Third 2026 City Council study session.

We've got two items on our agenda today, the public realm vision plan, downtown commercial historic district, and then we'll uh we'll hear about our uh 2025 year and action plan and KPI update.

So with that, I am going to turn it over to Ms.

Irene Wubert to give us a preview and introduce our guest.

Council President, Council members, thank you.

Um I'm gonna kick it off.

I'll do a little bit of an intro, and then most of the presentation will be done by Sandy and who I'll introduce as we go along.

So can I stop you for a minute?

Uh actually, Minister's asked me to uh acknowledge that we are doing a lot of attempts to make our study sessions more informal.

Uh, two weeks ago we were in the corner over here, and uh I think uh the council members felt we were able to have it a robust and informal discussion.

We thought maybe that space was a little too uh kind of isolated, the public weren't able to see us directly.

So this we're trying this space out this time, and after our session, we invite members of the public, council members and staff to give us your feedback as we uh continue to work on making our uh sessions more accessible.

So continue.

Thank you.

All right, so um, we're gonna jump right in.

Um, and if there are any questions throughout, feel free to stop us.

I'm sure there's also time at the end as well.

Um, so kind of going back on January 22nd, 2024 was when the historic district was approved by council and not established the historic district after a number of years is really recognizing the downtown commercial core at the center of that.

Um, and here's like an updated map.

I think we've used some of the other ones, which um this one I think looks a little bit nicer and shows all of the contributing building as well as well as the non-contributing.

Um, and so this represents what the district is within the downtown area.

Um, and then this was kind of came out of that initial historic district, um, and really there was a lot of discussion about like what does it really look like in terms of implementation.

And so this was kind of that first piece that we really looked at.

Um, we coordinated with our partners as well as DMC to kind of establish like what are the key supports that are really needed for the district.

Um, obviously the one we're gonna talk about today in public realm, but just wanted to note a lot of these are ongoing, and not only are they being done by the city teammates but also with our partners.

Um, and through that process, um and this really came about as part of that public realm and identifying what does that vision look like.

We did an RFP process and we selected men collaborative in New History.

Um, Sandy is sitting to my right, and she's gonna be doing um most of the presentation, and she'll probably get into a little bit more, but wanted to also note that we also work with New History, um, and they are a more of a historic consultant as well.

So they work with um Mend and with the city teammates and with the public on developing this plan.

Um and really the intent was how do we develop that vision for the historic district and what does that really look like?

And that was a lot of that goal that we brought about.

So, what we're going to discuss today is really the project background, the community engagement, and all the work that was surrounded in that the vision plan, and we're gonna kind of walk through all those different steps and then allow us time for discussion.

Um just wanted to kind of note this plan as you'll see is kind of like this high-level vision plan.

Um, there's there's several notes in the plan that require additional work for implementation, so we will note that, but these are just high-level concepts, um, and these have also been coordinated and recognized as this is part of a larger planning efforts that are going on within the downtown area.

Um, and we had coordination among some of those as well.

So just wanted to make some of those notes to get provide that context as we dive in.

Um, and once again, you'll kind of see this is kind of those eight circles, but in a little bit different way.

The ones that are highlighted are really ones that the city teammates are leading in those in this area.

Um, as you kind of see some of the we've done some of the financial, the regulatory mobility.

Um, and this is really focused on that public realm aspect and what does that really look like.

Um, and with that, I'm gonna turn it to Cindy.

Thank you.

I'll let you know this.

Thank you.

Okay.

Council president, council members, thank you for having me at this table today.

My name is Sandy.

I'm a landscape architect, and I'm a founding partner at Men's Collaborative.

Um, as Irene mentioned, we are hired by the city with our team member New History.

Uh, we do urban planning, urban design, landscape architecture.

So we really brought that you know, framework of how you know successful public realms really work and new history's perspective and the stakeholders that we talked to throughout this process really brought that perspective of what makes this district really special from a historic and even modern use.

So when we're talking about the public realm, we're really talking about this space that is open, available free for everyone to use and enjoy things like elements that provide safety, like lighting and signage, ways to find your way around the district through wayfinding storytelling, sidewalks, bike lanes, gathering in open spaces, green spaces, saving and comfort features, the streets.

There's a lot to think about when we're thinking about our public realm spaces.

And when we set out starting this process, we really wanted to identify what we were working towards.

So we really wanted to have this comprehensive vision plan specific to this historic district that can really envision a future for the outdoor public spaces, and this is really just starting to provide that roadmap for implementation on you know how some of these spaces could be designed a little bit better to create a little bit more of a cohesive inclusive and well-designed area that really speaks to and really honors the history of the downtown commercial historic district.

We held a series of engagement events throughout the project process starting in June of last year.

We started with some focus group discussions.

We interviewed about 20 people there.

We also did door knocking within the district.

We held a couple um workshops with stakeholders that are you know business owners, build property owners, um, uh different downtown um organizations, so a couple workshops with folks, and we also had a pop-up at Thursday's downtown.

And we also had a project website that was started at the beginning of the project, it's still up today that hosts resources for people to download things that were developed throughout the project process and to learn more.

So the key takeaways from our engagement process, there are six of them, and you'll kind of see how these influence, you know, as I start walking through the plan and how it you know has really shaped up and come together, how these main takeaways from engagement started really coming together, and these are really important, so I'm gonna read them to you, and I hope that's okay.

Um so the first key takeaway was that the district has a strong historic identity, but it needs approved visibility and connection.

The second key takeaway is that there's a strong desire for a more vibrant, inclusive, and walkable public realm.

The third key takeaway is activation and small business support are keys to revitalization.

The fourth takeaway is that there are opportunities for improvement regarding accessibility and multimodal connectivity.

The fifth takeaway is that trust collaboration and follow-through are critical.

And the final and sixth takeaway is that there needs to be a balance between preservation and modern needs.

Um, these are presented one through six, not in any particular order, but just so that we have a way to organize them.

Um I'm gonna start walking through the plan.

Um, I know that the draft of the plan was provided to you all.

So I'm gonna ask you a question about the community engagement.

Yes.

Um, if you go back one more slide, if can you just give us a little bit more flavor on who you talk to in those stakeholder groups and I'm particularly interested in in uh what whether you talk to several members of the kind of growing arts community that's in the historic district that kind of nascent group we're starting to see grow in that area?

Yeah, I can speak to a couple of points throughout our engagement processes that we talked to that particular group of stakeholders.

Um to start there in our focus group discussions.

Um the owner of art heads.

Um, well, I don't know if I should call people out specifically, but um, there were a couple um folks in the business owner um focus group um discussion that sort of represent that kind of more um creative sort of side of some of these more creative businesses.

Um we did notice you know, as we started studying this district and getting familiar with it as the project started, that this is a really vibrant place for you know design, art, um, everything from you know um painting or makers to there's architecture firms in this district.

So there's a lot of creativity in this district.

So you'll see as we kind of get into the report here, we're kind of blending that.

Like what does that mean in the context of history and these historical resources?

Um, in the workshops, there were um uh there were mailing lists that were utilized to um advertise the workshops out to key stakeholders.

art um everything from you know um painting or makers to there's architecture firms in this district so there's a lot of creativity in this district so you'll see as we kind of get into the report here we're kind of blending that like what does that mean in the context of history and these historical resources um in the workshops there were um uh there were mailing lists that were utilized to um advertise the workshops out to key stakeholders um I think over I think it was between two and three hundred people that the invitation went out to and we saw representation from property owners business owners um folks that were just in general interested in the process and in this area um from a historical perspective chime in if I'm missing as you say we also reached out to anyone that was living within the district as well it is yeah okay did I take you to it okay okay so um the structure of the plan so we have five chapters within the plan and it kind of is structured to you know walk you through sort of this project process and it builds towards this final vision plan.

So the first chapter is about the vision and guiding principles where we really outline you know and unpack a little bit more that community engagement and how that engagement process and talking with community and stakeholders really informed the goals and the vision for this plan what we were trying to achieve the case for action summary when I dive into that a little bit you can kind of think about it as an existing conditions report with a little bit more context to it.

