasize those resources. So I talked about some of them already examples of different uh uh provisions that we've developed say for example model codes or different guide books to help local governments do that planning work. Um but we also provide and kind of provide technical assistance and funding uh for different cities that choose to undergo that planning process. And that's something that we you know um we're kind of again in the midcycle of that process. But I think it's something that we'd really encourage the city as you guys are thinking about this and obviously there's a lot of growing pains and uncertainty that's happening right now with all these development applications that come that came right in the four. Um but uh something that we really want to emphasize is that the city has um options and resources available to them to kind of do that planning have those discussions around where do we want to emphasize different housing options to meet the needs of uh state and residents. So yeah, I think with that we can move into talking through some of the, you know, questions that you all might have and answer them to the best of our ability.

Okay. Thank you for that, council. What questions do you have? I have a question. Council or

Thank you for the explanation. I really appreciate it. I'd like to go back to the slide page 14 about um our state and comp plan and the zoning. What would be the intention of having the three different designations if someone could just come in and and just build whatever they wanted in terms of housing? like why why would we put those in place if the council wasn't going to be the determining factor in in choosing um when when land is annexed in what that looks like. If you're saying that residential just means residential and they can put whatever they want on it, why would we put the three?

Yeah. Um, so I think there's part of the question is speaking to the intent of the uh decision makers 16 years ago for the city of state and comprehensive plan which I I can't speak to.

Um, but I can speak to generally of cities that apply say a you know two map system is what we call this. Sometimes it's done for kind of simplicity, right? Say you know we have a residential zoning designation. We think it's very simple to just have that uh and then based on um you know kind of our adopted needs once decisions we need to make uh for assigning zoning designations to different land use applications we'll then apply those facts that we have to decide all right what is the actual best zoning designation to assign to this particular development based on uh information we have about what needs we have that works when the comprehensive plan is updated but once it's 16 years out of date what are the needs in the city of state and we don't really have a good answer to that because the plan's out of date.

I have I have a followup question. What is a inate like what what would you consider to be a updated plan?

Yeah, so state law for um and there's different types of uh schedules that cities are on. And one thing I'll uh kind of also point out is there was a process that used to require kind of updated comprehensive planning that occurred uh once every 8 to 10 years called periodic review. And that's something that is not really kind of enforced these days because uh during the recession there was kind of a very significant budget crunch that happened that also included a lot of resources for comprehensive planning. So DLCD has kind of in recognizing like hey this is you know cities need the resources to do this planning work kind of stopped enforcing that periodic review. So as a consequence of that a lot of cities especially smaller cities had plans that were getting increasingly out of date. So it's it's a common problem that happens um with the legislature coming back in in more recent years and kind of establishing requirements for housing planning. Typically these are updated once every eight years or so. Um, and the planning horizon, the planning horizons themselves are about 20 years. So, we're looking 20 years in the future, but we know 20 years is a long time. So, we're going to need to update it at some point in the relatively near future to be able to have updated needs that we're planning for. Um, once they get 16 years out, it's kind of like, well, what are the needs? 16 years ago is a long time. It's hard to say. We know that they're certainly different today, right?

Thank you. So, did I hear you say that uh goal 10 doesn't apply to cities under 10,000? That's actually No, that's not accurate. Um Jenna, do you want to speak to this? Yeah, I can speak to that. Um so, statewide planning goal 10 applies to all cities. Um however, cities over 10,000 in population have extended obligations, meaning they do have to adopt their housing capacity analysis every six or eight years. Um, and so they're having to do that work more frequently. Those same obligations do not extend to cities under 10,000. Um, that's more of an opt-in process.

Okay. And the numbers, the projection numbers from the past totally failed to miss the mark. So, how do we know the DAS numbers are going to miss are going to be accurate?

Yeah, I can speak to that. So the idea of the DAS methodology is accommodating housing is a regional phenomenon right uh when we talk about housing say for example in the city of Salem we know that needs in the city of Salem if they're not met there they get met elsewhere right say in Independence or in Monmouth or in Stton right um and as a consequence of that they really are when you're planning for needs it doesn't make sense to think of cities as islands because population does not work that way housing markets don't work that way and so the idea behind behind DAS's methodology is that it's actually something that they don't just do once every eight years. They actually do it every year and they update it constantly in response to different demographic data, different income data, where jobs are. There's a lot of different kind of ingredients that go into that through a process that DAS has for refining that methodology. And then once they do that, you know, a city once they undergo their planning process, they kind of choose a set year and they say, all right, this is the need that we're going to plan for in the future. Also recognizing that, hey, it's a projection, right? So projections are going to change over time. They're going to get more and more outdated as you actually get into it. And then, you know, you see what the actual reality looks like in comparison to what you're planning for. And that's when you do an update.

