Okay, despite the nice positive attitude and all of the lovely conversations that are going on, I realize that we haven't started yet.

So, gonna call uh meeting of the committee of whole to order, and our first item of business is uh Pride Month proclamation.

Mr.

Davis, yes.

I'm invited.

Our partners over here to this time.

All right.

So, I'm gonna read the following proclamation.

Whereas the city of Grand Rapids is dedicated to fostering a welcoming and inclusive environment for all individuals, particularly those within the pride community, and whereas our commitment to equity and fairness extends to all residents, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, and whereas the contributions of the two spirit lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and all other related individuals are vital to the rich cultural, economic, and social fabric of Grand Rapids, and those individuals deserve to feel safe, free from discrimination, and to be able to live without fear of harassment.

And whereas, while this community has made significant progress, there remains ongoing work to ensure true equity, inclusion, belonging, and acceptance for every member of our community, and whereas Grand Rapids recognizes and celebrates the many two SLGBTQIA plus residents, advocates, artists, educators, public servants, organizations, and community leaders whose contributions continue to strengthen and enrich our city, and whereas this year's pride theme is for all of us and serves as a reminder that thriving communities are built through unity, visibility, collective care, and shared responsibility, making sure that all people are welcomed, valued, and supported.

And whereas the City of Grand Rapids remains committed to advancing equity and creating spaces where all can live authentically and with dignity.

Now I, therefore, David LeGrand, mayor of the city of Grand Rapids, do hereby proclaim June 2026 as Pride Month in Grand Rapids and urge all residents in celebrating and supporting our vibrant Pride community thank you, Mayor, Commissioners, uh City Manager, members of community.

Uh today we recognize Pride Month and celebrate the diversity that helps make our city strong.

Our community is made up of people from different backgrounds, experiences, and walks of life, and that diversity enriches our neighborhoods, workplaces, and civic life.

Pride month is an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that all residents are treated with dignity, respect, and fairness.

As a city, we are at our best when every person feels welcome, valued, and able to fully participate in community life.

So thank you to those who continue to work towards building a community where respect, understanding, and belonging are shared by all.

Congratulations on this proclamation.

I especially would like to thank our uh ERG group, uh Pride GR for their work that they do through, I'm sorry, Prism GR for the work that they do throughout uh the city of Grand Rapids, especially with staff, and we are also joined by many community partners today, especially uh Jazz McKinney, who represents the Pride Center.

I'll give her a moment uh to have some remarks.

Thank you.

Um I just wanted to remind everyone that Pride Month isn't just a decoration, it isn't just a pretty rainbow, though it is, but it isn't just a pretty rainbow.

It's not just a flag on a building or a social media post, it's a reminder that some of the people sitting in this very room serving the city have had to fight just to exist.

Our employees, the city employees, our community reflect everyone in this community, queer people, trans people, our elders.

We want to remember that there was a time that we were illegal.

Young people are still figuring out who they are.

Families may look different than what is considered to be the default.

So when we honor pride Month, what we're saying is you belong here, you matter, and we see you.

That shouldn't be considered politics.

That should just be considered humanity.

It makes us who we are, but when you do this, it makes us feel safer, but it's not the end-all be all.

We need to continue to do things that help us to show up as our full selves, to be there for each other, to make residents and non-residents feel fully seen.

So I ask you for this month.

Don't just wear the colors.

Don't just say happy Pride Month and keep it pushing.

Ask someone how they're doing.

Learn something, understand what inclusion truly means, not just as a checkbox, but as a practice.

Remember that pride started as a protest, but it is still a promise that we are here and we are going to be here.

And I also want to acknowledge that I understand that the next one will be about gun violence and that these issues are intersectional.

Our queer community is impacted by gun violence as well.

So I need you to listen to the next one as well because it matters to all of us.

Thank you.

So we want to ask uh both commission and our partners to join us for a photo.

But in addition to that, we want to make sure that we end up invite everyone to the Prism GR employee resource group pride in a box celebration that they have every year.

That'll be Thursday, June 18th at 10 a.m.

in the city hall uh Monroe multi-purpose room.

This event will feature pride swag, educational resources, and representatives from local organizations uh serving the community.

No registration is required, and we hope to see you all there.

So thank you.

I get it.

Thank you.

Yes, you guys can go in the front and go and teach.

I like this.

Man, I should have worn something.

No one's super cloud.

I say, I had to like that.

You know you're in front.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

I tried.

Commissioner Kilgore, before we move on to our next proclamation, you want to take a moment?

Sure, yeah, thank you, Mayor.

Uh, so good morning, everyone.

As we recognize Pride Month, 2026.

I want to speak with both gratitude and urgency.

Uh, we celebrated 175 years as a city.

Uh, in that nearly 200 years, I am the first openly uh LGBTU plus individual to hold a seat on the city commission, and I'm hoping to not be the last.

Right now, we are seeing direct attacks on national politics on LGBTU plus rights, on inclusive education, on the basic idea that everyone deserves equal dignity under the law.

These efforts are not abstract.

They create fear, they create uncertainty, and they land hardest on our young people and families who are simply trying to live their lives open and safely.

And in moments like these, local leadership matters.

I want to thank my colleagues for continuing to affirm this.

We're being intentional about this.

These are not things that we have to uplift, but we uh the mayor and our colleagues continue to do so, and it means quite a bit.

I am proud that Grand Rapids is continuing to stay grounded in our values, even when there is pressure to bend towards division or to define community more narrowly, based on who people are, who they love, or who they pray to.

That's not who we are.

Pride is a celebration of a resilience, joy, and visibility, but it's also a reminder that inclusion must be defended, not assumed.

Grand Rapids should be a place where everyone can thrive fully and equally, not just some of us, not just when it's easy, but all of us all the time.

We still have a lot of work to do.

I believe in our community, I believe in our responsibility to stand firm, to protect one another, and to ensure dignity and belonging are not conditional.

Happy pride, and thank you all for being here for Pride Month as well.

Thanks.

Thank you, Mayor.

Moving on to our next proclamation.

Um of our partners who are joining us for this proclamation, feel free to join us.

This is the gun violence proclamation.

Great to have a number of community members here for this proclamation as well, um, number of whom have been working in this space for decades, um, but here too, there's a lot more work to be done.

So, whereas Grand Epis is committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of all residents, recognizing that gun violence is a public health and community safety issue affecting individuals, families, and neighborhoods across the nation and in our city, and whereas whereas every year the majority of violent deaths in our city are due to gun violence, and whereas guns are often used in domestic violence disputes and suicides, and simple mistaken uh shootings, and whereas less than 2% of gun deaths involve any element of self-defense or defense of others.

And whereas National Gun Violence Awareness Month is observed each June to honor the lives of those taken by gun violence, to support survivors and their families, and to raise awareness about prevention efforts that provoke promote safer communities, and whereas community organizations, faith leaders, youth educators, advocates, and residents in the city of Grand Rapids continue to work together to prevent violence, promote healing, and expand access to resources that foster safety, stability, and hope through civilian violence prevention and intervention initiatives, and whereas the city recognizes the importance of collaborative community-based violence prevention strategies, evidence-informed community outreach and partnerships with entities like Safe Alliance for Everyone, Task Force and Community, pardon me, and cure violence, the Urban League of West Michigan that address the root causes of violence and support pathways for positive change.

And whereas raising awareness, encouraging community engagement, and fostering a culture of care and responsibility can help reduce the impact of gun violence and strengthen the unity and resilience of Grand Rapids neighborhoods.

Now, therefore, I, David LeGrand, Mayor of the City of Grand Rapids, proclaim June 2026 as National Gun Violence Awareness Month in the City of Grand Rapids and encourage all residents to join in awareness events to honor the lives affected and to support violence reduction efforts and to work together for a safer, healthier, and future for all.

Thank you, Mayor Protocol already being established.

Before uh we we jump into the photographs and some of those things, I just want to share a few words and gratitude for the recognition of June as being uh gun violence prevention month.

Violence is more than a public safety issue.

It's a public health issue.

The impact of violence reaches far beyond a single incident.

It affects families, neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and entire communities.

Like any epidemic, violence creates harm that spreads.

But the good news is that prevention can spread as well.

And I'm grateful to have so many partners here today who are a part of spreading that prevention.

Uh, the people who stand behind me and so many others in community work diligently day in and day out with our recognition to help make Grand Rapids a place where all people uh can feel safe and be safe at all times.

So we're grateful today for the partnership of the Safe Task Force.

Many of those representatives are here today, and including uh Prosecutor Becker, who's joining us today, uh, and representatives from all across the city.

Uh Pastor Bishop is joining us today.

We're grateful to have representatives from a Just GR as well as neighborhood associations, Commissioner Womack, uh, Mr.

Johnson from Grand Rapids Public Schools, and so many others.

Uh Cure Violence is also here represented.

We're grateful for each entity because we know that we don't fight violence alone.

Uh, it's a collective effort that includes the police department, it includes community partners, uh, and we're grateful to do this work together.

We're grateful to continue to make Grand Rapids a safe city for all.