And then chapters three and four are kind of the the meat of this plan here where chapter three starts to really frame out you know the framework for how we're approaching the vision for the public realm in the future and then chapter four is sort of those elements that fall within that vision plan and then chapter five is the um sort of high level guidance for implementation for the vision plan.

So starting with chapter one and then I'm also going to explain sort of the graphics a little bit if just because they're they're a little unique so we um and this kind of gets to that blending of art and history where you know there's there's just a lot of creativity in this district there's a lot of rich you know culture here and history here so um we you know really wanted to try and find a really fun and engaging way to kind of blend you know this 90 year period of significance but also how people are using and living in this district today so if you have any more specific questions about any of those graphics I can answer them.

So back to these um six key takeaways from our community engagement those sort of directly led to how the vision statement and the five key goals for the project really came together.

So the vision statement is that Rochester's downtown commercial historic district is a vibrant and welcoming place where people gather connect and create new lasting memories among the core of Rochester's historic commercial spaces it is a place that resonates with excitement culture and energy of these historic blocks and the businesses within it.

This is a destination full of life where residents and visitors alike feel drawn to return again and again and the idea of that vision statement is once all of this is implemented someone can visit this historic district and you know say that is a true statement that that is really you know um and then we have the six goals um so um the public realm will help help foster a sense of place and community support and incubate small businesses and local owners and we'll intentionally weave the downtown commercial historic district into the greater fabric of downtown Rochester and that it will repain the historic character of the district the case for action um I'm gonna go through this really high level it's kind of its own standalone document but we summarized it in the main body of the report here and it's organized into three sections and in the first section we're really telling the story of the history of um the the historic district the energy is sort of how people are using this district today how are people living here and working here and sort of playing within the district how are people interpreting history in their own ways in the district and then the context are is everything else going on sort of around the district and things that impact um how we did this planning process so previous plans current planning efforts already adopted initiatives any regulatory you know analysis that was imperative for us to understand.

So I reign showed you a version of this map this one gets a little bit more detailed with the story in the case for action we really you know in the historic designation report there's a lot more deep dive into each individual building and each story.

So we just kind of started thinking about how these historic buildings that were historically here when the period of significance was you know, sort of happening.

The story also is important when we look at the existing conditions of the public realm.

So we analyzed and studied the existing character materials and landscaping, social aspects, how are people interacting within the district itself, or where and what are those economic activities within the district?

Um, what is accessibility ADA compliance, crosswalks, lighting look like today, and then how are people finding their way throughout the district today?

So we did sort of an existing commissions analysis report there.

The energy is you know, really understanding how people live and work and play here, um, how this district is really brought to life through public art and through design, both historic and modern, and then how that story is being told through individuals on their own properties, how people are interpreting history and helping visitors really understand the importance of this place.

And um, importantly, we looked at other planning work and efforts.

So these are already you know completed or adopted, or in the case of the link bus, you know, in in progress efforts that um are about downtown or are adjacent to the commercial historic district.

Um, so things that were really important to keep in mind and consider and to sort of apply to the process here.

We also did a uh quick study of mobility and parking.

So, how are people moving through the district and how do people arrive to the district?

Where are those opportunities?

And then the plan itself, this is the fun part, the meaty part.

So the framework.

It's really important that we emphasize the role of this historic district in the greater you know, context of downtown.

There's various districts within downtown.

There's a lot of history outside of the very specific boundaries of the designated district itself.

Um, so we were really looking at the historic district as a key patch in the quilt of this greater downtown story, this greater story of Rochester.

So we were really thinking about how this historic district can start to, you know, provide those tendrils and those conduits throughout downtown and start stitching all these different parts of downtown together to feel more cohesive.

It was also really important that we found the right balance between already adopted efforts such as the 2022 Heritage Preservation Program Design Guidelines, Secretary of the Interior Standards for Rehabilitation, considering where this is a historic district with historic properties, uh already adopted initiatives like the 2017 city design guidelines for the DMC district, and importantly, community and stakeholder input.

So there was a lot that really fed into this final vision plan and a lot of balance when we were going through this this entire process.

So when we're thinking about that vision plan and what the future improvements or future moves can be within this district, we're sort of started laying it out in these four different lenses.

So really thinking about infusing storytelling throughout the public realm, and that's kind of that pink wash because this whole public realm and sort of everything even outside of it.

Um there's stories to tell here.

Um the second one is to reimagine streets within the district.

So first, Broadway fourth, second.

Um the third one is to revision Third Street within the district as sort of that key, you know, corridor running east-west throughout the district, and really starting to create those connections to the river and the further west downtown.

And then thinking about the alleyways as something that can really be activated.

Um, there's been some great community visioning that we really wanted to kind of embrace and solidify.

There's a lot of really good ideas coming from the community about alleyways here.

So, how can those be thought of as really vibrant word spaces?

For storytelling, um, revealing the story of the district through artwork, murals, sculpture, interpretive panels, people understand history and story in different ways.

So, the more ways that we can you know get different artists or get historians or whatever that may be, we'll just you know, further engage people to want to kind of explore the district a little bit more.

Maybe they park and instead of walking the direct route around the district, they want to walk through it and experience that sculpture every day.

Green on Historic Third is sort of revisioning and rethinking this sort of critical corridor through the district.

There's some visioning planning going along the riverfront.

So how can those things really start to merge together and have a stronger, more you know, intentionally planned out connection?

There was also a lot of input from community members about making that connection a little bit better because of the trail that's along the riverfront, and how can you know there be a conduit to really sort of kick you off the trail and right into downtown?

So third is you know is really in this vision plan seen as that important corridor.

I know that the text on these is very small, so I'll do my best to just explain.

Um the upper left section is the existing condition of third.

So you have um parallel parking on each side of the street, and then it's a single one-way lane down the center.

Um the proposed kind of vision for green on third year is to really embrace that you know, sort of um green uh more lush, more human-scale aspect of third.

So bringing up the roadway table to create a curveless design creates more accessibility.

It also allows for flexibility within the public realm for that space to flex a little bit more.

So, you know, on maybe a typical everyday, you still have parking, you still have the one-way roadway, bringing a dedicated bikeway through that connects to the trail, and other important bikeway corridors throughout downtown.

And then we can get into um you know some more flexible programming on third.

So maybe some days you know, a business owner might want to rent out or close off a couple parking stalls in front of their business and bring maybe a booth out or do a mini pop-up.

And then on big days, there can be festivals where the whole roadway is closed, maybe there's retractable followers on each side, and it's just this really comfortable pedestrian corridor for events and programming.

So the idea of Bird is to really greet it up, bring that urban forest initiative and already adopted plans and kind of beef that up in this area, and to really give an opportunity for more flexible programming.

Some example images of how that has been successfully implemented elsewhere, and then some examples of how some of that storytelling can happen within the public realm on third with more increased opportunity in the public realm.

The next is looking at streets within the district.

Um, we're gonna specifically look at Broadway and First Avenue right now.

Um specific to Broadway, we did hear a lot from community members that Broadway is a very you know fast corridor, especially through the district here.

Um, it's seen as kind of a thoroughfare, a little bit of a barrier, especially for a district that spans over Broadway.

Um, so we wanted to take a look at kind of that cross section of Broadway.

Could that be thought of a little bit differently within this district to slow traffic down a little bit, make it more of a comfortable public realm experience, especially for all those you know, small businesses, restaurants that face Broadway and could definitely use some improvement with some expanded public realm there.

So looking at Broadway on the top is the existing cross section.

You can see um some constrained public realm space on the west side of the street.

We have several lanes ranging from parking lanes to through lanes and turn lanes.

Um looking at what a proposed design could be thinking of you know um bringing bringing that public realm in a little bit more and creating more space for amenity spaces, and then treating the existing roadway differently during on peak and off-peak hours, so really leveraging those outer lanes for when it's on peak, it's drive in transit during off-peak hours.