So should our I guess in theory, should we have an urban growth boundary map that identifies zoning? Uh an urban growth boundary map that identifies zoning. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um I can speak to this. Yeah. So this would be in contrast to what the city of Statton has. There are other communities that have a comprehensive plan map that identifies more specifically like, hey, we want to plan for say higher intensity development over here, but maybe we want to plan for lower intensity development over here. That type of thing. That's a process that you can go through to make those designations. So that way once land's brought into the city, those planning decisions have already been made. Yeah. Okay. Can I ask a followup to that? Go ahead, council.

So, so are you saying that because we don't have that when the land comes in to be annexed in that we are not as a body able to decide what the zoning is?

You would have to make zoning decisions that are consistent with your comprehensive plan. That's the limitation that exists there. So, the the challenge that the city faces is that any of those three zoning designations are consistent. And if you're trying to say change one zoning designation to another on the basis of a specific need, well, what what's the need? Right? If it's 16 years old, outdated, not what the statute is anymore, right? It's kind of a it's a it's a it's a shaky foundation to build a house on. So we so because our comprehension plan comprehensive plan is old, we just have to let we just have to let the person who wants to annex in decide what what they want it to be. I don't I mean

in the in the context of land use decisions once an actual development application comes in the door it's about consistency. It's not about reacting to that development project. The planning has happened and that that plan is binding. Then why are we assigning a zoning? You could through a planning process. Okay. So I'm just going to chime in. So still unclear.

So I I think we could go through a process to um designate the zoning within our entire urban growth boundary. The issue is right now we only have residential. we don't have a a low, medium, high density residential zoning within the urban growth boundary. And so without that, what he's saying is that any anything that comes in as residential is consistent with the comprehensive plan because it's residential because we haven't identified what density it should be within the urban growth boundary. Um and I am guessing that is something that we will be um encouraged to to do in the in the near future is to um go through a process to identify uh what zoning should be basically go to a one map system where we have one zoning and comprehensive plan map that identifies the um the different zoning. The challenge was that is that I mean not the challenge but the the reality of that is that we will we would need to do that in in awareness of the rules and so we would have to make sure that we're providing a a range of housing that is consistent with the state laws. Uh and I'll just mention that um DLCD when we spoke to them that they have funding to do this uh housing analysis but not until 2027.

Yeah, we're in the middle of the cycle. So we work on bianiums as well and um we're kind of in the middle of that cycle right now. Okay. Thank you council. Anybody else before I go to public comment? Okay, public comment. Thank you very much folks for us. Yeah, you can stay there. No, sorry. We need to have you on the microphone so everybody at home can hear you. Hang tight. We got a question for you.

My name is Larry Chamberlain. I live at 1624 East Bernett in Dayton. I've lived in the city limits of this town for the last 40 years. Um very concerned about this whole annexation thing. Jennifer has had to deal with seven annexations recently. Well, five left. You already passed two of them, right?

Five. And every one of them wants high density or medium density. Jennifer went through a lot of work on the golf club lane annexation. did some awfully good math and figured out that our comp compre comprehensive plan says we need low density land. We we have approved in the city limits but the applicant wanted medium density. Jennifer recommended low density on that annexation and these folks, somebody at the state said told her that she wasn't allowed to make a recommendation that it had to be whatever the applicant wanted, which begs the question, why do we have a planning commission? What to investigate these things? Why do we pay a city planner when we're going to allow developers to come in and formulate our city? This is a It's crazy. It's crazy because you all when it comes time to pay for all the infrastructure that we don't have, you are going to have to figure that out and we're going to have to pay for it. Um, we're with the kind of intensity that's coming into the city and development. I mean, I moved here and it was 4,000 people in 83. Now it's 8,400 people. We're going to make that kind of a four or 5,000 people jump in a very compressed time, four or five years. Where are we going to get the money to accommodate that? you know, practically speaking, who's going to build the schools?