I want to invite Pastor Bishop, because he's been working in this space for so long, to share some words, and then after that, we'll ask you all to join us for a photograph.

Before I do that, I almost forget to forgot to recognize my staff.

I want to recognize Letitia Lipscomb who's doing such amazing work in this space.

She's been such a welcome addition, uh, to the City of Grand Rapids staff to OPA staff, and she's really pushing the work for it.

She believes in it and is doing great work throughout community.

She also has uh summer community safety kits that will be handed out in the hall.

So thank you, Letitia, for your work, and thank you to all of OPA staff for pushing this for it.

Thank you for Brandon for putting me on the spot this morning.

Wasn't prepared.

Okay, but but considering this is what I do for a living, I'm just gonna have to roll with it.

Not only am I honored to be here, but when we talk about gun violence and this being an entire month, obviously, we're we're not naive to what's been going on over the last two weeks of massive murders by way of gun violence.

Early this morning, as I was leaving my home, before I could get in my car, a young man is walking by my home.

I didn't recognize who he was, but he asked me, uh, Bishop, can you pray for me?

And I said, Sure, and I'm thinking it's gonna be about a school decision exams.

And he says, Bishop, can you pray for me?

I said, What for?

He says, Bishop, can you pray for me so I can just make it home?

Today, and I said, Well, son, what would make you think that you can't make it home?

I understood, but I wanted him to articulate.

He says the streets are wilding right now, and I feel unsafe just to walk to and from the bus stop.

And I think that this cohesive effort with my peers and your staff, and the certainly the work that's being done by Brandon, Letitia, and all the others on the Safe Task Force.

I think that we need to consider upping our investment, not just monetarily, but passion and awareness, considering over the last two years, we've invested 1.7 billion dollars, hard money dollars in construction for bricks and mortar.

I think we need to up our investment into the bones and minds of the people that live in the city.

I'm honored to serve, so are my team, God bless you.

Thank you.

Go forward for the program.

Commissioner, you all join us.

Let you all get settled.

Thanks for being in here.

Good to see everyone, Commissioner.

So John in, come on, second roll.

Can I do two split?

Yeah, it's a little bit sure.

Okay.

Perfect.

Three, two, one, three, two, one.

Three, two, one.

Three, two, one.

Is this the last one?

Yeah, I think I was like, I think that's a good thing.

So having spent most of my professional life working in this space, I want to take a moment of privilege to discuss our gun violence and uh prevention month.

This is a moment to remember that we're not simply trying to prevent violence.

We're specifically trying to prevent gun violence.

Specifically city governments can only do so much.

And the reality is our police force can only do so much.

The hard reality is that in the vast majority of gun violence cases, our police officers are responding after the fact.

They're trying to apprehend, they're trying to uh uh bring accountability, but they can't undo acts of violence.

It is incumbent on our community that we take the injunction of being our brothers and our sisters' keeper seriously.

If we're going to be serious about preventing gun violence in our city, we have to take individual responsibility to be our neighbors' keepers, to look for guns in the community, to c to have hard conversations with people who think that guns are forms of protection, that guns are forms of power, and and to have hard conversations about the fact that guns cause horrible, horrible damage on our community.

Uh anyone who takes an honest look at the dynamics of how guns are used in our community sees that the overwhelming majority of gun uses are things like suicides, domestic violence incidents, accidental shootings, mistaken shootings uh of family members, uh a vanishingly small amount of uh uh gun use by non-law enforcement is actually um in any way tied back and or can be tied back to things like self-defense.

And that's one of the things that our resolution and our proclamation noted.

I uh a number of years ago had a moment when I realized that I passed bumper stickers on the highway all the time that glorify guns and uh glorify the possession and the use of guns, and that I had never seen a bumper sticker, um, urging people to desist from a call a culture of gun glorification.

And so I printed two bumper stickers, which are you can come and get from me if you're listening to this.

One says guns turn arguments into tragedies, and the other says guns kill people you love.

Both of those are true statements, and until we can remember that and act in love to try to reduce the harm, there's gonna be a limit to how much government can ever do to change the violence that happens in our community, and there's gonna be a limit to what frankly even community organizations can do.

I think that if we are really going to change our culture around guns, we have to look at organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, uh, that managed to change the culture around drunk driving over decades, and uh we now live in a community where no one is proud of drinking and driving.

No one thinks it's a virtue, no one thinks it's okay.

Um that wasn't true in the 50s.

Um we used to have the phrase one for the road.

Uh and now that sounds crazy, but people used to literally say, give me a drink before one more drink before I get behind the wheel of a car.

Um, and I think we have to have the same cultural reckoning on guns, the possession of guns, the casual glorification of guns, and the equation of guns as a good, without having the courage to look at the massive massive harm they cause, almost always to the most vulnerable and uh the most weak in our community.

So it's an important month.

Thank you all.

That moves us on to more uplifting business, I hope.

Um we have a resolution recommending uh approval of the liquor control commission for a social district applications pursuant to public act 124 of 2020.

Can I have a motion?

So moved.

Support.

And uh city clerk, perhaps you want to um summarize for us.

Yep.

So this is social district permit for the um for the amphitheater.

Ah we did remember we expanded that we expanded the district to include it, include the space around it.

Right.

Um, so unless you were living under a rock, you all notice that we had an we have an amphitheater now, and we've had a good couple uh uh positive experiences there.

Um and uh it's a great asset to our community.

So any further discussion of the social district here?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, motion carries.

That brings us to our next resolution, which is approving uh election day polling locations and early voting sites for the August 2026 primary election and fixing uh inspector pay for early voting, absent uh voter accounting board, and election day inspectors have a motion.

Support and city clerk, yeah.

Um so the the rates are the same that we approved for the last for the May election.

Um so we'll those will be you'll see that again in November as well, but that's what our charter says we do this, and so we are doing this.

Um the other so for the election day um polling locations, all 59 polling locations will be open.

Um a couple little changes that are gonna be new.

Um, precinct nine on the on the west side.

Um precinct nine used to vote at stocking school and then um obviously stocking closed and it went to crossroads um Bible church on on Scribner, but that's a little bit further away from the precinct.

So I I know that neighborhood really, really well as I've been looking at different locations, and um we are allowed to use a private entity as long as no one in the private entity is on the ballot or um or an elected official, and so we're gonna be using new vintage place.

So uh banquet facilities are not very busy on Tuesdays.

Um so it's gonna be a win-win for a new vintage to have their open their doors to their neighbors.

Um, and so we're we'll try that for this for this election cycle to be at new vintage place for um precinct nine, and then also precinct 51 that's at um Kenochet School.

Kenneshea is still under construction, so um, they'll be sharing a precinct with precinct 46 at um Brookside Christian Reform Church.

Um so those are the only deviations from what was approved by the commission in early 2025.

Um and then the early voting, there'll be three early voting sites for nine days in the um for the August election starting on July 25th.

And the first word will be St.

Peter and Paul School in the second ward at GRPS University and the third ward at Ottawa Hills High School.

So the same locations we used in the 2024 cycle.

Um, and then at the at Cow in two weeks, I'll be doing a little bit more expansive um presentation on the election cycle and what's going on.

Um any questions, colleagues?

I do have one briefly.

Um what's your notification mechanism for those two uh precinct?

Yes, so the car, so waiting for the city commission's approval today.

The cards are all printed, and every everybody in precinct nine will be receiving a new voter identification card with a bright green sticker on it, says that your location is changed, and enter off 9th Street.

Because if you ever go to the Broadway entrance for that place, you're like, where am I?

So it is the the closest entrance to the door is off 9th Street.

So there's a sticker that tells them that.

Um location change in they they voted last November at Brookside as well.

But um a postcard is going to to every voter in um there is for that one.

So everybody's getting a something in the mail.

Great, great.

Thanks.

Okay.

Uh any further questions?

Otherwise, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

All posed.

Motion carries brings us to our next resolution.

Um, this is a resolution approving submission of the updated neighborhood enterprise zone exemption certificate for 125 Ottawa LLC at 125 Ottawa Avenue.

And uh Ms.

Ronero's coming up.

Can I have a motion?

So moved.

Support.

Uh, and this is a project that we've seen before, but uh Ms.

Renero, go ahead.

Good morning.

Yes, this is simply uh updating the certificate to reflect 40 units instead of 36, which is what the uh submission reflected.

And so um, yes, this project is uh Sam Cummings' second office to residential conversion.

Um as a reminder, um I'm just noticing that my slide also says 36 apartments, so I'm sorry about that.

The focus here is going from 36 to 40.

Um, and nothing else has changed outside of that.

So we still have 11.4 million in total costs.

Uh we've got great inclusion plan, aspirational goals at overall 30 per 30 percent for our uh micro local, our minority owned and our women uh business enterprises, and uh this is a 15-year enterprise zone value at approximately 1.8 million.

It's 15 because it is at qualifying for investment, uh, two criteria.

Uh one being uh the housing units.

Uh so as a reminder, six uh there were eight units set aside for 60 percent AMI.

Um, and that was because of uh MISHTA funding, our state housing development finance authority, as well as uh the aspirational goals for inclusion plan.