That's where parking is, and people can find a little bit easier parking for businesses there, but that really gives us you know a lot more space for public realm, more comfortable sidewalk widths where people can comfortably pass each other, going in opposite directions, and then getting more amenity space for either plantings or a sidewalk patio, whatever that may be.

And here's uh a little illustrative axon of what that could potentially look like.

Nothing too prescriptive, but just giving a high level of an idea there.

Council member Dory.

Uh, just a question when you imagined this.

When did you imagine the roadway going from the lanes that currently exist into this corridor and then back out?

What does that look like?

Zach, that's uh yeah, I can speak.

Zach's a transplanner with a little bit of a transit lens.

So ultimately.

Can you identify yourself?

I can, I'm sorry.

I'm Zach Lockerma Partner and Mental Collaborative on Bitcoin with Sandy on the project.

This is one of those key things where there's going to need to be some follow-up work, and especially with the construction of the new bridge.

When the new bridge comes in, that's also going to be accelerated.

And so we don't really have a very clear picture of exactly how much traffic the street is going to be carrying at those points.

But most likely the ways that you would deal with the transitions between more lanes to fewer lanes would be kind of forced right turns and things like that.

So things would turn into your third line that's being dropped returned to a right term lane or something like that, but walk before that sort of transition of Alpha.

Typically, that's the easiest way to ensure that kind of safety of those transfers funds.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you for the question.

Okay, now we're switching gears to look at first avenue.

So, you know, looking at Broadway is one of the main north south corridors versus the other main north-south corridor through the district.

So the existing cross section of First Avenue.

Again, we have angled parking on both sides.

And then we have two-way lanes with some existing sidewalk and amenity spaces.

Looking at a proposed short term and a proposed long term, sort of depending on what some current ongoing planning efforts might potentially look like in the future.

We wanted to just provide a few different options of what some scenarios could be.

A short term with a um sort of a temporary testing scenario of a bikeway on that street, and then a proposed long term if that you know potentially becomes a permanent situation, and how the public realm can really increase on First Avenue.

Knowing that first is a really important corridor for you know Thursdays downtown.

There's a lot of restaurants, a lot of businesses also facing first.

Um, how can we really start increasing that amenity space and creating better buffers against the roadway there?

And then again, another axon of what that could potentially look like.

This one also has a little example image, and I understand that's pretty small on the screen there.

Um, but it all is also in the report, too.

All of these graphics are pulled from the report.

Um the next framework are the art alleyways.

So this is um a way to really think about activating activating those underutilized spaces, which means the alleyways um within the district.

Um when I say underutilized, it's a way to talk about you know, increasing access to small businesses, and also these are you know, corridors that are within the historic district, they have stories to tell themselves.

So the community has been doing um work over the years thinking about how to activate these alleyways, how to bring you know either temporary activation or permanent solutions here by putting it in this report is a way to kind of you know formalize the community's ideas.

So this is an idea that was really born from community, um, and then increasing safety and access to small businesses.

There are some small businesses whose doors are um main doors are accessed through the alleyway.

So providing a safe and comfortable and more visible way for people to access those businesses through the alleyway.

And what that can start to look like, there are some logistical things, there's still you know, garbage trucks and delivery trucks and all that that have to go.

So you know, closing the alleyways fully isn't you know going to be you know necessarily uh a very practical solution.

Um so finding ways to activate the alleyways through art, decorative lighting, um, directional signage, ways to celebrate the entrances to the alleyways and make them feel like hey, this is a space you can go down and explore.

You know, maybe you haven't gone down here before, even if you've been in the district a hundred times.

Here's a new space for you to find.

Um, the alleyways could also, you know, during non-delivery or collection times be activated with events as well, and maybe start to feed off of you know, events happening on third or first.

So it really just starts increasing this flexibility of public realm activation, and some ideas of how alleyways have been activated, um, but still you know, functional and usable elsewhere.

So those were the guiding sort of frameworks.

The next chapter are the elements that sort of make a public realm a little bit more cohesive.

So there's sort of six key areas, and this kind of harkens back a little bit to that first graphic that I showed you several slides ago of you know, all these things that go into a public realm.

So plantings, furnishings, bike racks, benches, all that kind of stuff, lighting, different types of lighting, materiality, what are you walking on, um, wayfinding within the district, just directionally, and then parking strategies.

Um, these are much more further detailed out in the report.

Um, unfortunately, we don't have enough time here for me to dig too far into these.

Um, but those are um 4.1 through 4.6 in chapter 4.

And then implementation strategy.

Do you want to cover here?

Um, so kind of implementation, so I really provided that overall and like a little bit of next steps and some guiding.

One was to you know, really start small, think of those little things that we can kind of do and scale intentionally.

Um, recognizing, I think with some of these, and we recognize a lot of these concepts are going to require additional study in terms of either traffic and engineering, which we recognize.

So it's how can we do some additional programming and other items why that that continues to happen?

Um, and then really it's aligning our capital investments with broader downtown, recognizing this is a plan amongst others that are going on in terms of connecting those things and connecting from this vision plan to other initiatives and how best we do that to make sure that all of these are in alignment.

Um, and so that's really on the teammate side to make sure we continue to do that if it's already started, and then just really looking at partnerships and programming as some of those next steps.

Um, I will say one of our other next steps, it's not necessarily with an implementation, is we're gonna kind of review all of this with HBC tomorrow as well to kind of go through and get any additional feedback from them as well.

And then our goal is to hopefully bring this back for adoption as kind of one of our sub-area district plans within our component under the comprehensive plan.

So with that, I will think that's the last one.

That is the last slide.

Turn it over to any questions.

Thank you.

Uh I I can start.

I one, I I really like the storytelling angle, the use of the alleyways that very creative.

I I think there's a lot of potential there, and uh third street and moving it to access the river.

So I I'm uh very excited about the possibilities in those areas.

One thing that I had a question about though is so um you are removing the angled parking on third and first, and there's not a proposal for uh reintroducing angled parking on Broadway, and I look at it kind of in a in a historic sense.

I mean, we we had you know, 1890s in the report, it shows angle parking, it shows angled parking 1947.

It actually we had angled parking in the middle of Broadway in the 40s and 50s, and then went to parallel parking, which is less safe, less uh calming.

I know that angle parking it does encourage a buffer, it encourages uh greater safety of getting in and out of cars actually create more parking, a little bit more, maybe 20%, and uh it uh also uh gives you that main street feel of a historic district.

So I guess in reading the report, I was curious that there was no uh kind of pros and cons to we are removing some angle parking, and I know in the community there has been discussion of returning to angle parking on Broadway.

So I'm curious about that aspect in where it at all that was discussed.

I'll I'll start and I'll let Sandy jump in as well.

I mean, I think the other piece that we really wanted to look at is how do we have different mobility options?

So I think it wasn't just solely looking at how do we get vehicles and cars, but it's also is it potentially for transit or bikes, and how do we also really focus on the pedestrian and how to create that better experience?

So I think all of those had to be kind of balanced as we were making recommendations and providing that high-level vision.

Is how do we accommodate all the different types of uses that we are gonna need in these spaces?

Councilmember Fredericks, excellent statement, President Schubert.

I couldn't agree with you more.

Um from a practical standpoint, here's what I know.

You drive up and down our streets that have no parking on them in our business districts, there's no businesses in the businesses, not just a few several.

So to me, I see that I see the businesses on First Avenue Southwest that actually have parking out in front.

They're occupied.

So that alone, the businesses to me is what provides the vibrancy in an area.

I understand we can have all the nice stuff and the trees and in the places to ride bikes and scooters and have all the accessibility issues addressed.

But the bottom line is we need vibrant businesses in these businesses to create the atmosphere in these areas that we need.

I mean, I think we're I think part of our intention with giving these different options is also still including on-street parking.

It might not necessarily be the same, but I think we recognize there's a need for a balance of all those different things, but also the value of having pedestrians moving around downtown, it also helps create that vibrancy for those businesses as well.

