Flagstaff Council Continues Miltown Zoning Fight; Waterline and Airport Projects Sail Through Unanimous Approval
FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA — March 5, 2025

Flagstaff Council Continues Miltown Zoning Fight; Waterline and Airport Projects Sail Through Unanimous Approval

Flagstaff City Council discussed and continued complex Miltown mixed-use development agreement amendment (allowing site plan revision under 2017 code with extended entitlements), approved waterline infrastructure and airport concession projects, and received public comment on affordable housing and harm reduction initiatives.

Flagstaff Council Continues Miltown Zoning Fight; Waterline and Airport Projects Sail Through Unanimous Approval

On Tuesday, March 4, 2025, Flagstaff City Council held a three-hour meeting dominated by debate over Vintage Partners' request to amend its 2018 development agreement for the Miltown project, allowing a site-plan revision under the 2017 zoning code. The council did not vote on this contentious measure; instead, Mayor Becky Daggett continued the public hearing to a future date after hearing approximately three hours of testimony from developers, staff, attorneys, students, residents, and advocacy groups. Two other major items—the Interbasin Waterline Restoration closeout and airport food-and-beverage concessions—passed unanimously with minimal debate.

Interbasin Waterline Restoration: Fifth GMP Closeout and Project Extension

The crown jewel of the evening's routine business was the approval of the Fourth Amendment to the design-build contract with Hunter Contracting for the Interbasin Waterline Restoration Project. This critical infrastructure project, which restores a water pipeline on U.S. Forest Service land that was damaged by the 2010 bark beetle fire, came in $10.1 million under budget and won two awards: the Arizona Chapter Building Arizona Award and the Pendelton-Luster Safety Award.

Project Manager David Peterson outlined the achievement:

"I'm happy to report we get to give a dime back to the state taxpayers." — David Peterson, Project Manager, City Capital Improvements

The approved amendment allocates $688,000 to Hunter Contracting and extends the project timeline by 75 calendar days, through the end of 2025. Peterson noted that 12 sites remain to be completed—none from scratch, but requiring additional gabion work, slope repairs, and pipeline tie-ins. The team anticipates an early fall 2025 finish, weather dependent. Flagstaff Wildland Fire Crews received a special commendation for clearing dead trees from the lower waterline road in February.

Notably, Peterson emphasized the partnership's importance: the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management is reimbursing the city $16.1 million for the project, and the city's careful cost management and water-services coordination have ensured the project stays on track. Council members Lori Matthews, Miranda Sweet, and Khara House offered brief congratulations, underscoring the project's significance to the community's long-term water security.

Vote (Item 9B): Unanimous approval.

Flagstaff Pulliam Airport Concessions: Micro-Markets and Coffee Kiosk

Airport Anthony Garcia presented the Concession Services License Agreement with Highline Snack & Vending, which addresses a long-standing passenger request for fresh food and hot coffee at the terminal. After two failed requests for proposals (2023–2024) for a traditional cafe operator, the airport shifted to a staffless micro-market model with a separate coffee kiosk, both pre-security, and a second micro-market post-security.

Anthony Garcia explained the operational challenges that deterred traditional operators: the airport is open 365 days per year, requiring vendors to staff starting at 4:00–4:30 a.m. to catch early departures; irregular passenger traffic (typically 6–8 flights daily with peaks of 70+ passengers and quiet gaps) makes staffing costly; and year-round commitment is essential. The micro-market uses a cashierless payment system where customers scan their card, open cabinets, and are charged only for items they keep. The coffee kiosk offers a similar no-staff model.

The city receives 20% of gross quarterly receipts, plus an additional commission on annual sales exceeding $120,000 per year. Anthony Garcia noted that the visitor center will occupy the opposite side of the pre-security space, creating a shared seating area. The target opening is end of April 2025. Post-security plumbing infrastructure challenges currently prevent a coffee kiosk there, but Anthony Garcia indicated plans to add one in the future.

Vote (Item 9C): Unanimous approval.

The Miltown Second Development Agreement Amendment: Three Hours of Testimony and No Vote

The centerpiece of the meeting was a resumed public hearing on the Miltown Second Development Agreement Amendment—a procedural proposal that would allow Vintage Partners to revise the original 2018-approved site plan (five stories, 340 units, approximately 1,221 bedrooms) to a smaller "right-sized" building while remaining authorized to use the May 2017 zoning code through December 2025 (extended from the original five-year entitlement, then extended to seven years in the 2021 First Amendment, now requested to extend to nine years). The revision is essential because any site-plan change exceeds the "minor modification" threshold in the zoning code and thus requires rezoning approval if conducted under current code—a step Vintage Partners seeks to avoid by locking in the 2017 code.

Key Staff Presentations

Kevin Fincel, Deputy City Attorney, provided the historical framework. He explained that the original 2018 development agreement granted Vintage Partners the entitlement to build a specific approved site plan under the May 2017 zoning code for five years (through 2023). In 2021, the First Amendment extended the entitlement and code-lock to seven years (December 2025) to allow time for Vintage Partners to secure a development partner for the residential component. Now, in 2025, with Toll Brothers selected as the builder, the partner wants to amend the site plan but the current zoning code—which Fincel did not discuss in detail—would require modifications that the zoning ordinance does not permit without rezoning.

Fincel's explanation of the legal path forward was technical but pivotal:

"If you want to use that 2017 code for an amended site plan, we need to amend this language in the DA to make it clear that your entitlements apply to a site plan that's approved or that may be amended and approved by Council." — Kevin Fincel, Deputy City Attorney

Fincel also addressed Proposition 207 (Arizona's "Private Property Rights Protection Act"). He clarified that Vintage Partners had filed a Prop. 207 claim previously, which the city rejected as "not ripe" because Vintage was grandfathered into the 2017 code under the original DA and HOH regulations did not apply to them at that time. However, Fincel noted that Prop. 207 claims accrue in two ways: either three years from the ordinance's effective date or when the law applies to the property—whichever is later. After December 13, 2025, when the current DA entitlements expire, HOH will apply to the property, making a Prop. 207 claim "ripe" and allowing Vintage to seek either compensation or a waiver from the city for the HOH code's restrictions.

Wesley Welch, Senior Planner, reviewed the High Occupancy Housing (HOH) code requirements adopted in November 2020 (effective March 1, 2021):

The original 2018 Miltown approval (340 units, ~1,221 bedrooms) would have triggered HOH requirements if it had sought entitlements after March 2021. Welch noted that a Prop. 207 claim window closed in early 2024 (three years from the code's effective date), but the window reopens when the regulation applies to the property—in this case, after December 2025.

Developer Position: Vintage Partners and Toll Brothers

Lindsay Shuie, attorney for Gammage & Burnham, PLC, argued that the amendment was procedurally sound and essential. She contended that the current DA locks Vintage into a specific site plan, and any material change requires rezoning. By allowing an amendment to the DA, staff and council can defer the details of the revised site plan to the rezoning process (anticipated for August–September 2025), where it will be subject to full public comment and council approval.

Shuie asserted that the new site plan would be "right-sized": smaller footprint, fewer stories, fewer bedrooms, fewer units, improved architecture, and updated parking calculations. However, she declined to provide specifics, stating that the planning process must unfold first:

"We want to right size this project and that's what we are excited to bring which is a future conversation but a four-story building right sized less units less bedrooms." — Lindsay Shuie, Gammage & Burnham, PLC

Shuie also previewed the Prop. 207 threat:

"If this is not approved tonight we will file our claims for any portions of the ordinance because it will be applicable to our property in December of this year; therefore if this is not approved tonight we will file our claims." — Lindsay Shuie

Walter Crutchfield, Vintage Partners, delivered an emotional statement defending his integrity and the company's track record. He noted that the original DA took over four years and 18 attorneys to negotiate between the State of Arizona, the city, and Vintage:

"Consider others needs ahead of your own and keep your word—that's exactly what we've done. The level of attacks against my integrity and what our motives are is beyond the scope. A resume matters for a human being." — Walter Crutchfield, Vintage Partners

Crutchfield highlighted Vintage's affordable-housing deliverables: 221 units at 60% AMI or less (partnership with Roars), 206 single-family for-rent units (20% affordable), 220 multifamily apartments, and 40 starter homes with Habitat for Humanity, plus an additional phase of Timber Sky coming. He emphasized that Vintage has received nothing in return from the Miltown project to date—only years of investment in the P3 (moving ADOT, relocating Harkins theater, funding the underpass).

On the commercial component, Crutchfield noted that Vintage has held discussions with Trader Joe's, Portillos, and other potential tenants but has delayed commitments pending final residential design. He also committed to additional Habitat for Humanity homes at Timber Sky if the rezoning process proceeds.

City Manager Greg Herrera's Policy Commentary

City Manager Greg Herrera provided a nuanced synthesis, emphasizing timing, process, and fairness:

"P3s are complicated and this is a complicated project even without the partnership. The question is what's the best way to navigate forward. Staff, the attorneys, my office—we agree with this process. It makes sense, and there's an element of fairness to it: it's tying back to the same code that was applicable when all this started, when all the performance was commenced." — City Manager Greg Herrera also stressed that HOH and other policies adopted since 2018 are now subject to Prop. 207 claims, which the city has generally resolved through negotiation and waivers rather than litigation. He implied that denial of the amendment would likely trigger Prop. 207 claims, resulting in the same outcome (either compensation or a code waiver) but with added delay and litigation costs.

Herrera noted that the city's "complicated zoning code" with "layers and layers of policies" contributes to housing costs:

"These layers of complexity and the nuances of these zoning codes all amount to increased cost in a community where last year we were 29% over the cost of housing statewide. The more we can streamline and make simplicity of these things, the more we can address our housing emergency." — City Manager Greg Herrera

He also congratulated the Roars project (228 units, 100% affordable) anticipated to break ground this year and noted the city's partnership through incentives.

Public Comment: Approximately Three Hours

The council heard from approximately 12–15 speakers (some in person, some online), split roughly between supporters and opponents.

Support

Pro-amendment speakers included:

Key themes in support:

  1. Student housing shortage is real and acute; NAU students struggle to find affordable rentals near campus.
  2. Workforce housing gap: employers in Flagstaff report difficulty retaining employees due to cost of living; several speakers noted employees cycling out after 90 days.
  3. Vintage has demonstrated reliability: 18-attorney P3, ADOT relocation, Harkins move, road improvements, habitat donations—proof of character and capability.
  4. Miltown's location is optimal: across from NAU, walkable, multimodal (pedestrian underpass, bus stops, bike infrastructure).
  5. Prop. 207 threat is real and costly: denying the amendment will result in litigation, delay, and likely the same outcome (Prop. 207 waiver) anyway.
  6. Right-sizing is a genuine compromise: the revised project will be smaller, more sustainable, and better-designed than the 2018 approved plan.

Opposition

Anti-amendment speakers included:

"If the council approves the Second Amendment to the DA, the applicant will be able to build a project that does not meet these requirements. Council approval will send a message that the city's codes are not important." — Michelle James, Friends of Flagstaff's Future

Key themes in opposition:

  1. Precedent danger: granting Vintage the right to use old code will invite other developers to request the same, eroding the city's zoning authority.
  2. HOH code is not arbitrary: it was adopted after a multi-year public process in response to over-building of student-only housing (Hub/Jack, Standard, Parkplace, Fremont Station, Yugo).
  3. The "right-sized" project is undefined: F³ and others noted that no renderings, unit mix, or detailed design has been shared; council is being asked to approve a blank check.
  4. Fairness and equity: residents who live in neighborhoods should be protected by current code; why should Vintage get a waiver?
  5. Missing-middle housing: council member Garcia's informal survey of existing student-housing complexes revealed that non-student adults (ages 28–38) were unhappy with shared bedroom situations; they represent an underserved market.
  6. HOH requirements are not onerous: 20% studio/one-bedroom and ≤30% four-plus-bedroom would still allow a large, dense project (per council member Spence's math: 262 units would require only 52 studio/one-bedroom and cap 155 four-plus-bedroom).

Council Member Speeches and Vote Position Signals

Council Member David Spence voted against the amendment (or indicated opposition). He noted that he toured five-story developments around town (Yugo, Jack, Standard, Parkplace, Fremont Station) and counted approximately 1,200 dwelling units—all built since 2018, driving the need for HOH code. He emphasized HOH's purpose: ensuring minimum studio/one-bedroom units (20%) and capping large units (≤30%). David Spence calculated that a 262-unit revised Miltown project would require only 52 studio/one-bedroom and cap 155 four-plus-bedroom—a reasonable and achievable standard. His reason for opposing the amendment:

"I am going to vote against the approval of the development agreement, and my reason is not because I don't favor Vintage Partners' reputation... it is because we should govern by Rule and not by exception." — Council Member David Spence

Council Member Austin Aslan delivered a lengthy, reflective statement. While acknowledging the amendment's complexity, he argued that "the argument is lost with the public if it takes several pages of details in two Council meetings, a continuance, and an executive session to argue a position that is ostensibly characterized as quite simple and straightforward." He expressed concern that council is being asked to rubber-stamp an "inevitability" and that the public's concerns—rooted in values, not ignorance—deserve respect. Austin Aslan indicated opposition:

"Whatever happens… I'm not sitting up here to rubber stamp inevitabilities. I'm sitting up here on the community's behalf to ensure they feel like they're being heard and respected." — Council Member Austin Aslan

Council Member Lori Matthews asked pointed questions about the original entitlements (making clear that Vintage could build the five-story project as-is if the amendment were denied) and about the gap between Vintage's "right-sizing" rhetoric and the absence of concrete design details. She praised Vintage's affordable-housing track record and expressed frustration with public-private partnerships being difficult:

"These private public partnerships are not fun, they're not easy, and so far you've put out a lot, you haven't started. And you know, on why you did this to get a project done, this may be why we may never see another private public partnership in the future because this it is really difficult and time consuming." — Council Member Lori Matthews

Council Member Anthony Garcia also toured student-housing complexes (as noted in his liaison report) and interviewed residents. He found that ~90% of residents were students and satisfied, but 28–38-year-old non-students were unhappy, trapped in high-cost shared-bedroom arrangements, and unable to save for down payments. He called for "missing-middle housing"—smaller, more affordable, allowing privacy and adult dignity. Anthony Garcia also questioned whether the road improvements and parking infrastructure were "charitable" or part of a negotiated P3 deal. City Manager Herrera and Kevin Fincel clarified that the improvements were necessary for the city's goals (Bula extension, underpass) and part of a reciprocal arrangement. Anthony Garcia appeared sympathetic to the amendment but skeptical of the lack of specifics.

Vice Mayor Miranda Sweet focused on affordability and asked Walter to reiterate Vintage's affordable-housing commitments. She expressed support for creative solutions and acknowledged the difficulty of the decision. She did not signal a clear position.

Council Member Khara House congratulated the waterline team and did not address Miltown at length in the transcript.

Austin Aslan (based on context, likely meant "Council Member Austin Aslan") did not take a separate floor statement but asked clarifying questions about HOH code and precedent.

Mayor Becky Daggett did not take a position statement; she managed the meeting and closed the public hearing, indicating the council would deliberate and take action at a future meeting.

Outcome and Next Steps

No vote was taken on the Second Amendment to the Miltown DA. Becky Daggett continued the public hearing, and the council did not deliberate formally on the merits. The next steps are:

  1. If the amendment is approved at a future meeting: Vintage Partners will submit a revised site plan for rezoning and development plan approval, likely in August–September 2025. The revised plan will be subject to full public hearing, Planning & Zoning Commission review, and council rezoning approval. The project will need to comply with all current codes except the 2017 zoning code (which will apply only to density, use, and general entitlements, per the amendment).

  2. If the amendment is denied: Vintage Partners has two options:

    • Build the original 2018-approved five-story, 340-unit project (obtaining building permits before December 13, 2025).
    • File Prop. 207 claims (which will be "ripe" after December 13, 2025) seeking either compensation for diminution in value or a code waiver from the HOH requirements.

  3. Prop. 207 implications: Multiple speakers (Shuie, Fincel, Herrera) emphasized that Prop. 207 claims are likely if the amendment is denied, and the city's historical practice is to negotiate waivers rather than litigate. Thus, denial may result in the same outcome (Vintage allowed to use old code or HOH requirements waived) but with added months of delay and legal costs.

Controversies and Context

High Occupancy Housing Code Circumvention

The core controversy hinges on whether approving the amendment circumvents the HOH code. Opponents argue that the amendment is a de facto waiver of HOH requirements (adopted in 2020–2021 specifically to limit the scale of student-housing projects). Supporters (staff, city manager, Vintage) argue that the amendment is merely procedural—locking Vintage into the code in effect when the P3 began—and that any final revised site plan will still be subject to full public scrutiny and council approval. However, if Vintage can build under the 2017 code, the HOH requirements (20% studio/one-bedroom, ≤30% four-plus-bedroom) will not apply, even to the revised project.

Precedent Risk

Opponents warn that approving the amendment creates a "slippery slope." Mary Norton noted that the development community "leverages loopholes" and will demand similar treatment if Vintage receives it. Council member David Spence emphasized the principle of "govern by Rule and not by Exception." Staff acknowledged that development-agreement amendments are not uncommon (Canyon Del Rio, Timber Sky), but extensions of code-lock provisions are less frequent and less well-precedented.

Prop. 207 as Leverage

Vintage's attorney and the city manager both invoked Prop. 207 as a likely outcome if the amendment is denied. This framing—that denial will trigger litigation and ultimately result in the same or worse outcome—has troubled some speakers (e.g., Deborah Block characterized it as "wielding a bludgeon" and engaging in "threats"). Council members Austin Aslan and Lori Matthews seemed skeptical of this logic, implying that the threat of Prop. 207 should not drive council decisions.

Affordability and Housing Supply

The amendment has aligned student advocates and workforce-housing advocates on one side and neighborhood-protection and code-integrity advocates on the other. Speakers like Roman Goble and Cameron Berger (NAU students) emphasized acute housing shortages. Business owners and workforce advocates highlighted the exodus of employees due to cost of living. However, opponents countered that right-sizing Miltown to comply with HOH code is not a significant hardship and that Vintage's proposed smaller project (262 units vs. 340) would still be substantial. Council member Garcia's concerns about missing-middle housing—units affordable to young professionals, not just students—suggest that the "right-sizing" narrative may not fully address Flagstaff's diverse housing needs.

The P3 Legacy

The Miltown project is unique in Flagstaff's recent history as a large-scale public-private partnership. It has succeeded in delivering on-budget improvements (ADOT relocation, Harkins move, road extensions, underpass) but has struggled to move the residential component. The protracted timeline (2013 selection, 2018 DA, 2021 First Amendment, 2025 Second Amendment, anticipated 2025 rezoning) has tested the partnership. Walter Crutchfield's emotional testimony—defending his integrity and threatening to abandon future development—raised concerns among some council members (Anthony Garcia) and public speakers (Wolverton) that the P3 model may not be sustainable if the regulatory burden is perceived as unfair.

Duration and Meeting Notes

Other Notable Items

Harm Reduction Vending Machine (Northern Arizona Healthcare): Colleen Maring reported on a partnership between Northern Arizona Healthcare and Coconino County Health Department to provide free Narcan and fentanyl test kits via vending machine at the hospital emergency department. Since September 2024, over 650 Narcan packages and 400+ test kits have been distributed; community feedback is positive, and restocking is ongoing. (Informational; no vote required.)

Mountain Line Bus Service Improvements: Miranda Sweet and Lori Matthews noted that Mountain Line is planning service improvements for August 2025, including 30-minute frequency on Route 5, extension of Route 8, and modification of Route 2; public comment period open through April 15.

City-Owned Parcels for Affordable Housing: Former Mayor Coral Evans and Anthony Garcia referenced potential city-owned sites for future housing (old public workyard, Sunflower Patch on Fort Valley Road) that warrant exploration, but no formal action was taken.

View source transcript ▼

Source: Flagstaff City Council Regular Meeting - March 4, 2025 — March 5, 2025. Auto-generated YouTube transcript; may contain transcription errors.

e e e all right we're ready to get started thank you today is Tuesday March 4th 2025 this is the city council's regular meeting I'm calling this meeting to order and giving notice to members of the city council the general public that at this meeting the city council may vote to go into executive session which will not be open to the public for discussion and consultation with the city's attorneys for legal advice on any item listed on the following agenda can we have roll call Mayor daget here vice mayor s here council member alen here council member Garcia uh present council member house here council member Matthews here council member Spence here council member Matthews would you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance I'd be happy to please stand if you're able United States of Amer stand indivisible andice all council member Garcia would you read our mission statement the I'd be happy to Mayor thank you the mission of the city of Flagstaff is to protect and enhance the quality of life for all thank you and council member alen our land acknowledgement certainly drum roll please I'm good at pulling these things up quickly uh the Flagstaff City Council hum L acknowledges the ancestral homelands of this area's indigenous Nations and original stewards these Lands still inhabited by native descendants border mountains sacred to indigenous peoples we honor them their legacies their traditions and their continued contributions we celebrate their past present and future Generations who will forever know this place as home thank you all right next up is open call to the public and this is where the public can address the Council on any item that is not on tonight's agenda in order to do so you must fill out a comment card and give it to uh our city clerk you have three minutes and there is also another open call to the public at the end of the meeting so first up Colleen Maring good afternoon mayor vice mayor council my name is Colleen Maring I'm the the chief people officer of Northern Arizona Healthcare and I'm super excited that there's a packed house today with what we wanted to share with you today as an update um because I want to talk about a partnership with Coconino County uh the I'm sorry the Coconino County Health Department um and our harm reduction vending machine so a few months ago we purchased a vending machine that's right outside our emergency department um here in Flagstaff and with uh the Coconino County Health Department they stock the vending machine with Narcan or nxone um the drug that helps stop opioid overdoses um as well as fentanyl testing kits um that anyone can use to test a a drug or a substance to see if it's been mixed with or tainted with fentanyl which um as I'm sure you all know as a drug that can be fatal um in as little as as one dose um it's outside the vending machine you don't have to register or give your name or go inside the hospital you can just walk right up to it and it's completely free and you um can take supplies and we hope you use them to keep yourself and your friends and your family safe um Naran can save the life and and reverse or or stop an opioid overdose um uh in the moment and stopping someone from taking a drug with fentanyl um Can Save a Life uh as well so we installed the machine in September and we um since then more than 650 packages of Narcan and more than 400 fitl test kits um have been retrieved from that machine and we've heard through um social media that we have community members who are saying I'm walking around with this in my purse now or I'm taking this you know around in my backpack at school um which we love um because our mission is to improve health and heal people um and we hope that through this partnership we're able to impact uh the lives of some of our most at risk community members um as well as our amazing student population and I know we have many of them here so I hope everybody goes by the emergency department and picks up um fentanyl test kits um and Naran uh today or anytime and if it ever runs empty the county is restocking it as soon as it depletes so um there should be more there for you soon thank you so much thank you Phil goldblat mayor daget vice mayor site and city council members uh my comments have to do with the uh future agenda item request uh today uh I have here in my hand the entire text of proposition 314 approved by the voters of the State of Arizona as well as the text of the analysis Mr goldblat yes um can you please hold for just a moment yes Sterling yes the future agenda item request is a an item later on the agenda and the appropriate time for comments on that would be when that item is up before the council I believe that his request is to ask us to consider an additional Fair would that still need to come during that item no no it it it's on the fair that you're taking up today however I thought that that was not officially on the agenda that it was something after the agenda and so that therefore would would be appropriate I thought to comment on it uh now well we are going to to take public comment at that time oh you are yeah okay so you would be able to give this testimony at that time that's correct okay okay thank you yeah thank you and sorry about that confusion all right up next we have Council liaison reports oh we have another open call to the public it's all right um aaria Shalom uh I have something I have to say uh God has sent me here to tell you guys so I'm going to say this hear the word of Adonai I'm going to send my messenger of fire he will consume the land the high hills and high places will be devoured and the Tall Cedar will be burned up then my name will be known as holy among the people ad and I will fulfill his word he will be quick in fulfilling it he will not delay he will complete it he will cause Ashes to fall like snow smoke will rise like a furnace and the ruins will be carried away in truckloads that is all I have to say sh thank you is that it for open call to the public yes mayor all right next up we have Council liaison reports and I'm going to start with council member alen thank you mayor I had two um com uh commission meetings this week sustainability and tourism um both of them were pretty routine the agendas are available for review on the website in sustainability uh they had a pretty robust discussion over the the code amendments that are being discussed um also at the deas here on Council uh and that was a great conversation um tourism was a nice update about all things that are going on in the Flagstaff region thank you and with the council's permission I'm going to reorder the um agenda and take Council liaison reports now because I see that I skipped proclamations and recognitions so my apologies for that um council member Garcia thank you Madame mayor uh last Thursday we had our library commission meeting and we heard a lot of progress being made and here are some of the highlights the Forest Lake branch of our uh Library uh is working in tandem with local community groups to establish a volleyball court near the library where patrons can check out volleyball equipment and play after they're done reading or checking out their library books I want to give a huge shout out to Nate um from the Fleet Services Management Department um uh for helping out the new bookmobile driver Becca to obtain her CDL license uh the bookmobile is now fully operational and making weekly tours around our uh Northern Arizona region very excited very exciting news for those who live far away and do not have access to uh the libr library and um an interesting factoid more folks visited our Northern Arizona family of libraries then attended Phoenix Suns basketball games in 2024 I believe and lastly National Library week is coming up um this next month I believe and um we will be reading a proclamation here so here at the Das so we invite all the board members to to um come to that event when it comes thank you mayor council member Matthews thank you mayor um a week ago we had our Mountain line board meeting um and just to update the public there is a parcel of land right behind the current Administration in bus garage um um on the east side of town um six acres that mountain line is pursuing to go into partnership and turn it into um affordable housing maybe Workforce housing so we're just investigating that and moving forward um with that Pursuit also as promised in prop 488 Mountain line is planning for service improvements in August of 2025 proposed service improvements include a 30 minute frequency on route five that's Chesire extension of Route 8 West Route 66 to Woody Mountain Road and modify route two Cedar Hill to permanently serve the Mesa on the eastbound leg of this route the board conducted a public hearing and opened a public comment period um I believe the other day the public is invited to review the service charges and provide feedback through April 15th by visiting Mountain line.