Forgive me.

Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

Um again, we've already seen this, uh, but for the public's purpose, I think it's worth pointing out this is um uh I think the some of the best thinking in the housing space uh is that um the best projects are um mixed income level, and so this has a mix of um folks uh below 120 percent, but also folks below 60 percent, so people of different income categories living in the same building together, um, which is really healthy.

So uh and also as I pointed out yesterday at 11 lion, you could stand at this building, spin around and see about two thousand jobs.

Um this building is you know uh a block from the courthouse from Warner O'Cross and Judd's building from uh all kinds of opportunities, and obviously an easy walk from the entire core wall complex.

So this is about the most walkable um uh residence I can imagine, maybe uh one-11 lion beats it, but it's about the most, it's about the most walkable uh residences I can imagine, and if freeing up people from transportation costs is a huge part of affordability, so affordability doesn't really the AMI analysis doesn't capture the whole picture.

The real picture for housing costs is housing plus transportation, and these are houses that um I think I'll very very likely will be occupied by people who can go to work without a car.

May I um yeah also uh thank you uh Miss Ronero for for your work on this and uh to appreciate um the work that uh Ms.

Cummings has done on this project and other projects.

I just want to add again this is good news, and that we're uh increasing the density on site by adding another four units, every unit counts, and the fact that they've already made a commitment to uh restrict uh at least 20% of them to 60 percent AMI, which is uh aggressive in affordability uh is commendable.

So I really appreciate this project.

Any questions, colleagues?

All in favor say aye.

Aye, aye, all opposed, motion carries.

Thank you.

That brings us to um our resolution uh establishing June 16, 2026 is the date for city commission to consider text amendments, the zoning ordinance regulations for accessory dwelling units.

And um Ms.

Turkleson is coming up to go over this for the public.

Uh, I think I need a motion, yes.

Support.

Thank you, Ms.

Turkles.

Good morning, and thank you for this opportunity to uh provide you with a presentation that hopefully will do two things.

Uh one is provide you with a brief update on where we are at relative to the implementation strategies of the tier one uh recommendations that were brought forth by the uh accessory dwelling unit task force.

Uh hopefully you'll recall I was here in January providing you with an overview of the recommendations of the task force, and uh specifically had them in different levels of prioritization, uh, based on level of impact and level of effort.

Uh so I promised to come back to you to provide you with an update.

So here I am today.

Uh part of this presentation will also include uh a very specific implementation um strategies relative to a code update uh that has been recommended to you by the planning commission, and and by that I'm meaning the planning uh zoning code.

So for uh recap, uh this here uh is a summary of the accessory dwelling unit task force, what their purpose was and what the outcome was.

They had a series of recommendations before you that were really centered around four categories: the customer experience, the zoning ordinance, the building code, and financing.

Uh today we are the tier one priorities are relative to customer experience and zoning reform.

So this chart should look familiar.

Uh, this was when we uh required the task force to do some sort of prioritization around all of their recommendations or the themes of their recommendations at that high level.

Um, and like I said, we really focused on the impact and the level of effort.

Uh, much of what you'll see today is focused around the what would that be, the upper left-hand quadrant, where we have relatively low effort and relatively high impact.

And that was the prioritization that came forward uh with some staff involvement, but also uh from the tasks for task force expertise.

Um so here is that uh same information uh structured uh a little bit more orderly, um, and that should look familiar again from your January presentation.

Uh so focused on tier one.

These are the second category or second column, pardon me, is all of the tier one uh recommendations.

Uh so I'll go through them uh for you to provide an update.

So one uh was the customer experience and and the recommendation was to publish ADU guides and and toolkits, and within that packet that I gave you in January, you can see a little bit more detail on what is meant by that.

Uh the goal for this summer for plan the planning team will be to develop a work plan and some templates.

Um we will begin this in earnest a little bit after our uh zoning ordinance update.

Um, and that's the next presentation.

So this is not a coincidence with the timing.

Uh we'll begin uh populating those templates and those work plans um post zoning ordinance update.

So we can certainly do some now, but we really wanted to make sure that we didn't have a high level of effort in communicating processes and codes that are likely possibly going to change next year.

So getting that framework, getting those templates is important, and we'll be doing that this summer so that we have some level of communication today.

We are also working with GRAR.

So one of the recommendations is to develop a marketing and awareness campaign.

Oh, yeah.

You were just so on fire that you were killing it.

Is it real or not?

Yeah, good.

Say it on the mic.

We're recessing.

Or as I say in Monty Python runaway.

All right.

So I was mentioning before we had to depart that we are going to be working on partnering with the Grand Rapids Area Realtors Association on the digital marketing campaign that they will be creating that will direct property owners to city resources.

So that will follow, likely in the fall, will follow after we are able to have some time internally to develop work plans and templates to improve the communication, approve upon the communication that we currently have about what accessory dwelling requirements and processes are here within the city of Grand Rapids.

So the next four items is both an update, but when I get into the details in the subsequent slides, it will also cover the exact or proposed recommendations to the zoning ordinance that are being sent forth from the planning commission.

So relative to the accessory dwelling unit size, there is a modification or proposed amendment.

I will cover that in a moment.

Modifying accessory structure requirements, there is some changes today, and some additional refinements that will take place with the zoning ordinance update.

That same statement is true for revision to the site layout and building placement standards and the use requirements for accessory dwelling units.

So some modifications are being proposed today, and then there's subsequent modifications or refinements that would take place with the larger update that will come to you roughly summer of 2027.

Once you get into code writing, as you probably know, sections don't live independently of each other.

And so sometimes what seems like a simple concept is layered in code sections, and so what seemed like a simple modification becomes a very laborious task for city staff to create a zoning amendment that's quite a bit larger, involves more sections.

That level of effort is something that we felt like was definitely more appropriate for the subsequent rewrite that you'll be hearing about in the next presentation.

So going back a little bit, adjusting ADU accessory dwelling unit size.

There was four recommendations from the task force that are on the left-hand column.

They all generally speak to the same or pretty much the same zoning text section of the ordinance.

So by making a relatively simple modification within the zoning ordinance addresses the four recommendations from the task force.

So the current the middle column is showing you what the current regulations are.

You can read that for yourself and ask me questions if you have them.

But the planning commission recommendation to address the four task force recommendations is to simply modify the maximum floor area to 1,000 square feet, and but have a limitation to say that the accessory dwelling unit cannot be larger than the primary structure.

So relative in this case, a relatively simple solution that we think addresses the four uh ideas from the task force.

Modify the accessory structure requirements.

There was four independent ideas, each with multiple sections that need to be updated that hopefully is much more clear in your red line version that's attached to your packet.

Redefining an accessory dwelling unit outside to not be considered an accessory structure again that that layered complexity of the code we believe that the intent has been implemented with what the planning commission set forth by allowing it for to it to be larger was really the goal for the task force.

So we've implemented the intent of it but recognize that to implement the full intent does require a more comprehensive zoning update and so zoning ordinance modifications so we'll be doing that a little bit later.

Exempting accessory dwelling units from the maximum square footage of the accessory structure per lot.

So in response the planning commission proposes to exempt accessory dwelling units from the total maximum square footage of an accessory structure per lot.

So again we've accomplished the intent of the recommendation by making the change we believe by making the changes that are before you exempting ADUs from the total number of structures permitted on a lot currently it's one detached and one attached to accomplish that we are simply exempting accessory dwelling units from being considered an accessory structure relative to the total number of structures allowed by the lot so again addressing speak uh addressing the idea through this modification.

Lastly increasing the square footage bonus for an accessory dwelling unit built in a second story layered code complexity requirements and we have implemented that intent by allowing that floor area and exemption from the accessory structures so they're not necessarily a literal code interpretation or connection but we did accomplish it through a different means the revision of the the recommendations that speak to the site layout and building placement standards these once we got into it were far more complicated with multiple code sections needing to be modified to speak to it to implement the recommendation in general we are supportive as city staff but given the the analysis needed and the interdependent sections the first two items are going to be considered as part of the zoning ordinance update in 2027.

And then the last two ideas from the from the task force talk about either setbacks along the alley or giving more flexibility to staff we currently have an administrative departure that would allow for this flexibility so we can use this as a in the short term so no changes are needed today and then looking at improved ways and predictability in the future with the zoning ordinance update in 2027.

And lastly we do have a recommendation on the use requirements being more flexible you can see the ideas on the left hand side there.

Currently we limit that to do two we're suggesting or planning commission's recommending just getting rid of the number of bedrooms and letting the building code control so it will really be dependent on how big the total accessory dwelling unit is and not regulating the number of bedrooms that are within that particular unit.

So the home occupation we don't allow home occupations in an accessory structure and an accessory dwelling unit is an accessory structure and there's the licensing ordinance so to implement that again multiple sections needed to be done we are more than willing to do that in the short term, but because of the licensing ordinance that sits outside zoning, we've decided to take that as a separate initiative and come back before you.

And we can certainly do that prior to 2027.

Not complicated, um, just capacity work uh for staff.