And if you have a better experience in that pedestrian realm, it helps people want to do that more often.

So I think it's kind of balancing those other pieces.

We uh we battle weather, even when it's nice out in the in the summer, we have lots of wind, lots of humidity, lots of rain, and I think it's I understand wanting to have those things, but the reality is if you look at how many days a year our public spaces are activated and used to their full potential, it's staggering actually how low that is.

So I don't mean to be a poo-pooer, but I'm just stating the fact.

Come from the wall.

Thank you.

Uh in theory, uh, I'm gonna follow up on that.

Uh I got a kind of a pottery of questions, but I'll just stay with the parking for right now.

If you're gonna pump street, take it easy.

Easy.

Uh in theory, I uh like the idea of moving people to ramps.

I'm a ramp guy.

The last time I parked on the street was when I went to a city meeting at Discovery 2, and the ramp was full, and I had to look for someplace on the street.

I would prefer to be in the ramp.

Um a lot of people don't prefer ramps.

Uh my question is in your engagement, particularly with business owners, uh, were they in favor of removing uh street parking?

If I yeah, uh, so we did hear about the importance of having street parking, you know, especially on third, and just a small I don't know if we can go back in the slides or not.

Um the vision plan doesn't call for complete removal of parking on third.

Um so I have another question about that.

How many spots does that remove?

How many on street uh totality of the plan?

How many spots are we removing from the street?

I think it was about 12 on third itself.

So parking would remain on the south side of the street, the angle parking.

But more probably on first.

Right.

But I I would also note with this vision plan, I just want to set a little context, it doesn't mean that all of these projects are gonna happen at one time, or this will be the end.

I think with all of these, these are concepts of how it could be, especially with this plan, and then further study would need to be required before and additional engagement would probably be required at that point to figure out okay, what does what do those priorities look like?

These are options that we would consider and that we have shared and gotten feedback on.

So that allows me to drill down to my very last question.

Yes.

Well, there are lots of others, but um, I wonder what when you say, Ms.

Woodward, that we're going to be um approving a plan.

And I've heard so much uh uh we need to study more, we're not sure, we'll start small in the plan itself talks about uh the uh short term and a meeting and a long term.

If we were to approve a plan as a city council, what are we actually approving?

I think what we'd be asking you to do is to adopt the plan as something that has been reviewed, and in general, these are some concepts, but I would also recognize like you know, this plan isn't consistent, is consistent with our comprehensive plan and other plans, and it would be for this historic district area.

It wouldn't necessarily say like exactly I'm approving this project because there would be additional approvals later, but it's recognizing the engagement that took place and these priority priorities that have been identified within this adoptive plan that would allow us to start that implementation of looking at some of those other things.

That still makes me nervous, but uh could could I could I go back to uh the business owners uh then and uh how they receive the idea of removing uh significant on-street parking, and I'm not worried only about third about uh other uh places, particularly first that have can I jump in to talk a little bit about parking if that's okay?

Yeah, go ahead.

Um so there are as Sammy said with the reconfigurations on third and first.

I think the total is that there were uh between I want to say it was 27 and 32 spots removed.

Remember that the reconfiguration of Broadway would actually add parking spots in a lot of those areas that do not currently have them.

Um you can actually go back to the original uh the mobility drawing there's a map up there.

About 90% of the parking spaces within the full area are currently given branches.

Um that is the vast majority of the spaces that people are actually going to.

And what we really want to do, and we we talk about this as a policy element within the plan as well, is thinking about how we are using pricing and other tools that we have in order to really encourage that.

So at the very like best case scenario, a lot of cities are actually going to dynamic pricing.

And what that means is that you want on every single block that you have, you want two or three spots open at all times.

So the fuller that those spots get, the more expensive they get, which directs people then to move in towards the ramp areas.

But there are less you know, fancy technological ways of doing some of that as well that are working to really encourage people.

What we really wanted to set out to do with the parking wanted to make sure that we had on-street parking for people with as I see many of us in this room are currently dealing with.

We want our our handicapped spots to be accessible.

We want um likely signed spots for people that are just going to pick up and take out and that sort of stuff as quick areas, and then we do want some folks or some folks that would just um sort of enjoy, you know, prefer that to actually parking in the ramp.

So trying to really create a balance there in the discussions with business owners, of course, there's going to be a variety of opinions about that that are gonna vary.

But the preponderance of what we heard was that what is missing, and especially from Broadway, was the public realm space to be able to have things like outdoor seating, that the existing public realm, you I mean, uh, Council Member Figures, to your point, it's really unpleasant.

There's no shade, it's not very nice.

And what we are kind of envisioning by having parking that only takes up eight feet instead of parking that takes up 18 feet, is that we got that 10 feet that we can start to bring in more trees, more shade, more of those sort of other elements as a way of making it a better place to walk with more health and more of the seasons more of the time as well.

So there are of course all these trade-offs with this.

I do think the concepts that we show for Broadway specifically have the idea that we probably do need to limit parking during the peak hours in order to facilitate the traffic there.

So, in that particular case, it probably doesn't work to do angle parking on Broadway itself, just because the lanes that are not the right sizes in order to be able to facilitate that.

Um but on other streets, you know, there are continuing options for other, I guess, formats with that.

So I just one more follow-up question.

I think I agree with everything you said, but I will just try one more time to ask the question.

This will be the third time, uh, particularly on first and third.

What do business owners think about the reduction of parking?

I I I tried to be clear, but I haven't can I promise this only whatever.

Can I just remind uh council members that it's interesting because we're talking about the melt historic district study, and I I kind of felt when I was reading it, especially pages 30 through 39.

I thought maybe I was reading the downtown mobility uh study, which I think we're taking up next week, which actually deals with first.

So uh just reminder something we will have that this this now, I'm not putting off this discussion for now, but we will have it again next week.

So thank you.

Councilmember Miller.

Oh, oh well.

Yeah, maybe want to push up first again.

Yeah, just really quick because I know we're on a time, but um, you know, where Zach was going with how the parking on-street parking taken into consideration, you know, what's going to be sort of those short-term spots, what are where the accessible spots are going to be.

I think that's getting to Irene's point of those next studies that need to happen, and then I think there'll be further input from community from property owners from business owners on that.

And I guess I'll just say, I mean, we we can go, I mean, frankly, we could go property by property and say like what each one of them said in the ways that we try to accommodate their specific needs for their buildings that include not only parking, but things like how they're you know, when you talk about the islands, how their deliveries are happening, how their trash is happening.

We have had those conversations with all the business owners.

Um I would not claim to say that there are not some business owners that would be concerned about some of the alignment, and that's where it's sort of sometimes looking at the district scale and looking at the individual scale, you gotta find the right balance between the preponderance of what you're hearing from the community from the business owners from the property owners.

I'm gonna I'm gonna move this along.

Council member Miller, because I've got I've got three more council members after you want to speak.

Thank you.

I'll try to be concise.

Uh one, I I just appreciate that this plan really seems to take into the context of the downtown and different times of day and different times of the year.

I mean, to council member Frederick's point, I mean, we do live in a colder climate.

There are times of the year that more people are out, there are times of the year where maybe that street is less activated.

But I think having a design that flexes up and down depending on the use, the time of day, it's really smart.

I mean, I'll note that we're in a very different configuration than a regular council meeting, and that's what intelligent design allows us to do with this space.

Um, but to the point of you know, parking, I I think that we often talk about how do we manage the supply of parking and how many spaces are there and where are those spaces.

And I just be remiss to mention I think a couple years ago there was a parking rate study that considered exactly this of how do we encourage people to consider using the ramp, and we the council at the time made some changes to the parking rate structure.

It does sound like there are opportunities to consider additional uh steps in that direction.

Um but I also hear from business owners quite frequently that there's not a comprehensive downtown employee parking program or content for non-MAO employees.

And Mayo has a very specific set of parking structures and programs that are available for patients and employees.

But I get the sense that we're maybe have an opportunity here to think about employee parking programs.