a.gov backs service charges that's all and council member alen yeah I just wanted to um further clarify with the tourism Department we did have a presentation from a community partner the downtown business Alliance executive director um Hunter Who provided uh the tourism commission a presentation I believe he's provided many of us individually about uh the vision for downtown and um a budgetary road map for how to achieve a much more vibrant and much more living uh prosperous downtown as we look into en enacting our Downtown Vision plan uh it was a really nice conversation I think it was really great for him to get to that commission I think he'll be uh at at my prompting trying to visit with other commissions as well it's a great conversation and very important to get all that feedback thank you council member Spence thank you mayor I am the council a on to the Transportation Commission which um meets quarterly it has two committees that are very active and meet monthly one is The Pedestrian committee the other is the bicycle committee and serving both of these uh user groups in our community um I am happy to share with the public and the council the upcoming project for this summer to repave some 50 miles of the foots trails with asphalt this will be a complete complete uh take down of the existing asphalt trails and uh reprocessing the uh asphalt to put down uh a more permanent and longlasting layer of asphalt so that project uh is in the neighborhood of a $3 million project and it's going to happen this summer we can all look forward to nice smooth foot trails in the future thank you council member house thank you mayor uh the Housing Commission met last week to discuss um a couple different important topics um they considered approval for um some utilization of the rental incentive Bond program as well as an extensive conversation on the last cap co- Concepts and um uh conversation on um working to amend zoning codes for um to address missing middle housing types so a lot of robust conversation and looking forward to the future of those as well thank you vice mayor real brief um there is a metr plan meeting here in council chambers Thursday 1 to 3 thank you and the Housing Authority had a meeting today and voted unanimously to to support um taking on the additional vouchers that Council heard about so it will be coming back to council for our decision soon and these are housing vouchers um so that's pretty exciting to have 50 additional and now we're going to move back to where we should have been uh proclamations and recognitions first we have Girl Scout awards and then Girl Scout week so if all of you would join us up here the adults the the um youth everyone oh don't worry all right so we have a recognition for each of you and then we have a proclamation so if you will stay up here for the whole thing after I read the proclamation we will take a photo and then if if one of you would like to speak to the audience you are welcome to do so did Lisa come up here oh okay all right so the each recognition reads the city of Flagstaff recognizes the dedication and perseverance needed to earn the Bronze award from the Girl Scouts of America the city of Flagstaff recognizes that significant leadership and Community Services provided by such Scouts as they become involved citizens the city of Flagstaff commends Alyssa harelson for obtaining her Bronze award through troop 6520 and recognizes her as a future leader who's that [Applause] the city of Flagstaff commends Amelia Bowman for obtaining her silver award through troop 6503 and recognizes her as a future [Applause] leader the city of Flagstaff commends Cecilia Mets for obtaining her silver award through troop 6527 and recognizes her as a future leader congratulations the city of Flagstaff commends Elizabeth Broadbent for obtaining her silver silver award through troop 6527 and recognizes her as a future leader [Applause] the city of Flagstaff commends Ella Pew did I pronounce that correctly you for obtaining her silver award through troop 6527 and recognizes her as a future [Applause] leader the city of Flagstaff commends emilin Morgan White for obtaining her Bronze award through troop 3170 and recognizes her as a future [Applause] leader the city of Flagstaff commends Layla dector for obtaining her Bronze award through troop 6520 and recognizes her as a future leader [Applause] the city of Flagstaff commends Quinn Buzzard for obtaining her Bronze award through troop 3170 and recognizes her as a future leader the city of Flagstaff commends Raina boam Bame for obtaining her silver award through troop 6527 and recognizes her as a future [Applause] leader the city of Flagstaff commends Samantha Brink for obtaining her Bronze award through troop 6520 and recognizes her as a future [Applause] leader the city of Flagstaff commends Sonora Simmons for obtaining her silver award through troop 65 27 and recognizes her as a future [Applause] leader the Girl Scouts of the United States of America founded in 1912 is a worldwide organization that empowers girls and young women by providing them with opportunities to develop leadership skills build self-confidence and make a difference in their communities there are over 160 registered girls and Girl Scouts in the sunny Peak Service Unit which extends from Sedona to Winslow to paage Sunny Peak Service Unit sold over 60,000 boxes of cookies during the 7we cookie season and will be donating over 10,000 boxes of cookies to local nonprofit organizations cook season teaches girls five key skills goal setting decision marking money management people skills and business ethics during Girl Scout week we celebrate the achievements of the Girl Scouts and recognize the invaluable contributions they make to society as they work to create positive change in their communities nation and the world the Girl Scout organization continues to inspire girls to develop lifelong friend ships explore new ideas and take action on issues they are passionate about from service projects to environmental advocacy and Beyond Girl Scout week from March 9th through 15th 2025 celebrates the 113th anniversary of the founding of girl scouting by Juliet Gordon low now therefore I Becky daget mayor of the city of Flagstaff to hereby proclaim the week of March March 9th 2025 to March 15th 2025 as Girl Scout week in Flagstaff Arizona [Applause] who would like to speak does anyone want to speak thank you we've got cookies up here all right thank you [Applause] okay if there is anyone here to accept the proclamation for women's History Month can you please come up I don't know if they made it or not okay thank you how are you thank you for being here you I am very honored to read this Proclamation I don't know how I can beat that but I'm going to try the city of Flagstaff joins the national celebration of women's history and the contri contribute contributions of women of every race class and life experience in shaping the growth Prosperity resiliency and Legacy of our nation in ways both documented and undocumented women in this country have played and continue to play critical economic cultural and social roles in every area of the life of our nation representing a significant portion of the labor force including enduring legacies and volunteer services philanthropic and cultural institutions the United States military and in local state and National governance we recognize that despite the continuing disparities and wages and opportunities they face women continue to serve as leaders for their own rights and the civil and economic rights of others and we honor the the national call to reverse the years in our history for which the roles of women in shaping that history have been overlooked and undervalued the national women's history Alliance has announced the theme of 202's women's History Month commemoration is moving forward together women educating and inspiring Generations celebrates the Collective Strength and influence of women who have dedicated their lives to education mentorship and Leadership through their efforts they have served as an inspiration for all gener generations both past and present therefore I vice mayor Miranda sweet on behalf of Mayor Becky daget do hereby proclaim the month of March 2025 as women's history month thank you okay um I just want to say thank you for the opportunity to be here in the acknowledgement [Applause] all right and so there is a row the third row has opened up so if you're if you're standing in the back and would like to sit down there are um several seats down here the Girl Scouts have left the building okay so skipping over Council liaison reports because we already did it we will go to appointments and this is an appointment to the open space commission there are two of them one expiring April 2027 one expiring April 2028 and please indicate which one you are appointing when you make your appointment first up we have council member Spence thank you mayor we have several uh very qualified applicants to serve on the open space commission and I am pleased to announce my selection is uh William Bill cluan to serve a full three-year term on the open space Commission I'll second all right so that is the um let me get back to that screen sorry so that is the April 2028 correct okay uh is there any discussion all those in favor I I I any opposed all right uh council member Garcia thank you madam mayor and I would also like to give a huge shout out to everyone who applied and remind them to keep on leaving your application in there and uh keep on applying it took me a couple of times to get my first commission here at the city council as well um and they were all wonderful applicants but in that tough choice I made one for myself I'd like to appoint current commissioner Lena Wallen to a term expiring April 2027 on the Open Spaces Commission congrat ulations and welcome to Public Service well you know you've been here before but congratulations do we have a second I'll second that any discussion all those in favor I I any opposed all right we're moving down to the consent agenda all matters under consent agenda are considered by the city council to be routine unless a member of the city council expresses a desire at this meeting to remove an item from the consent agenda for discussion the consent agenda will be enacted by one motion approving the recommendations listed on the agenda unless otherwise indicated expenditures approved by Council are budgeted items so we have eight a b c d uh are there any that anyone would like to pull all right then I will entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved sir second any discussion all those in favor I I all right we're moving down to routine items 9A consideration and Adoption of resolution number 2025-the Wastewater Mains and services so we have um heard this item before had a presentation on it and tonight we are looking at adopting the resolution and adopting the ordinance so uh council did you have any questions for staff before we all right then I will entertain a motion to adopt the resolution mayor I move that we adopt resolution number 2025-the city clerk mayor no reading on this one it'll be for the ordinance oh it says ordinance my apologies okay next up we have um a motion to read ordinance number 2025-the all right city clerk an ordinance of the city council of the city of Flagstaff amending the Flagstaff city code title 13- 9-2 D12 private pressure Wastewater Mains and services by adopting by reference that certain document entitled 2025 pressure Wastewater code Amendment providing for repeal of conflicting ordinances severability Authority for clerical Corrections and establishing an effective date thank you can I get a motion to adopt so moved second any discussion all those in favor I I hi any opposed all right moving down to item 9B consideration and approval of contract the Fourth Amendment to the design build contract with Hunter Contracting in the amount of 688,000 project good afternoon mayor vice mayor members of council David Peterson project manager in Capital Improvements I have a short presentation today and the last time hopefully that we're here in front of you for the interbasin waterline this is our closeout our fifth GMP again I just wanted to mention the stakeholders that make this Amazing Project possible I'd like to first and foremost thank the forest service mik Matt McGrath and Aaron maville the cokano national forest has been paramont in making sure we achieve the permitting that we need and make sure that we this one's unique because it's a city project that's completely done on Forest Service property uh so that partnership has made this this possible in addition with dffm funding which I'll go into here shortly and then Hunter Contracting as well which has joined us today uh and Jacob's Engineering and a myriad of City staff as well and Hunter is here today because every time we do a presentation I try to include some exciting news so I'm not avoiding that in this presentation either I would like to say that Hunter has uh submitted for four Awards uh two have not been awarded yet but two have and they have won two of those Awards which Stacy BK is presenting council's award uh so I believe this one will end up in one of the showcases out here in the lobby uh but we'll leave this up here come down and look at it as you please um but a Monumental accomplishment for an amazing project uh Stacy Brian Hunsinger who you'll hear from shortly from water services on the wildlife drinkers uh the three of us were able to go down in January to accept these Awards with Hunter uh for the Arizona chapter building Arizona award and then a several weeks later they received the pen patent luster safety award as well did you want to say a quick note Chuck you guys have made it possible so mayor daget vice mayor sweet council members I just wanted to say it's uh it's been a real pleasure working with uh city of flag staff and their and the staff uh I tell my guys that you don't always get a everyone working together to solve a problem here and that's exactly what everyone has done and we really appreciate the opportunity this is just an example of everyone coming together to uh to repair that water line repair the road so that it'll keep it from washing away again so thank you and congratulations on the award it's yours too thank you thank you thank you Chuck and team just wanted to go over briefly gmp5 so again this is with Hunter Contracting for a little under $689,000 and in a Time extension of 75 days that'll get us through the end of calendar 25 even though we're expecting as I'll touch on the next slide expecting to close out the work here in early fall of 25 uh weather dependent as many of you have seen up there there's a lot of factors that we don't control up there but anticipating what we can in the time timelines we can we're anticipating early fall uh this list of sites here I want to give that a caveat there's 12 sites that we need to finish up none of those are being constructed from scratch so some of them need some more gaban some of them need more AB some of them need more opportunes to the water line and such so don't get overwhelmed when you see the 12 on there uh something that can be overwhelming at times is the maintenance of the road and waterline there's a lot of dead trees up there that fall across the road there's a lot of uh material Rock and such that deposits across the road I would like to give a shout out to Flag Staff Wildland fire Crews that were able to unbelievably get up their last month and clear out a lot of the dead trees across W the lower portion of waterline Road um surprising that they could do that in February but hopefully we have a more productive March precipitation wise and then also just wanted to mention that we have a series of requirements that we have with the forest service we really want to maintain that excellent partnership that the city has with the forest service so we need to make sure that we're closing things out in a copacetic way that allows them to fulfill their requirements as well and I just wanted to point out too this is wellhouse 11 on the bottom right side of this picture this is one of the whouses that I shared maybe three presentations ago to council where this wellhouse was filled halfway up with sediment uh and then the pipeline which is about the mid midpoint or midline of this road was completely exposed so now we have a concrete cap can't really tell in the picture but these are concrete lined rip wrap is what we call them but essentially they're chunks of Rock of different size that are anchored into the concrete so when we have a flooding event in the future it's going to come from the bottom left of this picture cross over the roadway to the mid right and then drop back into the channel where it belongs not in our well houses I'm not going to go over all the dates of these but these are all the gmps that we've been in front of council with starting back in January of 23 one I did want to point out here is the inspection services contract I know GMA Cortez with ardura is here at the time that was SW typically in capital projects when we construct them we have engineering inspectors that are part of the team that are going out there making sure the materials that are installed are copacetic and in plan with what the designers intended to um we don't have the capacity as City staff to be able to get up there every day it's a long drive up there and back sometimes we've had construction days of 18 hours right and it's it's a long time to be able to pull City staff away from other projects that we have going on in the city so this required us to have an Outsource for inspector up on this project so that's one I just wanted to pull apart because it's different than the gmps which are with Hunter Contracting uh contractually uh I would like to point out that the Arizona Department of Forestry and fire management was reimbursing the city 16.1 million dollar for this project so I'm happy to report we get to give a dime back to the state taxpayers uh what has really made this possible is the amazing communication of this team being able to work with remarkable people accomplishing the phenomenal and then also Water Services have stepped up to take care of some of the things that have taken place outside of the scope of the burn scar of this project such things as like spring catch basins some pipeline damage that we had outside of the burn scar so by partnering that with this re reimbursement we've been able to come in on budget and with that I'm happy to answer any questions or comments and again thank our Hunter crew and the award that I would encourage you to come look at too so thank you so much for your time thank you Council are there any questions before I take a comment and a motion from council member sweet uh council member Matthews thank you Hunter and and team thank you so much been on the tour a couple of times it's just it's pictures don't do it justice so thank you so much for just the um Innovative you know design and and hopefully we won't have to go back up there again and Dave thank you for coming in under budget by 10 S I think it's probably unheard of it's not always the case but happy to report J and to the city staff team I know it took a huge effort by so many people when we went on those tours it's it's a big group that goes out there and everybody's so proud of the work and we all should be it's it's the gold star so thank you so much um so vice mayor go ahead and make your comment and then council member house has a comment thank you mayor I just too wanted to congratulate the team I went out and did a tour and it's very impressive I mean words can't describe what you all have been able to been able to accomplish um and I just wanted to thank you and everyone here and who worked on this project it is just quite amazing so thank you thank you council member house thank you mayor David and team thank you all so much this is absolutely Monumental I won't belabor the point um of council member Matthews and vice mayor swe but just want to reiterate how substantial and extensive and wonderful this work is and how uh grateful we as the council and the full community I think it's safe to say are for um not only the efforts on this project but also the expedited way in which you you all tackled these things um knowing how essential this is to the future of our community so thank you all so much and well done thank you vice mayor did you want to make a motion would be my honor thank you so I move that we approve the Fourth Amendment to the design build contract with Hunter Contracting Company in the amount of $688,000 adding GMP 5 for construction and repair services for the inner basin waterline restoration project with a contract duration of 75 calendar days and authorize the city manager to execute the necessary documents sir second any discussion all those in favor I I any opposed all right thank you thank you whose water bottle is that that is mine to stay hydrated with all the work that we're doing oh okay thank you all right next up we have item C consideration and approval and ratification of contract for the concessionaire services license agreement with Highline snack and vending uh for the micro markets and coffee kiosk at the airport good morning mayor vice mayor and Council Brian G airport director I'm pleased to present to you today a um license agreement for airport concession Air Services at the Flagstaff Airport so I wanted to start off with a little bit of history about food and beverage concessions at the Flagstaff Airport so um some might remember we had a cafe in the terminal on the pre security side of the TSA checkpoint and some vending machines in the passenger waiting area uh post security up until 2023 those vending machines were actually managed by the restaurant that was operating in that space um unfortunately that ter that contract terminated in 2023 and we um moved forward with trying to find some additional options for some food and and um beverage Vending in the space uh for now as a stop measure what we've done is we've added some city um contracted vending machines both pre and post security and in 2023 we actually went out for two different requests for proposals to try to find a new vendor for that CA space unfortunately through both of those proposals we did not find any viable vendors that submitted uh to operate in that area um after the second of those proposals went out we did meet with some of the vendors that we expected to present folks that we had heard some interest from prior to the rfps being issued to find out why they had not um presented proposals uh for those uh for that operation and they mentioned some challenges specifically related to the operations in the airport environment uh first off the airport terminals open 365 days a year with passenger traffic every day so that was a little bit of a challenge for for some of those operations we did want somebody that could commit to being open all year uh Additionally the desired operating hours to catch most of our airline passengers were challenging uh so on a typical day we have a few departures between 6 and 7: a.m.

which means those passengers are arriving at the terminal between 4: and 5: a.m.

