Committee of the Whole

COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MINUTES City Hall, 220 Clay Street May 19, 2025 The meeting of the Committee of the Whole met at City Hall at 5:00 p.m. on May 19, 2025, with the following Committee persons in attendance: Gil Schultz, Chris Latta, Daryl Kruse, Aaron Hawbaker, Dustin Ganfield, Hannah Crisman, and Kelly Dunn. Absent: None. Staff members from all City Departments and members of the community attended in person. COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE: Mayor Laudick called the meeting to order and introduced the first item on the Committee of the Whole Agenda, Downtown Parking Quarterly Report. Mayor Laudick introduced Administrative & Parking Supervisor Marcie Breitbach. Breitbach provided an overview of the previous downtown stakeholder meetings, purchase of the 222 Washington Street property, and continued collection of monthly downtown parking counts. Breitbach presented information on average weekday and evening/weekend night parking occupancy by zone and street; consultant Fishbeck’s parking occupancy guidelines and baseline targets: regularly at 80% plan to add parking and regularly at 85% plan to build additional parking; parking attendants will continue to collect counts quarterly and present to Council bi-annually; consultant recommendations at 6 months and 1 year of counts regarding additional parking spaces or a parking structure. Mayor opened for Councilmembers and staff discussion, questions, and responses. Councilmembers discussed: parking staff continuing counts, and including weather information - Breitbach stated parking staff notes events occurring at time of counts; the count area considered the Downtown core including Washington, Main, and State Streets from 1st to 5th/6th Streets and the total occupancy percentages; counts including on- and off-street parking and if they could be further broken down; and that the consultant’s contract is complete at this time. Mayor Laudick introduced the second item on the Committee of the Whole Agenda, Parking Decisions for Downton, and introduced Administrative & Parking Supervisor Marcie Breitbach. Breitbach provided information on input from the parking consultant Fishbeck and feedback after Community Main Street and downtown stakeholder meetings in October and November 2024, including: increasing parking citations from $10 to $25, with a $5 late fee after 30 days and increasing parking permits for downtown lots from $35/month to $70/month with permits available in the proposed new lot at 222 Washington Street; property at 222 Washington Street (former US Bank) to be utilized as a temporary surface lot after demolition in 2025 with the option to construct a finished surface lot in 2026 or discuss construction of a parking structure, and the approximate costs and land-use investment for each option. Breitbach provided a recap of the three proposed action items for Council consideration: raising lot permit and citation fees; constructing a new surface lot or parking structure at the 222 Washington Street property, with proposed staged implementation; and timing of paid parking recommendations to be brought to Council. Mayor opened for Councilmembers and staff discussion. Councilmembers indicated previous direction to staff to bring forward a paid parking system proposal; Mayor responded that the consensus was unclear on discussing that at this time but staff has a proposal which was tweaked after stakeholder meetings in November 2024. Councilmembers discussed continued counts, including the proposed temporary surface lot, before discussing a parking structure; if increased citation and permit fees is sufficient to counteract the projected deficit; tweaks to the proposed paid parking system made by staff and presentation; use of paid parking to modify parking behavior moving forward; what is included in the cost presented for the proposed surface lot; current use of pay stations for paid parking on College Hill; past increases in citation and permit fees, frequency of cost reviews, and potential for more incremental increases; timeline for the proposed temporary surface lot; staff presentation of the tweaked proposed paid parking system at an upcoming Committee of the Whole meeting; a proposal that City staff work with downtown businesses regarding employee parking and encouraging patrons to park in lower count areas; and potential for a “service industry” parking lot further from the core potentially with lower fees. Mayor opened for public comment. Mark Kittrell, Cedar Falls (Riverplace Plaza) commented on Council’s willingness to move forward with parking solutions and expressed concerns about the economy, property tax increases, and merchant costs; Kittrell expressed pride in downtown and requested more incremental increases in parking fees; he commented on the distance patrons are willing to walk. Troy Davis, Cedar Falls (Main Street Sweets) expressed concern about the City keeping business owners’ concerns in mind and impact of increased permit prices on lower paid employees and requested consideration of these items when working on the budget. Mayor Laudick stated that Council wants to do the best thing to support downtown while considering the budget. Kim Bear, Cedar Falls (Community Main Street) commented on working with City regarding employee parking, stakeholder meetings with the City, and business owners’ investments; Bear expressed pride in downtown and noted higher counts were probably because something fun was happening. Mayor opened for further Council discussion. Councilmembers