We have surface lots that are over at Pacific Center South Lot, which is roughly the same distance from there to downtown as the Mayo Southeast lots are, and I see many employees parking there and walking if they're not on the shuttle schedule.

And so I just I suspect that those are places where we could provide some more affordable downtown employee parking, and then the ramps could be priced differently.

And I suspect that many downtown business owners don't want their employees to be parking on the street, taking up spaces where customers could be coming, but it feels like we haven't yet gotten to the place of managing the parking, the demand for parking and where it is, and we end up arguing about how many spaces are on each block, which is in the context of this plan recognizing that that's a trade-off of the use of the public space.

And so I feel like it's a management question and a policy question of how do we appropriately manage the space.

And I again I really just want to commend you for the creativity of flexible lane use that on peak times where we have a lot more people trying to enter or exit downtown in cars that that space can flex differently, but during the middle of the day when those are just very wide lanes that are somewhat difficult to cross if you're on foot.

I think that this kind of concept um gets a really smart uh use of how do we manage that program or how do we manage transportation depending on the time of day and uh month of the year.

Uh I was also just gonna mention that I I just want to reiterate the small business supports and activation of spaces to get more people because those people are hopefully customers for our downtown businesses, and I think recognizing that how we fit more people and encourage more people downtown into the public space gives business owners a lot more of an opportunity to encourage uh market to them, offer some uh amenity reason to come into the business and hopefully spend some money.

Uh I also like that you've kind of drawn soft edges around the district because I think it's important how this interacts with the spaces beyond.

And uh I would also just mention the somewhat prominent uh empty lot that becomes a snow dump um at the corner of Fourth Street and Broadway.

Like a really unactivated space that falls outside of this district but interacts with the district, so how we think about those edges is important, and my understanding of how this district moves into the downtown and draws from the downtown.

And then I think you know the other piece that I I hear about thinking of the budget and the the city supports.

There's a lot of talk about art, but I would just recognize that we as a city only have a public music department, and we don't necessarily have um staff managing uh art in the public space, and other cities I've lived in, I include Iowa City, that I think has done a very wonderful job encouraging public murals or encouraging public art.

They have invested in some of the staff support that makes that possible.

And I I look around the room at community development, and I I just think well, I mean, we could ask community development staff to do that, but I suspect that they're quite busy, and we often hear about the limited staff time.

So I just I think that that's an important consideration of what the staffing looks like to to manage some of these initiatives.

And um I appreciate that you brought up all our way to protect and make the space flexible because the other element that finally that comes into all of this is this only works if it's enforced.

And one of the mechanisms in enforcement would be to send out community service officers to write parking tickets when the lanes are not parking, but also thinking about some of the other ways that um the design reinforces the use rather than having to send out people and say that's not how that's supposed to be to write a ticket, which is just a bad experience all around.

So I think those would be my comments of the port, but thank you.

Council member.

Uh thank you.

I'm just gonna start with some high-level stuff.

When we established a district, we were very building focused and not so much what was in the buildings, and we seem to totally separate that and only talk about what's active in the buildings.

And I and while I understand why that happens, walk me through why we don't talk about the what why has historic district doesn't really take any uh pride in this building came from this era and how it would do and become part of that education.

I think sorry, well, I think I was gonna maybe default to Molly to answer that question.

I think that that's part of where when we start talking about the story telling and how we can do that storytelling within the public realm, that that's where we can start to pull on what are the stories of those buildings to really help people connect to them.

Yeah, very good.

And that shows sort of a high level, just uh there's something missing for me.

The other one is as a city, I feel like we have a relationship with building owners.

Um as when we get into this idea of how they're activated and all that, that's the owner with their tenants, it's the owner versus the city with RDA, it's a city other places.

Do you have any insights on how a city interacts with the resident of the occupants of the building versus the owners?

Is there uh some good tried and true on that?

Or you know, how do we how do we interact at those levels?

Yeah, I think I mean we started tapping into that with this process.

Yeah, and I would say our partners downtown, including our Diego you've been are definitely part of that as well, and helping with that, and that's also where um Indian metal maybe it was um uh last, right?

How do we engage with those the business owners who are the creative people?

Um, you know, and paying partners.

Thank you.

I mean, I I I'm just doing high-level things here right now.

Just that to me, we we jumped past that, and I and I want to kind of consciously say like we we have building owners coming to us and saying this is what we want to do at our buildings, and it's in this historic district, and it has no connection with what we're talking about because they are disconnected from this sort of discussion.

Um so my my point's more specific on this, like everybody realizes this downtown real estate is so valuable, but the same thing is true about the downtown right-of-way.

Um, and the right of way as we commit it to commit more and more of it to parking and driving, there's less available for this public realm and less available for this other sort of activation.

Um the other like ugly fact is the more parking and the more cars you let into these areas, the less activation you can have because these things take up all the space.

So I think there is a good reason why we have to manage these things.

Um I I'm not coming here with number of parking spots.

I don't know how that has to work.

I as council member Miller said, we tried to do that a little bit with this sort of incentive things, but um I think Councilmember Wall is the outlier.

I I think Minnesota people do not want to go into parking ramps, and any successful system in the city of Rochester will require some sort of education or some sort of thing we do to make people comfortable driving into a parking ramp and going to dinner.

Because right now it's the it's a lock, it does not seem to happen.

They want to park at the businesses they're going to, and the more we placate that, I think the l the less we'll get to this idea of having uh an active downtown.

Our city has a complete streets policy, and I think we all know that.

So that means we have to provide some level of protection to those at risk, either walking, rolling, biking, or those commuters downtown.

I think we that is on us or change our policy.

When we say we have these policies, we have to find a way of implementing them.

Now, I we always get into these arguments that how few and how many.

But I and I think they're valid.

I think this idea of we should have all abilities and all ages in our downtown would be a wonderful thing to be able to have.

But cost effectiveness, these are commuters coming to work or or sometimes coming down at other times.

But I think we have to find a way to make those sort of trips as safe as possible.

So I I guess the other sort of thing that I feel like I I really love that picture of the workmen putting up the sign on there because I think we really miss out on this sort of education of what our history is in some way of telling that in our downtown.

The other thing, as far as this, I really struggled opening this packet up and saying, like, okay, we're just going to look at public realm of the historic district.

But I'm really glad that it did have these sort of tentacles because we can't do the signage or the wayfinding for the historic district and then do it totally different down the street.

We have to find, we have to integrate these things.

Someone mentioned 6th Street.

I don't know how far north we go too, but our downtown is trying to extend in some areas.

Um and I and I hope we can find some ways of supporting those things.

So if anyone wants to comment, I can go.

No, I I would just note I think that was part of where the edges around was recognizing that some of it kind of goes beyond the historic district, but also recognizing how does this fit into those larger contexts in terms of other planning efforts that are underway and how do we make those distinctions and how do we complement each other?

There's a lot of larger things, and you know, when you pull back, it's like how do these things all work together?

Um, and that's also the reason we were intentional about coordinating with other efforts, recognizing there are some other things that are happening that we had to take into account.

Um I think that's part of where we were going with this, and I think it kind of goes back to some of the feedback we heard early on for the historic district.

Like, how do you know you're within that area, which is why we so focused on the public realm?

So that when people are starting to enter, is there some distinctions here that start to really recognize that history and that and that also leads to the storytelling?

But I I completely agree.

Like, if we're going to do wayfinding, it needs to be like how did that do citywide?

It's not just within that.

And so we had a lot of those discussions where it's identified in here, but it might be a piece of larger um conversations as well going forward.

Thank you.

Okay, so we have uh council member Palmer who wants to get in, and then we're going back to council member Fredericks and Miller.

So, council member Palmer.

Well, thank you.

Um, brings up a point, and for me, you you said that the plan comes back, and and part of the problem with this is I would rather see us adopt adopt a plan or not adopt it but receive it.

And then because what happens is these plans grow legs, and all of a sudden it comes back.

Well, back in February 26th, this is what we showed you, and this is what you're you're gonna do.