so having a restaurant that was open and ready to operate starting as early as 4: or 4:30 and then continuing through at least the departing flights to catch the folks that are most likely to uh look for those food and beverage Services was a challenge uh specifically related to high Staffing costs and some limited customers so through the course of the day uh typical day where we might have six to eight flights you'll have large rushes with maybe 70 passengers in at a time and then periods with lower traffic between that that made it hard um so after that we kind of shifted gears and looked for a new uh option potentially to get provide those services at the airport and we issued a Revis request for proposals in 2024 for an unintended food and beverage sales option we did receive two options for that and after scoring those an internal panel of City staff scored those and found that Highline snack and vending was selected as the highest scoring proposal so um there in your packet today you should have seen a draft of that license agreement this is a highlight of the scope of what that project is going to include so it includes two micro markets we're going to go over in a little bit uh more detail in a few slides what exactly those are going to entail but two micro markets one pre Security One post Security Plus one coffee kiosk pre-security I think that's probably the most exciting item for us at the airport that's I think the number one requests we get is when we're going to have fresh coffee available at the airport again so excited to have that as an option um um and then from a revenue standpoint the airport will receive 20% of the gross quarterly receipts of that operation plus an additional commission if annual sales volume exceeds 120,000 per year U schedule opening for this is pretty quick it's a relatively fast turnaround so we're hoping to have these in operation by the end of April of this year so I mentioned uh that there were two locations the first we wanted to talk about today is the pre-security micromarket location which will also house the coffee kiosk so this is essentially the same space as the previous airport cafe um it's directly across from the TSA checkpoint we did make some Renovations in there with some of the grant funding we had in the last couple of years where we removed some of the broken flooring uh fixed some of the light fixtures really cleaned it up so it is kind of turn key to add some equipment no matter what the operation looks like uh and I should mention it's a separate project but we are excited that we're partnering with discover Flagstaff and the convention in visitors bureau to open a a visitor center on the opposite side of the space so there'll be a small Visitor Center operated buyer discover Flag Staff team and then the micro Market on the opposite side of that along with the coffee kiosk with kind of a shared seating area in the middle um so you can see on that map there this is an overhead view the micromarket being essentially behind what was formerly the bar counter of the restaurant space and the coffee kiosk being a little bit around the corner from that so hopefully the queuing line between the two different operations won't interfere with each other too much the other location is a post secur micro Market uh this is going to be along the west wall of the passenger holding area the secure holding area after the TSA checkpoint we are hoping in the future to add a coffee key us to this area as well though some infrastructure challenges are preventing us from doing that at this time as part of this agreement uh mostly that side of the building doesn't really have any plumbing services so water and some sort of drain is what's required to have one of those coffee machines there right now we don't have that in the area where it would fit in that facility so we're hoping to find a way to install some of that um that infrastructure so we can host one in the future but for now it'll just be the micromarket post security so what exactly is the micro market and how does that serve the customers at the airport so first off the micr markets will be stocked and maintained by Highline staff with some support from staff from The Visitor Center and from airport staff we do have a rendering here of potentially what the micromarket will look like once installed essentially it is a u staff lless vending option where you walk up to the payment portal and you can scan your card uh once you've entered that payment card it'll allow you to open the doors to the cabinets and it uses some software to track what items people pick up and whether they keep them because if they put them back it doesn't charge them for it but whatever items customers can look at them they can uh you know read about them and figure out if they want them once they close the door the system then charges them for any items they picked up uh so it's a um pretty neat system that doesn't require any staff to be present of course it is in a busy area of the airport so we will have staff in the vicinity that can kind of keep an eye on it but no direct involvement similarly to the coffee kiosk it is going to be something similar to the middle image on this where you do have different options for various types of hot beverages uh coffee hot chocolate things like that um and I think it's pretty sophisticated we do have um some Representatives here from the vending company so if anybody has any questions they can go I'm sure they can go into more details about what exactly um the menu options include um but again a staffas option for that coffee kyosk and I think most exciting for us the other big question we get from our customers a lot is what we have in terms of fresh food options as I mentioned right now we do have those vending machines that the prepackaged food but the nice thing about the micro markets is they can include fresh packaged food things like Fresh Sandwiches wraps salads fresh fruit coffee all those things will be available at this micro market and we can work with that vendor uh to really nail down exactly what um items are going to be stored in that based on the demand and the feedback we get from our customers additionally it's another good place that we can sell some travel accessories so we do you know in the airport people get to um get ready for their flight and realize maybe they left their charger at home that's the type of item that could be also included in these types of kiosks headphones other T types of travel accessories something we'll also be considering including in these and so a staff recommended action today is to uh review and approve that concessioner Services license agreement and authorize the city manager to exe execute any necessary contracts um and we're here for any questions we're excited about this opportunity and appreciate you looking at it today thanks Brian any questions Council comments all right I'm ready for a motion mayor yes I move to approve the concession ER Services license agreement with high Highline snack and venine Inc to add two micro markets and a coffee kios at the Flagstaff pman Airport and authorize the city manager to execute the necessary document I'd like to Second any discussion all those in favor I I any any opposed all right thanks so much Brian thanks Brian all right so moving down to item number 10A I am going to resume the public hearing uh because I did not close it at the last meeting and I believe that we have a couple of presentations be sure do thank you mayor all right I took a deep breath so I don't talk as fast as last time so we're gonna do this a lot more slower it's going to be great this time so um thank you for continuing that once again this is for the mtown Second Amendment to the dev development agreement my name is Wesley Welch I'm a senior planner with the city of Flagstaff presentation this time is going to be expanded upon a little bit based on the conversations we had last time um the beginning is going to focus on the development agreement Amendment language itself I'm going to have Kevin fincel he was person who was kind of in the past development agreements and also was part of the uh discussion to get this one together so I'm going to have him present that first and then I'll follow up with the code requirements thank you thank you Wesley Uh Kevin fcil Deputy City attorney as Wesley said um I'm up here today because staff bribed me to be here and do some work for him um I was involved in the da helped with that and I was involved in this second Amendment so I guess I have some institutional knowledge that I can help share today and hopefully get everybody on the same page before Wesley and the rest of the team chump jump into some of the details um but I am going to go all the way back to the original d on this um so we did enter into the DA for this P3 project back in 2018 um P3 U public private partnership this is the project that essentially moved the theater the movie theater out to the mall moved ad do into the movie theater and opened up that property for two things one for the University extension and then also for development of this miltown property so the it was ADOT the city of Flagstaff and and vintage Partners or VP Cinema um who was involved in this that project um that da also included obviously a rezoning ordinance um that allowed for the development of a specific site plan so it was very very clear when the entitlements were granted and I have the entitlement section of the original da up there on the screen um it granted vintage the ability to build the site plan that was in front of council at that time in 2018 that was approved by council at that time in 2018 and that's what they were allowed to build um in addition to that so we gave them that entitlement to the ability to build that site plan for five years so you see that in paragraph two here on the screen in addition the development agreement also allowed vintage to construct that approved site plan under the code that was in effect as of I think it was May 2017 so that's this paragraph three in the original da you see here on the screen and you can see it's really the first part of that um that locks them into not only the zoning code but other codes and regulations and says you can build your site plan and use that 2017 code for a period of five years so the effective date of this da was 2018 essentially extended that until 2023 so that was the deal from from the very beginning it's common that we do that that is not a surprise or shouldn't be a surprise especially with a project like this as I mentioned before there were a lot of moving Parts a lot of Partners properties being exchanged properties being dedicated we knew this project was going to take some time and because of that the parties agreed to give that fiveyear window for vintage to be able to build their site plan and utilize the code that they developed that site plan with um so it gave them it locked them into that in 2021 we did a First Amendment to that da and it did a couple different things um but I want to focus on how it impacted that paragraph two and three um but but a couple things were going on we wanted to make sure we were all on the same page with what the effective date was so it talks about that also the da um had Road improvements built into it so the ex the extension of University and Bula and that piece of the project as well as the underpass and vintage was going to build those initially but we always build into project or into Das that if something something happens and vintage doesn't um proceed in a certain time frame with those improvements the city can step in and we can do the improvements on our own and then any share to be contributed by vintage can be paid to us later and so that's what we were doing in this agreement as well so we were establishing that effective date making it very clear we were also saying the city's going to take over these Transportation improvements and then vintage is going to pay us their share later later on and and one thing I want to call out here is that that Amendment um says that vintage was going to pay an amount upfront about 1.6 million they've done that um they were then going to pay a true up payment once the underpass is done and they have five years to make that true up payment so assuming the underpass is done sometime this year hopefully that's the case um they will have five years so through 2030 to make that true up payment which is essentially the difference between the total cost of the underpass um minus the 1.6 already paid and the 400,000 that the city committed to in the original da and that's important because when we get to something towards the end of my piece here but that's the then the first then the da also the first amendment also said um we extended The Five-Year grace period to use the current the 2017 code and to lock in those entitlements that site plan for an additional two years so at the time vintage was having and you can ask them about this they'll tell you but I'll give a quick summary the understanding is they were having some time finding trouble finding a partner to build the apartment complex on the miltown property because of that they were they were still looking they were knew that five-year deadline was coming up in 2023 and even in 2021 they wanted to push that out two more years um Council approved that through this first amendment so this first amendment actually extended that 5year period to seven putting it at 2025 December 20 2025 and that's really where we and this is the language in here you can see down here in paragraph three where the city extended oh didn't do that the city extended it for two years to 2025 so that's already done that's essentially what we were operating of that's what we're operating under right now is that the city has already said vintage build your current site plan and you can build your current site plan with the 2017 code in place and you can do that through December of 2025 so now we get to the Second Amendment so in September about that time sometime in 2024 um vintage informed staff that they found a partner they found someone to build that apartment complex and essentially that partner looked at the approved site plan and said we really want to do something a little bit different we want to and they'll tell you kind of generally what they're thinking but they want to amend that site plan um they we sat down with staff and looked at everything and really focused on some of the agreements and we looked at the rezoning ordinance which I don't have up here on the screen I can show it if you want the rezoning ordinance is very clear it says vintage you're going to build the approved site plan that's the first condition of the resoning ordinance also as we saw and this is the amended language but the entitlements were specific to a numbered site plan it was very specific this is your entitlement you can build that site plan and you can build that site plan you can use that old code code for now seven years well since they wanted to amend it the first question was are we talking a minor modification or something beyond that and we're talking something beyond that the um rezoning ordinance actually says you can make minor modifications to your site plan but after kind of talking it over with staff it was pretty clear they were going to be outside those minor modifications so they're amending a site plan so now we have an agreement that says you have to build a site you have to build according to the site plan you have the ability to do that for seven years you can use the code from 2017 for seven years through 2025 but it's specific to that site plan and now we know you want to change it so after looking at that staff said well you're really locked into that site plan so if you want to go this route a couple things needs needs to happen one you need to go through the rezoning process and you need to do that because you need to change those conditions in the zoning ordinance we're not talking about that today that would be something in the future but also your da gives you the ability to use your 2017 code through 2025 but it's specific to that site plan and they still want to use that 2017 code so we said if you want to use that 2017 code for an amended site plan we need to amend this language and it's up here on the on the screen in the da to make it clear that your entitlements and we'll get to the next paragraph too but your entitlements we're talking about a site plan that's approved or that may be amended and approved by Council the idea being that if you want to come forward with an with an amended site plan you're going to have to go to council for the rezoning anyway but we got to make it clear if you want to use that 2017 code that the extension that we granted before to seven years applies not only to the approved site plan but the one you plan on but your amended site plan the one you're planning to bring forward and then we built in we want to make sure Council has the ability to approve it because you approved the initial site plan so any amended site plan Council has to approve as well and we decided that this is really we want to do this first we want to bring this to council first we want to make sure council's on the same page that if they're going to allow vintage to amend this site plan and still use the 2017 code we wanted to make sure it was very clear the council understood that was what was happening the reasons why and that we were going to build it into the amended da so that everybody understood the rules we were playing under so if that were to happen and this goes to the second piece there from five to 9 UM if this were to happen and Council were to sayure go forth and amend your site plan vintage and use the 2017 code understanding you have to bring it back to us to amend it and we have to approve that go ahead and do that I think last time we were here vintage said they would love to get in front of council with that project or that item in August or September of this year if that were to happen we'd have to council would have to approve the amended site plan and then we'd have to if they approve the if you approve the amended site plan you'd have to then rezone or go through the rezoning process to amend the rezoning ordinance that can take a little bit time so the their thought was well if we do that in August September couple meetings then we have to go through the rezoning process that's a couple more meetings we're probably talking hopefully getting everything done end of September early October we have a deadline of December 2025 that we can use our 2017 code so we just spent all these months amending our site plan hopefully bringing something back that you like but even if you like it now we're on a real tight deadline to get through and start getting building permits and that's really what that date is talking about that's the deadline to get those building permits or get your civil plans approved so they wanted to extend that out um so that's why you see on here from 5 to 9 it's already at seven the we we didn't amend this first amendment didn't amend the language of the original da it just said what we were going to do so this is really no matter what I mean that five is really seven and they're asking to go Den nine to give them that leeway to say if Council we go through this process if Council reasones if Council approves the amended site plan now we have some time to get it through the development process you can ask vintage all you want about that timing but that's that's why they requested that number and that's why you're seeing it there the second piece of development standards all we're doing is cleaning up this Lane language here so the original language again said you have a site plan that's approved you can use all the codes that are in effect as of the effective date and the zoning code um in effect as of May 5th 2017 um this clarifies that really what they're asking for is to utilize a zoning code from 2017 but when they come through with their amended site plan it's going to meet the current code the current fire code the current building code current engineering standards all under current reg all other current regulations so this just cleaned that up a bit um and I think that's it unless Council has any questions for me on that background piece council member Matthews thank you mayor Kevin um if you go back a couple of slides how far back forget it um so worst case scenario and and this will come up later on in the discussion I believe but um you had stated that their approved their da right now is approved with the specific um site plan um specific da and they have till the end of this year and all they need to and it's a five right now the Project's five stor with about or, 186 beds if if this was not to uh move forward they still legally can can move forward with that and just as long as they get the building permits or the Civic plans done by the end of the year they could build that project in theory yeah yeah they yeah let me just summarize that and then you can tell me if I got it what you're saying right yes they currently have an approved site plan um I recall it being a pretty large building Wesley can tell you all the details about it um they have that site plan approved and through the first amendment this Council the council itself um gave them seven years for that entitlement to build that site plan and also seven years to build to use the 2017 code so yes if Council decided not to approve this amendment and vintage said said okay fine we're going to build the currently approved building they can go through and build that so long as they get a building permit or civil plan approval December 13th thank you any additional questions for Kevin council member Garcia um this is really just to reiterate uh council member matthews's point so if I was to vote no on this project what happens is they just go back to the original plan that we just discussed they could they could you get that that's a great question for vintage but yeah that that that's definitely one of their options I think they have other options but that's one well good maybe I'll ask it again yeah all right I don't see any additional questions so thank you Kevin thank you Kevin you said much that much better than I excuse me just a moment did you have a question for Kevin no it's a comment I just I just wanted to make sure everyone understand that Council has had a month to consult with City staff and our wonderful people that are working on this so there might not be a lot of questions right now for City staff that's because we've had ample opportunity to sort of uh pick their brains on this stuff um and I I think there will be some more questions moving forward that are relevant and that either staff or vintage could answer thank you council member Alan so let me get back over here uh so based on our conversation last time I talked a little bit about the high occupancy housing kind of the history and also the history of miltown um some of these slides are going to be the same and then I also have the code directly pulled yes mayor oh perfect um so all of the requirements for the high occupancy housing code are found in uh specific to use section 1040 60170 was adopted in November of 2020 by ordinance and then it was amended on 125 um it did take effect I believe like three months after it was actually actually adopted it was March 1st when it took effect of 2021 all the requirements can be found in the code I pulled out the highlights um a few of them are that high occupancy housing and mixed use high occupancy housing developments with four units or greater shall be located inside a pedestrian ched Activity Center High occupancy housing or mixed use with four development dwelling units or more and that has more than 29 dwelling units per acre or more than 72.5 bedrooms breaker shall have a minimum of 20% of bedrooms contained in studio or one-bedroom units and a maximum of 30% of bedrooms contained in dwelling units with four bedrooms or more um a few more requirements if it's a mixed use high occupancy housing it should be located on a lot or parcel that a buts a street classified as a commercial Corridor um it must have a building footprint no larger than 22,000 square feet uh requires the property maintain compliance with the Flagstaff Police Department's crime-free multi-housing program and that a conditional use permit is required for all of those developments and that they require Ade adequate Transit service a able to the development site that meets the distance requirements of roughly a quarter mile um so a little bit on miltown now um so it was approved for the direct to ordinance zoning map Amendment the pplat and the development agreement in 2018 as part of the public private partnership the approved site plan consisted of three commercial pads along Milton and then the large Housing Development on the property the component had 340 units and about 1221 bedrooms which would have triggered HOH regulations if it were to gain entitlements after that code was passed um the city adopted that HOH code on November 17th 2020 and it was effective on March 1st of 2021 time frame for prop 207 claims is three years which closed the window in 2024 um and I'll let if you guys have further questions we'll let Kevin speak to this vintage could not bring a claim for miltown because they were grandfathered in and they have what they could develop um with that site plan it was attached to so they were not ripe for a prop 207 claim um the original da was effective 12418 and the entitlements and initially expired on 12323 hopefully Kevin gave you enough information to know that that date does not matter at this point uh the first da Amendment entered into late 2021 extended the expiration date for about two years the entitlements expired the end of this year the new DA Amendment will avoid HOH Provisions the applicant did not request a prop 207 claim cannot submit their claim wouldn't have been allowed until late 20125 um and just as a reminder the project still has to come through the public hearing process for a revision to the direct to ordinance zoning map Amendment come through the rezoning process it'll show conformance with any applicable specific plans the regional plan and it'll have to meet all the findings that are required of a rezone um I just wanted to put a timeline together based on some Council Direction um that kind of shows you how miltown happened and the HOH history um so this is kind of a summary of what we just talked about I'll leave it up here and I can also come back to it if we need to review it um so a little bit of code comparison um the big between the May 2016 and then the current zoning code is that there were no none of those High occupancy housing specific to use requirements um I reviewed it based on what they've submitted and what we've talked about and pulled out what I thought was relevant I do have the um all of the text up here if we want to go back to any of it specifically but I will not read it to you piece by piece you're welcome um and then a little bit of comparison on the parking uh so 2025 zoning code did add High occupancy housing parking requirements you can see that that is more based on bedroom count and not unit count the May 2016 zoning code is based on is based on the units themselves so 1.25 for Studio one and a half for bedroom two plus bedrooms are two spaces per unit the 2016 does require guest parking which is a quarter of a space for each two plus bedroom unit the HOH zoning code does not have guest parking requirements do we have any questions council member Garcia um so you were talking about the prop 207 claims and how they can no longer get those are those um can they no longer get them under only the current code that they have I'm gonna let Kevin answer this so I don't speak out of turn yeah let me let me let me go back to that slide um because I think I think I want to just re yeah so prop 207 claims three years um yes closing window 3124 kind of accurate um your claim acrs under prop 207 two different ways um one is the effective date which we call out here um of the ordinance the other is when it applies to the property and it's whichever is later so um I think going to your question um we say we can the where we ran into this with with vintage was they did file a prop 207 claim they filed a prop 207 claim and we looked at it and this is about a year and a half ago and we looked at it and said well you really don't have a r claim here and the reason why is because you didn't have the changes that were made for high occupancy housing don't apply to your current project the reason why is because as we discussed earlier they have to build that specific site plan and they're locked into the 2017 code so the position we took internally was you really don't have a prop 207 claim because that's all you can build HOH doesn't apply to you right now um I think where maybe in one of these other slides where Wesley was going was that's what we told them and they we said you did not have a claim but again there are two ways your claim acrs one is that effective date 3 years from it you have three years from the effective date or when the law applies to your property and we told them it did not apply to their property when they um served us with their prop to7 Acclaim it would likely apply after December 13 2025 does that answer your question to some extent um it I if I was thinking about um asking them to follow more of the adherence to the HOH um Provisions would that also open up a opportunity for a claim I I'm not going to get in I don't want to get into that that's usually what we would I would answer that type of question in E session if you want to go in E session I can get into more of that um it's more my legal advice so it's really more for upstairs than down here thank you okay yep do you have any other questions I believe the applicant might have something to present is it this one yes thank you very welcome thank you mayor vice mayor members of council Lindsay shuie with law firm of gamage and Burnham chivalry is not dead thank you Wes for getting my presentation up here and those were some good questions um I look forward to adding some additional Clarity and answer answering any prop to7 claims and there what we think would maybe be in the future uh but again thank you for the continuance last month I think it did lead to some some good dialogue some interesting questions this is complicated this is a complex project this is the only P3 project that I know of that has happened here in Flagstaff and therefore it is complex um um again we process this development agreement Amendment at the request and in agreement with staff and it is very procedural in nature there is an approved site plan council member Matthews the approved site plan is Big it's five stories and with a lot of beds and a lot of units our request we came to staff we asked for a request to amend that site plan and that's why we're here and again and I'll get into it but the amend Amendment will come back to council the vote tonight gives us the right to submit another site plan that this Council will get to vote on hopefully in August so again regardless of what happens tonight the owner does retain the right to develop to develop miltown and to get a permit by the end of the year so again P3 private public partnership I was wasn't involved at the time so we have Kevin Kevin who's here um ADOT uh wanted to move their ADOT headquarters and their MVD from Milton Road to new facilities the city owned some property adjacent to miltown or adjacent to the to the ADOT property they want to combine the property and and partner with a private developer in order to develop a mixed use project on this property and vintage was vintage put in an application and was picked for this development opportunity so again what were the important things that happened the city was able to develop critical Road improvements I drove them again today it's great I think those improvements along Milton and University and buo will be great and with The Pedestrian underpass great for connectivity it also provided a new home Northern Arizona headquarters for the ad do and the M uh MVD MVD so we leverage this P3 this public and private partnership in order to achieve a lot of different goals ultimately without this P3 we wouldn't have had all those things happen so again vintage relocated ADOT constructed a new Harkin dedicated the roads and right away and also funded the underpass I want to also make sure mayor and counsel vice mayor mayor vice mayor councel uh that also we haven't been sitting on our Laurels no one's been sitting around as you can see those Road improvements are not even complete yet yet and you need th those Road improvements necessitate a mixed use development at this location so again 2013 vintage is selected for the ADOT partnership Harkin 16 opens to the public uh in 2016 2018 the ADOT headquarters grand opening in 2024 the roundabout opens and the hopefully we heard The Pedestrian underpass will be complete at the end of this year um again the establishment of the new Harkin five 00,000 people and three times the sales tax revenue which is great great benefit for the city uh with the new aot facility uh as as everyone always says the best cleanest greenest type of Redevelopment is adaptive reuse repurposing that existing building into the 70,000 SQ foot ADOT headquarters today is adaptive reuse of an aging building it is the greenest most sustainable government building in Flagstaff because it's adaptive reuse vintage has done all those things they're part of the of the bargain again the First Amendment which came in front of you um was switching so the city could make the the road improvements and extending the entitlements in order to build to build uh the the mixed juuse project that we are proposing today uh it's it's a great improvements that are happening there it helps the vehicular connectivity but also the pedestrian underpath is a great Improvement and will add to this mixed use project that we are proposing so again why are we here and I feel like we're reiterating and I feel like it was lost in the first hearing so again um vice mayor the the request on the continuance and and members of council who have worked with staff to answer questions uh council member Asen I felt like you gave the the Jim McCarthy we've asked a lot of questions so if we're not asking them tonight I feel like council member McCarthy was was always good at reminding everyone that uh but again there is an approved mixed use project for the property it is five stories with multiple commercial pads if the da amendment is not approved tonight we will we have mult and as Kevin fincel alluded to we've got a couple options one we get a civil permit and we build this building exactly as is because we've got the right to do it and we can get a permit by the end of the year in the alternative as was mentioned prop 207 has two prongs either you file within 3 years we did we filed our claim we were told by your Council seal not Cil that the claim was not ripe therefore the second part of the statute says when it is I want to make sure I have it right when the regulation applies when it's applicable it will be applicable to our property in December December 13th of this year therefore if this is not approved tonight we will file our claims for any portions of the ordinance because it will be it will apply in December of this year we will end up in the same spot the only thing we will have done is waste time and potentially lose a fabulous development partner and lose the opportunity to bring what we are excited to bring which is a future conversation but a four-story building bright sized less units less bedrooms I can commit that to you Lindy we have a we have a question from council member Garcia yes yeah I just wanted to go back to the 3p partnership um I was not on council at the time so I was curious did you guys just randomly suggest that these things should be made should be done um these improvements should be better you know made so that way your development could prosper from it or was it a back and forth between you and the city that said well we're going to need you to kind of do this and we kind of need you to do that uh mayor vice mayor uh councilman Garcia great question I wasn't part of the team either um Walter Crutchfield from vintage Andor Kevin vincil who is part but I'm going to tell you they were lengthy and long negotiations nothing with your planning staff or legal staff happens quickly which again is why we're asking for the two years not in any part uh not not faulting you guys have a complicated