CC_Minutes_2023_0821 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

Regular City Council Meeting Monday, August 21,2023 Page 9 City to say, "no more than 3 per bedroom". There needs to be an individualized assessment done of the situation, every time. Mayor Roe noted in Chapter 906 of the Building Maintenance Code, the City does have occupancy limitations related to sleeping quarters. But,once again,he thought the point of reasonable accommodation is to say yes,the City has that but how does that apply or does that apply to the situation that is being looked at under the other standards or additional standards that the City has to consider. Councilmember Strahan indicated from an HR perspective, this is a business and so there will need to be staff. In her experience with actually having worked in sober housing, is that the staff had to have a private bedroom on to their staff regulations. So there needs to at least be one or more locations where a staff person would have access to a private location where they could be sleeping and housed as well. She noted in that regard, there were folks that had sex offender status who were in the buildings. So considering how that would play out with the neighborhoods, especially if there were any type of notification process and what the time frame would be. There were also people regularly overdosing in the building so another issue is access to the public safety system and making sure there was access to the building. She was not saying the City can make those choices, but she did think it was important to know that those are things that are there. She thought it was good to know about the safety of that building, and that the City really needs to do everything it can to make changes. In her experience, this was in a neighborhood where there were only eight people in a house and there were four houses in a row that shared staff. She would also like to know what the reimbursement rate is. Councilmember Groff wondered if there needs to be a type of licensing and inspections. Mayor Roe thought it was kind of a zoning decision. City Attorney Tierney explained it is a zoning decision. Different cities have tried to license it with minimal success. Rental licenses could be applied and there may be some regulatory options, which she is happy to look into but mainly what is being talked about is the density. Mayor Roe explained he observed this process before in another city and in that particular community,the decision making was done by the City Council. He knew that the proposed draft ordinance is to have it a staff decision appealable to the City Council as the Board of Adjustments and Appeals. From City Attorney Tierney's experience in working with other cities and her firm's experience,he asked whether the preferred model as opposed to having the decision made by the City Council, is to have it appealable to the City Council.