Um, and so that's kind of a thing we've fallen into that I'm not a fan of.

So I would like to receive it and then let it go up back.

I think number two for me is is the area that we're talking about on First Avenue runs from 2nd Street Northwest down to 6th Street Southwest, and like in front of the Jacobson building now that that's constructed, you know, diagonal parking coming back.

Well, I'm I'm doubting that you're gonna allow that to happen, but I think it should be that as a lot of parking to everything.

Um you show a picture of uh third, and then you show a picture of First Avenue in, and you literally are losing half of the parking.

Uh you take it away from the from the west side and you take it away from the south side.

Um just literally it's half the parking that you're gonna lose in both of those.

And I think as a business person or person that's running the business down there, not the landlord, but the business, I think that having convenient parking makes more sense.

Um the the alleyways, I don't know why you couldn't do your alleyways and make them bike lanes, and and that to me was seemed like a simple solution to bikes is that you run them down the the alleyway and that they could go from there, and I think that would make more sense.

Kind of the thought I had too is when we had COVID, we we took a lot of parking spots and took them out and said, hey, have a restaurant here.

I remember going to have worth going down to nudes and sitting there, and then take them down.

I mean, you could temporarily block something's parking spots, but allow them to be there.

Um and so that's an idea that I did not hear.

Um what I did here, and really kind of upsets me is this non-delivery you had in there that we don't are going to deliver downtown or we're gonna have a certain time.

The other frustrating thing, and it's really frustrating is for the last six years I've heard storytelling.

Oh, we're gonna tell a story.

Well, for six years we've said it, and no one seemed to be able to figure that one out.

And wayfinding, it's probably one of the words that just uh grinds me is when I hear about wayfinding because we've practiced wayfinding for six years.

We haven't done anything.

It's not that hard to figure out, but it seems to be very difficult for us to figure out wayfinding and storytelling.

One thing I didn't have, and and and it didn't dawn on me until this meeting, uh, the downtown master plan from 2010.

If you could provide that for us, I don't I think that'd be nice to see what we thought in 2010, what's changed since 2010, which is a lot.

But then for us to look at them and say, you know, what did they want to do in 2010 and did we achieve it or did we not achieve it?

Um and I'll go back to Mr.

Wall and his parking.

I'm about a 50-50 on parking because if I'm gonna go to the bank, I don't want to go in the parking lot.

If I'm gonna go to the post office, I don't want to go in the parking lot.

But if I want to be there for a longer period of time, more than an hour, I'll I'll park on the on the ramp.

Less than an hour for sure, because then it's free.

Um, but you know, we have convenient ramps, but but not everybody wants to use it, and like Mr.

Frederick said, we have five months here of good weather, maybe, you know, and in why are we trying to take everything out for that?

So I'm this parking thing bothers me.

I know some people are all gun-hole, get rid of cars downtown and and and just have everybody walk, but um it's it's just not what people want.

Councilmember Fredericks, what is the projected cost and who's gonna pay for it and what does that look like?

So we got some general estimates so we can start to look at potentially our capital improvement program in a future years, and then also looking for other funding sources to be able to support that.

So we got some ballpark numbers just for us for planning purposes, and then we would have to identify larger things within our either CIP or identify other grant sources as well, and then some of the other items we would either need to work through our budget or work with our partners as well.

So we don't know for sure how much it's gonna cost, and we don't know how we're gonna pay for it.

We have estimates for some of the work to do the larger um kind of realignment of some of those streets, but also recognizing like it's a ballpark number that we know that we're need to have a formal engineer estimate at some point, but we can use those estimates for our planning purposes.

And one thing I wanted to say, uh councilmember Palmer, business owners do care about their parking because the more amenities you have out in front of your business, the easier it is to rent.

And your and your tenants are always changing.

So council member Miller, we're just gonna pose a question.

Uh and I'm looking at Mr.

Fagan, who I know can't answer us today, but I'm curious if the city or RDA or someone, even business owners know how many of the cars in general who are parked on this that are parked on the street are customers to downtown businesses.

Do we have any sense of like we see the block as full?

Are those customers or those employees or those mayo patients?

Is that a resident?

Like I I guess I'm asking because we're talking about business access, uh and we're saying the block is two full, but I don't sense that we have good data to make that conclusion.

Okay, is there an answer to that?

Or uh well, we have council members who want to answer.

So I'm gonna go to council member Fredericks, and then I'll say this.

Council member Palmer.

Yeah, I'll say this.

That car parked in front of there, there's a lot better chances in that business than if there's no car there and there's no parking there.

Council member Palmer.

Well, my understanding that we just redid the parking meters, it's a three-hour parking, and you cannot just go back and put more money.

So you have to move your car.

So if I'm working an eight-hour shift, um, even when I used to go out and plug a meter, you can't plug a meter anymore.

So you've got to move your car in three hours.

Your administrators.

So we may, and we did just change that, so I don't know how much good data we would have, but we could try to look at what some of the um uh CSO, I can't think of the name.

Community service officer, um, traffic or uh parking enforcement looks like, so you might be able to get a sense of it from do we have a lot of do we have an uptick of people that are over the three hours, and we probably have some information we'd have to disagree, we'd have to make sure that it still meets our private data requirements that we might be able to get a sense that it appears they live here, but we wouldn't probably know that you know where they work, those kinds of things.

It would probably be a very high level of data that you'd be able to get from that.

But that might be a resource.

And I appreciate the detail there.

I guess what I'm trying to highlight here is that I think all of us would agree that we want customers to be able to access the businesses.

But I think we're making a jump to parking supplies like a guaranteed.

If this then, and I I'm just not sure that that's true.

Um, and I would like to understand that more.

Um I guess since everybody's telling a personal ramp story versus street parking story preference.

I'll just say that I I don't know if I have park mobile actively installed on my phone.

And last week when I was coming downtown, I drove past many open spots on First Avenue Southwest to intentionally go to the third street ramp, which then is showing me that there are only three spaces in there in the middle of the day.

And I I just want to recognize that I know that Mayo has additional reserve parking and some of the city ramps while they are constructing parking ramps.

But I personally would like to see us prioritize the public ramps for again customers, downtown users, because I think that Mayo is um needs to figure out how it provides its own parking and access to its buildings, and that's a competing factor because if those spaces are taken off by Mayo related um users, then that is less access for downtown customers, downtown business owners, et cetera.

And so I just want to make sure that we're balancing those needs because I was personally surprised to see the ramp so bubble when we've seen other data in the past.

Just to clarify, you actually were in a vehicle or one car.

I was it was cool.

Um, first 10 or 15 days a year that is not great biking weather.

Yep.

Um, so we have uh council member Doring.

I've had one final question, and that was part of the storytelling and wayfinding.

And this is I don't actually want an answer.

Um when we look at maps that show storytelling the history, and then we think of modern businesses today.

How do you reconcile those things?

Because if somebody's downtown and they want to go out to eat, um, I mean, you could look at a map and say, well, there's a Columbia Hotel, that's not a restaurant, there's a um you know, Union National Bank building, that's not a restaurant, they actually are the smarrow and type.

So, like, how do you think about mapping and what you're communicating to people in the public?

I think I think that's a really important thing to dive into when you get into a storytelling sort of strategy, and we've actually had that conversation with you know, are there any artifacts reused in the public realm for businesses that don't exist anymore?

So, how do you create you know a way to tell that story without it, you know, being like, oh, that that's what that is, but that's not what that is.

That's actually uh a record shop.

Um, so you know it it probably comes down to different.

I mean, Molly will chime in too.

Yeah, well, I've been doing this long enough now where you know we used to have to really rely on printed masks, and now we rely almost completely on digital.

And that's one of the ways, you know, where you can where you can keep um new information, updated information about who's currently in that location.

Um, and that's the type of thing that will work with the folks.

And I think some of that is I think use using technology in a in a smart way, you know.

I also really enjoy non-technological ways of reading about history and more creative ways that that's told.