Um allowing accessory dwelling units to be built in conjunction with multifamily developments andor commercial developments uh in uh implementation of that, uh the that is a far more complicated uh modification to be making and requires uh some additional analysis and so uh we've recommended that that be part of the the comprehensive update uh with 2027.

So I believe that yep, that provides the summary of all of the changes.

Um you've got I think a one-pager of the uh um track changes for that that show all of this.

Far more simple to look at that than what I've done.

Uh, but hopefully there's an explanation for what's being changed now and what will wait for the future.

So with that, I will turn it back to the commission.

Thank you.

Uh great uh comprehensive uh overview there, and uh looks like uh really productive and well thought out and and balanced uh process here.

Um colleagues, do you have any comments or questions?

I have um a big one that I'd like actually frankly to have a discussion about.

And um I just I want to say that this isn't something logically that we have to do right now, um, but it is something that I want to have a discussion about.

So if uh in our packet on page 25, we have the proposed ordinance changes, and the last of those uh relate is number H relates to rental.

And now I want to frame this by saying that we already have a uh a short-term rental ordinance in the city, and if I recall correctly, it requires um you can't have more than two people in a short-term rental, it can only happen in your house, you have to be home when it happens, and we have a very small number of licenses in the city.

Now uh the also the other framing thing that's worth pointing out here is um that if when the government does regulations on anything that are so restrictive that people start ignoring them, what you get is a black market.

And a black market's not great, it's very bad for a number of reasons.

One is if people are just doing things illegally, you don't get to regulate them, you don't get to exp inspect them, you don't get to tax them, they're just happening sort of like people paying a contractor under the table.

It's not great because you know the government doesn't get involved and you know you don't have uh workers' rights and all this kinds of things.

So anytime there's a black market, it's a real problem.

Um anybody in the city can go out and look right now on Airbnb, which is one venue for renting out uh short-term rentals, and see that we have hundreds of Airbnb listings in the city in excess of our licensing requirements.

So we have a problem in the city right now, which is to say that people are simply thumbing their nose at our current regulatory system and renting out things on Airbnb anyway.

Um I think that the proper response to this long term for the commission should be to right size our regulations so that they actually fit people's behaviors.

If this was something like I don't know, gambling, we might be uh, or you know, selling alcohol on unlicensed premises, we might want to simply crack down, start regulating, start prosecuting people.

Um I don't think that something like renting out your uh a room in your house is something that the government really ought to be in the position of starting to prosecute people for.

As a matter of fact, a member of my wife's book club has a criminal conviction from the city of Grand Rapids for renting out a room in our apartment because she violated the ordinance.

Um so we're in this weird position where we're not enforcing very aggressively against people who are very obviously doing things that are in violation of our ordinance, and I think that that's because we've tacitly acknowledged that um this behavior is not dangerous for society, but we were in a situation where we have a regulation that people aren't paying attention to.

So I think that means we need to have a broad city commission conversation about how to get our ADU regulations in compliance with what people are actually doing.

Now, I think that ADUs have a number of desirable characteristics.

Number one, um, they are very, very low-level entrepreneurial activity, which is to say people who you know maybe couldn't afford a house but can rent it out once in a while to help them make their mortgage.

So some of the most uh low-income people in our society who have oh who actually do manage to own a home can supplement their income by doing ADU activity.

I have a friend who's uh uh dear friend who's a j uh district court judge over in Detroit.

She rents her house out on Airbnb when she's not in town because it helps her pay the mortgage.

Um the uh so I think that Airbnbs obviously have some entrepreneurial advantage or short a uh accessory um pardon me, short-term rentals have some have some entrepreneurial uh opportunities for people.

Um I also think that allowing short-term rentals in the community ticks off a lot of desirable boxes for us if you in the abstract.

First of all, there are people who don't who are in our community for a fairly short amount of time.

So, for example, traveling nurses.

Uh no traveling nurse is gonna want to sign a one-year lease.

They're not even necessarily gonna want to sign a one-month lease.

My brother does locum's tenants doctor work.

Well, often he's working for a week in an area.

Staying in a hotel is depressing.

He rents Airbnbs.

Um, uh so there are people who are doing short-term stays in the community for work, and it's important for them to be able to have a housing resource that meets their needs that's a little more friendly and homey than staying in a hotel.

Um, it's also true that people who come into a community, I think if I were to move to Flint tomorrow, I would not buy a house in the first week.

In fact, I wouldn't want to rent an apartment in the first week, because I'd like to look around Flint and see what neighborhood I wanted to live in.

And neighborhoods are different.

So I'd like to take a while to kick the tires of that new community, so to speak.

So as we have people coming into our city who want to live here, who expect to live here, who want to build their lives here, they still probably don't want to lock themselves down on housing options right away.

They want to take some time and they may even want to move around into different neighborhoods.

Well, short-term rentals really allow them to explore the city before they make their choice about where they live specifically.

So it's very useful for that.

Um of the arguments that traditionally maybe a decade ago was made about ex about short-term rentals in general, is that it can put pressure on the rental market.

So if a whole bunch of people decide to take their rental units and turn them into uh short-term rentals, rental prices go up, and nobody on this commission wants rental prices going up.

But if we've got something that is a new unit of construction, if you're making a new unit of housing that didn't exist before, if you're taking your garage and converting it to an ADU, you didn't put any pressure on the rental market by having a new unit come into come into play.

By definition, any new unit isn't going to do that.

Um I think that new units, and that's really what we're talking about with the accessory dwelling unit code.

We're talking about new things being built into the community.

Um, I don't think that those things should be prohibited in this code from being used for short-term rentals.

So I think frankly, that we should I think that subsection H shouldn't be there.

I think that we should have a longer conversation about how we want to appropriately regulate short-term rentals in the community, and we already have a regulation on that.

Frankly, I think it should be relaxed.

Um I think that we should have more uh permitted uses and more permitted units, but that's going to be a conversation for the for the commission as a whole down the road.

That's a long uh statement, but I guess what I'm saying is in the short term, I don't want five things that we're gonna have to deal with when we have a discussion about how we whether or not we want to change our thinking on short term rentals.

But I don't see that H does us any good as we pursue that conversation.

Commissioner Usasi.

I just want to make sure because I know you obviously were on the task force and worked really closely with Mr.

Kelson, so you know I've been following it.

Um, you know, Commissioner Knight and I just had some questions from our East Hells neighbors about um ADUs and um getting into things like the what actual street it is and how do we service, you know, and I think there's a lot of questions about service delivery that we always want to make sure happens.

Um, so kind of with that being said, I just want to make sure I'm uh so are you on page?

Is it this is it this page right here?

Or I just want to make sure I'm just sorry, I'm not looking at a referencing the.

So can you uh bring up the actual memo with the ordinance language?

Yeah, and we can reference it.

But mayor, while while your colleagues are getting up to speed on the section referencing, I just want to be clear that I appreciate you saying you have no problem with the recommendations and moving forward.

You're just identifying this as a future issue for discussion, not for amendment today.

Right, except that I is as I understand it, we have a resolution here with with section eight on it, which is proposed that that's what we'd be proposing to vote on for the 16th, right?

That's correct.

But I want to collect that's already existing language.

That's not a change, and that is not the change.

That's correct.

That's already the right.

So I'm proposing that when we do this and when we vote on the changes, we might consider just exempted.

Okay.

Okay, that's whether we do or not isn't that big a deal, because we could do it next week, we could do it next month.

It's not time-sensitive.

I just wanted to start that conversation.

Well, I I do want to be thoughtful about it uh Mayor and I think this is an important um discussion on the regulation of um short-term rentals.

Where we've had a lot of discussion in the city across the state, and before we consider that um we've had no engagement with anyone about about that, not even the the task force, right?

That's correct.

The the task force did bring it up, um, but they their recommendation was that that would be a subsequent priority uh for the city when we have a larger policy discussion that would be uh that would inform the zoning recommendations in 2027.

Well, I was gonna say perhaps instead of trying to force that change at the next opportunity for consideration, we can add that as an issue to be considered as part of the zoning update.

Yep, and that and that's fine.

I wanted to bring it up because we're looking at it in the ordinance, it's there in black and white in our packets.

Um, and I think that this is something that we don't want to jump on quickly.

We don't want to move on quickly.

We want to get a lot of community input on.

Um, but I also think, frankly, um, when I think about where I would want a short-term rental, um, I I don't want them in an anonymous place where there might not be people keeping track of the behavior of those people.

Whereas an accessory dwelling unit, you've got the you've got the landlord of that accessory dwelling unit right in the front.

It's the resident.

Um, so it's probably one of the best potential locations for new short-term rentals.

Um so I think there's an opportunity here to add those to our housing mix uh over time in new construction and new conversion.

But this is a longer conversation, and it's not why you're up your own.

Well, no, I mean it it's obviously related.

And on top of the fire drill, but it's okay, maybe.

Lots of extra time for the fire drill.

Um so absolutely a policy conversation is expected.

I'm under no illusion that I will be able to bring forward a proposed zoning ordinance without having a conversation uh around certain things like short-term rentals, uh, for example.

So I am fully aware and prepared.

We've communicated that to our consultant as well.