You know, that they're not even represented here. I mean, this this takes our whole comprehensive plan and throws it in the trash and it takes local input and makes it irrelevant. Um, you know, I we're all at a loss, us folks out here who are getting these new neighborhood changes. I read one of the governor's directives and she wants 36,000 new housing units a year and she acknowledges that uh a large part of those 80% will be subsidized. So this is all supposed to be about, you know, the median income, what kind of housing you want. So if you move in a whole bunch of folks that are in subsidized housing, what happens to your medium income? It goes down. So now we need more more even more subsidized. How what does that lead? It's just a spiral. I mean there's a whole bunch of this that does not make any sense to average people. Good luck.

Thanks, Larry. Anybody else? Council.

All right. Council discussion. There is no decision tonight, but I'd love to hear your thoughts,

Mr. Mayor. Council Hort,

I was uh on the same line of thinking that Larry had about um building to the median income and then having more subsidized housing that will bring down our median income. That was actually one of the first thoughts that I had when we had to base our housing on those needs. And I'm all for the opportunity for people to own homes. Um, but that's one of the reasons that I would rather have houses, even if it's duplexes, triplexes, something that people can own as opposed to building high-rise apartments. Um, I'm just a little bit at a loss as to how we get there.

Jennifer, I have a question. Does council have cart blanch authority to design designate zoning?

Um, do you mean that for example if it gets I if uh a if a parcel is zoned a certain way and then you decide to change it, you you probably can't without the property owner. I'll refer to the example that Larry gave. So when the applicants came for the most recent one, they asked for high density. Yes. You said the staff said, "No, we recommend medium density." So So I can I can talk about that a little bit. uh on Golf Lane. I just I want to give what I'm getting at is I'm trying to get council some

confidence that they have ability to change the zoning or they don't. I want I want I want like a direct answer whether they do or they don't. I I think I'm sorry it's it's complicated. It's complicated and I am prepared to to walk you through it uh when the application when the annexation comes to you. I didn't mean to put you on the spot and I and I know it's for a letter time. I want to watch the time here. I just I was hoping just hoping I get a straightforward answer.

Can Can I chime in? I think that there it is complicated because there's annexation where we don't have zoning designations and then there's inside the city limits where we do have zoning designations and if someone comes in for a zone change, you have the ability to make a decision, but it still has to be based on the criteria and the comprehensive plan. Um, so you do, but you also have things that you have to adhere to. and the the challenges with the urban growth boundary and the lack of the specific um detail of what the what the density of the zoning should be. Um that's where it gets complicated because the numbers in our comprehensive plan are um were relied upon for the initial annexation where we recommended a lower density. Um but then the comments from um DLCD staff was that bas basically what I heard is you can't really rely on that because they're old and we have these um these new laws that you have to adhere to. So I I think I I guess I would say it's it's limited without an updated comprehensive plan.

Mr. council

art how do we um how do we marry the the two issues of like our infrastructure so let's say that we do have these higher density um annexations coming in um how do we marry our infrastructure issues our road issues we just talked about getting a grant for 15 to$20 million for our roads and if we're putting in 400 unit apartment complexes on roads that can't even handle the traffic that we have. Like, how do how do we how can we say how how do we responsibly say yes to that kind of growth? But we as the council are saying that we don't think that that is responsible growth, but staff is telling us that we can't say no to that.

Well, I don't I don't think we're saying specifically we we can't that you can't say no. Well, I'm pretty sure we were told you're going to get sued.

I think that I mean, so part of your question, we need to make sure our comprehensive plans are up to date or our um master plans are up to date. um that our fee schedules are up to date, that our SDC rates are up to date, and that when we go through the land use process, that they are um providing a good traffic analysis and a good um infrastructure analysis so that we're ensuring that if it needs to be upsized as a result of this development, that they're upsizing as a as a result of this development or that they, you know, that they um are providing what they need to provide for their development and then paying system development charges. is for the bigger system. Um, and that our fees are such that it pays for the the maintenance. Barry leaned forward as though he had something to add.