Um, but if there's like a really deep history, you know, there were several restaurants or several businesses in this, you know, using something like a QR code so that you know the map itself can be you know current businesses, um, but finding ways to tell that story in a little bit deeper of a way.

Or maybe the historic storytelling is a consistent, you know, medallion in front of each business, so that you know, you know, this is sort of concrete and cemented in history, and this is what it was, but the business itself can have its own signage that is current and draws people in.

Council member Dory.

Yeah, I wanted to uh second uh some of what council member Miller was saying about um art in the public space and and being very um uh intentional uh to have a comprehensive overview of of that art.

So it's not just finding artists to paint murals, it's also ongoing maintenance of of art installations, things like that.

Um my parking ramp story is that uh for the past nine months I've searched and and wondered where accessible parking is.

Right.

So uh I I'm not gonna dive deep into the into the parking realm, other than the fact that um I would be worried that we would cause someone with mobility issues to walk multiple blocks to be part of the downtown community.

So I'm thinking about uh historic third street, where there's uh I believe there's one accessible parking spot in the middle of the block.

You take that away, uh, then you're requiring someone who is using a cane or crutches or a wheelchair to travel quite a long distance to participate in community activities there.

So I I just want to be very um conscientious as we move forward to make sure that that these public spaces are really for everyone in the public.

Also uh in the materials section of the longer report that does list you know anticipated costs and average costs, all that kind of stuff, which I thought was very helpful for me as I was trying to discern who was going to pay for this and what that would look like.

I I didn't notice anything about auditory cues from when you were entering into a district or not, or when you were crossing a street that might have been changed significantly from historic memory.

Um and I would encourage us to think about planning for those auditory cues as well.

We do have some crosswalks that absolutely uh provide auditory um cues for when it's safe to cross and when it's not safe to cross, but we don't we also have many intersections in this community that simply don't have that.

Um and I would I would love for us to incorporate that in this um redesigning of the historic history as well.

If I may, there are currently there are only three on street um accessible spots, but then the entire disparance, yeah.

It is our recommendation that this should be at least two on flat.

Yes, um significantly um improve that from most effects.

Um we do not do um and this I mean goes to you know the auditory crossing signals as well as the task strips and other accessibility things, you know.

That's actually one of those things that when we talk about the balance between current needs and you know historically, those things were not incorporated.

So we've always defaulted to ADA compliance when those are you know in conflict with each other throughout the throughout the area.

I and I and I appreciate that.

I again as a medically focused community, I think we should go beyond ADA compliance, especially in that downtown area.

Council member Keene.

Oh no, yes, I might comment was when the thing was going on, but it's not council member one.

Do you have examples of like cities to Rochester who have used some or all of these strategies and are thriving with the changes that have been made in the historic district?

Yeah, I think one that we would point to that um within their larger downtown, but um specifically some of the um the sort of alley improvements that have been talked about, some of the small business programs that have been talked about, and some of the parking management that's been talked about far away on the code that has actually done uh a lot of incredible things in their downtown um over the past um 20 years, so I think they're uh a time that we would talk of.

We would kind of point to similarly size city um the combinations of um you know the college towns are interesting comparisons to Rochester because Mayos obviously has college-ish aspects to it, but it's it's uh that's sort of dominant use with that.

So you know, there are other examples from Lawrence, Kansas and Texas that have done some of the similar types of things as well that in fact managing their spaces and balancing downtown arts storytelling and um and um small business as as key focused components.

I like the Vargos example especially though, because if anything, they have even more harsh conditions that we do.

Councilmember Miller just follow up on that.

Thanks for mentioning college jobs.

Was you and Mars stakeholder involved in this process?

I know they have interaction to this um district and areas just adjacent to it.

Yeah, they they were one of the first um focus group discussions.

Yeah, and actually, in addition to that, we also talked to the um in their building.

We did we actually went door to door to talk to some of the more administrative people because sometimes when you're talking to the universities you're getting you know a planning director or something like that, so I actually talked to some of the building user um administrator type folks are part of the okay.

Uh council member Wall, I am also a rant guy.

And uh I bring it back to angle parking and interesting discussion.

I'm looking forward to having this discussion again next Monday.

Uh but when I talk about angle parking, what I'm really looking at is from a historic standpoint.

Looking at it from how does that enhance a public realm in a historic district?

So I I would hope you know you you go back and look at that and uh invite the the uh HPC also to look at it from that standpoint.

And then I also if uh we are studying the use of alleys, I would agree with council member Palmer.

Let's look at you know what it what are the is there potential for bike lanes in some of those alleys.

I know there's safety issues and whatnot, but looking at that, I would be uh interested in seeing more on that as well.

So uh kind of wrap us up with what's next steps.

I know HPC is tomorrow.

What else is HPC is tomorrow?

We're gonna take the feedback and information from both of those and make some, you know, potential tweaks to the plan if need be and make some of those updates and then hopefully bring it back to council at some point for whether either receiving or adopting.

Um I kind of got I only got one on that.

So what that looks like.

Um timing you have a sense of I think our hope is within the next month or two at the latest.

I think we want we're going to HBC tomorrow to get some feedback and then we can synthesize all of that and be able to move it forward.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Great discussion.

Uh we are now gonna move on to our folks want a break.

Is that break?

I can help right.

I can get a drink of water back.

Um we're gonna move on to the twenty twenty-five year end action plan KP.

Um Mr.

Parish, are you taking this one?

Take it away.

No, we're not.

I got an I got it.

We are going to take a break.

I just have my council club.

Okay, sweet people.

We've got our year-in action plan KPI update.

All right, President members of the council.

This is actually our first annual update.

So we've got information collected if you recall.

Economic resilience, housing access, inclusive growth management, responsible environmental stewardship, and transformational capital projects.

Remember though, this is sort of our first run through.

So some of the data is you know starting and we don't have history.

Right now things are going really well.

We're early in the process, so most things are on target.

I would note that this is a reflection of the action plan document.

We will have some KPIs that you'll note that we did uh flag as being off target.

So this is really action plan focused that uh attachment that you all received about the hundred plus items uh within there.

I'd also like to say you will probably have questions.

We're all asked for a lifeline.

You know, we try to aggregate the document and present it to you in a kind of streamlined manner, but we also have a team of people that are working on this to help make it a reality.

So I want to acknowledge Jess's work in uh compiling all this.

She does an amazing job making sure we're encouraging people to submit all our information and uh getting the KPIs put together, and this really is the first time that we are presenting uh integrated KPIs.

This is a long-term dream of council member campaign.

I'm sorry to see that he's not here to see it, but um uh if you happen to see him say finally made it uh to the KPI document.

Uh economic resilience, uh we've got a number of good things happening in that space.

So again, we're just pulling out a few things from those hundred plus line items.

Um we did get Excel and move to the cloud.

That was a real big lift for the team and the building community to transition to a new software.

Um big change at the state level.

We're now doing uh both permitting and inspections around roofing and siding, and so we had to kind of step up for that and you know try to be responsive, but also there's a change management component to that for folks that did not have to do those kinds of things in the past.

Uh regulatory improvement side, and this sort of comes across all categories when you talk about inclusive growth management, etc.

We're trying to streamline our process, make it more efficient for people.

We do get some administrative fee ordinances implemented, and uh the Clerst team is working on a film permit license to address that.

Um it may not feel like we made a lot of progress on Chad Co, but like you your feedback the last go round was super helpful.

Um it gave the team some direction on things we can continue to work on in that space and continue to advance a request for funding and move toward a you know an operating strategy there.

Uh we spent a lot of time a few years ago on a disparity study, and um those are those recommendations are now starting to work their way forward um and looking at those tools.

Housing access, uh we've processed 15 rehab loans, 378 housing is created reserve, so a lot of activity in that space.

RPU continues to work through lead sign leadline service replacement.

We have 20 lines replaced, uh next phase coming out in May of 26th.

Uh we did hit 88 percent uh for uh residential permit review within two weeks, so that's an ongoing thing.

We just want to make sure you know when permits are submitted, we're getting timely review, a little longer leg on the commercial space.