However, those policy conversations also need to be informed with Michigan land use law, which obviously is not the same as laws in other states, and so balancing that uh equality of land uses and how properties are treated, do not always give Michigan cities the f or Michigan communities the flexibility to develop uh zoning ordinances that are very nuanced in how we would like a policy to go.

The who, the traveling nurses concept uh versus me coming in for the weekend, uh, that the Michigan law that requires us to treat things equally, make uh it very difficult for us to be as nuanced as maybe we as a community would maybe like to be.

Um so sometimes that that's why it's it is a tougher conversation, not just because of the policy and the implement implication, excuse me, implications uh to our housing needs, but also balanced with the uh constraints or opportunities that our zoning enabling legislation provide us.

So that's why it's not here today.

Thank you.

Uh so it isn't it is a broader discussion, but uh it's better to talk about things, five things that need to be talked about three times than uh pardon me, talk about something five times that needs to be talked about three times than to never talk about it and make a change.

So I just wanted to introduce that concept because it I think it is important as we move into our conversation about providing more housing, that we provide housing people who have very, very different uses, many people have very different uses, and and we all know there are there are a number of things in the housing space continent wide um that are frustrating and opportunities.

I mean, one of them, for example, is the fact that I think we have something like a hundred million empty bedrooms in uh the United States of America.

Um lots of people are overconsuming real estate, lots of empty nesters have homes with bedrooms in them that just simply don't get used now in the United Kingdom and in Australia and scary places like Canada, it's very routine for people to have uh borders in their houses, and it's not something we do a lot in the United States.

But if we're serious about giving people affordable housing, I think that's something that you know maybe Americans want to consider like letting people have borders in their houses.

Um it doesn't seem to be causing the collapse of civilization in Australia, as far as I can see.

Well, Kristen is is Canadian, so you know I know.

I if I could just add to all I do, to be clear, but yes, I am Canadian.

We have a lot of good Canadians at least as Canadian as I am.

But if I could just add, I think just to, you know, I I didn't quite see where you were going, Mayor, but I uh appreciate that.

I think I always like to say, like, what's what's the thing that I like I like my little check boxes of what am I doing today and what can I accomplish today?

But yes, I would agree that we we know that that regulation um uh with short-term rentals has has been a question, right?

It's it's not a capture that we have in the city, and we also have heard many of us from our constituents that it's an opportunity for like you said, for them to add additional income.

And many have you know businesses where they it's becomes a destination tactic as well.

So I would agree with the city manager.

I think you know, let's let's have a short introduction and then like you said, uh Mr.

Gilson, you know, longer conversation because there are, you know, short-term rentals, ADUs.

Uh, like I said, we've we've had a couple of emails in our inbox, and we're always balancing that of this is change.

Like you said, it's gonna it's going to happen, it's just like how do we communicate it that seven times by seven away.

So thank you.

And and the last thing that I think I want to point out in this space is given that we have a lot of people who are not compliant, if we license these folks, then if they're bad actors, we can revoke their licenses.

Whereas if we have people who are simply not complying with our city's framework, it's really hard to hold them accountable when they're bad actors because they're outside of our regulatory framework to start with.

So bringing people inside of the fold and following our inspection protocols and our licensing protocols, um I think gives us an opportunity to serve the community better.

But longer conversation, just wanted to lay it out there.

Um so thank you.

Uh Commissioner.

Um, I I want to just turn our attention back to the the proposals here, and I just want to say that I find the loosening the recommendations uh to try to make this a little simpler, particularly I'm thinking like the 1,000-foot rule is really nice to just loosen up how that could be designed.

Um so I really want to thank you for putting that thought into all of this.

But my I guess when you're looking at these things that are being implemented by intent and have more proposed text um changes later.

Is it through like um just the administrative planning, how you're doing it?

I guess if you could speak a little more to how you're you're going about that.

Oops, sure.

Joel, are you able to pull back up the presentation if you don't mind, please?

Okay, so for example, um, under the modify accessory structure re Oh, perfect, that's the one I wanted.

Modify accessory structure requirements.

So you can see the first item is redefine an accessory dwelling unit outside of an accessory structure.

When you get into the um uh explanation for what the task force wanted to achieve, they're reacting to a uh very specific ordinance uh which is limiting the number of accessory dwelling units, the size of them, et cetera.

Um, and so by uh increasing the maximum square footage to a thousand square feet and not counting accessory dwelling units towards the maximum number of accessory structures, we've accomplished the intent behind that idea, which is getting ADUs outside of an accessory structure.

So um I you'd have to look at your packet to see the the meat behind that recommendation.

So by modifying other sections that we're already doing, we are accomplishing this.

That's actually really helpful.

I appreciate that because yeah, there may be more changes that need to come in some of these, but just like loosening up that square footage kind of ends up because it's a it's based on the unit, but also how many buildings are there, how big are the buildings that are there, all this other zoning bits and pieces.

So the I the idea of modifying the accessory structure requirements, that's a that's a pretty wholesale change.

And you will hear about that in Leslie's uh subsequent presentation about here's ways that we can communicate things more cleanly uh and be more transparent about what the regulation is.

Um so we're we're getting at the regulate regulatory modification but there's better ways to communicate it, and we'll do that in 2027.

Are any of these requiring just administrative changes or are you expecting us to are we expected to vote on anything here today?

Yeah, so all of the within this presentation, all of the text in yellow uh is uh explaining the actual code amendment that is before you, which is the resolution before you today.

Thank you.

Yes, today is introducing the ordinance change for final vote in two weeks.

Right.

So we need your your support to move this forward.

Mayor, I do have a uh question and comment after I can get clarification for Mr.

And this is uh part of design.

We talked about violence prevention earlier, and I just want to clarify while we're expand uh we're increasing the capacity up to a thousand square feet, and we're re eliminating the maximum bedroom requirement.

Is there a minimum number of rooms that are required for a uh facility at a thousand square feet?

There's no minimum number of rooms.

If you're speaking about occupants, I have a different answer.

No, I think the occupant it's six unrelated people uh, a maximum of six unrelated people, but that is dire also the occupant load is tied to the building code and it's based on how the space is uh designed for sleeping areas.

I just wanted to point out um as we do this, I I do have some concern while we're eliminating the maximum number of bedrooms, we don't have any minimum.

We have could have six unrelated people in one area for a minimum of 30 days, and there are some social implications of people not having their own space on territory, six unrelated people.

We've talked about domestic violence and we're putting uh the conditions so the regulatory allowances to allow more unrelated people be in a space without privacy for that amount of time.

Um, and I just would ask uh some thoughtfulness through that.

This is these are not dormitories, um this is supposed to be residential um, you know, convening it um permitting into a neighborhood.

I know we're trying to maximize housing, but we should be thoughtful around the unintended implications or consequences of that.

That's an interesting question.

I mean, we don't have a requirement in the building code generally, right?

But if we're gonna eliminate the maximum, could we at least have a minimum of at least one bedroom if you have a thousand square feet ADU.

Well, so you're saying you want to you want to have a code that says that we can't have a thousand square foot studio apartment.

I know, Mayor, we've had this conversation before, and I uh it's it's it's a it's an interesting discussion around a flat, right?

If you had a it's a very interesting discussion.

So I just would like similar to your conversation that you had earlier about short-term rental.

I just would like us to uh consider that.

I mentioned that earlier as this was coming forward to staff, and uh we had similar discussion earlier, so I think it's worth considering.

Yeah, I I have a hard time seeing how, I mean, given that people want open floor plans and all this stuff.

Like, like I mean, I could see wanting to rent a thousand square foot of uh studio myself if I didn't want to have a specific bedroom area and I have a hard time seeing how that's I think he was saying with the number of people of my question though is when that change was made to the zoning to do to allow six unrelated people.

I bel I thought there was a minimum, there's still rules about how many people in a square foot allowed in general.

So I guess Chris, could you like clarify?

Sure.

So yes, that there the building code um does have a table that ultimately leads to how many occupants uh can be in a unit.

So for six or more occupants, for example, the living room would have to be 150 square feet, and the dining room would have to be a hundred square feet, and then the bedroom, if there's bedrooms, would then have its own calculation.

So um it's difficult for me to give you a uh uh maybe a more exact answer because it's a formula within the building code.

Um some of the the challenges with uh I think looking at a minimum number of bedrooms is depending on uh the size of the accessory dwelling unit.

So, for example, if we had an accessory dwelling unit, typically so far they've been about 400 to um eight hundred and thirty-two square feet.

A 400 square foot ADU does not give a great deal of space to have a separate bedroom.

Not to say it can't, but it depends on how that individual or the market would um consider the the best use of that space.

So if there's um is there an does the building code address anything with studios specifically, or does it just say per bedroom?

And if so, how do we interpret the studio with our zoo zoning?

I feel like I want to confirm my answer with the building official on how they would interpret or calculate uh studio apartments.

Um I don't know if Connie, your experience with housing rentals.

Okay, um, so I I'd want to come back to you with that piece of it.

Okay, so thank you.

I think it's a good question that the city manager is raising and we can get some more information on that.

Yeah.

