City Council Meeting Notes 10/04/23
Hello, overly caffeinated, newly recovered from COVID, back in school, had to goddamn rebuild my porch Tailor here! Sorry I missed the last meeting summary. I was having a bad time. But now I am feeling better, and I have exactly enough time to continue summarizing Council meetings for you this quarter. Hurray!
So what did we miss last week?
Caraway Master Planned Development and Annexation of 153 Acres of the North Triangle Urban Growth Expansion Area
Last meeting, the City Council approved the Caraway Master Planned Development. This development is a residential district just north of Lowes, bordering Hunnell Road, that will be built by Pahlisch Homes. The Master Plan should deliver around 593 housing units, 192 units more than the minimum required for the development. You can read more about it in this Bulletin Article from the great, actually reliable, Anna Kaminski. In that meeting, Council verbally agreed to lower the minimum lot size for triplexes on this development, but forgot to include it in the motion. They had to approve the modified motion today, which moves the second reading over to next Council meeting.
Here's the plan I transposed on google maps to help you visualize what this development will look like.
I'm sure lots of other stuff also happened, but I am not going back and watching it, so I guess that will be a mystery that remains forever. Such a shame.
The new thing I am trying this week is releasing my Otter.ai transcriptions of the meetings. Let me know if you think this is helpful!
Uncorrected Robot Transcription of the Work Session
Uncorrected Robot Transcription of the Regular Session
Work Session
Council Schedule Requests
Councilor Campbell would like Council to consider setting up a Youth Advisory Council to encourage teens to engage with City Government. Two high school seniors asked her, and Campfire Central Oregon wants to be involved. Council thinks it's a great idea to explore. Work Sessions are pretty full, initial conversations will go through the Stewardship Subcommittee.
Councilor Mendez wants Staff to present a formal debrief about the Safe Streets for All event co-hosted by Bend Bikes this Summer. He is specifically interested in hearing how we could codify recommended changes that came out of that event. This will go through the Community Building Subcommittee first.
You should watch the public section of that event actually, Here's a link. You can see me right there in the middle of the audience listening and reacting in a way too enthusiastic manner the entire time. Please excuse me while I cringe so hard in the corner until I compress myself into a black hole.
E-Bike Roundtable Follow Up
Representative Levy and Commute Options presented about the E-Bike Roundtable they co-hosted this Summer with the City. As our State Representative, she will be advocating for more clarity around regulating e-bikes, specifically for children, in the short session. She will propose we tie our classification of e-bikes to Federal standards, and she will advocate creating State laws that would mandate that kids under 16 be allowed only on Class 1 pedal assist bikes, not Class 2 or 3 bikes with throttles. Kids are currently not supposed to be riding e-bikes at all. The police don't enforce this because they don't have the staff. Also, when they try to talk to kids about it, kids tend to try to run away. Running away from the police is a felony, so the implication is that enforcing this would quickly turn into a pipleline for putting children in jail. Commute Options has been focusing on e-bike safety and education. Check out their Safe Routes to School program to find walking maps to learn how your child can walk to school safely. Look for two billboards coming up around town related to e-bike safety. Councilor Perkins would like the City to host content about e-bike safety from Commute Options on our website. They finished the follow-up talking about improving bike infrastructure safety. The transportation department says they are trying to lower vehicle speeds and improve bike and pedestrian safety all around town.
You know what really grinds my e-bike gears?
Because when we look at the speed and safety and ability to modify [ebikes], it is the throttle that can be modified. - Representative Emerson
People keep on saying this, and it drives me nuts. WHETHER AN EBIKE HAS A THROTTLE OR NOT HAS NO IMPACT ON HOW FAST YOU CAN MAKE IT GO OR HOW EASY IT IS TO MODIFY. PEDAL ASSIST IS JUST A THROTTLE YOU ACTIVATE WITH YOUR FEET.
When you modify an e-bike to remove the speed limit, you are not modifying the throttle. You are replacing the motor controller or tricking it into thinking that the bike is going slower than it actually is. The presence of a throttle is not a necessary part of the equation. If we go and create regulations limiting e-bike use based on whether it has a throttle with the intention of using that as a proxy for limiting a bike's speed, we are going to have a bad time.