code and a complicated process but these Road improvements were not request this these were all part of the deal relocating a DOT all of the road improvements they were not they're super upsizing there's fiber optics Optics have been added um and Kevin if you want to in the P3 but these are but these are benefits that are going to benefit your property correct and and we do take a long time but that's so we can get it right correct yeah yeah I think to answer your question um and I'm going off a ton of memory here so Walter can help me um but really what triggered the P3 is that we always had a plan to connect Bula to University that was that was in our traffic studies that's traffic plans that's what we wanted to do um the aot property was in the way so ADOT property is sitting there the old ADOT building was sitting there and essentially the question was how do we get ADOT to move so that the city can come through with these Road improvements and connect and extend Bula down there to Milton and but ADOT had no place to move ADOT wasn't going to go find it place on its own so that's where vintage came in and really it the the application is as as Lindsay put it earlier we put this out I think it was an RFP I'm G to look for Sterling to KN his head we were looking for a partner someone to come in and help ADOT move somewhere and open up that parcel so we can do our road improvements and then part of the deal could also be that private partner developing that parcel that ADOT owned because ADOT had a big parcel other than its building and that's really what it ended up being so that why that's why we call it a P3 or the public private partnership because vintage had to get Harkens to move first out to the mall to open up that site to then get ADOT to move to that site to open up their site and then we had the fresquez property behind ADOT that we contributed and combined with the ADOT parcel that was then transferred to vintage SO vintage got a parcel that they could develop they had to build the a do new offices they had to move Harkin out to the mall and the city we ultimately got our road improvements so that's how the package worked together I really appreciate that I I I just wanted to make sure that we that I understood the point that this wasn't done out of Charity it was done so they could access their property and have it yeah I wouldn't say it was yeah it wouldn't call it charity I wouldn't call it you know I mean everybody got a benefit I'll put it that way right ad got a brand new office the mall got a nice movie theater the city opened up got property opened up so it could build its Road and its connection and yes vintage got a parcel that they could develop so yeah win-win around I think it's a great project and I'm happy with the outcome thank you and council member Matthews you said um you have a qu oh you have a question now for Kevin yes I have some for Lindsay but that'll be in a minute um and just because you're recapping the history going back just another step didn't this all start because we had a citizen Bond pass to realign University I think or a request that the first year lawyer that is accurate yeah I I think I I think that's right I think yeah I think we had the money to build the Bula extension we just needed people to move so we could actually do it the alignment went to vote the alignment went to vote according to Lindsay's first year attorney actually Dan has some of the history on that we can comment on that good afternoon Dan fol community development director so the uh the Bula extension realignment of University was a project in the first 20-year Transportation tax so the the first tax that was from 2000 to about 2020 2019 and so yeah this was the last project that hadn't been constructed out of that first uh 20-year tax and let me confirm your next question comes after Lindsay is finished all right okay perfect um and great questions mayor vice mayor these are these are all great great clarifying questions so prop 207 I just wanted to add on that you know I see two options either we develop the building at five stories and and Walter as a developer partner can speak to that or their prop 207 waivers filed to amend the code and or prop to7 claims that are filed and we're back in the same spot you know in conclusion and and Walter I think wants to make a couple comments but I just want to reiterate vintage has been a good partner and and again it wasn't uh councilman Garcia it it hasn't been it wasn't charitable but it was a partnership and a lot of money has been outlaid by vintage to move all the different pieces to get to where they are today we're not asking for special treatment I've seen some allegations there we're asking for a chance to bring forward a right-sized project for a vacant parcel and the community and Council will have an opportunity to approve this project just like any other project once vintage and its development partner have had a chance to refine it going through the going through the process as anyone else would but this da amendment allows us to amend our site plan to a right-sized project it will be voted upon hopefully by this Council hopefully sooner rather than later then we can get into all the questions about bedroom count all those things but I don't want to talk about that now because that is a future conversation we need to go through the planning process like any other project I can commit to you though the project that's in is smaller footprint less height less bedrooms less units we want to right size this project and that's I respectfully request approval but before I I'd Like Walter Crutchfield he'd like to say a couple words good afternoon mayor daget and vice mayor site council members I find myself uh at a loss for words which doesn't happen very often those of you that have seen me stand here many times the things I do know are this that this agreement took over four years and 18 attorneys to draft between the State of Arizona our attorneys and the attorneys for the city of Flagstaff it had never been done it was incredibly complicated and the only way to do that is to sit at a table and look across the way and say we're going to trust and we're going to figure this out and it was all documented it was all done it was incredibly complicated so what I do know is that people have worked very hard to get to this day and I do know something else that's very simple my grandmother who taught school for 50 years taught me two things consider others needs ahead of your own and keep your word that's exactly what we've done the level of attacks against my integrity and what our motives are and what we're trying to do is is beyond the scope a resume matters you can say a resume doesn't matter for this project but I'm going to tell you a resume matters for a human being if you want to know who they are you look at what they've done so if you want to talk about affordable housing we've delivered if you want to talk about Cutting Edge habitat we've delivered if you want to talk about the P3 we delivered for the State of Arizona we delivered for the city and now we come in something that should not be difficult we have a million square foot project that we think should be downsized and we came to bring a better project but instead people who advocate for the future are saying we're trying to bypass and we're trying to get around and we're trying to do other things my resume says that's not true even if it's not accepted here I invited some friends to come today I want you to look out at them those are young people those are students at NAU honor students we're excited that they got dressed and got here on time way to go guys that's the future if we don't start thinking about how we're going to house them and move them out of neighborhoods and put them in locations like right across from the University then we will not have those students I want you to think about an eighth grader right now who maybe has the cure for cancer and could come to NAU but we don't like students and we don't want to house them why is that a statement we would ever want to make this is complicated then again it's not that complicated if a big project can be downsized and fit within the parameters of what the city was requesting some of the very people in this room were requesting it seems like that should be pretty easy to do I don't have a problem if people come forward and say we don't agree I have a problem when people come forward and say this was your motive and you did this and you did this and you did that and as much as this discourages me and as much as I want to quit I want to be on the record for the folks sitting here I will not quit I will deliver affordable housing I will deliver projects in this city and I will not be run off because you attack my character and my motive I will not quit this is not that complicated and I would ask you and urge you please think about the future of Flagstaff good developers and good people bring good development we have proven proven to be those people thank you thank you all right uh council member Matthews thank you mayor apologies yes mayor um a couple of questions I I wanted to just expand a little bit um Walter brought it up um and I think it is important we we did get a lot of uh Community comments and interest and one of the things that we all want is more housing more affordable housing and I'd like you to just recap um maybe not take too long because there's probably a big long list but just remind all of us what um vintage partners and and some of the under some of the other names of the affordable units that have been delivered here this is not uh vintage's first project up here correct so give me just a full you know little brief bullet point of most recent stuff yeah thank you uh mayor vice mayor council member Matthews vintage Partners in partnership with Capstone homes roarers Habitat for Humanity live communities po other partners have delivered more units than anyone else we've got single family homes we have 221 60% Ami or less in partnership with roarers we have 206 single family for rent with a 20% affordable component we have 220 the planning departments the market rate Apartments multif family uh with live communities we have 40 starter homes with Habitat for Humanity we have how many single family homes that a thousand 700 700 single family homes detached single family homes and more to come there's an additional phase of Timber Sky coming and there's another exciting project of tall and skinnies right that's what we all want to be tall and skinny a type of townhouse project that's going to be delivered in Timber Sky council member Matthews vintage in partnership with all of their Partners has delivered the most diverse housing types of anyone in the city of Flagstaff thank you Lindsay and um I wanted to ask you um we touched on it earlier um yes you do have the legal right it's already approved to build the five-story larger project um but if but you don't have to so what can you speak on can you share what your plan would be if we you know if this is not approved tonight what would be your next step you think yeah mayor vice mayor council member Matthews I think I touched on it a bit but yes we would either move forward and build this we would get we'd get a civil permit by the end of the year and move forward with this project as approved or bring forward a site plan or sorry was the question if I did or did not get approved if you did not if we don't get approved if we don't get approved uh we either move forward with this or we file proposition 207 claims because it is now available to us it's now it's now the ripe you to use a lawyer word ripe time in de December 14th of 2025 and we do have a handful of applicants that have filed those claims for 207 that who knows what they'll pop up in the future to be and and they're they'll be within their legal rights um one thing that you know the speed of government is something that I always um comment on because it just blows my mind but going through all this you know the citizens we we approved a tax and this was the last project as Kevin um had mentioned um but um these projects these private Public Partnerships are not fun they're not easy and so far you've put out a lot you haven't started you know on why you did this to to get a project done um and this may be why we may never see another private public partnership in the future because this it is really difficult and time timec consuming um and so I just wanted to bring that up that these are difficult times and I appreciate that Walter stepped up and probably knowing the nightmare he was going to get into just in everything that's happened over these last 10 years or however long it was so I just wanted to make that comment and um I know that we're not going to talk about site plans because that has to go through Planning and Zoning it has to come back to city council um we have to approve that so there's no fear factor right now of oh if they do this they're going to run off and do XYZ that still has to be completely approved by first to the pnz and then by S so right now all we are just talking about is which path do you take do you go with the fivestory building or just in December file a 207 claim and do this amendment anyway or do we approve it tonight right that's the bottom line mayor council member Matthews yes we we're going to proceed no matter what you just heard from Walter he's not going anywhere and wants to see this through through fruition we would you do not have the obligation to bring to approve the site plan that we bring back for you we will go through the public process just like any other development would and and again I think that as was asked a question you know HOH I think was brought in place for people who who didn't have to go through the reone process right but this will be a site plan that will be brought forward it will go through the public process and you will get to ask all those questions then thank you and just for the record one of the reasons why I ran for Council is because I was tired of seeing all those five story student housing you know monsters out there so I appreciate the proposal to make this smaller because you do have the right to build that five-story monster that we all were protesting against so council member Asen thank you I thought Garcia was next you caught me a little off guard here but that's fine um so Lindsay I'll ask you this because you're you're standing there already you know um just a quick preface I I don't personally have a problem with density and height um I think we're going to see a lot of that coming up in Flag Staff in the next several years it's kind of what we're asking for especially downtown I think flagstaff's sensibility around that topic has really evolved over the last several years um I I I think the fundamental concern is being mistaken if the argument on offer is that what we're trying to do is downsize for you uh because I I I don't I think anyone has a problem with uh a lot of density I I was going to use the word monstrosity but that would sort of negate the the point I'm making um we don't see them as monstrosities uh there's there's a different consideration here and about site plans I do think that that's a little bit relevant um I've asked to better understand what the right-sized plan entails and I feel like I I'm not even getting vague details about that uh I think it would be helpful if if if you could paint a picture for us of what a right siiz building might look like and my question really is what is it specifically that the the Builder is hoping to do that's different than what was already approved and if the new project is less dense less High less beds less units what is it about the original entitlements that pre that prevents that from happening uh so mayor uh councilman Asen so I'll tell you the the current entitlements you build what's there including the architecture and I don't know if we remember the architecture there's a lot of rock it's not very sustainable it's a large footprint there's wasted space we did have a development partner at one point that could administratively approve units and units and bed count we worked very closely with the planning department but then the architecture was such a departure from what was originally approved which by the way smaller floor plates more sustainable better building materials that it could not be approved administratively councilman Asen to make any modifications to this plan to make it better to update it update the parking numbers I would say the original approval has a lot of parking more parking means more cars I think there has also been a shift I I I agree with you mayor vice mayor council there has been a shift in Council from the time that I've been working here and it's great and I look forward to continue to work with you and the evolution of sustainability of housing of density but I also believe there's a proper mix of parking of density of height uh of all of those things and therefore in order to amend the site plan at all the lawyers agree we need to add this amended build the site plan or amend the site plan the parameters are too narrow within your minor modification process such as uh architecture mayor councilman Asen I we have to build the architecture we brought forward a beautiful building with another development partner I'm not going to put words in staff's mouth but it was it it was it was pretty it was prettier it was more sustainable it was lighter it it took cues from humph it was great it was so different staff didn't feel comfortable making that change without council's approval I can't we can't make make any of those changes without coun so this is all about architecture and the facade of the building mayor councilman Asen it's about bringing you what we believe is the best project and we believe it it it diverts from the minor modification process therefore should go through the public process should go to pnz and should go to council vice mayor thank you I know you don't want to go down too far the rabbit hole of of the future but I did have a constituent ask me about the commercial space and you know in town right now we have a lot of large buildings with empty commercial on the bottom and I'm just wondering if you can talk a little bit about the commercial space how we can ensure that won't happen and maybe any potential um people that are biting at at the bit to move in there I'm gonna may I pass the Baton to alter crfi mayor daget vice mayor sweet um this isn't uh retail on the bottom residential on top it is retail out front residential behind that's the mixed juuse type that it is so we're not worried about retail being empty um we have significant demand and we've had to basically say to everybody you need to hold still uh until we can figure out the residential piece because our conversation with staff has always been they've got to go together you can't just build the commercial and then wait for the residential and we knew that the market Market was shifting and I do want to say uh councilman Asen to your question it's been seven years since we entitled this and in that process of all the things that had to happen markets change as you know we went out on a process and interviewed a number of companies cut it to five companies cut it to one which is what we do here we brought Roars we have brought other people that are outside the market who have proven themselves and so we bring them to the market in this particular case we selected Toll Brothers uh because we like their green Focus we know that they are the luxury home builder but we knew they would pivot on this to be green sustainable and that's what we asked them to do in terms of your question uh Council woman site um I'm sorry vice mayor I I AP apologize for that you earned that um we we have had Lois and long conversations with Trader Joe's with Portillos with a whole number of fast food and casual food providers but we haven't moved forward on anything because we're trying to move the whole project forward so we don't really get the luxury of splitting it up and then just talking to a tenant which I think is sad because if we could get this done then we could go to for example a Trader Joe's and say we're ready to go and begin to move this forward so does that answer your question it does thank you okay I have a question I I believe for Kevin if you are comfortable um answering this without getting into advice will you just share what proposition um 207 is yeah um off the top of my head you want me to quote it um essentially what prop 207 is is it's um it's about di diminution in value of private property oh Lindsay has it for me here it essentially says that a private property owner after a a local jurisdiction like the city passes a land use law that allegedly diminishes the value of their property they can come in and make a claim for that diminution in value so they can come in and say hey you just passed this new ordinance it requires me to do x y z or the better example is I was previously allowed to build a five-story building you just change my zoning and now I can build a three-story building so that diminish the value of my property and then the city has some choices we can either pay the diminished value of the property um or what we commonly do in a lot of situations is we can grant a waiver and that waiver essentially says this new land use law that we just passed that said you can build only three instead of five stories doesn't apply to your property and that is goes on in perpetuity and that so that new land use law wouldn't apply to that individual's property thank you uhuh now I have a question um for Wesley or anyone else on planning staff can you um can you help us understand um where this has happened in in other projects um in terms of the amending the development agreement this is my first development agreement so I'm going to let someone else speak to that figured you were probably going to call I'm sorry mayor what what's the question the question is um the city the city of Flagstaff has um done development agreement amendments before right and I don't need to know which projects but I would just like staff to address um what the instances were what that looked like and I would also like we've had a couple of people say this sets a um a dangerous precedent or it um is a slippery slope and I'd like staff to address that as well yeah um I mean I'll just give you an example real quick one and that's Canyon Del Rio we just did that one so Canyon Del Rio we had an development agreement with them oh I can't remember when we entered into it a long time ago um but jwp is now going through Canyon Del Rio so the jwp extension going through their property um required us to go in and amend that deal da and change some things in that da to allow for that road to go through and then of course all the other Provisions that go along with it um Timber sky was amended multiple times I think one was the most recent one was to allow Roars I think that was to change the affordable afford affordability Provisions um so that roarers could come in and build the um apartment units that they are building right now um so habit yeah and allow habitat so yeah I think there we it's it's pretty it's pretty common to amend a development agreement things change um situations change so yeah we of I don't know how often we do them but yeah it's pretty common to amend Das and come into Council and say hey something happened something's a little bit different we need to amend this da to account for it or infrastructure changes yeah but those are a couple examples and maybe I should have asked specifically for um and I don't know if this happens as often because codes don't necessarily change so drastically um but do we have examples of where an existing development agreement has been amended to allow for a previous for the code that was in place um when the development agreement was created so the best example here is the first amendment did that um but beyond that one I can't think of a one off the top of my head where we had to extend that provision um that lock them into that code to give more time I think um a lot of the times what happens is you have the developer go in and they start constructing and once they start constructing they get that first building permit they get those civil plans approved and they're locked in that way um this one I think was obviously a little bit different because of the different moving pieces of it um and again I think Walter can talk about this in more detail if you want but just there were some definitely some pieces that had to come together and then they had to find the partner to build it and set them back so Council like I said approved the first amendment in 2021 to extend it out from five to seven and now we're here really focusing on just the ability to amend the site plan using that current code and then also the secondary request of if we go down that path we're going to need a little more time because that December deadline's going to come up pretty quick is Staff aware of any other um of any other development agreements that are in the same place where they were created under a previous um zoning code I think most trying to think of I thought CDR had a prior zoning code we had a provision in there about locking them in um and I can't remember off the top of my head which one M McMillan Mesa has a specific plan we relied on yeah that's true yeah it's hard to do off the top of my head I'd have to go back and look at the Das I will just tell you that locking the developer into a certain code um is not rare I mean Lindsay will just she's chiming in my ear but she'll say that down in the valley you know 10 years locking in for 10 15 years is not uncommon for a P3 according to Lindsay you can test her on that if you want um but that's what she's telling me so we're at five we were initially at five we've extended to seven now the ask is to go to nine so that's where we're at here okay but staff isn't aware of any other development agreements that are out there that aren't already where the the um project isn't already moving forward or not or stalled any other development agreement where they don't where the Project's not moving forward yeah you want I can't think one but that doesn't mean they're not out there just I can't think of one off the top of my head I don't know if Michelle has a comment but no yeah none okay thank you may daget I would like to speak to that particular issue um you don't have any other development agreements related to a public private partnership so in this case you've got multiple entities that are delivering and doing not not a single developer entity City in that process you have the State of Arizona city of Flagstaff and vintage at the end of all those other machinations to be able uh to do that I also would like to point out in 2021 when we amended the development agreement the city desired to build the road there were a whole number of reasons for that and the city obviously has done a fabulous job building the road but there was a way that they wanted to process that and so we thought if you want to build the road and this is and they and they really did we said okay well let's amend the development agreement so you can build the road and we'll deed that we'll it's not a deed but it was giving you that right because that's what the city wanted to do which then also extends time frames obviously if we didn't have the time frame extended we could have worked under the extension we had but we obviously have burned through that time so thank you all right um okay I see council member Spence uh council member Matthews thank you um Lindsay I want to go back to um the conversation that you were having with um a few minutes ago about what this uh current da and Amendment doesn't allow you to do and we kind of went down a rabbit hole on the architecture but that's not the reason why you want this amendment change correct I mean that that's if I understood you right you were giving an example of how you couldn't even change if you kept it five stories you couldn't even change the outside look correct mayor vice mayor council member Matthews we want to amend the site plan we do we and and I agree with councilman Asen there's a there's a certain amount of density and cars and people and multimodal that all belong here we want to update it exactly what that looks like I don't know but it does require an amended site plan and this development agreement gives us the opportunity to amend the site plan and get back in front of you so um this has been going on since what 2017 correct and so far um what has vintage partners gotten out of it I know you've spent a little bit of money but mayor vice mayor council member Matthews vintage has spent a lot of money and they have gotten absolutely zero in return yet on this project in the meantime it has been a privilege to work with the city on Timber sky on all those other diversity of housing options and bring those to the city on this project and they are all separate entities I think that's important to understand too right you have a different fiduciary resp Walter is the face who you see but I will tell you he has Partners back in the office where you know Walter promises all these lovely things like donating three acres to Habitat to humanity and I get a call on the way home Walter did what like I it's between you and your partner uh as far as this entity vintage has received nothing in return and is looking forward to developing a project that Council can votee on the community can be a part of but bringing a a great mixed use project to a currently vacant underutilized piece of dirt and I appreciate that I just wanted to bring that up because I think there is some sentiment out there that you know we're we're giving you know vintage a lot and you've put out a lot so far and hopefully you'll get some good returns but currently not um and I am really personally um pleased that we've also had a lot of surprisingly comments on um less parking because I you know that's my you know focus is not going to less parking and there's a big school of thought that that's where we need to go is to not require um so much parking so I was so thrilled to see that the community really doesn't want that or at least the community that's been communicating to us but the current da the current project that's approved as it stands is student housing correct uh mayor vice mayor council member Matthews and staff can correct me if I'm wrong but there is no land use category in your code or anyone else's called student housing there's not that is it approved as a mixed bedroom a combination of Studio to five bedroom units with shared space yes it is this project will be similar but different a stronger emphasis On Studio one-bedroom and two bedroom units and a decrease in four and five bedroom units um there's no such thing is student housing but it is approved with a high number of four and five bedroom un so are you saying that if um young entrepreneurs uh wanted to I had rented my upstairs last year to two co-workers um they weren't couples or anything they were just wanting to share a space they each had their own bedroom shared a common place so if if there was an entrepreneur you know group that came in and said you know we want to rent this three-bedroom if I don't think there's going to be three-bedroom at four um you wouldn't would you turn them away or mayor vice mayor mayor council member Matthews no at we would not turn them away this is an opportunity for you know a group of of kids who work at The Toasted Owl I don't want to say kids toasted 's lovely though it's an opportunity for traveling nurses I mean this is the ultimate lock and leave it's it's um furnished it's an opportunity for new Engineers that that are coming to gore who want to figure out where in town even they can live find any type of inventory this absolutely is a multi it's a multif family project that can have zero age discrimination anyone can live there now due to its proximity across from na will there be students that live there I would think so we've got a great pedestrian underpass funded by vintage uh and and but it it is open to anyone traveling nurses people in the retail space again I've always said councilman shimone should have lived in one of these places he would have been in charge of the whole place so really this is just how I understand it and I'm still learning but the walkability of this project you have Target you have restaurants you have stores you have fast food this is the direction we're wanting our city to go in where people don't have to drive their car to get to to take care of their basic needs correct mayor council member Matthews absolutely and again the concept plan that's in that's in under review now shows a small grocer footprint a sitdown restaurant with a drive-thru I mean this is the ultimate multimodal project that we are trying to bring forward thank you that's all I have vice mayor thank you this is a great discussion um thank you Lindsay so you know I do believe that we are addressing a lot of housing types and and we need all types here in Flagstaff and I just want to Circle back a little bit to affordable housing I know you can't predict the future on this development on what we're going to be looking at but I am wondering if you can reiterate again the affordable housing that Walter vintage has brought to Flagstaff and anything that you see in the future that might be coming to Flagstaff I know we can't tackle a affordable housing maybe in this development I hope and I will bring it later that we have it but how else is vintage helping Flag Staff tackle this problem thank you mayor vice mayor great question and I'm sure Walter is going to want to jump in but I'll tell you the current development agreement um at the age and stage of when it was approved again I I wasn't part of it uh brought you know a number of units there were some EX interior facing units and and the period of time was was pretty short um I think those of you on Council would agree we do want to look at what affordable means now and you know like I said with the 221 Roars units I know of other you the Lake Mary project that was just approved had 20% 10% 20 I can't wasn't my project so I can't remember but it did have an affordable component Sky Cottages which is uh single family to rent had an affordable component I think there's probably a bigger impact that that we can make and we want to look at that we want to be creative um Walter wants to come to the table and come up with something interesting so uh vice mayor good point that may be a portion of the development agreement that when we bring back our site plan through the rezone process that we will request mayor daget vice mayor sweet um what we did on the original uh miltown was negotiate from the dis um which I don't think is the most thoughtful way to think about affordable housing um I think sometimes with affordable housing you put your best foot forward you uh try as I have said to you in the past with uh Community Land Trust and then you pull back and say no this is a better solution directed by some of you and we did that at timers sky in this particular case uh we had originally committed to 21 on affordable units and they were tied to whatever the studio value was wasn't well thought through and it was negotiated on the Fly and I believe it had a 10-year limitation um we've already uh started and hope to complete in 2025 the 40 habitat for sale homes at at um Timber sky but we have 670 people who have applied for the first 10 houses so obviously the demand is far larger than 40 homes are going to be able to deliver plus a 10year limitation on affordability here even though that's what's in the agreement and I guess I could just duck behind that we don't think that's the best approach we think the best approach is to reload with habitat and our development partner is preparing that process we were we we hope to be able to announce that but I can be 100% honest with you our development partner is in the room and this venue is difficult and they've seen and heard quite a bit I had developers call me this week and say Walter if it's this hard for you who've done all this we're just not coming to Flagstaff that's fine I'm here and there are a lot of other good people here that are developing we think the right solution here is to take the support and put it towards the next 40 Habitat homes and we hope to be able to bring that to you when we come to pnz and when we come back to council that's our intention but now it's public because I said it here so thank you uh council member Garcia uh thank you uh vice