But I'm not just talking about like the the roads directly impacted. I'm talking about like the system as a whole. If you look at Stton and the grid that we have, cars coming in and out. We just had on Fern and Tenth a fire that shut down one of our main arteries in and out of the city. Like that's a big deal in the event of an emergency. H how how do we contend with that? Like how do we plan responsibly for that growth when we're not even looking at this as a holistic picture and we're just saying, "Oh, we need these we need these houses. We need this housing, but we're not taking we we we're not even allowed to take everything into consideration holistically. That's the that's the main issue that and the frustration that we have as a council that we we we're not even able to do that. We can't take schools into consideration when we annex things in. We're told that our infrastructure can handle the the development and I disagree with that. So

I'm gonna pause one second or go ahead or if you want to have one other problem public comment one more time. Sure. A lot of this is new to my husband and I, but in listening to what you're planning specifically is for the land use. Um, from what I'm hearing tonight and a little bit earlier, there's a total disconnect in the system. You talked tonight about how you bought a small house so um you could afford it. Okay. And I totally get that. And we have a a cultural dilemma in our society today where young people can't afford to buy housing. It's very difficult. And Oregon has come on with their laws and there's a need. But what they forgot was the expense. We have all these annexations coming up and we can't afford it as a city. So, how do we follow state laws and yet pick up all the tab? How does that work? Our schools, our infrastructure, fire, hospital. I mean, it goes on and on and on. That disconnect, you know, here's what you you need to do, but you can't afford it. And yet, when you buy your house, you can only buy what you can afford. So, how do we do that as a community? And you can't tax people out of their homes, you know, and that's what how do we come up with a bond? We're struggling to fund what we have the pool and you know, I can't tell you how many people told me the roads are so bad in state and and we're about to add

400 plus units. So, we hear the state laws and the need, but we don't see any funding and we can't pick up the tab to initiate the state laws. It's a pretty helpless feeling because, you know, you know that there's no funding coming up and so you're going to have to do that and you're going to have to build these schools. I can't tell you how many kids are going to be coming into our schools. And if you ask any teacher today, the schools are so overloaded, it's unbelievable. And we're about to add 500, a thousand more children, and we can't even support what we have. So, it's a what I see is a disconnect between the law, which says there's a need, and the expense, and the other part of this that is very difficult, we've lost local control. We can't even vote on these annexations. I mean, that's really sad because we have to pay for it and we don't even have a say in it. So, you know, I understand you work for this department, but there's something fundamentally wrong with this system. Totally.

It just it's not fair. Thanks. Thank you for Thank you for listening. Thank you. Sorry, we're griping tonight, but it's okay. All right, council. Let's uh let's wrap this up. I know we're not going to solve it tonight. So, any further discussion? Jennifer, I thank you for inviting the folks from the state to come give us some clarity on this and give a discussion. So, thank you folks for coming and keeping you past your normal work hours. Appreciate that. All right, let's move on to communication from city staff.

So, we've actually talked about a little bit of stuff um already, so I'll try to be brief. Um I just wanted to give an update on the Detroit Dam drawdown. Um and Barry can chime in or if you guys have questions, we can expand upon it, but I wanted to let you know um that Oregon Health Authority has been reaching out to set up meetings to discuss um what the thresholds will be um for stopping the draw down at any given time. We're advocating for joint meetings with um neighboring cities that have similar um filters up the canyon and including Salem. Um the uh supplemental environmental impact statement is expected miday. Um we are also um exploring legal actions in partnership with others um and exploring avenues with our federal representatives and we we're working on getting some meetings set up on that. And then I also wanted to um let you know that we um so I I think I mentioned before that Congresswoman Binham has put in the um congressionally directed spending budget uh money for the sub sublimity water inner tie and I'm trying to get a meeting um coordinated uh so that we can begin discussing the the agreement of what that would you know what that would look like. So we're working on that. Um, I did want to also let you know that I mentioned to you last week that we were submitting a proposal to Sublimity for um, potential um, law enforcement. They discussed it on Thursday and it sounds like they have decided to stay with Marian County at this time. They said um, they're looking at a different option with um, the county. They're trying an hourly option. So, um, I think it's good though that we put put the thought into it. we put that out there so if they um want to talk to us again, we we're open to having a conversation. Um I think that's it for now unless anybody

else had anything given the time. Okay. Thanks, Julia. Uh councel, Mr. Mayor,

councelor Sims, I'll just give a quick update from the planning commission. I was at the last meeting and uh we got two more annexations coming our way. One was for uh 21 acre property on Golf on Golf Lane and uh the re planning commission recommended approval for medium density and there you know they talked about 74 homes in that that uh annexation and the second annexation was a 17 acre property on Shaft Road. It's basically by the the apartments at Wilco and our Shaft Road and Golf Club road that that area in there uh 17 acres and that got recommended approval for highdensity town homes or high density. They talked about town homes. So that was that's the only update I had.