Here is a screenshot of common ways to modify e-bikes to make them go faster. Do you see the word throttle here? You do not.
WHATEVER. ITS FINE. I generally don't care because I'm not a child nor am I responsible for any of the little monsters angels, and this change makes it more legal for a kid to be on an e-bike than the current law.
YOU'RE WRONG THOUGH. The more defensible position would be to allow kids to use Class 1 or 2 bikes, but not Class 3.
Regular Session
The regular meeting began as usual with roll call and Land Acknowledgment. It is Fire Prevention Week and Oct 15th is Walk to End Alzheimer's Day. Oct 9th is Indigenous People's Day.
Public Comment
Annie wants the Transportation Utility Fee to fund making our streets safe for bikes and pedestrians. Her son was killed 5 months ago in a traffic accident in New York City. She was visiting him at the time and he died going to the grocery store.
Sarah is from the SE Bend Neighborhood Association wants clarity around the septic to sewer opportunity for the neighborhood coming up with the potential Woodside Court affordable housing development
Christie is here from Energize Bend to advocate for Bend to address the climate emergency by promoting electrification.
Josh is here for same.
Consent Agenda
Notable Items on the Consent Agenda:
The City is buying two W56 Toolcat utility work machines from Bobcat to assist in maintaining our bike and pedestrian infrastructure year round. They are going to look something like this! This is one more than was expected. MPO added funds for the second one.
2023 Middle-Income Housing Pilot Program Fund Recommendations
In May, the City allocated $500,000 to be used for grants to develop or preserve housing for households with income ranges from 60% - 120% Area Median Income (AMI). Council directed the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee(AHAC) to review submitted proposals and recommend which applicants will receive grants. AHAC has recommended these three proposals:
Habitat-Hiatus Partnership on Wilson ($75,000): provides a plan set designed for accessibility to persons with disabilities, pays for system development charges (SDCs) and provides down payment assistance for a single unit on the lot at the corner of Wilson and 15th.
Hayden Homes Woodside Court ($225,000): develop sewer infrastructure for Hayden Homes Woodside Court development, providing 20 shovel-ready lots deed restricted for initial home purchase at 80% AMI.
NeighborImpact Down Payment Assistance (DPA) $200,000: used as capital funds to provide up to five DPA loans in the amount up to $40,000 per loan to first-time homebuyers with qualifying income 80% - 120% AMI.
The Council spent a very long time discussing whether they should allocate the funding for Woodside Court over to the Hiatus Micro-Apartment project. AHAC apparently spent a long time discussing this project, because the project is super interesting. Bend doesn't currently have any micro-apartments. It might also not have income-restricted rental units either, I'm unsure how special of a snowflake the project is. AHAC ended up not recommending it because the affordable housing restrictions are dependent on the project getting MUPTE approval. Around a month ago when AHAC made the recommendation, the City was still negotiating with Parks / the School District to get them on board with MUPTE. These discussions are apparently moving along in a positive direction which changes the risk calculus for this project. Council ended up deciding to allocate these funds to the Hiatus project, assuming they agree to the deed restriction within the next 4 months. If it doesn't work out, the money will be allocated to another project, likely Woodside Court. Councilor Broadman was reluctant to modify the recommendation from AHAC, but generally trusts the Councilor's that are on the AHAC committee's characterization of the situation.
The motion that was passed:
Progress on the Bend Airport Air Traffic Control Tower
Our airport is a safety risk so we're building an Air Traffic Control Tower. This agenda item is for the contract to design it. The cost of paying for this project is almost entirely funded by State and Federal dollars.
Council Show and Tell and Surprise Motions Sometimes
THE BIKEWAY WAYFINDING MOCKUPS ARE OUT. I CAN'T SEE! GIVE ME THAT PHOTO ANTHONY. PLEASE.
LOOK AT THAT SIGN. Wayfinding will make it so much easier to for me and others to navigate around town safely on bike. I cannot wait to see these signs around town.
Meeting Adjourned.