mayor sweet that was exactly where I was headed with my next question was whatever the affordability component was because I know Walter that you've done so much uh with habitat I didn't know if it was going to be like an off-site deal and you kind of summed that up now now taking back to when you first came up Walter um I I hope you weren't speaking to members of the council when it was talking about challenging your character you seemed very impassionate and I was a little bit confused and um and I I felt I felt bad if you took something wrong from us because I I think that this is a really healthy discussion and um and I would like to add if the developer is in the room that wellth thought out plans come out with the best results so at least we're you know getting there at least we're getting there um during my uh the last month I when I was try going through town or when I had some free time I would stop at some of the other um quote unquote student housing complexes to kind of interview folks coming in and out and um 90% of the it was a very small sample size I'll tell you that because you you know people thought I was weird to begin with with a clipboard out front um doing things on the fly but that's just how I roll in this town you know when I want to ask or answer to my questions I go ask the people who are living it so what I did was um about 90% of the folks that uh that I asked were students and they were okay with the living situation um but I did I did run into those uh between I think the ages of like 28 and 38 that were living in those um uh shared uh Living Spaces single bedroom accommodations and and some of them were were from all walks of life life and and um I didn't get the best uh the best report from those that weren't students um they had to they were kind of forced into those situations and I know I didn't talk to everybody but what the point I'm trying to make here is I think we will hear this in the commentary but we're missing a huge uh middle of Housing and and I think when we're up here at the dis that's what we're trying to speak to um is is it's all good for the students as far as you know I could tell by being out there on the street but those who are kind of forced into those situations weren't happy and weren't able to save because of the prices of these one-bedroom Place uh units and they didn't have privacy and they didn't have like things that adults should have um so so so I'm hoping through this process and what you bring back um if that's what's decided up here at the Das that that you speak to that missing middle a little bit for us and I'll just leave you with a with a point with an answer to do I guess my my daughter in Texas uh lives in one of these style of buildings I mean it's off campus it's privately owned they serve her breakfast lunch and dinner even and it works really well for her and we're really happy that she's there she's she's really well taken care of so so when the student component in these situations I'm completely on board with because I'm living that experience but those folks that I talked to that were kind of not forced into these situations but had to live somewhere um weren't as happy and I I I want to provide housing for for that middle housing for those people to have opportunities to have that privacy in that adult life 100% uh mayor daget uh council member Garcia um excellent point and I do want to say at the front I am very passionate about this I got a number of calls this week of people that said we support you but we're afraid to come out and speak it shouldn't be that way now there's a whole bunch of reasons for that and we don't have to blame anyone for that but it shouldn't be that way in a community it should be conversations you get to the best development project when there are trusted conversations you do not get to the best development project when people make accusations that has not my been my experience with this Council this Council has been passionate to represent the citizens of this city dogged in their questions but always gracious so if if I came off that way please forgive me that was not my intention but I am passionate about this and I do and I am passionate about my word and about what we do and how we deliver to your question no single type of housing can meet the broad spectrum of needs um in this particular case what we're seeing around the country is multiple bedroom situations are being used uh successfully for students grad students which there's a huge dir of housing for grad students for na students and then First Years you know Gore I talked to the different leaders of in town and they don't have housing for their people so is it the best situation no but the way I think we can assure a situation where your daughter's situation is great and some of the people you talk to not as great it's the quality of the company that is managing that project which is why we went out interviewed cut it to five and then cut it to one we think we have the best builder manager that will provide the best environment where it will be a uh holistic place for everyone who chooses to live there my further answer would be even at a discount um those one bedroom shared in a three are more expensive than the payment at habitat the better option is equity the better option is a 38y old or a 20 30 year old who's working is getting them into a position where they can gain equity which means we have to build more Habitat homes not less we have to look for every single place we can build them we need to go back and look at all the land that the city has and say can we put Habitat homes here we have a development team they've worked pro bono they're going to continue to work pro bono we've raised all the money for the first 40 we're ready to go for a continuous use of that but that's a much better use because what happens to that 28-year-old is they get discouraged and they leave and if we lose young people and Young young families we're no longer a community we're just a place where older people have it the way they want and that's not what we need what we need is a Vibrant Community where everybody can be housed thank you all right city manager thank you mayor council very excellent discussion I thought I would attempt to distill a few things takeaways from the discussion tonight prior to um getting into public comment I'll be brief I know we have a lot of uh participants and attendees tonight who want to speak to this the P3 project here started many years ago and um there's been a lot of performance on that project on behalf of the developer uh and I don't want to be labor um again what what has been stated these are significant improvements offside improvements um I was at the ribbon cutting for the adop facility it was one of my first events here arriving to the town shortly after meeting Mr Crutchfield uh it was wonderful and um you know seeing the progression of the the the offsite improvements the relocation of the theater the opening of vot The Underpass that's now uh being built uh and Bula and we're very excited about that the these are all significant Endeavors to say the least the comment was made tonight p3s are complicated and they are and this is a complicated project even without the partnership um it is that complication uh and all the things that we've talked about that has spanned several years in in this process uh and as has been noted you know there's there's been progress it hasn't been stagnant I think the if I was to distill all of this it is a question of timing is a question of process and timing underlies process uh we're at the end of that 7year period in December there's a lot of performance yet to be done in terms of uh the construction of the residential facility and commercial facilities um and the the question is what's the best way to navigate forward with uh allowing enough time those are the extensions that are being required I said I won't comment on those but uh process-wise what makes the most sense I want to share with you that staff the attorneys our office my office um we agree with this process um it makes sense it's simple and there's an element of fairness to it in my opinion uh and that fairness is it's tying back to the same code that was applicable when all this started when all the performance uh was commenced and uh it does make sense frankly um I think the the concerns and and of course we we're cognizant of of the concerns are policies being circumvented are we sidest stepping the HOH and other things pardon me um by doing this the answer is no not at all uh we are keeping the process simple uh and in line with what was envisioned many years ago um all the site development it comes to this days and there will be a lot of discussion of that when it happens it'll be be very uh transparent and uh nothing will be circumvented policy-wise in terms of the HOH I want to distill a takeaway that we've heard now a couple of times I just want to maybe perhaps give it some emphasis the high occupancy housing policy and policies like that are now subject to proposition 207 this Council the council before it and the council before that Council has entertained many claims under proposition 207 uh and has provided waivers on most of those uh after considerable discussion and deciding it was in the community's interest to move forward rather than to litigate these things in court at very costly attorney fees and time um and and not a lot to show for it frankly that the in it's in the community's better interest to move forward on these things without uh making decisions in the courtrooms and seeing development occur under the best plans that that um we we can negotiate and there's been a lot of negotiation on this plan and should there be approval there will be more discussion on the site plan that comes forward it again will be a transparent process knowing now that proposition to our 207 claims are imminent if this is not approved and that is one of the two options that can be pursued one is to build as approve the others to wait till December uh and go through the proposition 207 claim process the HOH will not apply then either so what has been gained between now and then what what has been lost will be several months I'm not sure what will be gained because some of the concern about again circumventing policy um will be a a a nullity come December the the 207 claims will be filed we know that now we're hearing it and we've seen it before and that will be the outcome if the underlying premise behind High occupancy housing is to scale down on large buildings with massive scale in a lot of units um we're hearing that we're heading in that direction with with what will be forthcoming in a revised site plan one less story many less units more architecture I don't want to speak for the developers I thought they did a a good job of articulating that I know there's concern because we don't we're not seeing any renderings but that's a process you have to follow uh it is a process that will occur um lastly I just want to note something that I think is is obvious to all of us we have a complicated code here in Flagstaff we have very complicated zoning codes um layers and layers and layers of policies we talked about high occupancy housing many other things you know resource protection what have you these layers of policies that have accumulated over years have made for a very complicated uh zoning code and there's no easy way to navigate through it and and this is an illustration of that and I I don't think it's should be surprising that developers are seeking to utilize what was in place when they started this process and have a few more known and definitives uh and certainly less time involved again I think there's not an element of fairness in that we are embarking upon the the last cap uh policy or pardon me code analysis to to address the these issues and to try to make some simple or changes that will will hopefully streamline and simplify things and make things a little bit easier because the layers and layers and the complications and the nuances of of these zoning codes all amount to increased cost in in a community where last year we we were 29% over the cost of housing Statewide um that's not a good thing uh these costs are born by the developers and they are ultimately passed on to home buyers and renters the more we can streamline and make Simplicity of these things and make it easier the more we can address our housing emergency and uh give developers a little bit more Foundation to to stand on and know what will be required of them and timing wise how long it will take I think I'll stop with that there's been a lot of very good discussion tonight I know we have a lot of public comment to to entertain I will say we're all looking forward to seeing the ribbon cutting on the Roars project my math is 228 units I think slightly more than what was represented could be wrong on that that's this year and that'll be huge and those those buildings look wonderful uh we are seeing some progress and it's um it's a a product of a lot of public private partnership I'll remind Council you came to the table with incentive for that very project uh you you are a fin Financial partner in that so uh good for you and good for the community we look forward to seeing these uh units become available so I just wanted to summarize a few things maybe give some emphasis to the fact that this is a staffup supported process and when that makes sense to us thank you thank you Greg and just the Roars project the units are all affordable that's important and I I I don't recall hearing you say that but it's 100% I I referenced 228 units I was just talking about the the totality of the units in the project thank you um mayor sorry I I think I asked ear to put something in the chat I forgot one piece that I needed to cover in mind it wasn't in the presentation this is something we recognized oh I think it was early this morning um in looking at Amendment one which I have up on the screen now I'm going to scroll down to the piece I was talking about which is the true up payment um we touched on this that um vintage is responsible to make this payment and did I pass it yes I did um and the time frame that they have um that they have five years to make that payment so here's where it says that no later than 5 years following the underpass completion they need to make that true up payment and as I said with hoping it gets done this year that puts at about 2030 um the issue we recognized this morning is that in the da so now I've switched over to the recorded da that under duration um for the time frame of this da it says this agreement will automatically terminate on the 10th anniversary of the effective date the effective date was December 2018 so according to this section we would have a um terminated da in 2028 but we still have an the amendment to the DA saying vintage would have another year two years to make that payment so one thing if Council decides to go down the path of this amendment um I actually added and I pulled up the wrong document um some language an additional piece to the amendment sorry I didn't not trying to complicate things but we just wanted to add this section 1.2 Amendment which sorry that's the wrong one it's actually 15th um Lindsay asked me to change that prior to the meeting um but essentially extended out another five years so we don't have a situation where we have a DA that's terminated and yet potentially a payment still coming due we just didn't want that confusion so this we would say if you do decide to amend the da tonight with the amend amendments we've already discussed to have the motion say in addition to the amendment discussed by staff regarding the duration of the agreement something to that effect if you decide to go down this path but I do think we need this just to make sure we're all on the same page that we don't have an expired da in 2028 that's it all right so I am going to take public comment and then close the public hearing and then councel uh you can ask additional questions and we'll deliberate and take action cesal good evening now that it's evening so mayor vice mayor and Council Members First let me say thank you for your job it's one of the most difficult I'd have to say um and you've done a brilliant job in Flagstaff as I was sitting here listening to everybody's conversations I was thinking you know toast Al is one of the first mixed use projects in Flagstaff we built two apartments above my restaurant so that they could be rented out by either staff or students or other thing we've had all sorts of people we've had traveling nurses we've had students we've had my staff and it's worked out to be an unbelievably great project we enjoy it they enjoy it they have parking they're downtown they're close to University they're down to everything um I think that's important that we have mixed use it's in a lot of cities around America for as long as I've known we're it's nice that we're getting into it we all want affordable safe housing for our young population who are a large part of our Workforce and being a small business owner and Flag Staff that employs 59 people all I ever hear every day is I can't find housing I have to live with people I don't like there's nothing affordable I get hit up every day can I run a room from you sesy from your house and can I live with you and I like no I have enough of you all day um but part of part of that you know sooner than later we need more housing it needs to be affordable and we need to have more Habitat for Humanity projects and we need to have you know tiny homes available for other people we want our city to grow not just by people but with everything with housing with businesses with all of us because it is an expensive town to live in now and it's expensive place to do business so we need people we need more Workforce people who are happy to be here not people who are like I lasted 90 days and I have to leave which is what I hear a lot um we're losing our youth and I really would like to see a generational Flag Staff that I always want to hire people and move them out move them up never can because by the time they're ready to go they're leaving Flag Staff because it's just overpriced under you know underdeveloped for what they need so I don't want to lose another opportunity to create a great employee for me for other people for anything like that I just lose way too much for lack of housing I respect and understand the need for growth I also respect and understand why people don't want growth because once you let the cat out of the bag it just doesn't seem to go back in and it gets bigger and bigger but we are a city we're a destination we're not just a city flagstaff's a destination that people want to be at people want to have a good time at and live and we have to make that happen so consider this housing project consider not just this one but other ones that come in and allow us to have available housing for our work staff for the people who want to live here forever like me and not be priced out I don't want to have to move my business because blackstaff has no employees left that can be here and I don't want to be another Sedona so I want us to be better bigger thank you thank you Roman gilo hello mayor daget vice mayor site City Council Members my name is Roman Goble I'm a student here at naun Flagstaff and uh recently I've been attempting to resolve my housing situation for you know my next year at NAU and as you may know the na housing process is pretty complex so myself and a couple other students you know we tried as hard as we Poss we could trying to find affordable housing that was near our classes something that would be attainable for us um and even though we tried to be on it as soon as we could ended up not working out in our favor so I'm now forced to settle for an off-campus property and this would require a hefty commute to school and most likely a parking pass as well and the only other option I'd have on campus is quite out of the budget and while this wouldn't require a parking pass the apartment itself is just too expensive too steep um speaking to many other students that I also have class with or just other students on campus I find that this is not an issue independent to myself but it seems to be an issue that is common amongst a lot of students and Flag Staff having a property like the one that vintage vintage Partners plans to uh to build uh miltown uh it would not just benefit myself but the future generations of students that are coming to Flagstaff as well as any future families that plan on living here have having kids then their kids need a place to stay it applies to essentially everyone so that being said I strongly support vintage Partners in moving forward uh with the miltown development here in Flagstaff thank you thank you Cameron Berger good afternoon mayor daget and council members my name is Cameron Bunger I am I'm speaking on behalf of myself and the 20 to 30 others joining me here this afternoon in favor of the future of Flagstaff I'm currently a senior here at Na and Flagstaff resident I would like to continue residing in Flagstaff but with how expensive housing currently is and if projects like this get shut down in the future and the cost of living let alone cost of housing goes up I don't know that I'll be able to afford to continue residing here the miltown project will provide more affordable housing for people like myself and the younger generation everybody sitting over there and everybody that on at Na and just the younger Generations as a whole a lot of Arizona residents who decide to seek a college education at na do so because of how affordable instate tuition is and the scholarships and the grants that NAU and the that na offers the cost of live the cost of living in Flagstaff as I mentioned is already very high and if the cost of living goes up even further that outweighs all the the affordable tuition that the university offers I believe this project will greatly benefit the Flagstaff community and the future of Flagstaff thank you thank you Michelle James hello mayor vice mayor and councel my name is Michelle James I'm the executive director of friends of flagstaff's future also known as F cubed I'm speaking for the community represented by our 400 members who want to see the HOH plan implemented for this project which is designed for student living fcbe supports highdensity housing in this location FCB is not anti- student housing and we support density and affordability you all know this I feel like the applicant has inaccurately portrayed fcb's concerns we have written a lot it's all in writing it can be checked we agree that the walkability potential of this development is great and um I want to make an observation that I think the applicant and F cubed agree on many many things we we FCB understand the question before Council to today is very narrow to approve remand or deny the Second Amendment of the miltown development agreement citizens work closely with the city to craft the high occupancy housing plan and the zoning Amendment would would apply toal qualifying housing designed as high occupancy including for housing designed for student living the FL the staff's PowerPoint indicates that the HOH places important limitations on the maximum number of the four and five bedroom units and requires a small minimum percentage of studio and one-bedroom units if the council approves the Second Amendment to the DA the applicant will be able to build the project that does not meet these requirements which were put in place to ensure a greater diversity of housing types after the community saw so many large apartment complexes designed designed exclusively almost exclusively for student living if the city believes that there are issues with the HOH code we recommend a public discussion about any problems and a consideration to amend it fq believes this is a more appropriate strategy than granting one developer the right to use the 2017 code which predates the HOH Code Council approval the Second Amendment and the DA for the da will send a message um that the city's codes are not important fcbe does not see a compelling reason to approve the second am amendment of The miltown Da we are really arguing about a few more one-bedroom studio apartments and a few fewer four and five bedroom apartments We Believe approval will send a message that our city codes are not important I probably repeated that excuse me the council's denial of the Second Amendment will still allow the applicant to develop the site but they will need to use the HOH code I think we can be creative and the applicant can work with City staff to make that happen we urge the city council to deny the Second Amendment to the miltown DA thank you thank you Jean Christie hi thank you for having me this my or thank you for serving it's my first time speaking I hope you'll um extend me some Grace on that issue uh I am here uh as opposed to the amendment or whatever we're doing here um mostly because I um I don't see how our new codes would not be better situation than what the old code was I sorry Walter's feeling depressed and I admire uh his Don ations with Habitat for Humanity which I also support as well as the Humane Society but that does not mean that um what his view is is in the best interest of those in Flag Staff I ask this uh Council to hold the high standards I I don't go into a court of law without an attorney representing me and I can't go before these people because I don't have the experience and that's why we voted you in because because you have the tools and the ability to um represent us in ways that we can't represent ourselves um I'm not sure um how many empty student housing apartments there are throughout the year um if he is part of the development of the apartments on McMillan Mesa it's a Russian Roulette depending on when you U apply for an apartment uh if it's on a Monday or Friday the load rates are usually lower uh if you get it when students are in town then the rates are much higher I don't call that affordable living that's my other question what is affordable living on my street I live in Walnut Meadows um my neighbor rented a house it was sold to an outside investor they told him one week before his rent was due that his rent was going up $900 a month I have two houses on my street one has two families living in it with four kids the other end has a woman my age with her two children and their children living in her house because they can't afford housing I commend these young students for coming and participating uh in this process but I'm asking you what are you doing for us the people that live here somebody talked about the older generation well guess what my family's been here since 1886 and my kids would like to continue Liv too what are we doing to provide jobs for these people I think three businesses downtown went out of business this year I don't know how building more Apartments down there and providing all these restaurants and all this other stuff for them helps support the community Flag Staff it doesn't and unless you're going to somehow um restrict na students from bringing cars to town you better provide the parking lots for them I think I said it thank you thank you Steven Irwin good evening mayor vice mayor council uh my name is Steph Irwin Flagstaff resident I'm here to speak in favor of this da Amendment uh for me it comes down to two things um the partnership right we talk about what does vintage benefit benefit from this like it's a bad thing right ADOT has benefited tremendously by getting a new facility City's getting a new road now it's vintage's turn right they've delivered they're a good partner they've come to you asked for more time they found a partner that wants to deliver a smaller project um council member Matthew's shorter project less dense um I think we owe it as a city to be a good partner to Vintage you know I I respect everyone that spoke in this room but I I don't think this is really a difficult request all of the difficult items have already been hashed out this is just asking for an extension figure out how to come up with a better development you know you guys the whole Community will have another crack at this um when that time comes later this year second thing for me is you know smart development I live in shesha I have two houses behind me small sample size similar to council member Garcia but for two years parties cars parked all over the the front yards they finally moved out now we have younger families you know we talk about what are you doing for the city well building more housing for students that gets students out of the neighborhoods and where they should be and in a a smart thought out location like miltown where you have a pedestrian underpass multimodal transportation bus stops um shared bike pedestrian pass you know it it makes sense this just spits the students right out into campus from housing um so really th those are just to me it comes down to it's a pretty simple request um thanks for your time thank you Barbara Bates mayor vice mayor City Council Members my name is Barbara Bates I've lived in Flagstaff for the past 32 years and I worry about what our lovely historic town is becoming since the first college apartment building on Milton and Phoenix our community is seen monity after monity built to house any students we've already lost our cozy history town to an overrun downtown buildings constructed without consideration of the historic feel and allowed nonconformance to city building and historic requirements we need to protect the jewel that we are lucky enough to live in constant growth too close to downtown with these four and five-story buildings now block the view of the beautiful San Francisco Peaks in many places I've lived in a community where well planned growth has been developed I'm not against growth but I am for well-planned growth that is not what I've seen in Flagstaff in the last 20 years development of apartment buildings and houses in the outskirts of the city have grown without the additional infrastructure to support them to prevent greater congestion on our thorough Affairs and our old historic communities throughout the downtown area these are overscaling they never should have been built to begin with remember that you were elected to enforce and uphold the community plans goals and Visions for flag Stock's future development you now have the opportunity to enforce the HOH for the benefit of our community I'm not an expert in water but I certainly think that is a huge issue with these mon buildings I think this is a difficult decision for you I don't envy you I've learned a lot I can't disagree with the city manager in the timing but in the future I would hope that would you consider these things thank you thank you Charlie silver good evening mayor vice mayor and council members um when we were talking a little bit about who would be renting these units I wasn't aware that vintage had the leasing contract for this propos proposed project regardless let's not forget we are talking about which version of the zoning code to use for review of this proposal that's why we're here tonight right that's what we're talking about all this ancillary discussion is in my view ancillary it's important but it is ancillary to the question at hand an original site plan was approved in June of 2018 as stated in the staff report the applicant would be allowed to make changes to the site plan under a minor modification to the site plan approval which allows for changes up to approximately 10% from what was initially approved currently there has been no middle that meets the requirements for this minor modifications now fast forward to today the applicant is suggesting that any new site plan proposals should be reviewed under a zoning code that was in place in May of 2017 you don't get to pick and choose the zoning code version that you like it doesn't work that way a new site plan proposal should be reviewed under the zoning code in place at the time of submitt I am sure that if I submitted a site plan proposal but asked that my plan be reviewed against a past zoning code that I liked better I would be laughed out of the office how is what this application applicant is calling for fair or Equitable it's not you know it I know it and any reasonable person knows it while the applicant was rightsizing their project for their for-profit business model the city of Flagstaff with public input was rightsizing our zoning code to include HOH code regulations this new site plan needs to be reviewed under the current zoning code please reject this resolution now I see in section three of this red line Second Amendment to the DA that if this resolution does not pass exceptions would be made for engineering standards building code fire code and more what's with this I can't ask about this but you can and should on behalf of the public thank you thank you Mary Norton good evening mayor and councel Mary Norton disclosing I am on pnz but I'm commenting as a citizen things change conditions cost the market Partnerships demand and change demands and Trends all change which we see daily and certainly since the writing of this da because of changes they can't build the 1200 bedroom five-story development they don't have a a partner anyone that Ste forward in seven years to take that risk remember that likewise we as a city went through changes and the high occupancy housing specific plan was adopted now they want a right size to 665 bedrooms still large but it's an appropriate location for it what's not appropriate is deviating from codes that were adopted over four years ago and written seven years ago to ask that only one party to the DA be allowed to change to reflect to current conditions is not reasonable to the other party because we the city have current conditions to keep up with as well as I detailed in a previous email this is a risky precedent and I stand by that concern that this will be exploited by others when council member Asen asked the concern last month the applicant acknowledged the concern and said I and I quote the development Community leverages where there's a loophole they jump on it and lawyer up please do not create this loophole understandably vintage Partners is asking for guidance and firm parameters to move forward to complete the project but please don't table the details to further down the road during resoning and a more detailed development plan because that's when we often hear well they've spent so much money and time we should approve this it's a resoning case we can only evaluate the resoning it's a site plan we're not looking at the product to be built where can we talk about the ratio of bedrooms to Bath and types of Flor plans and percentage of unit types it's in the HOH code which you're being asked to ignore and wave right here and now is where you ensure and agree that this future development adheres to process and current code which depending on the final proposal would might include High occupancy housing we actually don't know what the final proposal is and it could still change under an extended and amended da the this last piece of the P3 collaboration is seemingly the the least popular element but I believe it will be far less contentious if it goes through the process under current code whether it ends up as an HOH development or a standard high density development student focused or not the location is appropriate hopefully creativity will prevail to end up with something far better than the original or the what's currently proposed allow that to happen under current code that reflects the changes of the last decade there are more options than the two that they have offered thank you thank you Kathy flakis mayor she had to leave Deborah block hello mayor vice mayor council the miltown project as approved in 2018 was a quote 340 unit 12 1221 bed student rooming and boarding facility with a projected rental fee of $700 per bed affordable and this was seven years ago this housing design of multiple bedrooms with onsuite bathrooms intended for students and rented per bed has mushroomed and Flagstaff and elsewhere this type of housing is typically a Big Business Solution run by entities such as American campus communities and hub on campus it does not provide a pathway to affordable housing for students who wish to remain in Flagstaff the miltown project stalled and now vintage Partners wants to revisit developing the property and is asking to disregard the HOH building codes established at least partly in response to the overabundance of properties developed for students and second home owners across the country the housing crisis has been exacerbated ated by housing increasingly