Yeah, it once we start saying if we're gonna like start pre-authorizing individual units and saying, oh, this unit is I mean, it starts to sound I mean, we do it for fire code, right?

Like this bar can't have more than 200 people in it.

But if we say this design building can't have more than x number of occupants, we're adding a whole lot more complexity to how we're gonna be regulating housing in town.

I mean, I don't think there's any, you know, if we said, I don't know, that I'm not sure that we'd do that in any other context.

That's my concern.

Like, I'm not sure that uh, if we're uh if we do that, then you know I've got a one bedroom apartment uh in one of my units.

Do I then say oh haha?

You can have six people in an apartment in general, but uh uh in this particular case, because you're X, Y or Z criteria, you can only have four.

We're gonna have to we'd have to go rewrite every single apartment in town if we were really gonna be consistent.

I think that that's part of the code when the city rentals are um certified.

They they look for that sort of stuff, I believe.

They don't nobody for the building code.

Well, no, what is occupancy.

How many how many people is that correct?

That's correct.

So when we get the uh permit to design the space or construct the space, we do evaluate how many bedrooms, what is the square footage, and then the building official would determine what is the maximum permitted occupancy, excuse me, uh, for that particular unit uh with understanding that there is also a code that says no more than six unrelated individuals.

So when it goes through a rental inspection program, that's where the no more than six unrelated individuals would likely be um administered or enforced.

Right, but what I'm saying is if we started having um bedroom requirements for ADUs relative to number of occupants, then potentially we're setting up a situation where we've got inconsistent treatment of every apartment that doesn't happen to be in an ADU and we got thousands.

Right, so like if so once we get more information from the the planning department and the building code, uh the bill that she needs to confer with.

I belie my hope is that what we'll find is that it's already self-regulating, but we need to confirm that and we don't need to really get into the weeds.

Mayor, we'll we'll we'll make sure we follow up again.

My comment was partly triggered by the comment earlier about turning it into short term rentals and if you turn a one bedroom with no with no bedroom the short term rental six unrelated people it is creating the conditions for a party house so that that's my my concern.

Okay.

Any further questions or comments colleagues.

Alright then uh we have a motion uh all in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed motion carries that brings us to our zoning ordinance uh update briefing.

Thank you.

So I will uh turn it over to my uh colleague Lila Zani to introduce our consultant who will be providing you with what we call a directions report um and so certainly um I'll be here if there's any questions uh but we're excited for this next step.

Oops no why isn't the presentation opening thank you sorry this one?

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you Kristen um good morning commission and mayor um today we are here to talk about zone GR which is the first major step in implementing our community master plan.

So I have Leslie Oberholzer here from Coda metrics and she's here to present the directions report which sets the key priorities for the project we had a longer presentation of this a lot longer version of this presentation sorry at our April planning commission meeting and now Leslie's here to give you a shorter version we also have the full directions report though on our website if you want to check it out there or you're welcome to go back and watch the planning commission presentation which was about an hour.

We also had a public event on May 12th that was well attended to roll this out to the community which Leslie will discuss a little bit more and although this is a high level presentation today we are going to be diving into the weeds with you more and getting into all of this in more detail later in the year both with you and the planning commission.

So with that I'll turn it over to Leslie good morning thank you for having me today.

So just to take a step back and look at our project scope broad goals we had three sort of main goals for this project zone GR one is of course as Layla was mentioning to connect bridge to our future with this implementation process.

So the zoning ordinance is one implementation tool that we can use.

We can use it really well to help to implement bridge to our future as well as other area specific plans and other policies that you may be considering.

Goal number two is to balance conservation evolution and growth and this means that we're looking at stable neighborhoods and hoping to protect those stable neighborhoods but also looking at our housing needs and our housing goals and making sure that we can allow those neighborhoods to evolve and grow and incorporating uh new housing within them as well as to allow other areas of the city that may completely evolve and grow in completely different ways.

So we're trying to kind of create the tools that will allow that evolution and that growth and that stabilization and conservation to continue into the future.

And thirdly, we want to make sure that we're making our zoning easier to understand and to use.

Kristen referred to some of the goals that we have with this zoning update in terms of looking at ADUs and other items.

What we will be doing is trying to create rules that are clear in plain English that are hopefully pretty easy to understand, also to organize those rules in a way so that from the table of contents you can very quickly get to what it is that you want to find within the regulations, as well as to illustrate and again use tables for implementation.

So in terms of our steps, we're at step two, or we're just closing out step two, which is the project directions.

We have launched the website.

There will be an educational video up on the website, hopefully by the beginning of next week.

Our directions report is posted on the website, and we've held our community launch.

We've also met with our community connectors and had a kickoff meeting with them.

So from this point, oh, also I should say that the engagement summary that I'm going to refer to later on will also be posted on the website by the end of this week.

So at this point, we're sort of diving into our next step, which is the initial draft ordinance.

And we're going to be kind of quiet for a little while, and it may make people a little bit concerned, but it's very important that we get this right.

We will be working very closely with staff and our technical advisory committee to make sure that we're drafting the code to sort of put our best foot forward once it's public.

So at that step four, that is when we will hold a whole series of events.

That will be our public review period.

The code will still definitely be in draft form.

We will roll it out, we will hold pop-up events, we will have general award meetings, specific ward meetings, and at that point we will be holding some workshops with both you all and the planning commission.

We have at least four scheduled for each of you.

So just to make sure that you understand all the pieces and that it gives you lots and lots of opportunity to flesh out all of the details of the code with us.

And then finally, the step five is adoption.

So this Project Directions report, I don't know of any other consultant that uses this term, but the idea of it is for us to sort of document all of the work that we've done.

So we're looking at all of your plans, we're assessing your existing zoning ordinance, we've gotten to know the city physically, geographically.

We've held our community launch, we've met lots of community members.

It can never be enough, but we had great turnout at our meeting, and so we met lots lots and lots of folks.

And the idea is for us to kind of feed this information back to you to create a roadmap for us moving forward and to provide an opportunity for sort of verification of these points.

So this project directions report, while it is now up and posted, it is an opportunity for y'all to read it and give us some comments back on details and to make sure that we're addressing what it is that we need to be addressing.

The list of action items that you'll see in the directions report are just the information that we have at this point.

As we continue to work on the draft, we will continue to create new action items and address new topics.

So it is a very iterative process, but again, this is sort of a jumping-off point for us.

So as you know, we are looking at implementing as much of the community master plan as possible within a zoning ordinance, but we're also looking at area-specific plans.

Many of your area-specific plans or some of them have been implemented through overlays, and so we're looking at those very closely to make sure that we're carrying all that necessary information forward.

We're also looking at other plans and initiatives that you have on the books and that you are considering to make sure that at the very least we're giving you the tools to implement those in the future, but also looking at the ones that you have on the books now and folding those in.

A really great example of that is a River for All for the Grand River implementation and that waterway access, and so we're really looking at that to see how we can fold that into the zoning ordinance.

So within a bridge to our future, there were five community goal areas outlined: great neighborhoods, vital business districts, a strong economy, balanced mobility, and desirable development character.

Those five community goal areas are key to the zoning ordinance update.

Those are all areas that we will be addressing in some way as much as we can again through a zoning ordinance.

Also, there were five value threads that were identified: equity, safety, vibrancy, culture, and sustainability.

And those are sort of thread through all of those goal areas, and I'll show you how we're kind of combining all of those to create our priorities for our zoning ordinance in just a second.

I just want to point out one other key piece to a bridge to our future, and that is the future land use and character map.

This map provides us with a framework to create a new zoning map for the city, and we will be definitely using all of these areas that are identified and discussing those with staff on how they will change.

Many of the neighborhood designations have actually are already reflected in your current zoning ordinance.

But all of the other sort of commercial and mixed use areas in some of the districts have been refined and defined a little bit differently.

So we'll be respecting that and carrying that forward in the new zoning ordinance.

So you see the community goal areas listed on the left and the value threads, and what we've done is all of those community goal areas are quite broad.

And zoning ordinances can only do so much in terms of creating a strong economy and balancing mobility.

There are lots and lots of other implementation tools that need to be fed in for all of those kinds of things.

So what we've done is we've taken those along with the value threads and created these key priority areas that we can then kind of hang all of our regulations on.

So these are sort of priority topic areas where we can define action items that we need to address within the zoning ordinance.

So those are housing supportive, business friendly, context sensitivity, which ties directly back into the sort of idea of development character within all of the neighborhoods and the districts.

Vibrant and walkable, green and healthy and predictable and transparent.

And I'm gonna quickly try to quickly walk you through each one of those priorities.

So in terms of zone GR being housing supportive, we understand from the community master plan that at least 14,000 new housing units are needed by 2027.

So what we want to do is we want to make sure that we're providing for a lot of pathways for introducing new housing.

That housing should be of a variety, so similar to what you just heard in terms of ADUs, but also one of the bold changes within the community master plan was to allow duplexes, triplexes, and quadplexes within the low density residential areas.

And so what we've been doing is identifying all of those building forms as they exist within your community now and figuring out how those can fit comfortably within all of those existing neighborhoods.