discussed the importance of Council making a decision regarding paid parking and sticking with it if implemented; employee parking in downtown and potential for an employee lot further from the downtown core. Mayor asked for a motion to direct Council to move forward with asbestos testing to demolish the building at 222 Washington Street to build a temporary surface lot in 2025 and permanent lot in 2026. Schultz motioned and Latta seconded. Dunn requested to start with a motion for the parking citation and permit fee increases. Schultz withdrew the motion. Mayor asked for a motion for Council to direct staff to come back with a proposal to increase citation and permit fees. Dunn motioned and Crisman seconded. Councilmembers and Finance and Business Operations Director Rodenbeck discussed amending the permit fee increase from $70 to $50/month, with the option to increase the fee again at a later date; Kruse requested staff bring a proposal for both the full increase and the incremental increase. Mayor called for a voice vote on the motion. Aye: Schultz, Latta, Kruse, Hawbaker, Ganfield, Crisman, and Dunn; Nay: none. Motion carried unanimously. Mayor asked for a motion for Council to move forward with asbestos testing to demolish the building at 222 Washington Street to build a temporary surface lot in 2025 and a permanent lot in 2026. Kruse motioned and Ganfield seconded. Mayor called for a voice vote on the motion. Aye: Schultz, Latta, Kruse, Hawbaker, Ganfield, Crisman, and Dunn; Nay: none. Motion carried unanimously. Mayor asked for a motion to look at direction to bring back a more detailed paid parking system proposal to the next meeting or as soon as possible or to push the discussion to a later date to continue tracking data. Latta motioned to delay the presentation and discussion for 6 months and Schultz seconded. Kruse motioned to amend 6 months to 3. Councilmembers and Mayor discussed the timeline of the lot, receiving continued count data, and using paid parking to change parking behavior. Director Rodenbeck stated the stakeholders asked to hold off for Council presentation until after January 1, 2025 and then the City purchased 222 Washington Street; the presentation was ready for this meeting, but there wasn’t a clear consensus Council wanted to discuss it, it can be presented at an upcoming meeting. Troy Davis, Cedar Falls (Main Street Sweets) commented on City follow- up with concerns and not hearing an altered proposal. Mayor and Councilmembers discussed bringing a tentative proposal and feedback to an upcoming meeting but having no action at that time. Hawbaker motioned to have a community meeting with no anticipation of action at that time if the standing motion is withdrawn. Latta withdrew the previous motion. Kruse seconded Hawbaker’s motion. Councilmembers, Mayor and staff discussed a presentation at the June 16, 2025 Committee of the Whole meeting, highlighting the presentation’s amendments, consideration of data including the proposed temporary lot, and continuing the conversation. Mayor called for a voice vote on the motion. Aye: Schultz, Latta, Kruse, Hawbaker, Ganfield, Crisman, and Dunn; Nay: none. Motion carried unanimously. Mayor introduced the third item on the agenda, Review the requirement to have two windows and other egress requirements, square footage requirements, whether utility services can be provided separate from the main unit, and the main unit may be a rental as well as the Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU), and introduced Planner II Chris Sevy. Sevy reviewed the items requested for discussion and review and presented changes to state law signed May 1, 2025. The new law allows at least one (1) ADU per single family lot and limits local authority requirements. Sevy reviewed City standards adopted in 2024 and changes that must be reflected by state law as of May 1st. Sevy overviewed requirements of state law change that must be updated in City ordinances as: remove the owner-occupancy requirement; change size limit to 1000 sq ft or 50% of primary dwelling; require separate utility metering; revise or remove design standards to match primary dwelling; and any other changes requested by Council. Mayor opened for Council discussion. Council, Sevy, and staff discussed: Senate File 592, which required changes and effective date; that any ordinance changes would be brought before Council to approve; how and when to separate metering between primary dwelling and ADU; the City’s requirement for two egress windows in basement ADUs – two egress points are required by Code but only one egress window per bedroom; allowance for more than one bedroom at 1000 sq ft. Ganfield moved to make City code for ADUs compliant with state law and to allow for 2 bedrooms, with 1 egress window per bedroom in basement ADUs. Hawbaker seconded. Mayor opened for public comment. Gabe Groothuis, Cedar Falls, encouraged allowing two bedrooms at the 1000 sq ft and offered to walk Councilmembers through a prospective property. Craig Fairbanks, Cedar Falls, spoke in favor of the ADU proposal, and stated the proposal allows for first time home buyers to afford a Cedar Falls property making income from property. Mayor asked for Council discussion; Kruse stated the two bedroom option would be good for a parent/child situation while trying to save money. Mayor called for a voice vote on the motion. Aye: Schultz, Latta, Kruse, Hawbaker, Ganfield, Crisman, and Dunn; Nay: none. Motion carried unanimously. Meeting adjourned at 6:42 p.m. Minutes by Katie Terhune, Administrative Supervisor