seen as commodity and private Equity investment so-called student housing development Flagstaff should respond to community need not developer greed I know nothing of vintage Partners Personnel but I do object to large city developers supposing their projects are appropriate for smaller cities also what I heard today from the developers sounded like threats how dare you improve impune my character I will not be stopped we will make a prop 207 claim if you reject our demands and don't forget that I'm a habitat Builder therefore I am trustworthy that prop 207 is wielded as a bludgeon is not what I consider civil discussion I oppose the Second Amendment please retain the sensible mandates of the HOH code requirements and do not allow the developer to bypass them the HOH policies reflect what is best for our community and should be implemented thank you thank you Marilyn wisman I also oh mayor council Marilyn Weissman 30 over 30y year resident of Flag Staff you know I didn't come here tonight expecting to relitigate student housing I just want to apply the code that we already have litigated about student housing and we created to make it so that we can have dense housing that everybody can live in I myself personally rent to students in my house and that's in a neighborhood and I don't mind living with students and I don't mind students living in my neighborhood but I would like our dense housing that we're going to be developing in the years to come to be able to be include to include everyone when you have a project that is 80% like the project that was built four four and five bedroom units 8 0% of that building is going to students I don't know what their coming project is going to be because it has left to be developed but they say they're rightsizing it we've already right sized this we have the HOH plan that was the community the council before you's decision about how to have student housing and housing in apartments for everyone and how to have it be in neighborhood you know Walter said that he wants Vibrant Community I want a Vibrant Community too I don't don't think these large massive student housing projects without a mix of kinds of different kinds of people in them and you know just ghetto eyes sort of all together is the way to have a Vibrant Community I think we can be creative about this as I think Mary said we could make it so that we can have mixed use that actually is a place that everybody would like to live and so you know I oppose this I think you have a difficult decision not because which code to follow but because this was a public private partnership and it makes me wonder about the goodness of public private Partnerships if this is what it comes to that we have to give in to the intimidation and the threats that we're getting from a developer that we did this with it's just very disappointing to me thank you thank you Eric Wolverton sorry about that good evening mayor vice mayor uh council members city manager and team Flag Staff thank you so much for giving me a moment just to speak not on behalf of habitat uh per se but more so just on the personal reflection that I felt working with vintage Partners at timers Sky what I've been hearing a lot on the floor is that unfortunately we have a conflicted view of what I perceive is being TR trust and so obviously when there is an amendment that's being asked for there's going to be a question of why and that is a very respectful question and I think that that is your role to be asking that question and that's why we're here in this room but what I want to really iterate is what I have seen with vintage working with them for the last two years at Timber sky with habitat first and foremost if you guys have never been a developer on creating 40 home homes it's a lot of work an incredible amount of work but it all started with one conversation and that was with Walter the day that his donation of three acres of land went to Habitat and he called me up and he said congratulations the land is yours and I am not leaving you because if I do you will fail he understood that we weren't prepared to be able or have the capacity to make this development happened on our own and through his help and the professionalism that came from Lindsay pro bono legal advice for the last three years for Habitat Walter on the phone every week devoted with his engineering team pro bono for Habitat what I've witnessed with Walter is an unbelievable willingness to look outside the box but but most importantly to focus on the broad need of Housing and Flag Staff that it could be a student it could be a transitional uh family moving from homelessness into hopefully a more standard a living situation it could be for families wanting a second home and Flag Staff to enjoy the simple fact that they might be snowbirds there's nothing wrong with meeting these needs but what is incredible is that he has a vision to meet those needs all in one neighborhood and if you look at Flag Staff historically we always ghetto our neighborhoods if you look at how we're re revitalizing sunny side that is for a reason but with Timber Sky we are moving people with 60% Ami 80% Ami into market rate this is really really good building thank you thank you Mato sear um good evening mayor and Council I am a freshman out of State student at na and I am from a vulnerable community in por Illinois and I was given the privilege to come to Flagstaff on scholarship to pursue my education and better my quality quity of life um I love this town and I would love to stay here after I complete my education one of the things I've noticed since I've lived here is the high demand for housing in my budget and a very competitive Supply um in two months I'm going to go back to Illinois because I don't have the means to stay here in the summer and I'm going to be excited to come back in the fall and obviously the cost of living isn't going to go down anytime soon and when it comes to flag staff's mission statement to improve the quality of life for everybody that needs to account for more than just established residents it needs to account for students in the same situation like myself that aren't permanent residents yet and young people in general that would love the opportunity to settle here in the future with that being said I believe raising the housing Supply in an accessible Place between town and the college campus would be very beneficial to the quality of life for people like me and residents in similar positions thank you Council thank you and we have some online commenters Dr cor Evans you can address mayor and councel hello mayor vice mayor and councel thank you for allowing public participation on this item my name is coral Evans and my family has had a presence and Flag Staff for six Generations I'm calling in as a private citizen I was mayor at the time this current site plan was approved and I voted for it I'm in support of this technical Amendment for the Midtown da day and I encourage this Council to move it forward the voters of Flag Staff move forward a transportation tax decades ago Without vsh Partners the work that we are seeing now will not be happening they moved Tarkin and then ADOT the Milton underground walking path that was on the city's Transportation plan for 50 years unfunded is now happening I believe that vinage paid for that this partner started overall with the realignment of the University Avenue which has taken decades as attorney fcil mentioned amending a DA is not unheard of in this case we're amending a DA to bring back for public comment an updated project this is something for the public to weigh in on council member Garcia I agree with you as a community we are missing middle housing and that is something we need to reflect on each and every single time we talk about affordable housing which equates some middle housing many some who own a home and some who own two are the first to say we need affordable housing but not their they being in their backyard a good example of this includes the old public workyard which would have been a great place for housing infield and the sunflower patch on Fort Valley Road the property the city currently owns and the site ready I'll be back to talk about that property with you all in the very near future um the current time this current site plan council member Barrett's called monolithic media was too big and she voted against it it seems like this opportunity will give those in Flagstaff who are against monolithic type of developments a smaller more desirable development to discuss I am support of vent's partner's current request for this technical Amendment and again I encourage Council to move it forward thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight thank you no more online comments correct okay and I don't have any more inperson and comments either so I am going to close the public hearing and Council will deliberate and I have a cue here of um council member Spence thank you mayor thank you to all the public uh present here this evening commenting and to listening to this uh fruitful discussion after last month's uh preliminary discussion and before as we uh continued the discussion to tonight I did go like council member Garcia I did go to the um five story uh developments around town I went to the Yugo to the Jack to the standard to the Parkplace and to Fremont Station I didn't get to the Grove but what I found out is in some total these these six five-story multif family apartment buildings total one and this is an estimate 1200 dwelling units or 3,500 bedrooms and these five-story developments has have all come up since the miltown was on the drawing board so when people have said this evening that times have changed over these seven years that's certainly true all of these um big developments starting with the Hub which is now the Jack um they led to the HOH housing code and the HOH housing code was a multi-year process that involved a lot of Citizen input and the key feature that is being um resisted if you will by vintage Partners is the requirement that 20 in our HOH housing code 20% or more of the dwelling units shall be Studio or one-bedroom apartments so it's giving a minimum floor of uh Living Spaces that are suitable for a small family the other HOH consideration is that there shall be less than 30% of the dwelling units of four or five or more uh bedrooms per dwelling unit so I am going to vote against the approval of the development agreement and my reason is not because I don't um favor vintage Partners reputation it's not because I um am worried about the timeline it is because we should govern by Rule and not by exception so it's my belief and this is the reason I'm going to vote no that by granting an exemption from the current housing high density housing code for a project that is now being proposed as a redesign project that that would open uh the door to other developers saying well you did it for vintage um you you need to do it for us and I'll close by saying that we've heard an estimate of the revised um proposal coming from vintage that they would put in around 262 dwelling units and that they would right size at around 668 bedrooms well the way that would pencil out under the current HOH code would be 52 dwelling units that would be Studio or one bedroom 52 or more and 155 or less of the large four and five bedroom four and five b uh dwelling units it's my contention that this is not an honorous requirement it's kind of in line with what vintage has said they will um propose to come forward with and I encourage them to do that after we vote on this this evening thank than you council member Asen thank you Madame mayor um I want to take just a second to thank staff uh this has been quite a marathon it's not over yet uh by any no matter what right uh a lot of work has gone into this um you guys really put your heart and soul into this you understand it better than anyone uh and yet you're not kind you're kind of not in control of the final decision and I know that's a very um a very interesting position to be in you you do this work because you're passionate and you you believe in uh helping the community and I just want to acknowledge that um I also want to thank the public here uh thank you so much for coming out I I like to acknowledge this I think it's great when our room is full um you wouldn't notice this when you're not here but it it changed the dynamic in council chambers um we we have more of a audience to entertain I guess I don't know um but also just just the it it feels better to be up here uh you know I I would liken it to you know basketball NBA during the bubble um those games just felt weird uh it's nice to have people here it's nice to know that you all care it's nice to know that there's a diverse perspective of opinions um and it's nice to know that you guys are are knowledgeable and understand all these things I think in the back of our minds that keeps us on our toes all throughout the year all throughout our terms um so I've I've been at this for quite a while now I've been on Council for 6 and A2 years and dealing with public policy since 2004 and I mentioned this for two relevant reasons first I think it's worth noting that no one up here including myself was around for the original development agreement and private public partnership conversations um not many people uh in completing the the triangle here of of tables was either and secondly I've got enough experience in this realm to be able to say that the argument is lost with the public if it takes several pages of details in two Council meetings a continuance and an executive session to argue a position that is ostensibly characterized is actually quite simple and straightforward this is not over either way right um some in the public may not understand that but I want to be clear that I do this development will be back in front of council and the community no matter what we decide tonight a lot of density is allowed now and will certainly be proposed later but that's not reason enough for me to take a position today one way or the other I'll I'll share with you what is though and I think it's fair I think it's relevant and in points of fact I think it's actually quite simple and straightforward and I'll tell you I've put a lot of thought into this um exploring the multifaceted nature of it I recognize how complicated it is uh so I rely on uh sort of a my own um form of the aams razor in these circumstances the bottom line is I'm not okay with amending a site plan that will be 9 years old when it sunsets come what come May time and the hour runs through the roughest day uh this is a line from McBeth it's early in the play when MC Beth has just heard about the prophecies made by folks about him it B basically translates to whatever happens happens a monstrosity of four or five bed units may result from the extracted process initiated by an amendment denial but I'm not sitting up here to rubber stamp inevitabilities I'm sitting up here on the community's behalf to ensure they feel like they're being heard and respected I've made this case before our community is not poorly informed their concerns are not Phantom concerns nor irrelevant to the question at hand this is a values conversation and the people speaking up are speaking to their values there's there there'd be a lot less opposition to a neighborhood development in this spot maybe the protracted process will provide some reflection that a lower hanging fruit development is a better bargain at the end of the day vintage wasn't able to find a builder for their project over the past several years they're here uh again because they finally found one if they can substantially deviate from what was previously greenlit um the prophecy that we'll end up with something worse than what's being dangled before us now feels pretty muted to me I have to say uh because no one has wanted to build so far and um our housing needs are only going to continue to evolve towards more diverse types and away from students if time unfolds slowly in this process it's my hope that as time goes on that Trend will play a louder role in informing what eventually goes in at the entrance to our community across from that Target come what come May uh we'll see right vintage has rights right now to build on that land they've invested considerably in it and the city H has undoubtedly been a beneficiary of of all of that I love that repurposed Harkens uh uh to a do building um vintage is doing some very cool things in Flag Staff as noted uh then and now and um my hope is that this plot is also one of them I'm at peace with letting a process play out that adheres to my organizing principle of not being okay at a fundamental level with amending a site plan that's going to be 9 years old the original entitlement the the all the original entitlements were brokered three administrations ago two NAU presidents ago two Governors ago when John McCain and Jeff Flake were our Senators that was three Mayors ago it was three city managers ago no one on this Council was here it was before a global pandemic and now it's and right now it's a scary New Era uh federally one without modern precedent we should be considering our developments given the modern landscape esape when we're when we're provided the opportunity to do so no one operating in 2017 could have fathomed what 2025 or 2027 or later would look like so let's take a look at it but let's do so through the lens of our current context I don't see any problem with the fresh start there is an argument that time will have been wasted if there's a reset I'm not concerned about that we all professionally invest in prospective activities just because I spend a year writing a novel does not mean I'm entitled to selling it believe me I know um my wife writes Grant proposals at at significant investment of resources that often don't bear fruit uh this isn't a waste of time or resources it's a normal healthy part of the process by the way I have an incredible amount of respect for Walter for vintage I have no reason to mistrust him or the partners that he personally vets it puts me in a really uncomfortable place the reality is though that it's not my responsibility to manage the risk of any developer made in 2018 my responsibility is to the needs of the community today so I will not be voting to approve an amendment for those reasons if I'm in the minority I don't begrudge those who choose differently I think it serves a purpose to register as dissenting vote there's utility in doing it and I look forward to remaining at the table either way whatever Council decides as a whole thank you very much much for indulging me mayor council member Matthews thank you mayor first I want to acknowledge just everyone who sent emails and phone calls who came here today in person who spoke their mind had I known um that there was a group of citizens that were putting together which we now call the HOH I would have been right there with them because um as um Coral Evans mentioned you know we were all kind of outraged with the monolithic U buildings that were going up for me it wasn't so much that who was occupying them but just that it didn't seem to fit our community but five of us five of us here on city council have approved already um a handful of prop 207 claims and I'm guessing they will come at some point in the near future with a project that's not going to have any HOH in it because they've already been Exempted from that that's the law um I don't take I didn't take the comments from the developers to be threats or intimidations it's business they're speaking facts what will we what will happen if we do not approve this amendment tonight what we've already appr approved with a handful of other property owners is they will still be able to develop their project how they want because they are going to file a prop 207 claim and they're going to move forward so what's going to be gained if we vote this down tonight it's going to cost a very valuable Community partner who has delivered more affordable housing than any other developer that I know of in this city six more months on top of the years that it's taken the cost will most likely go up and guess who that it gets passed on to the renters so whether they are student housing and and one of the speakers spoke on this getting students to move closer to campus freeze up other apartments and other housing in Community this is not going to stop we're not saying we're giving them an exemption from the HOH they already have it by law because they started this project before the HOH was determined there's a there's a frightening list of people that have the same exemption and unless you have this exemption unless you meet those two criterias you can't come back and say well I want what you gave Walter no unless they fit the criteria that's the only reason why they're going to get this approved this waiver so what we would do tonight if we turn this down is alienate a good Community partner who's delivered a lot of affordable housing have thought outside the box donated land for Habitat um a couple years ago to think that habitat would have proper to build 40 80 homes I I would never have guessed um so we have two options tonight we can approve the amendment because of the prop 20 if if they didn't have the ability to file a 207 claim at the end of this year it's a different conversation but they do they have every legal right to and so has handfuls of other property owners that you haven't heard of yet cuz haven't came forward with their project so we can either approve this amendment so they can move forward finally and this project nobody wants to see an empty lot there it's time to see it built or we can make them wait maybe lose their partner I don't know um it took them a while to find the partner that they have now um and if they lose their partner how long will it sit it's not going to change the bottom line that they will build something without the HOH code I'm for the HOH code for the ones that it applies to I don't want to see five-story buildings I want to see something that's fitting to to our community but it's undeniable when we change a law we have to go back and see is it going to take away the value of why they invested in the property and this certainly would so we have to make some concessions to the property owners that were there before but then moving forward new property purchasers have to comply with HOH so I will be in support of this amendment and I hope my colleagues will remember that this whole conversation tonight was about regardless they will file a 207 claim and continue on with this so are we going to alienate a community partner and extend maybe the cost of all of this um and so I'm going to vote Yes yes and I hope that the rest will remember how how many others we've already approved to be exempt from this that's it council member house thank you mayor uh I I want to start off by thanking the staff for their hard work in supporting uh mine and other council members research and considerations on this item I know that their expertise and their dedication to that that serving that role um really helps to ensure that we're making well informed decisions that are serving our community's best interests I also want to thank every Community member who has taken the time to engage in this discussion uh whether you are in support in opposition or uh simply those who have reached out asking some of the thoughtful questions that have been brought before us tonight um to me your voices are invaluable in shaping how we approach development and Flag Staff and I am always grateful to hear from you and I want to recognize that the concerns that have been raised about this amendment particularly around housing diversity affordability and how this project fits within our broader Community goals um our concerns that we all hear excuse me and that we all take seriously uh at the same time I am looking at this amendment as uh the creative opportunity that some of us are talking about to rightsize this project in a way that better aligns with our current priorities without this amendment I believe that the developer has the ability to move forward under the previously approved agreement that allows for the larger footprint and potentially a less desirable outcome for our community it was a decision that uh was approved under a prior um uh Planning and Zoning commission unanimously and it was a decision that at the time uh met with the opposition of community members who are voicing similar concerns as we've heard tonight so I think and it's it's my belief going into this that by granting this amendment we're actually allowing for more intentional approach and it's one that brings this project into better scale and opens the door for discussions about how it can more effectively meet flag staff's housing needs today than how it might have met them in the past I believe this is an opportunity for us to work toward a solution that benefits both the community and the developer and uh us as a as an entire Community with that consideration ensuring that we are being thoughtful stewards of growth while also honoring the commitments and fostering a climate of collaborative development vment I don't believe any project is perfect uh and I I certainly don't think that this has been a perfect project and or a perfect process but I see the process that we're undertaking tonight in this consideration as a step towards a more balanced and Community aligned outcome so I deeply appreciate the engagement and dialogue that has helped to bring us to this point and I look forward to the rest of this conversation tonight thank you thank you council member Garcia I don't necessarily have any prepared statements for this moment as this is one of the bigger decisions that we've come before Council while I've been seated here um but I I again want to thank all of the participation from the public I counted I think 110 emails as of yes last night or this morning and um and you know all of us read each and every one of those um I I think there was a little bit of a a misconception of what we could do here on the Das today and I I also felt some of some of th that misconception that I heard from those emails and what I heard was well if you vote no then this thing just goes away and that's just not the facts if we vote no then that bigger project that was already previously approved that's what they get to deal with um I thought last night uh I was very naive to think last night that I had the answer I said well shoot this is easy I'm just going to go over there and propose because we don't just have two two um you know two ways to go we could there's a third way where we can you know manipulate the the the process a little bit um the second option would have been for me to approve the Second Amendment for mil toaden development adhering to the HOH code while utilizing the multiparking calculation boom done solved right well what we learned from today from vintage partners that if we mention anything about the HOH code they're coming after us to the 207 so now it's rested upon my shoulders do I want to bankrupt the city uh going to litigation over this or do we work with our partners from vintage who want to rightsize this project and encourage them to stick um with the content of Community input that they've heard tonight and try to solve some of those missing mle pieces and and um also make the that density in in line um with with uh where this project sets because I think that this where this project sets is a great place for density and um all that goes along with it um so so I really appreciate uh councilwoman house uh look and view of what has been said tonight I also appreciate uh council member asen's view which are quite a dichotomy apart from each other [Music] um so I'm going to leave it up to the vote tonight to for the rest of my comments I just uh have learned a lot through this process and I think we all have and um if this goes the way of the yes vote then we have an opportunity to come together as a c as as as a community to uh influence the direction of how this development goes because it seems to me that vintage Partners wants to work with this community and uh will listen to us and at this point because of those 207 claims that's all we can hope thank you mayor vice mayor thank you so I do want to also thank um staff the public and vintage partners for answering our questions a month ago I did call for continuance and it was not an easy thing for me to do but I am so thankful I believe that we all have been able to ask our questions the community has been able to get involved and have some of their questions answered we did our homework and I Now understand all sides to the this issue and that took a lot of time and I'm glad that we had that so you know I'm not saying that in the future if this passes tonight that my vote will be an absolute automatic yes but what I do want to say is that I see the value in giving this project a chance I think um you know I'm hearing their vintage as willing to bring forward forward affordable housing to this community get us less cars on the street creating something that is neighborhood focused providing a smaller footprint providing diversity for all housing types and giving the opportunity for this project to be an asset for Flagstaff and I have to believe that that is the intention of vintage Partners they have been a partner in this community I have seen what Walter is capable of doing and if they stick to what they are saying tonight that they are committed to working towards what I just listed then I will be a yes on this and I'm counting on you and I'm looking out at the audience Lindsay and Walter that you're hearing me I need this to be something that is for this community and I'm I I want to see this opportunity happen so thank you again everyone I really appreciate all the comments tonight and the emails um this has been a a good good experience for all of us to rethink what we want for Flagstaff and I think moving forward with these ideas in mind we can get there thank you thank you um I want to try to clear up a couple of things um the the draft de a does not exempt um the developer from the engineering standards and everything else um and if I if I understood the comment correctly and um and another comment was made not tonight but has been made to me that um we've seen more luxury apartments than we've seen affordable and I'll get into what is Affordable but um last year and currently under construction there has been a total of 921 units either constructed last year or under construction this year of those 355 have been affordable and what affordable is we do have a definition of it it is that a individual or a family is spending no more than 30% of their gross income come on housing um so I mean I'm I'm proud of that and I'm proud of the the the work that this Council and staff and partners have put into creating some affordable housing um proposition 207 it's been referred to as a threat and and sure that could be a that could be a way to see it but I see it more as a consequence I mean it is a law that's on the books and um it's very real as council member Matthews said um we have given waivers to to several property owners who um who asserted and we found um just cause that um the high occupancy housing code diminish the value of their property and so they were given a waiver the the um the alternative is to um go to court with them which is very very expensive um and that we are I mean we're I think probably more likely than not and this is my unlegal I am not an attorney but I think more likely than not we'd lose because there is um there is law that says and this was the Arizona legislature that if you um diminish someone's property value they can file a 207 claim um so I don't see it as a threat I see it as a consequence and that consequence means that we would be putting the city In Harm's Way monetarily if we um did something that brought about a 207 claim so I think it's good that we're talking about it um okay now attorney an attorney wants to tell me what no problem it's called prop 207 mayor just for everyone's information because it was a Arizona wide voter approved proposition sorry um so just wanted to make sure it wasn't just the legislature it was don't blame it on the legislature it was voters I I'm I'm rarely coming to their defense but anyway okay thank you thank you um and I'm wondering if for those who are inclined to vote Yes whether it matters to you whether uh this was granted for one year versus two years and those who voted no whether that would make a difference to you as well um and this is to Walter I agree that we've had our share of student housing so when the site plan comes back to planning and zoning and to and I should say I should say housing that is designed primarily for students this is not an anti- student um statement but when the site plan comes back to planning and zoning and to the council I'd like to see a healthy mix of types of rentals and um if you want to use the percentages that are in um the HOH that would be okay with me I just think that this community has been very clear that we we want to move on from that model and we want to create um something different so um I hope that that has been heard um also um to Walter I will say that I love affordable housing at the um the definition that I gave earlier so don't be afraid to bring that forward when you um come forward with your um site plan I too would like to thank the public this is um it's fantastic to get this kind of Engagement I do I am concerned that um that we don't always operate under the same set of um the same set of information and that um you know there's a there's a certain amount of um I mean student housing just really elicits an emotional response from our community and I understand that which is why I have asked to see um to not see that anymore from any project and um but I think that I mean I feel confident that the site plan that we will see will be better than what has been proposed and what they could submit building permits for um until December and um yeah so that's where I'm going um so I'm wondering Council those that are are you know a no or those are a yes does it make a difference to you whether it's extended one year or two years um no difference to me none none okay all right so we will leave it as is and um I want to Kevin yes sorry I was just coming up here I was just gonna come up here and prepare something in case you're done I didn't have anything to yes please okay oh preparing something for the next item no no something for you um yeah so if if Council wants to make a motion to approve um I talked earlier about that section 1.2 in the da duration that's not in the version that's attached to the agenda item so if you do want to approve I would suggest adding that that Amendment to the duration section that extends it out for another five years as I discussed earlier and if you want to do that I just wanted to throw some language up there because sometimes that can be confusing if when you read the motion so use it if you want all right Council I am looking for a motion um and remember to include with this um amendment that Kevin has um put up on the screen mayor I'd like to move that we read resolution number 20255 by title only authorizing the execution of the Second Amendment to the miltown development agreement with the addition of the amendment to the duration section of the development agreement discussed by staff is there a second I'll second any discussion all those in favor I I I opposed nay n all right the motion carries 5 to2 city clerk a resolution of the Flagstaff city council authorizing the execution of the SE Second Amendment to the miltown development agreement between vintage Partners LLC and the City of Flagstaff related to the development of approximately 13 acres of real property generally located at 1801 South Milton Road and establishing an effective date as amended thank you and how about a motion to adopt I move to adopt I'll second any discussion all those in favor I I I opposed no no all right the motion carries 5-2 all right thank you everyone we're moving on to our regular agenda and I will tell you that after 11a we are going to take a 10-minute break all right so 11a consideration and Adoption of resolution number 2025-the right there good evening Council mayor vice mayor Brian Hunsinger water production manager here to talk about our inter Basin pipeline that David presented on earlier concerning W waterline I'm sorry Wild Life drinkers intergovernmental agreement with Arizona Game and Fish um to recap on our infrastructure we have both spring catchments in the inner Basin as you can see on