But another thing that kind of gets left behind sometimes is this idea of preserving existing affordable units.

And so what we also want to do is make sure that the kinds of units that you currently have, such as what you can see on the screen there are you have some row buildings, you have some new construction row buildings, these are row houses or townhouses.

You also have lane houses, which are kind of traditional houses on very small streets, and there's been a lot of new construction with those, and so we want to identify those and make sure that they're legal and that we're providing for regulations for those within the zoning ordinance and making sure that they can be done fairly easily without administrative departures or variances.

We want to make sure that zone GR is business friendly, supporting local entrepreneurs, supporting businesses that exist, supporting job growth, especially within the innovation areas and the activity centers that have been identified from the community master plan.

There are two bold changes within the community master plan that sort of tie into this priority, and that is to raise maximum building heights and commercial districts to promote density.

And what we want to do when we're doing that is be thinking about the physical form of that and making sure that it's not affecting the neighborhoods directly behind.

So we want to be sensitive in terms of how we do that along the commercial districts, being fully aware that we do need that additional housing.

We also want to broaden allowable activities within the activity centers.

So that means identifying uses that can occur in more places across the city, especially employment uses, artisan uses, and other kinds of entrepreneurial and industries.

The third priority that we identified, and these really aren't in any kind of order, but is context sensitive, context-sensitive.

And the bold change from the community master plan is to implement a development character-based approach that's tied to that future land use and character map that I showed you earlier.

And so we've called this context sensitive, meaning that what we want to really be doing is respecting the broader context of the neighborhood areas.

Currently, your zoning ordinance uses traditional mid-20th century and modern era neighborhoods as a sort of overlay on top of the current zoning.

And so we want to carry that forward.

That's part of the community master plan to carry those forward and to use those to identify those different contexts and to figure out how we can fold all of that housing in within that context.

Also, we want to note that your community is currently fairly walkable and compact, and that urban form is very helpful in terms of encouraging walkability and encouraging compact neighborhoods and complete neighborhoods, and we want to make sure that we're expanding that as much as we can into other areas of the city.

And then, of course, ensuring conserving those existing buildings, allowing them to be reused and adapted, but also ensuring that those new buildings fit within the context of all those areas.

We also want to ensure that building facades along the streets and blocks are human scale and interesting, and that they're built close to the sidewalk to make sure that there's a sort of permeability between the buildings and the sidewalk, which creates more safety, it creates more activity and more vibrancy, and that activates the street level experience as well.

And sort of tied to this is a bold change from the community master plan, which says to reduce or eliminate minimum parking requirements, especially near transit.

And so part of this is that sort of idea of balanced mobility.

That's one of your broad community goals within the community master plan.

And so we want to really focus on that walkability.

At the same time, parking requirements can sometimes make or break a business, whether it's that they need to provide more parking and they don't have the space to do that and they can't afford to move into a place, or whether it's parking that's needed, we sometimes call it teaser parking, to make sure that people can actually get to a business relatively quickly get in and do their business.

So what we want to do is we really want to look at how we address those parking requirements geographically, looking at whether or not there's transit accessible to the place, whether or not there's actually parking available to the place, and setting those parking standards based on that geography.

So we can create sort of sub-districts of those parking requirements throughout the city.

Green and healthy is an important priority.

So as I mentioned, we want to create access to waterways, we want to ensure that we're respecting steep slopes.

One of the key discussions with staff was the urban tree canopy and making sure that the current tree regulations get sort of revisited and addressed so that we can hold on to some of that tree canopy at the same time making sure that we're balancing that with urban agriculture and not creating too much shade for those places that want to have gardens and grow food.

And then lastly, our priority is predictable and transparent, and as I mentioned, this is meant to sort of be addressed throughout the ordinance from the table of contents all the way through to how we measure all of the regulations and define those regulations.

But one of the key elements here is to use building types to hang our regulations.

And this is sort of something that Kristen was referring to when she was talking about ADUs and identifying sort of accessory buildings as that kind of rear yard building.

We want to be thinking about the building form and making sure that we're sort of addressing how all of those buildings relate to the lots that they're on.

And one of the ways to do that is to sort of identify building types and creating a series of pages for those building types, each one of those building types, so it's easier for people to find the regulations that they need, and it sort of consolidates all of that information into a few pages.

Also within those pages, we want to use images to convey the intent.

So photographs of the kinds of buildings that we're expecting to be built to help people understand what we mean by the regulations, and then creating diagrams that are that our regulations are keyed to to help again convey that information even further.

It also makes it easier to modify the information moving forward as we need to.

So that is as quick as I could.

I think I went over, of course.

I just want to briefly touch on our community outreach that we've done so far.

So, as Layla mentioned, on May 12th, we had a community launch.

We had over 100 community attendees, at least 100 is who signed in, and we know that a lot of people didn't sign in.

Um so that was a really great turnout.

Um we had lots and lots of comments from people.

Um what we did was we held uh sort of we did a presentation, and I think you can watch that presentation, or you will be able to watch that presentation by the end of this week on the website.

But we set up a table for each one of the priorities and created little activities for people to do, mostly as a trigger to get conversation going, and then we had staff uh record those conversations, and so we will have uh an engagement summary that will be available on the website as well.

Um, but it was a really a really fun event, and it was it was just amazing.

The people had so much uh knowledge and so much to provide uh input to arrive for us.

And then again, we kicked off our community connectors process.

It was 15 connectors that were selected, and I believe all of them attended, and the idea for them is to help us to share updates and kind of get the word out, but also to host small group conversations during that public review period, so that we can get a little bit more sort of fine-grained input.

So, again, there's the website, we have our page up, and we will be providing that educational video and posting the engagement summary.

We're also going to create frequently asked questions, and during this period where we're kind of quiet, we're gonna be doing some little community surveys posted there as well.

Okay, thank you.

Great, thank you.

Um, any questions or comments, colleagues?

It's a lot to digest, and it's a long process.

Uh Commissioner you saw, see, I saw you first, and then Commissioner Culver.

Thank you.

Thanks for the presentation.

I saw a lot of people post that they were gonna be at the kickoff event.

Um, and so the pictures, the pitchers prove that and glad to see that continued engagement.

You know, I think this is in some ways, does this feel like just a big long to-do list, Mr.

Colson?

Because it feels like we've just been talking about this and talking about this, which is great, and so many people have stayed connected, but just to show obviously this this work takes time, it's it's changes, it's uh changes in our economies.

You know, just yesterday we celebrated a commercial building that got converted into residential, and so we're starting to see these things play out where you know the our state policy and now our zoning pieces.

Um, so you know, I think it is constantly talking to our constituents about the changes that are needed.

You know, sometimes people feel like why is this happening in my neighborhood or not?

But really trying to focus on the asset base pieces that this will bring, hopefully more people in our city, more opportunities, more affordability, more walkability, um, you know, as we all got went down again for that fire drill.

You know, I think that um you were saying this early, earlier city manager.

You know, when we think about zoning or planning, we might not necessarily think about public safety.

It might not bring us to that piece, but you know, I think today, as there's a lot of things that we can't control in this world, it kind of comes back to like this these the zoning text amendments.

And so, you know, I really love the the pieces on um what are the changes, particularly in the business district.

I feel more comfortable, I think, in the um in the housing typology because this again has been changes since at least my almost seven years here.

Um, but I really would like us colleagues as we're we're throwing out things.

I know uh I don't know exactly what you will bring up, Commissioner Kilgore, but I know you've you've asked us to consider different pieces around data centers and not only the things that we want to see, but maybe the things that we might want, not might not want to see or have them be more regulated appropriately for our neighborhoods.

And you know, I think one of those things, um, at least for Grand Rapids is um, you know, we've seen other cities do this.

Is how do we make sure we don't um, you know, we don't have places like detention centers or places that quite honestly wouldn't add, I think to the character of the city, wouldn't add to the walkability, are not the kind of industries I personally want to see here in our city.

And so I think sometimes we get asked to do a series of things related to one topic.

And you know, to me, doing a proclamation is wonderful.

You know, sometimes we've done resolutions in the past of things, whether it's you know, race is a public health issue and decriminalization of uh psilocybin mushrooms, but sometimes we can't it's a statement and an affirmation of what we believe.

Where I think here in the zoning pieces we have the opportunity to more clearly outline what we want to see or why something else, you know, there could be, you know, my personal feelings are uh, you know, not that it's just a commerce I don't want to see, but it is a practice of what's happening to the federal government that I absolutely do not support and um based upon the conversations I have up here.

Um I don't think it's anything that anybody up here supports either, with if I could be so bold.

So I look forward to, you know, again, this is very broad base, it's about a lot of things that we want to see.

But I do think, you know, a lot of times people ask us to do things, and there's not the subsequent legal policy guideline that we can do, but we have some good opportunities to do some of that work here with the zoning, and I think you know, we've seen some other cities do that.

So I don't want to diminish everything else that you have brought up, but I think just by the virtue of all the community engagement that has been done.