Okay, counc I feel like I'm beating a dead horse. Remember last year Paulie Griev sat right there on that that table and uh we discussed the cemetery. Is the cemetery held to the same standards as residential homeowners with overgrowth? Yeah, Jennifer and I have actually been talking about that. We we have seen it ourselves and it it seems worse than even it was last year. Oh, it's it's absolutely pathetic. Go get anyway. I'm just kidding. Uh and and watching families go into the se to the se the funeral home and come back out and look. It's a disa it's it's a disgrace to our city when you see people going in to bury a loved one

and they come back out and see the food. Let me tell you.

Yeah, absolutely. 100% agree. Um we are um going to go through the code enforcement avenue. Um we are also going to try again to reach out to um the contact there. Last year, I I was talking to Jennifer about that this um this afternoon. Um last year um sent several letters, several phone calls um to to the person that is the contact to no avail. Um I did have contact with somebody else with the Oddfellows who um was very responsive but did wasn't the person to talk to. Um so I I will probably try that avenue again. Um, and it it is it is frustrating and we were going to continue to try to work every angle including the code enforcement. The challenge is it's hard to put a lean on a cemetery. So, but that you know I think at least that formal action might get their attention. Um, but if anybody has a specific contact um with the Oddfellows or the Masons that can move um

Julia does the does the tax assessor have ownership information? All they have Yeah, they have um it's Lone Oak Cemetery and they've got a PO box. What is the protocol if we have a committee of people that are willing to volunteer their time, go clean it up? The challenge is and this is um I sent a letter that was just basically let us we'd love to help you contact me. Um, and I never got a contact. We can't authorize anybody to go on private property, and that's what it is. It's private property. So, um, and that's I'm I would love for them to reach out so we could get that authority. I'm sure we could get volunteers to to go out there and clean it up, but we can't coordinate volunteers to go on private property and do something like that. Okay.

I also just want to give a quick shout out to our first responders today. the little fire that happened in the shed there on property on Fern Ridge. I had no idea that there's a structure there. Anybody else? Mr. Mayor, council,

I wanted to give a shout out to the city and to Chief John's for um being nominated as um one of the nominees for the large business of the year and um nominated for distinguished person of the year for the chamber awards. Um know you guys didn't win, but that's really cool that um you were thought of and um had that recognition. So, uh the chamber awards was uh great and it is I love going there. It is one of the high I feel like the highlights of the year um to see all those um that are passionate about making our community um what it is. And then it's always fantastic to see the students and listening to them speak is amazing. Julie and I were talking about that how just so articulate they all were. So, it's really awesome. Great job, guys. Okay, thanks. Um, Julia, how many more positions do we have on the parks board open? You know, none.

I believe they're full. I think it's budget. That's what I'm at. That's my next thought. Yeah, budget committee. Well, there are currently two two openings and then arts commission has one. I'll follow up with you later. I want to make sure we we got that squared away.

Um, yeah. Honestly, I was talking to Chamber of Wars. I think that was fantastic. I appreciate being asked to be involved in the first citizen interviews. That was great. And those kids really gave me a lot of hope for the future. So, um, my last thing is, is there a warranty on this PA system? I'm serious. I think we have a lot of problems with this PA system, and I wish we could make it clearer, figure out a way to get it dialed in. I thought they were going to back and troubleshoot it, and I don't know that it did any good. Yeah, I think that Well, I'll let Melanie speak to that because she's been the one dealing directly with them.

They've been back several times and they've helped remotely several times, including prior to this meeting. Um, we were having some issues with the encoder and the decoder and they are getting uh calling warranty on parts of the system. I don't know that it's going to help the microphones, but some of the other issues that are just reoccurring in different ways are supposed to be fixed with changing those out. Um, thank you. Uh, the last thing, Julia, I think, uh, the staff's working on a community forum, if you will, for anybody interested in sitting up here at the dis um, in the future, and I know do you have that date yet, or do we?

We we do. I believe it is May 28. 28. That sounds about right. And thank you. I actually meant to put that in my staff updates. For those of you that were not invited to participate, it's because you are up for reelection. Um and so um we have asked um Councelor Kerry, Councelor Sims, and Mayorwigley um to to be here and share their perspectives and their story. and Howard will be working on getting the word out and inviting people who are interested in running for council or mayor to to um to learn more. Um I'll hopefully do a little like this is what what I do versus what you guys do kind of orientation. Um but brief um so that and yeah May May 28th is that the date? Yes. Um and that will be here.

Okay. Thank you. That's all I had. So let's uh adjourn. By the way, I just wanted to let you