the left um one that we worked on last summer with Hunter Contracting we also have interbasin wells as you can see on the right um the spring catchments were established in the late 1800s uh in Basin Wells were um drilled in the 60s and 70s both water sources convene in the interbasin pipeline that gravity feeds into town when flow rates and C water quality are sufficient uh the water is treated at our North Reservoir Filtration plant and pumped into town uh you can see the sand filters on the right when both flow rates and water quality are insufficient the water is diverted to a vintage exposed Reservoir and used for firefighting uh we can also turn the water out down the riota flag um on the left you see that vintage reservoir on the right you see a helicopter dip during the museum fire um in 2019 as many as 120 helicopter dips were made during the museum fire uh water source was used for most wadland fires over the last uh couple decades the pipeline Museum Schultz tunnel fires um also in the fall of 2023 we Ed the spring water from that um exposed Reservoir to fill Francis short Pond after it had been cleaned and dredged another use since the early 90s has been Wildlife drinkers these are just Representatives or examples of uh Wildlife drinkers um since the early 90s we've had three Wildlife drinkers along the pipeline uh this is an example of one of them um that's in pretty bad shape after the Schultz and pipeline fires you can see burn debris on the side of the Drinker as in the early 90s uh Arizona G and fish has proposed to reestablish the three drinkers that were used in the 90s with the addition of two more drinkers um you can see on the left the project map from the interbase and waterline uh restaurant ation project David Peterson presented on earlier with stars to give a rough location of these Drinkers and with that I'll introduce coleby Walton with the Arizona Game and Fish mayor vice mayor council um I guess what I'm here today is just kind of give you what our plan is um with these drinkers um I've been working on clearances for the last I think since 2023 um with the forest service we've got NEPA done um I've done the in-house environmental clearances to the game of fish department so everything at this point is shovel ready um on our side of things um and so I've also reached out to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation um they've funded $76,000 for this project um the Arizona elk Society is going to fund uh as well and then the game of fish is going to pick up the rest um the plan so this is the old drinkers um um and the way these worked is they were um water would spill over after the water would get to halfpipe in the water line and they would then they would fill up these drinkers um and then it'd be controlled by float so what we're proposing now is we have a storage tank that's attached to the water line that's going to be controlled by a manual valve um and then the the water in the storage tank is going to be monitored by a ranch bot which is going to be is going to use satellite signal to actually send the data to me on what the the level of the water is in the storage tank um and this once the storage tank is full then that'll feed those Wildlife drinkers that you saw pictures of earlier those are called rain makers 110 it's the the standard Wildlife Drinker that we use with the game of fish department and that'll be controlled by a float um ideally in good years you know I I'll go up there in the spring as soon as I have access to the road open the valves fill up the storage tanks and then ideally I won't have to worry about it um 1500 gallons should suffice if Monsoon gets here on time so um if it doesn't then we may have to fill up the storage tanks to kind of get us through um until we get some snow on the ground um but that's the proposal um I appreciate y'all's time um this has been a great project working with the city the forest and um other Critter groups so appreciate it thank you like Colby mentioned um all the infr structure for the drinkers will be covered by the Arizona Game and Fish Department uh the city will be providing an estimated amount of 100,000 gallons um annually towards the drinkers um and the intergovernmental agreement spells out all the specifics and responsibilities um moving forward with maintenance of the drinkers also will be covered by Arizona Game and Fish are there any questions questions Council council member Asen I'd like to make a motion all right any all right go ahead uh I move that we read resolution number 20 25-06 by title owner and that we also adopt it but we can wait on that one I'll second that motion any discussion all those in favor I I I I any opposed all right city clerk a resolution of the Flag Staff city council approving an intergovernmental agreement between the Arizona Game and Fish Department and the City of Flagstaff for wildlife drinkers along the inner Basin Pipeline and would you say your uh next motion again thank you very much um mayor uh I move that we adopt resolution number 20 25-6 I second any discussion all those in favor hi hi hi hi hi hi any opposed all right thanks so much thank you oh we are going to take a 10minute break now so I will see everyone we will all see everyone at e e e all right we are getting started 11b consideration and Adoption of resolution number d07 hello hi uh good evening mayor and Council my name is Chris far and I'm a transportation planner uh in the engineering division with the city I'm here to with a brief presentation uh with pertinent information to the IGA for the a smart match reimbursement on the Butler Avenue complete Street uh conversion project uh we'll start with some background information in 2023 the city of Flagstaff was awarded just north of $9.6 Million by fhwa to convert Butler Avenue from Milton Road to Sawmill Road to a complete street through the safe streets and roads for all program a couple features of this planned project is uh to install separated bike Lanes along the length of the corridor uh to implement protected intersections at Beaver Street and Butler San Francisco and Butler and Sawmill Road and Butler and also uh to enhance the existing rapid flashing Beacon Crossing at uh Humphrey Street and to implement another similar Crossing at oir Street uh at the time of the award uh we'll walk through the anticipated project costs the Federal grant award was for $9.6 million or 80% of project costs uh therefore the local share or 20% uh was $2.4 Million that represents the city's commitment for a total total cost of $12 million uh City staff then applied to a Arizona State match Advantage for Rural Transportation or a smart fund to cover the local share of just over 2.4 million do uh this application was awarded thank you so to review costs with the award the federal share of 80% is still just north of 9.6 million uh AZ smart match is covering the city's commitment of $2.4 million uh for the total cost of $1,149 189 uh a couple updates on the project the this resolution would authorize the city of Flagstaff to enter the IGA with ADOT and the city is currently preparing to issue an RSQ for design and environmental Consulting Services I'll wrap up with this uh proposed crosssection of what Butler Avenue might look like in an ideal scenario you can see the separated bike pth s uh which is one of the main big features of the of this project which we're very excited about so with that uh I will look for any questions thanks so much Council questions council member Spence thank you mayor um how much um purchase of private property along this uh enhanced route uh how much private property will have to be purchased Andor condemned under um um public domain thank you council member uh so we have 15% concept plans of the project uh there's no commitments on right of-way Acquisitions at this time however the two that were suggested were minimal if that answers your question Council additional questions or comments I will entertain a motion mayor I'll move that we read resolution number 2025 d07 by title only I'll second any discussion all those in favor I I any opposed all right city clerk a resolution of the Flagstaff city council approving an intergovernmental agreement between the State of Arizona and the City of Flagstaff for the Arizona State match Advantage for Rural Transportation a smart fund award thank you and a motion to adopt no move second any discussion all those in favor I I any opposed thanks so much thank you all right 11c consideration and Adoption of resolution number 20251 0 and ordinance number 20254 all right good evening mayor vice mayor councel uh Ed shank stormore section director uh today we'll be discussing the revision of the storm water management design manual this will be an update from the existing manuals dated in 2019 uh so the purpose of this is to clarify code uh simplify code AS as well as we update to more uh recent standards across the the industry um I will not be presenting this thankfully today uh Rick Schuler behind me with Woodson ardura will be our consultant going through these slides and then Doug Slover is our senior project manager in storm water uh giving the city portion of this so thank you thank you Ed good evening mayor and mayor daget and vice mayor s and all the members of the council um I'm here to uh give you a little bit of background on what we've been working on as far as writing this new manual uh for the storm water management for city of Flagstaff and um objectives I'd like to just go go through some of the scoping we did briefly U basis of the manual the overall intent uh our peer review and comment period uh briefly on some manual revisions not too deep in detail on that and uh turning in over then for discussion or questions um and ultimately for first read of ordinance number two 0254 and uh potentially adopt in resolution so the first thing we did and worked with staff in that is to look at the the manual that was dated 2009 so it had been some time since this was updated and and our purpose there was to try and identify you know desired changes um deficiencies and and things that could definitely need some updating there were a lot of indepth design features that can be found in other areas um and those were one of the main things we were trying to Target as we our goal of simplifying the manual um once we did that we we talked about well how are we going to do this come up with a new manual should we try and edit the existing manual um that was going to be um a pretty big lift there were going to have to be a lot of edits within that manual to get it up to date so then we thought about should we create a whole new manual again a pretty big lift um and and ultimately we decided that we didn't need to start from pure Ground Zero there's a a lot of um manuals out there that we could adopt to this manual and use as a basis and so that seemed to be the most efficient way to move forward and get this manual to the state that we wanted it to be um and that is ultimately what we did we adopted uh some other agencies manuals and adapted that for our Flagstaff Community um and interestingly enough the uh city of Flagstaff manual in 2009 version was basically adopted by Coconino County for their manual and more recently they had gone through and revised that manual um in 2020 well we ended up then building on their work from 2020 to come up with city of FL have manual 2025 so that's how it kind of cycled back and we didn't adopt all of the manual um from the county we definitely had specific adaptations for Flagstaff uh the community here um we also looked to more um Arizona based other manuals and ended up also adopting as part of this manual the uh flight control district am Maricopa County Drainage and design manual for specifically for Hydraulics um very robust and U provided all the other items that we would need without having to be in a man that we want it to be more this size so um however hydrology being quite different than Maricopa County we kept and and sort of wrote that more regionally specific to Flag Staff um there are references in there from other agencies um that you know that can be built on without having to write that all into our manual so the intent was definitely to update to more current engineering uh standards and methods and update some drainage policies standards and definitions and design procedures which have changed in our industry from 2009 and and continue to do so um goals were I feel uh well outlined in your staff report report and but one of the main goals was to simplify the manual make it more um concise user friendly and utilize the other references as needed so we came up with a draft version and uh released that out to a group of our peers um over 30 participants that are local here at a Flag Staff engineers um hydrologists uh and people like that that are are all part of our kind of tightnit community here that do drainage and hydrology and and things in fly staff um that was about a year ago and um it was out for almost a month and we ended up extending that and finish that review period in April of uh we received many comments um in fact they I believe numbered in nearly 200 comments so we felt that the manual was looked at and uh we were able to receive those comments consider them and incorporate them in many cases so uh once that was completed the uh manual went to the Water Commission to introduce it to them um not a not a great amount of discussion but they were brought up to speed on it and finally that was open for public comment at large uh from September 20th 2024 through the end of October um and at that point um no additional comments were received so things that are still applicable um in uh previous code in that were unchanged and that that still is known uh one of the main ones is title 13 which is the engineering design standards and specifications so it's uh important to note that the new manual is is chapter eight of that title 13 there also is um a flood plane use permit process and that's is um part of the flood plane ordinance which is title 12 other uh driving regulations and guidelines that that deal with flood planes are still in place and used heavily and that's FEMA regulations and the national flood plane insurance program the other item that that uh remains in effect from I believe also 2009 is the low impact development guidance manual um specific manual revisions I'm not going to go into a lot of detail with this however um I would like to just make a few points on that and um we we started the with the definitions which is is a typical move and everything that is defined or used in the manual is now defined in the definitions um we worked on the introduction oh this slide here is is actually a comparison 2009 versus the the current 2025 so you can kind of get an idea of the changes we went through um General conditions and requirements and that included adding some more sections uh uh defining legal Authority references um having a component in there for deviation from these adopted standards because we did want the manual to be flexible and you know there's many different ways to approach a lot of this engineering and we wanted to give the um storm water director the discretion to allow some of those other things to happen as they made sense so that's been put in as part of the uh General conditions um drainage reports and plans was was chapter two in the old manual is now simply drainage reports we did remove uh a lot of the verbiage and requirements of the construction plan portions which are really more applicable to those engineering standards that I mentioned previously and um you'll see a lot of this stated as the chapters reorganized and revised and um that's generally taking out really um techniques that were really far into the weeds that can be found um in other references so that was part of our our approach to simplify things uh flood plane requirements was pulled out as a separate chapter it was included is in chapter two in the 2009 manual um a lot of that again is we are getting you know more robust techniques and modeling um procedures as time goes on and those are covered now in in these in the manual um city of Flagstaff does have two administrative flood planes which are not technically defined as FEMA flood planes um but they were added to the manual in this section and um part of the um the requirements to for projects in those two administrated FL planes you'll find in there now uh hydrology as I mentioned before we wanted to uh keep that as Flag Staff specific as we could um the city has storm water has been uh doing a lot of activities to try and calibrate I would say parameters and things to our local conditions so we definitely wanted to build on that um we provided quick reference guides again to simplify things and and help folks using the manual to get right to um what they needed to to get their jobs done um Hydraulics as you can see here in 2009 was was four or five chapters and we've combined that all together into one chapter five and and that was um successful in in referencing to to the flood control district of Maricopa County um for the things that are are not used as um on a daily basis those daily basis kind of things we kept in here so they'd be readily available but um simplified in this manual and people can go to these other references then and um so that um and then chapter nine previously with low impact development that is just been clarified some as chapter six and that was a a 2009 manual that was implementing for the first time these low impact development criteria and it would talk about during the first year of this the second year and so forth so that's we're all past that now so it's now just in um in its final State um clarified those types of policies and and that includes the rainwater harvesting component of low impact development uh chapters seven and eight regarding erosion hazards and erosion and sediment control are very much the same not a lot of uh change change there same with um well actually the energy dissipators was really kind of deep down in the weed so we removed that and that has now been handled by references to other design manuals um couple important new additions to the 2025 manual are is a section about um burned Watershed and post-water Wildfire flooding um you know it had been since the 70s that we had a major fire like we've had several of recently so this is uh an important component that's now in the storm manual and that is um providing parameters and guidelines for projects that occur Downstream of these burned areas um and finally the the last chapter two-dimensional flood modeling which is kind of a um addition to the manual that's been based on the fact that our industry has been moving into more robust modeling techniques in that and from 1D one-dimensional techniques to two-dimensional flood modeling and that and providing guidance and parameters for those uses as well uh and I I would add that um you know we kept an eye on um resiliency in things as we were writing this manual and that and it's one of the reasons why we uh came up with and added the burned Watershed and post Wildfire flooding chapter um is to improve that situation to keep the low impact development criteria uh because that is definitely on line with the resiliency needs that we have um providing uh the use of those local more local studies and and coming up with more of these equations that can be used to come up with flow rates as a as a check to these models so we tried to keep those as as components but any any uh questions or discussion council member Spence yeah I have two things uh first of all you mentioned you you want your manual to be flexible um I hope you're considering a paperback uh production instead of a hardback seriously could you go back to chapter six of the 2025 proposal manual under low impact development where you mention rainwater is there um just for people that might not know this um storm water starts as rain falling on the surfaces and when the rain falls on the roof of a house or a industrial building you've got uh a chance to collect that water before it hits the storm water sewers or before it erodes uh the surface of the ground is there anything in your 2025 manual that restricts or um constricts a building owner from collecting the rainwater that falls on their own residential or commercial roof assuming of course if they go to the trouble to collect it that it'll be used for some productive purpose like watering plants or reuse sure uh thank you councelor Spence um rainwater harvesting is a requirement for new projects and um exceptions to that would only be where the the project would use complete um landscape pallet of drought tolerant species that would require you know less Irrigation in that that while at the same time using um more passive techniques of capturing the water and and the rain water and diverting it to these landscaped areas as opposed to without those um drought tolerant species you're required to do active rainwater harvesting meaning into tanks and that and then to irrig systems and that so there's sort of two options there okay I I just want to be clear on the verbiage here um you just mentioned that it's a requirement for new developments but my question is is there anything that prohibits a land owner a building owner from collecting water that falls on their own roof from entering the storm water system no sir there is not thank you city manager thank you mayor thank you for the presentation on chapters nine and 10 uh I think the questions kind of go together here he talked about the burned watersheds and post Wildfire flooding first question is uh because you made reference to the county manual earlier does this reconcile pretty well with uh policies that the county is currently following with respect to post Wildfire flooding that the topic has been one of of a lot of revisitation between us and the flood control district good good discussions but just wanting to make sure we're a little bit on the same page second part of the question is on the flood modeling I I think I heard your comments that that would dovetail nicely with the models that we do utilize for uh flood forecasting like with the je Fuller and similar Consultants thanks yes than thank you um yeah um and and I've been lucky enough to to be involved in some of those uh efforts that the county is is undertaken in these these post Wildfire areas and yes the manual is very much in line and in fact a good share of the comments we received were about this subject and and a lot of them quite frankly came from J Fuller as we we got this all together and um and that even gets down to the you know the final analysis of the no adverse impact that um requires us to not adversely impact uh Property Owners Downstream with these projects and the criteria are very very similar with what the county is using um the second second question about the the flood modeling yes the two-dimensional flood modeling uh does encompass um exactly those same models that the county is using one of them being uh a model called flow 2D and so those are covered in that chapter council member Garcia uh thank you for the presentation Mr Shanks uh it uh I just wanted to comment I don't know what the old man looks like too much but I spent a good portion of my Friday taking a look at the revisions and for somebody who's fairly uh new at this it was easily digestible and fairly easily to understand so I appreciate whatever you did to make it easy for um somebody like myself to be able to go through it pretty quickly and uh have a better understanding of where I need to look at um when it comes to uh these things that come before us in the Das in the future thank you uh thank you for the comment counselor Garcia and um yeah looking at the 2009 manual you're going to see all these strange graphs and things which really are available other places and and this is meant more to get to the the broader points in that so thank you any additional questions or comments thank you so much Ed did you have anything to add add uh other than thanking Rick for all his time over the last two years on this project uh nothing to add at this time um this is much needed we are probably five years behind the times at least on this so but having a 2009 manual we're very slow to react uh unfortunately so getting this getting this Revision in will be fantastic it'll put us um in place I'm going to joke here a little bit in place for the count to revise off of ourti next so we'll do the leap frogging back and forth in the city and the county so um it is good and it's good to get this updated with a lot of the new things that we're seeing in the last few years so thank you thank you all right um I will entertain a motion to read the resolution actually just had a quick comment I I appreciate Ed and Doug Slover um and their patience uh with they they were ready to go with this quite some time ago I had several questions about it due to the previous manual that was in place took quite a bit of legal research to get there but thank you for your patience on that they've done great work here now I will entertain a motion to read the resolution by title only mayor I'd like to move that we read resolution number 2025 d10 by title only our second I'll second any discussion all those in favor I I I I any opposed city clerk a resolution of the Flagstaff city council designating the 2025 storm water management design manual a public record thank you and a motion to read ordinance 2025 d04 by title only for the first time mayor I'll move to read ordinance number 20254 by title only for the first time I'll second any discussion all those in favor I I any opposed city clerk an ordinance of the city council of the city of Flagstaff amending the Flagstaff city code title 12 flood Plaines by adopting by reference that certain document entitled 2025 storm waterer management design manual providing for repeal of conflicting ordinances severability Authority for clerical Corrections and establishing an effective date thank you thank you Rick thank you Ed thank you all all right moving down to 10 cons consideration and Adoption of resolution number 20258 thank you and good afternoon mayor sorry good evening uh mayor and councel uh my name is Sarah Langley I'm serving as the city's public affairs director and tonight I'm bringing before you a resolution uh for your approval which would recognize that our current housing emergency in the city of Flagstaff is exacerbated by the proliferation of short-term rentals or St strr as I'll call them um and the resolution also urges the State of Arizona to address those impacts of short-term minals and return local control to cities on this topic um I will pull up the resolution just to have it visible here it is all right so first um just to offer a very brief overview of short-term rentals or Str strs we have seen a pro proliferation of Str strs in Arizona here over the past decade or so um and strs can start to have a significant impact on smaller communities because they can start to take up um what can be a sizable portion of the city's housing stock cities and towns currently have very limited ability to regulate short-term rentals due to state law uh in 2016 the legislature passed 1350 sp1 1350 which requires cities to allow short-term rentals in residential zones and really as soon as this happened back in 2016 cities began to kind of push back um and push for the ability to better regulate short-term rentals um over the past years there have been some bills that passed that gave cities for example the the ability to require contact information or to require a license however we haven't had any legislation passed that allows cities to regulate the number of short-term rentals in their communities so that's a bit of background um now let's take a look at the resolution at hand a version of this resolution was first passed by the the city of Sedona and um Sedona has then been encouraging other cities to pass um a resolution that fits their context and their um local situation so the resolution essentially calls for the state legislature to return local controls to cities towns and counties um this would allow each city or town to decide what works best for their community in terms of if or how they want to regulate Str strs so it's important to note that this resolution does not mean that strs would be further regulated in Flagstaff we currently do not have that Authority uh it simply calls for local governments to be given that Authority um to regulate short-term rals however would work best for their Community uh in terms of how this resolution would be used it's really just a lobbying tool or a tool that shows our state legislators uh how many cities and towns are impacted by short-term rentals and are advocating for more local control on the issue so that's all I have mayor I'll pass it back to you for your discussion thank you Sarah uh council member house thank you mayor thank you Sarah uh I just wanted to speak on this because we we did have a robust conversation uh with the Housing Commission on this and wanted to just give voice to some of the um the considerations that came up during that conversation I know that there were some who were uh expressing concern about what exactly this resolution meant and so just wanted to reemphasize what Sarah stated there on um this really just opening the door for um action at the legislature and showing the support for uh that local control it is not an attempt to circumvent um those the current existing regulations or or lack thereof um at the city level but simply expressing our desire to um be able to control our own communities and own neighborhoods and um uh ensure that the housing Supply is Meeting those needs and not uh resulting in a proliferation of short-term rental so um just wanted to state that thank you thank you Council any additional questions or comments U thank you Madame mayor I just wanted to make a quick comment that I uh viewed online the housing commission's meeting and there was a really robust conversation around this where it was pretty close on the split between the two sides and um I do side with the uh prevailing vote from the Housing Commission but I think that there was points on each end that are worth um you know considering when moving forward with this as far as the short-term vacation rental owners and the people that they serve as well as U the ability for our own self to make sure that we can um provide the adequate housing for our for our um Community thank you all right um council member house mayor oops sorry council member house you indicated that you would like to make the motion um but we do have public comment thank you Stacy Mary Norton sorry Mary hello hello again mayor and councel I'm Mary Norton commenting as a citizen I here to support this resolution uh to give weight to the lobbying efforts urging the state to allow for local control of short-term rentals the issues of noise nuisance number and concentration of shortterm rentals is very real in my neighborhood of Pinnacle Pines I want to address from personal experience the HOA point of view I currently serve on our hoa's community relations and governance committee which works on this issue the only carve out provided by that 2016 law was for HOAs who could regulate them with their CC andrs however unless ccnr has restrict short-term rentals at the time of writing this carve out has proven to be ineffective Pinnacle Pines is a community of 208 Town Homes completed in 2018 and we are at 20% short-term rentals our original ccrs did not restrict them and we had a voting threshold of 90% making it imp impossible to even update and correct poorly written boilerplate documents in 2021 we finally sought judicial relief to lower our threshold to an acceptable 67% as Str strs escalated we have been diligent in our efforts to mitigate the issues of short-term rentals by using our ccnr rules and regulations city codes and ordinances but even so the effects of living near homes that become hotels persists and over the last two and a half years with legal guidance we sought two different votes to restrict and phase out short-term Renning even allowing for forms of exemption while of those that voted were in favor of restricting we couldn't reach that 67% total ownership passage and there were Rumblings of lawsuits based on Arizona Supreme Court case cway versus calibria that ruled unforeseen changes to ccrs must have 100% Passage many many HOAs in Arizona are waiting for the cway case to be challenged at the Supreme Court level to end that ridiculous ruling in precedence so even in an HOA we need your efforts this resolution is just one tool and I do want to add I know that it's very well that new developments cannot by law be required or asked to restrict short-term rentals unless there's some opportunity for negotiations however we can all certainly set out very outward EXP expectations and vocal hopes that new communities being built here do better and restrict at minimum non-owner occupied short-term rentals in the name of truly producing housing for Flagstaff residents and the side benefit is that we'll be redirecting support to our local hotel industry especially the many new and renovated hotels and motels as they will always bring in those BBB tourism tax dollars thank you thank you and um one note about the taxation short-term rentals are taxed the property tax is at the residential level whereas hotels have to pay the commercial um tax property tax um not talking about sales tax um so that's next up all right um council member house thank you mayor I'd like to move that we read resolution number 202-0852 d66 is exacerbated by the proliferation of short-term rent limiting housing stock available to Flagstaff residents and urging the state legislature of the State of Arizona to address the impacts of short-term rentals on the supply of housing for Arizona residents and a motion to adopt council member house would you like to do that yes thank you mayor I move to adopt resolution number 2025-the I hi any opposed all right thank you Sarah thank you moving down to e use of the council initiative fund good evening mayor and Council Stacy Saltsburg your communication and Civic engagement director and also your city clerk um we have had a request from coun excuse me vice mayor sweet um that came up at our last meeting um on a potential use of uh the your Council initiative fund to support um the housing the Habitat for Humanity Blitz construction Blitz um I will let vice mayor swe speak to that um request and looking for um a motion if that is something that the council wishes to do thank you and thank you Council for hearing me I know it's been a long night so as um St mentioned habitat is holding a blitz build for the first 10 starter homes in timers sky and it's going to be June 3rd through June 12th there are 97 volunteers coming from all over the US and they're donating not only their time but also buying their flights hotel rooms and contributing to our BBB tax so I asking the city council that we sponsor one of the days for food um for the volunteers in total there will be 150 volunteers and that includes out of town out of state and our local I did reach out to Flagstaff buring company and they are willing to donate their time to help us Grill um burgers and dogs and um hot dogs hot dogs not real dogs sorry thanks for clarifying um there are other local restaurants sponsoring including Bigfoot barbecue Aspen Deli and Toasted Owl and I would like one of us to be or I would like the city council to be another sponsor this has been a a long time coming with this project and I think we're all pretty excited excited to see this happen it takes a village and I would love for city council to be part of this so I am asking for $11,000 from our Council initiative fund to go to one day of feeding the volunteers and I know that sounds like a lot but it is $666 per volunteer that I'm asking for and with that I'll take any questions thank you uh council member house uh no questions uh vice mayor s just uh thank you for bringing this forward um I would not say that that sounds like a lot I was actually expecting that the ask might have been a little bit higher than that so so I am uh on board for this and I guess my only question and I don't know if you have an answer uh is I I've signed up for one of the volunteer days I don't know if there are still spots available for others to sign up if they're interested or um if they're at their capacity for volunteers for this thank you thank you for asking that council member house and I am not sure I just signed up myself recently to volunteer um I would recommend if anyone's interested in volunteering to