We know that there will be somebody who might not like something, you know, that might be bless you in the housing piece or the business piece, but I feel fully confident that we've engaged, communicated, reengaged, communicated, had a number of people who have also served as ambassadors, and so um I I just wanted to be sure to put that on the record, colleagues, um, as we think through um, you know, the kind of city that we want to be.

So thank you.

Commissioner Cover.

Uh thank you, Commissioner Isasi.

We have been on the same brain brainwave uh today, which is nice.

Um, so one, uh, right, right.

Like we'll see.

Let's celebrate it while it's here, y'all, right?

Um, but I will say plus one to Commissioner Isasi.

Um, I think that would be an interesting thing to explore.

Um, and then I'm gonna take you back to what she alluded to uh which was last year in December.

So in line with the green and healthy goal, so happy to see that be raised.

Um my team and I have collected over 325 messages and in-person conversations uh from folks within third ward and throughout our city on they are really looking for leaders to discuss and be working on data centers and making sure we are doing our best to put our best foot forward on this topic, and I look forward to having even more of those conversations.

I recently had one of those, a part of my uh coffee with commissioner converse community conversation with commissioner uh still that is top of mind for folks, and we just saw the saline project take off and folks are really thinking about it.

So I know today is not the day to get into the weeds of it and and have more of an exchange, but I want to thank you all for your initial work.

I know that we're looking into data center regulation, and once again, I was so thankful that this commission uh without any objection uh also gave that direction to the planning team uh to explore this and to talk about regulations of Grand Rapids.

We are known for our businesses, right?

Whether it's been uh the furniture industry or now beer, we love business here.

We want to support business, but we want to do it in the right way, similar to our conversation about uh the rentals earlier.

And so it's along that same line of protecting our people.

And I just want to highlight some of those threads for the public and and let them know that this is being thought about, this is going to be a conversation for later, as I know from your team that I'm looking forward to getting into the weeds later on.

But when we talk about one of our community value threads is equity, we know that data centers often target our most frontline communities, whether they are impoverished rural communities or impoverished urban industries.

When we talk about sustainability, we know that these data centers can not always provide significant pressures to our natural resources.

So once again, looking forward to that further conversation on how we're going to continue to safeguard our most vulnerable here, support businesses, and in addition, make sure we're safeguarding our natural resources.

So thanks again to my colleagues for having no objections to me providing that framework that we've seen in multiple cities, and I look forward to hearing more feedback on that in the future.

Thank you all for all your work on this.

Thank you.

Colleagues, well, I will uh I can't help but issue a uh at least a slight.

Oh, sorry, Commissioner Knight, did you want to?

Oh yeah, maybe I need to raise my hand higher.

Just a little bit.

Just a little bit.

Um again to supporting what um Commissioner Yasasi and Kilgore said, and just uh really being able to think ahead.

I'm glad that you brought this information up because we've had constant conversations with other neighborhoods that don't feel like they're seen, specifically in our NICA neighborhood, who is really trying to bring uh more vitality into that community over there, and and hopefully we'll be able to maybe even pull them into this conversation.

Um, as they start thinking about what that community looks like over there in that neighborhood, because they don't they don't have any schools anymore over there, and they have um a couple of parks, but a lot of things that they have been fighting for in the um last couple of years and really looking at how we're bringing in all our neighborhoods and making sure that you know none of them are unseen in that space.

And then also I think we had the conversation a couple years ago and had voted on uh raising the height restrictions uh in the city, but looking at that, at least in the downtown area, but looking at that across the board, right?

Um across our communities and seeing how we can be even more creative in that space because I think that would add to not only um uh development and living spaces, but then also more retail opportunities in that area, and then adding on the retail space where the retail is in the front and the living spaces in the back.

Um I think that would be some more creative ways that we'll be able to add to uh some of our housing issues that we're dealing with here in the city.

That's it.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you.

So um I I think Commissioner Kilgore, you and I um think about data centers maybe a little differently.

Um I don't want our um planning process to get too much tied down on something that I think is um very, very hypothetical at best.

Um data centers typically need uh large land uses.

Um, and I I'm not aware of any proposal for data centers inside the city, and I think they're frankly would be not viable.

Now, if we say data center and you include like my laptop, my laptop is got data on it, and it is a center of data.

So um, you know, I suppose every computer we have in the city is a data center of some sort.

But if we're using the word in the way that it's used in the media currently, um we're talking about places that often need, you know, a couple hundred acres of use.

Um, it's certainly true that these things um use water in the same way that my cars radiator uses coolant.

Uh it can uh you can circulate, you can have circulatory loops uh for coolant.

Uh it's certainly true that they use energy, and of course, we have to have a conversation about making sure that energy costs don't get passed on to uh residential users, but again, that's largely a state level uh question, and it's certainly true that we have to plan for shifts in energy use all the time in cities.

Um, but I think that um spending too much time planning and zoning uh to regulate out uh regulate around things that are vanishingly small possibilities uh in our cities, probably not a great use of our time.

Um I also think that um these are these are things that are largely going in rural areas, and so I think that um I'm not aware of any um uh uh vulnerable communities that these are in.

I'm not I don't tend to think that suburban communities are particularly vulnerable if we're looking at the economic scale.

Um they certainly do go in places and the people around them, um people people are currently protesting against solar panels.

I have no idea why, but people seem to think that the idea of having renewable energy uh uh installations in our in in the United States in general is a bad idea and people can pretty much protest just about anything.

Um I lived through trying to get uh windmills out on uh out at our water plant at the end of M45, and all of the rich cottagers out on uh out on uh Lakeshore Drive came and talked about how horrible windmills were and how they were gonna sterilize frogs or cause the zombie apocalypse or uh whatever hypothetical they could come up with while there were two miles down the road from a coal burning plant that uh was frankly shorting lifespans in the city of Grand Rapids because we're downstream um from a major coal burning installation uh right on the shores of Lake Michigan, which is currently being uh perpetuated.

Well, partly it's being perpetuated by NIMBY reactions to solar installations.

So I don't I think we have to have balanced approaches to these things, and I think that um I am much more concerned that we uh get our zoning right on the things that Commissioner Usaus and Commissioner Knight talked about, which are um how do we get uh how do we make our communities livable, how do we plan for the housing that we want, how do we make it more possible for people to do businesses inside of neighborhoods?

Um, frankly, we've got an we've got a zoning ordinance that probably was last revisited in the 50s that I think theoretically makes it impossible to sell things on Etsy in your house.

Um we've got a badly uh obsolete uh ordinance on on uh what you what people can and cannot do out of their residences.

So I think that the making addressing the real concerns about livability in our community are where we want to spend most of our time and not chasing unicorns, Mayor.

I so I I so hear you.

Um, but I think a lot of folks in community could argue that about ADUs, because my my top, my top thing when I talk about housing is affordable housing.

I think a lot of folks could argue that about when we talk about connectivity, they're not thinking about bike lanes, they're thinking about getting to work on their foot or in a car.

So as you know firsthand, as you're spearheading and leading these efforts, the it is incumbent upon us as leaders to think about the full picture.

And similarly, when we gave direction from the full commission in December, the full commission without objection gave uh direction to this department on along with our planning to say not giving 50% of your time, but to explore a special use.

That direction was given unanimously for the full commission.

I believe there were seven of us at the time.

So when we talk about things, this is not a unicorn.

In December, I also noted I want to remind uh you that in Lansing, it's across the street from a Wendy's.

So it's not something I'm making up or telling staff to not be effective with their time.

I'm saying, as I just noted, I have hundreds of constituents from all three wards in this city discussing this.

So it's incumbent upon us to discuss it.

So I hear you.

Um I think doing the dance of a little bit back and forth is how we get to the best answers, but I do want to push back on it's a unicorn or although staff is using too much time.

They've been given direction, and that's why they're doing it.

So just to clarify.

Thank you.

Um thank you for your presentation.

Thank you for being here uh for this very important conversation.

I just want to to uh do a couple things and um the next time we will have a public conversation around zoning tech specifically is later this year in December.

So in the interim, we we have gotten your feet receive your feedback.

Uh Commissioner Kilgore, um is correct.

The direction wasn't given to the department, it was given to me.

And I asked the department to consider evaluating our current code and seeing what other things from practices we might want to look at uh from other communities, but the mayor is also right.

The land use requirements is very significant.

So I'm interested to see what the outcome will be, and we'll have that discussion uh more informed in uh December.

Um and then lastly, um I was wondering uh since we won't have a formal conversation in December, might we have some bi monthly interim reports, written reports to community development or other committee of a whole uh just kind of progress.

Sure.

So we can definitely uh written report.

Written reports, yeah.

We can absolutely provide uh written reports or or verbal updates more frequently.

Um we have our scope with our consultant uh who mentioned that we will have I think it was four work sessions with planning commission, city commission, like we similar to what we did with the community master plan, but definitely city staff is willing and and capable of providing additional conversation or updates.

Uh and in fact, we're actually doing that out in community with our neighborhood associations and various organizations.

We're we're providing some uh training opportunities, and we can certainly uh do similar but stay focused on updates with community development or economic development project team.

Thank you.

Okay, no further comments, colleagues.

I'll adjourn us and we'll be back here for economic development at 12 30.