email Eric at Habitat for Humanity I do not have his email on me but I will make sure by the end of this I can give that out publicly council member Garcia thank you for bringing this forward uh vice mayor swe I think it's a good opportunity for us to get in there and help out with the H human uh Habitat for Humanity project I recently signed up as well and I was uh pretty happily surprised that you don't have to have like construction skills or anything like that so I signed up just to distribute food and help out with the motivation play guitar may I do have his email can I give that yes please so if you would like to volunteer or have any more questions you can email Eric E I h4h naz.org thank you uh counc member Asen my family and I are signed up for the first several days of this build uh very much support this I think it's exactly what the council initiative fund is for thank you all right um so I can't remember whether we needed a motion to do this yes can I get a motion to approve $1,000 for the Habitat for Humanity Blitz home build volunteer event I would be honored to make that notion that we donate $1,000 from our Council initiative fund for the blitz build um doing the 10 starter homes in timers Sky June 3rd through June 12th I second to any discussion all those in favor I I I any opposed all right great and we have other identified initiatives were there additional um projects mayor there weren't any additional projects but we wanted to make sure it was agenda ized in a way that if you did have others that came forward you had the room to do that all right Council any additional okay thank you so we will move on to item number 12 future agenda item requests this is a a fair request by council member Spence and um so council member Spence will give give um his his um reasoning for requesting this and we'll take public comment and then at this meeting we um need three council members to indicate that they would like to move this forward to have a um full discussion on an agenda and um with no discussion tonight just um if there are three members of the council who want to see this move forward so do we have some public comment um so council member Spence please thank you mayor I would like everyone to indulge me in just a moment as we go back to the beginning of our meeting where I pledged 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 justce justice for all with liberty and justice for all we live in turbulent times with regard to migration both legal and extr legal there are federal statutes and an aggressive Federal deportation initiative underway at this time to rid America of persons without legal status there are also existing state statutes as well as a bill pending in the Arizona legislature Senate Bill 1164 which has the nickname AZ ice act and that bill if it passes the house and does not get a a Governor's veto would prohibit Arizona cities and towns from implementing policies that prevent the entities such as the city from cooperating with Federal immigration authorities so that State Legislative initiative is moving through our own legislature but in the meantime we need to ask ourselves what should we and Flagstaff do in this regard and I am not asking I am not asking for Flag Staff to violate any federal or state laws thank you Sterling we're not in the business to to uh uh get the city of Flagstaff uh put incarceration rather I am proposing that we have a council discussion on how Federal and state actions in this Arena will affect Flagstaff and our residents one such discussion could be regarding deputization of our local police force by ice or Immigration and Naturalization Services the federal the federal agencies they're going around the country deputizing local police departments to execute judicial warrants in people's homes places of worship health care facilities and other venues where people might be trying to avoid the feds locking them up and carrying them away so I will stop there and see if there's an appetite for having a discussion on this topic thank you council member all right we're going to take public comment Phil gold blat mayor dagger vice mayor s and city council members and by the way thank you for your patience um I have here in my hand the entire tax of prop 314 which was approved by the voters of the State of Arizona as well as the text of the analysis by a legislative Council of the state um let's there has been a lot of controversy on this immigration issue lately and I believe firmly that it is not however an issue that should be further considered by really any city in Arizona well you may ask why do I say this first there should be no concern whatsoever that legal immigrants would not be safe in Flagstaff Coconino County Sheriff axland whom I've spoken with um personally and most other Arizona county sheriffs have agreed that until the similar Texas law s sp4 is settled law they would not inforce prop 314 in fact part of 314 prop 314 itself says that it may not be enforced in any manner until the S sp4 law is in effect but we you all know that this Texas law is held up in the fifth us Circuit Court of Appeals presently so I need to ask Council why are you worried we also know that the petition that is going around supported by Miss poova would if passed by this Council in effect make our city a sanctuary City that would attract illegal immigrants that include some of the worst criminals from other countries this is not a good thing for the residents of our town furthermore we also know that many federal grants and funding that our city now enjoys and needs may be lost if our city passes such an ordinance as the fova petition requests the current Administration is beginning to enforce the federal immigration laws that make it a federal crime to enter this country illegally prop 314 was passed largely because the federal government was not doing their job so why should any of you council members not desire to support a legal law that was passed by both the federal government in the past and now by our state government laws that are legal should be upheld not opposed further I need not remind this Council that the supremacy clause of our US Constitution means that lower jurisdictions like our city are bound to uphold Federal immigration law not underminer for all of the above reasons I would humbly ask this Council to please not devote time or resources to basically a moot issue and I thank you for hearing me out thank you BJ Dempsey mayor daget vice mayor swe and council members thank you I'm here today to speak against the fair requests by council member Spence during this me meeting I've heard a lot about abiding by law I've heard about bankrupting the city all of which would be put in Jeopardy by having a discussion about how to have a workaround at a city level for federal laws that we have in place that could not only endanger funds coming into our city but also endanger so it could endanger state and federal funds from coming in here as well as we have I have a list that I'd be happy to share with you of 10 different federal laws that would be under this discussion to that would be in violation and it would be a discussion that would be aimed at skirting the laws and giving people advice on how to possibly a workaround to laws that have not only been voter approved but also passed by state and federal authorities um first of all we have Federal funding our current department of justice has vowed to stop all federal for funding and I don't think it was going to be a matter of of sanctuary cities immigrant safety laws I noticed Mr Spence council member Spence you decided to say legal and illegal immigration there is no desire to deport legal immigrants in any way shape or form by anyone that I'm aware of I could be wrong stopping Federal funding into our state could be risky to all the members that voted as Citizens to put the council for before us um one of the state laws that I have right here that is very clear is Arizona rights statute 11- 1051 where no official agency of the state city town or other political division May limit or restrict enforcement of federal immigration laws and in here it does state that they could hold those who vote against that personally responsible which would mean our city would be held responsible also um I know that I've heard and I could be incorrect and he can correct me but in speaking with um our new police chief Sean Conley they do not have the resources or Finance available to actively enforce them and we do not have a jail as a city so it's something that the county would be looking to do so please look out for our citizens that we have right now thank you thank you John Herring it's Joan ye but yeah yes I know I know that um no worries are you on rain Valley John Arrow no no okay this is it's John Herring hering yes he left all right hey don't sit down don't sit down Joan Arrow thank you Mary daget vice mayor sweet uh Spence Garcia and house it's a pleasure to see you all and thank you for taking my comment um I'm speaking in favor of council memb M Spence's um motion to allow our city council and our community to have a discussion about this issue I think previous comments that we've heard this evening have made points about laws that exist or laws that might be proposed but to my knowledge all that has been requested is a public discussion and to me as a community member here in Flagstaff since 2014 this issue is about people about the people our community depends on for everything that we may take for granted and those people and our community deserves an opportunity to discuss some of these points and how we as a community of Flagstaff might choose to move forward but to cite federal and state laws which may say this or may say that as a reason why our community and a Democratic Society cannot exercise our first amendment rights to free speech and open discussion is preposterous I think a lot of our community members are feeling scared a lot of us are worried about the red rhic in Washington and what that means for us as a Southwestern State and as a a a a state that I love very deeply I know that we hold dear values that we are indivisible as a nation and that we deserve an opportunity for our community to have a good faith discussion about how we might protect our neighbors and keep Flagstaff together from needless persecution cuz let's be real our immigrant community in this country um they do the hard work that many of us don't want to do and if you want to see fresh food in your grocery stores and eggs that are reasonable price I think deporting the people who pick the food and do all the labor that makes our country possible is ridiculous that's an opinion but we should have a forum for our opinions to be discussed and for the city to make a plan for how we can ensure that the values we hold dear as a nation are reflected in our great city thank you thank you Eva poova thank you mayor adet vice mayor uh suet and council members um uh thank you um ccil members Pence for uh hearing us um we got 1500 fstep residents uh who signed a petition asking you to pass immigrant safety ordinance because as Joan said people are afraid um and it's kind of interesting that um you know in the past this Council took a position that the city should not get involved in um uh Federal issues and so we're asking you to not get involved in federal issues and follow the same kind of logic you used um in the spring of 2000 actually last spring when you declined to pass the ceasefire resolution and we're asking you to uh include in that immigrant safety ordinance um three uh provisions one is to not to use City resources for federal immigration enforcement the second one is uh to put restrictions on data sharing and you know very well that City collects immense amount of data about FL staff residents that can be used in all kinds of way and then finally to um require the city departments and staff to be trained on uh compliance uh that ordinance so I hope you're going to hold a discussion I hope you're going to cover uh potentially passing an uh ordinance like this and I would like to ask you to expedite it I know you will need uh four votes for that but I want you to ask um to have that conversation about Expediting it because frankly um the city residents uh cannot wait uh for that discussion to happen thank you so much thank you Amy Martin hello and thank you so much um for this time in this space um my name is Amy Martin I am a photographer here in Flagstaff I've been in Flagstaff since 1997 and I'm here today because because there are so many in this community that cannot be here out of the fact that they fear for their safety um sharing their identity and I have so much um to say but what I'm going to do I am an artist and so I'm going to use hold on one second um one of the projects that I've done recently I've been working with the undocumented community over the last eight years and one of the projects that I have done is a storytelling project that gives a platform for those denied the chance to share their identity to share their stories um here and so this project is called toos dignos which means we are all dignified we all deserve dignity and so in this um photograph I invited these ented community members who are contributing so much to our community the chance to use objects to to let us know what their contributions are and so here we have a woman who cleans houses she has her cleaning gloves on but even more than that contribution of the work of cleaning people's homes here is she brought a heart and that represents her love for this community and I thought um this was just you know this needs to be shared what these neighbors are doing for our community um I do got one minute well I was going to read her story but I also have um so much to say about this kind of legal illegal space so many of the people that I talk to were brought over when they were young when they were 2 years old when they were four years old they really don't know any any place other than our Flag Staff Community some have been able to be approved for DACA some haven't um I talked to a teacher um in kilp this week and she told me that her students are disappearing that families are leaving Flagstaff they are leaving our community out of fear and they are going to you know worse way worse conditions um back in Mexico and so I just hope that we can have this discussion and this is so hard that we have to have this discussion without the people that this is um directly affecting but I want you to know that working with you know over these last eight years with so many people thank you so much thanks thank you Joe Bader mayor daget members of the council my name is Joe Bader I live in Flagstaff I'm going to read one of the stories that Amy was referring to from some of the folks in our community who are under under attack now and are uh terrified of what's going to happen to their lives this is a about a carpenter who lives in town was brought by his mother from Durango Mexico to Phoenix Arizona United States at age 10 he recently moved to Flagstaff to continue working construction and now works as a painter I'm quoting him my mom brought us by herself when I was 10 I've been here for 20 years there are four of us in my family I was 10 years old when I came she wanted to give her kids the best opportunities for themselves she wanted the best for us I began to work at 12 or 13 years old to help my mom I was in school and working I worked in construction before but now I am a painter I like it and I learn fast I am a good painter that's why I continue to do it I like it a lot I like to do it so that the clients like it when I finish I try to do the best I can I like when they are happy with the work I do I see their Joy I don't do it for the money I do it so that people are happy with their house I got my associates diploma in Community College I studied athletic training I couldn't continue because it was really expensive and it was when the laws became more strict I graduated in May but I would have had to pay triple to go to the university people talk about how we don't speak the language from here but the reason because we might not speak the language is that there are people with less resources that have not had an education I would like to learn another language but I am working we as immigrants are people that are thankful for this country it is an opportunity to have a better future we came for nothing more but to work not to take only to work we want to respect respect this country we are not perfect but we want to be members of the community and help this country this man like so many others lives in this community or they were living in this community they deserve to stay here they're struggling dayto day to make a better life and to demonize them is really unconscionable thank you thank you Gwen wearing good evening Council my name is Gwen wearing and I've been here for you're going to have to 50 years this year woohoo I am reading this for someone who didn't feel safe enough to be here tonight to present this statement of hers um I graduated in high school was an excellent student I had offers from U OFA and na you and I couldn't take them my parents had always saved money because they knew I would have to pay more money but in my last year of high school my stepdad was stopped and almost deported he spent a month and a half in Eloy when that happened we had to sell everything we sold our house we sold our cars and we took out loans to get him out I know nothing good is going to happen what worries me is my younger sister because she is going to live with the fear that one of her parents is going to be taken it's very difficult for a little girl of six years to understand everything that is happening but she knows she understands that our father is here today and may be gone tomorrow I had to drive to Phoenix with him and those detention centers are horrible I've gone to the immigration office in downtown Phoenix and it's terrible they don't let you go inside with them and you see buses leaving with people when I went down there I saw a man waiting with his wife and his bag packed and they knew I have to look to my mom and sister for inspiration my mom is the strong one but when she's depressed I know it and when I and when I am going through something she worries about me when she has so many other things to worry about if it were just for me I couldn't continue forward but it's for them I'm doing everything to better myself because this is why my mom brought me to the United States so that I could realize my life's dream she left hers so that I could follow mine I saw an article that talked about doca privilege and it suggests that we all that we're all legal and protected but it's not like that it's there's a lot of fear not knowing whether we are protected they tell us to trust the police but they're the ones that are putting us in jail I want to be a nurse to help thank you thank you Sandra laari good evening mayor and councel I am appreciative of this chance to speak especially as we are in the midst of a period of political repression and a campaign of fear that is being promulgated by our federal government the primary target is our immigrant population borders are Tom homman who has resumed the policy of putting families with children in detention centers recently advocated for the arrest of elected you us leaders who opposed Donald Trump's policies on migrants he asked why can't I arrest a mayor or a governor who doesn't cooperate with my agency the fact that he doesn't know the answer should frighten us and so should the fact that his agency is operating without guard rails an example German citizen Jessica brusa is right now fighting to be released from immigration and detention after being taken into custody at the border last month she had her German passport confirmation of her visa waiver to enter the country and a copy of her return ticket back to Berlin and was still detained and has been in prisoned for the past month another example detained migrants many of them many of whom are seeking Asylum are being held in federal prisons in Atlanta Philadelphia Miami lenworth Kansas and Los Angeles California prison staff are unsure of how to treat them and how best to keep them separate from other prisoners because they don't they aren't regular inmates they can't be entered into the system to use the phones or contact their families they haven't been charged or convicted but they are being put into our very troubled federal prison system one more example the federal government has given license for ice to go into our public schools and hospitals Imagine The Terror of a young child or a person in Health crisis being confronted by immigration agents though we may hold different opinions on this issue all of us are being bullied by a federal government that threatens to withhold funding to any municipality that disagrees with its highly controversial policies we must speak out against the abuse that is underway in our country I thank councilman Spence for his Fair proposal in light of current federal deportation practices we need to talk publicly and together about human dignity and human rights I urge you to place this Fair item on the agenda thank you thank you Charlie silver hello mayor vice mayor and council members I'm speaking in support of um uh councilman Spence's Fair item I'd like to remind us of a quote by Martin Neer first they came for the Socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade Union unionist then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me thank you thank you Deborah block hello again mayor vice mayor of councel I did not come tonight prepared to speak on this but when I saw two people get up and speak about the laws of our country I was incensed because we are living in a time when the laws of our country are being broken every day at the highest levels I am a retired federal employee and what is happening to the federal employees is disgusting my my family came here escaping the Potato Famine most of them came as indentured servants that was a while ago I am the first generation to have gone to college and become a professional that is what people are looking for they are looking for lives and they are being squashed please give this a fair hearing thank you Teresa tally Teresa Talent like a very talented person sometimes thank you for um hearing me on short notice I just put the card in and I appreciate my chance to speak I didn't come prepared to speak but after hearing all this the most important thing that I want to say is for a discussion on this that's going to go out through the city of Flagstaff and the out the county around it can be the most divisive thing that can happen in our area you can hear that there's real strong emotions um that don't agree with our current president and our current um and he was elected because of this issue um they don't like the way things are going in the government and then you have the other side who very much want to see this problem solved and get the gang bangers out of here and and get a handle on the drugs and the fent all and these people are never going to see eye to eye and so by having a bigger public forum it's going to get ugly neighbors are going to turn against neighbors family members are going to turn against family members and I'll give you three quick points of their cutesy stories on real stories I'm from Maryvale my house my neighbors were safe houses and we saw two Vans pull up with 30 little bitty kids under three years old who hushed into the safe house there was only men in that Safe House mom called the police they're like we can't do anything go in your house and lock the door my cousin who was supposed to retire with me we're supposed to be fishing he got killed by an illegal dreamer one of those little kids that was brought here who wanted to be a gang banger bragged all day about drinking took off through the neighborhood at night going 60 plus miles mil an hour with three drunk teenage girls in his car hit my cousin's car killed him put my cousin's daughter in the hospital the three girls were thrown from his car and he took off running and the neighbors chased him down and caught him and he's about to get out of prison and is ice going to pick him up or they're going to go oh you served your time go hit the streets again and the third thing is my ambulance care career was ruined because six illegals in a truck were going the wrong way down a w wrong way street oneway street they came up they T-boned me we rolled several times brand new ambulance had to call the boss second day on the road screwed up my neck screwed up my back and ruined my ambulance career you know they're not all sweet little kids that want to work in the field excuse me these are dangerous people and more than that is just the division that it's going to cause in our community it's not leg Al we don't need to even talk about being a sanctuary City we need to put that to rest and leave it alone and that's what I pray for thank you very much thank you Jill Stevenson thank you mayor vice mayor and council members and thank you council member Sten Spence for bringing this issue forward this is not something we can ignore the majority of immigrants are law-abiding citizens contributing to our country there are exceptions just like there are exceptions in any any group of people we are merely hoping that the council will discuss this issue that is so severely affecting our friends and neighbors who we need you know I mean it's it's very basic many immigrants are doing the kinds of jobs that most quote Americans do not want to dirty their hands with we need them they want to be here and as I mentioned most of them are law-abiding citizens trying to make a better life for themselves and their families so please do include this as quickly as you can in one of your future agendas this is a discussion we need to have it better to bring this out in the open then try to hide this and say everything's bad or everything's going to be all right no we need to talk about it so thank you very much for your consideration I appreciate it thank you kit Alvarez hello thank you for hearing me this is my first time here so I'll keep this short I'm a longtime resident and I think our community has every right to discuss this issue thank you thank you Thomas hutner good evening mayor vice mayor and council members my name is Thomas hutner I have been resident of Flagstaff for one month uh I recently got out of the Coast Guard after nine years of active duty for eight years I was primarily in charge of planning coordinating and executing search and rescue operations but also any operations that involve law enforcement officers that were given Federal rights under the uh us code I believe it's 11 subsection you'd be pulling my brain too hard for that one but point being in order to be a steward of life through my search and rescue operations I first had to be a steward of the constition I remember a case we had when 12 drunk people on a party boat outside of Chicago were trying to leave and they had some complaints against them but no hard evidence that could lead to an arrest our secret agent or special agent from Coast Guard Investigative Services told the petty officer third class to stop that boat hold them there this was an officer a military officer giving an order the bm3 said yeah I'm not going to be violating the constit stion today the point being that I have worked with law enforcement officers that know the Constitution and they know that it protects the people I am going to guarantee you that when ice does come in it will be without regard to that safety for documented or undocumented it will not matter I can tell you that if I leave my license at home and I speak the language that my mother taught me since I am in addition of being a third generation veteran I'm a second generation Mexican am there's a saying we have which is which means I'm not from here but I'm also not from over there being a veteran being of mixed uh Heritage that really R Rings true when you are you rely on your community because you give in and you help them and you expect that in return and that's not just for undocumented people that's for those of us who who are fifth generation Americans who are respected members of our community I am going to guarantee you that ice even though we can talk about how they are operating within the law legally they will not only mutate that Constitution but there will be at first small uh infractions against the Constitution and it will seem like oh well they're already here we got uh extra Federal funding from them yeah we'll put up with the small constitutional breakages what's going to happen when it's the large ones during my eight years I counted up the number of times that my planning led to a saved human life it was 109 I never counted the amounts of lives that I lost under my operations because even if it was one it was our belief that one person dying is worth everything else the ends do not justify the means and that's what I learned thank you thank you all right that is the end of our public comment I don't see any online and again um we're looking for a show of hands to move this forward for a discussion and I think that there are there are several of us up here who would love to um to speak and I would just invite the public to contact us um either either way contact us after the meeting not tonight but um email us and we can set up a meeting yes I with all du respect uh this is in no way a discussion but I feel I have the right to briefly provide an explanation and context for the way that I'm going to give direction okay Sterling I'll either do it now or during two from in 90 seconds and and obviously mayor that's your call it's under the rules rul of procedure uh when fairs first come to the council it's for uh determination of whether there are three or more council members that support the fair um there has not been discussion and discussion isn't provided for in the rules um nor explanatory statements typically in the past that said ultimately you're the chair and um those rules I will note were approved by Council um so I know that some have expressed an interest in in making those statements I'll leave that to you mayor thanks Sterling um go ahead and do it during um two from and we'll thank you that's your discretion and I respect it thank you um all right so we're looking for a show of hands um three who want to move this forward I don't see anything from council member house so we have two and it does not move forward thank you next up we have open call to the public then after that we have informational items to from mayor councel and staff and future agenda item requests uh council member Matthews thank you mayor um I'm going to follow suit with folks if you're interested in hearing my reasoning please stay I'll let you go first no go ahead council member Matthews well I was just going to also explain why I'm not moving this forward it was really evident tonight that it it's very emotionally charged um and we can't do anything about it um we took an oath to uphold the Constitution and the laws whether we like them or not um I grew up my kids grew up in a farming Community with um U migrant workers I mean that's all my kids knew that was their friends I'm always very supportive of them and they do work on on backbreaking jobs that nobody else would do I'm supportive of that but that doesn't really change the fact that this is a subject that is highly emotionally charged and it's something we cannot legally do anything about um can you imagine if we put this on the agenda how many probably hundreds of people would be here sharing their heart-wrenching stories and at the end of the day we do nothing about it we can't every almost every single one that came here wanted action they wanted us to do something something and they're just going to get disappointed after hours upon hours of conversation so um I appreciate being able to share that not that I'm not sympathetic I am um you know I worry about people children and and innocence getting swept up in this but this is not our this is not within our Authority thank you council member Garcia um Madame mayor respectfully I will uh wait till next week to share my two from thank you council member Asen thank you very much I just wanted to use this opportunity to say that I am a strong and stalwart friend of the Immigrant Community I speak Spanish I lived in a rural Spanish speaking Cloud Forest Community for three years I organized a dasis wide Catholic immigration support Network for the city of Sacramento under Bishop Haim SoDo I'm very concerned by the State of Affairs that prompted this fair and concerned for those in our Flagstaff neighborhoods who are most affected but I firmly believe there are two ways to approach this problem as a council member a non-binding resolution will do nothing but poke a bear we can be loud or we can be effective so I will not be supporting the fair um that's all thank thank you council member um vice mayor thank you and I'll make mine short um I believe that this conversation can happen and should happen in the community and I believe it is happening um and I'm just going to leave it at that I am supportive of the discussion among our community members thank you council member house thank you mayor I will just follow suit of my fellow council members and just state that um I do want to thank council member Spence for bringing the the prior discussion forward and acknowledge that this is a deep concern that many in our community share regarding the treatment of our migrant Community particularly in light of current state and federal actions on deportation and I share that concern about the impacts these policies may have on neighbors friends and local families I also recognize that people are scared I think we heard that a lot this evening and there's so much uncertainty surrounding these policies that it's causing real fear in our community and I don't take that lightly however I think it's important for us to remember that we need to be thoughtful in our response and not reactive in a way that may cause unintended harm that's one thing I don't think that I heard uh in some of the conversation tonight there's so much that is evolving in the current legal landscape at the state level at the federal level and so forth that I worry that conversations that we're having could be seen as standing in direct opposition to legislation in a way that may not serve our community's best interest and more importantly I fear that bringing heightened attention to some of these issues in a public for could unintentionally place the very people we're seeking to support at greater risk adding to the fear and uncertainty that they are already experiencing I also want to acknowledge uh as council member or excuse me as vice mayor swe did uh that there is incredible advocacy and Community organization happening already that's doing essential work in this space I am engaged with some of them I will continue to be engaged with some of them and I appreciate that these groups are deeply engaged with impacted IND individuals providing resources and supports in a way that are likely much more effective and appropriate than a discussion from the deis so while I always value open dialogue I believe in this case deferring to those directly engaged in this work is the best way that we can contribute to our community safety and well-being thank you thank you council member Spence nothing further um I think that my colleagues up here have been um very articulate um people are scared and we um have heard from a number of them this evening and conversations are happening I just want to to emphasize that that conversations are happening and um as council member house said many of us um are involved in those conversations and um we we do have um we do have legal restraints and um as as council member Matthews said a further discussion of this would um elicit a lot of public comment as we know and would not um lead to the outcome that people would like to see or that a number of people would like to see and um there are more effective ways to address the issue and those are underway so um I just want to thank the public for um for coming out and speaking to us I want to um thank my colleagues for giving me the grace to uphold our policies and procedures this is one of those times where um you do it for one and then you end up having to do it for all so I'm sorry of this inelegant way of um handling comments but thank you everyone for um for how articulate you were this evening city manager nothing for me thank you mayor thank you all right we're adjourned

Watch on YouTube →