Um and this is a two-way conversation, so you'll hear stories about permitting review.

Um sometimes we take longer than we need to.

We do have peaking seasons.

Uh sometimes we're waiting for information from the applicant too.

So there's you know, a lot of sides to that story.

Uh homeless outreach and the PD, we had a lot of success with our outreach navigator.

And so uh they were able to connect 26 individuals to housing and other supports to help them in their journey.

Uh switching over to inclusive growth management, uh the transportation planning space.

We had the mode shift coordinator uh brought on board, he's been in his role for a few months, so excited about the energy he's bringing to the role.

Uh transit optimization.

So again, we need to always continue to refine that space so we can have a service that's effective, meets the need, but also financially sustainable.

So we did all that road optimization last fall.

We're in the middle of a road optimization experience right now, and we're in the middle of the RFP uh process that would be coming forward to you later in the year.

Uh thanks to congressionally directed spending, we were able to accomplish and receive a million dollars in federal funding for the East Summer of Sewer Improvements.

We continue to have that sort of in the bonding space.

Then you also authorized us to take a very close look at our tip districts, and we'll look at what additional resources we might be able to bring to affordable housing investment, how our administrative fees are going, what our timeline is for district decertification to get those back on the tax rolls because that's always an exciting thing for us is when they decertify it becomes it comes back to our levy.

Responsible environmental stewardship.

You guys have been doing a lot of work in the space, the RPU board as well as we move toward the 2030 goal of being renewable and executing on power supply contracts for wind and solar.

Also, in that you advance the big battery storage piece there.

So a lot of work happening there.

Generally, those things are on target.

Still trying to manage and nurture our simple relationship as we move forward in that space as well to 2030 and what that looks like.

The team's also getting out there now, and you might notice that this could generate some energy in the community as far as the rollout of advanced metering and what does that mean, what kind of information is being communicated back to the utility.

And then really just starting to kind of pilot that out and see what the resident experience is like for our initial group of folks that are getting their advanced meters now.

We are in the energy sales business, but we're also in the energy conservation business.

It's sort of a mixed space to be in.

But we did uh you know, look at our 17.4 million kilowatt hours save in 25, and so that's you know, positive and a reflection of RPU's sort of energy conservation mission and efforts and some of the state requirements in that space.

You all adopted a rate policy, um, and we continue to see grants uh to build out infrastructure capacity at our different facilities, and are starting to look through that in our fleet management.

You talked about that in the budget as well this year.

Uh, transformational capital projects.

Um, like to say that a lot of these are going very well.

Uh link is 27% plus or minus complete, and then the fleet delivery continues to be something that team watches closely, uh, getting to that 90% design space for the 6th Street Bridge and Riverfront improvements, uh, a lot of permitting happening there.

As you saw, you had a change order last week, kind of in that space as well, but exciting to continue to advance there.

Our downtown geothermal uh is getting close to being fully commissioned and on board.

A lot of success that's happened uh bringing that project forward and you know, really creating a template for how we're looking at that data and bringing it to the parks and forestry facility and other facilities as we look at options for uh the geothermal, particularly the Darcy Well systems that take up a lot less space, but 48% energy reduction from baseline at City Hall.

Uh saw 69% at the Arts Center, 63% at the library, and then 10% at the civic center as we continue to kind of uh implement there.

That's our last one coming on board.

But uh final work will roll out in 26.

There, also we feel like we're on a really good trajectory to get the tax credits on that project.

If you remember, that was a little bit of a more uncertain conversation at the turn of the year.

Um, but we are basically able to uh feel confident in the idea that we are going to get the uh tax credits that we anticipated.

We're still on track for that as well.

In the parks and forestry facility, also a project that is uh on on target and on budget at this moment, you'll be seeing that come online this year as well.

And uh everybody's ready for North Broadway to be done, and uh phase two of that uh is happening this next year, and uh trying to continue to navigate around the community, but that's expected in June 26th to be wrapped up.

So it's obviously a lot of the progress happened last year, and I won't go through all these uh now, but continued conversation.

So in the equity space, we've got a lot of teammates in the language line and uh that have continue to provide more access to that and uh pay differential program for folks that have uh an additional language that they're able to provide to the community.

A lot of like internal conversations happen in the organizational service space.

We're pretty far down the road in the fleet integration, so we've got a couple of years worth of conversation there.

Actually, it's come together quite well.

We've got all the PD teams sort of rolled into that model now, and so just a few uh pieces there, and we're starting to have early conversations in the IT and safety space as we have transitions leading up also to a bigger conversation around one water.

Um, and then we continue to have conversation in the uh RCTC rec space.

So you'll see that they're trying to activate more with uh the walking and pickleball and basketball now.

The times you know, are more morning focused, so that's not something everybody can get to, but they are trying to do more outreach in that space.

And I think you know, we continue to try to have conversations about you know what a reimagined option uh might be there today, the uh engagement piece of that rolled out, and so stay tuned for that.

Take advantage of the uh in-person and online experiences that your constituents will have access to uh in the March time frame.

You also uh have your council training session for your second study session in March, that'll be a night where we also have that'll be at RCTC in the all-American room, and you'll have one of those open houses that after the meeting you have the opportunity to kind of drop into if you like.

Uh KPIs, so transitioning to that space.

Um, so this is kind of how we're measuring, you know, what are the key measurements we have for making progress?

Are these things we're doing making a difference?

Um, and and sometimes we can create like that direct connection, and sometimes these are definitely out of our control, but um things to monitor.

Um, I would say from a Rochester perspective, the amount of job growth we've had since 22 with 13,000 people, uh, there'd be just a mountain of communities that would love to be in our situation that way.

It's just a really impressive uh thing that we can all be proud of.

Um, but we want to be a little more surgical because we want to diversify the Rochester economy.

So about of those 13,000 jobs that have been created since 22, about uh 2,000 of those are not health care or hospitality or service focused.

So you can say about 15% of those jobs that we've created are really in sort of an area that we could consider to be a diversification of our economy.

Council member Farmer.

When you do these numbers, can we have 2019 numbers prior to COVID so that we can have a real uh comparison?

Uh we certainly can.

But yeah, because you're there is some data points.

So I think part of our conversation is do we just want to look at post-COVID and see where we're at and pre-COVID, uh, certain things I think make sense for that, certain things were challenged, but it's not hard to look back at that data.

Okay, and then in this case, and then you're talking about the non-healthcare's 2000.

So sit are they city employees or how how are they how are they less than 2000 city employees?

It's a deal.

No, uh, yeah, the breakout, it's all over, you know.

Ready does actually a nice job with their quarterly financial quarterly reports.

This we we just forklift this data from those ready quarterly reports, and um it's a variety of sectors, but we could try to get you a tighter breakout of next time where that's from.

I'd be happy with the 2019.

Yeah, council member keen.

Yeah, I just again I just could have commented that these are like this isn't these are good indicators of the health of our county, but they're not our numbers, right?

They're things that are going on around us, and we're just I I like your term forklifting them from the from the ready ready reports.

Yeah, um yeah, which is forklifted from state data, you know.

And and it is it does say economic resilience, and it is our economy, but it's not Rochester, it's the Rochester or Rochester stuff.

Yeah, it is the MSA around Rochester.

Yeah, I mean it's principally Rochester, but it's a little bit bigger.

Is it as big as the county?

Yeah, bigger.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, good.

Um, and let me let me double check on that.

Um, this this may be Rochester specific.

Sometimes we can get it straight Rochester, and sometimes it's NSA.

So let us let us double check on that next time when we bring it back.

Yeah, again, I I just wanted to make sure we knew these aren't like our like we're working on getting these numbers up.

We if we're doing our things right, these numbers go up.

And that's how I looked at these indicators of good performance.

Remember for everyone.

One thing that I would just say is our non-health here, non-hospitality job.

I'd like to know the number of those that are covered by one person, meaning how many people have two or even three jobs.

Well, we can look into that.

I'm not sure we have something that's I'm just fair point.

Yeah, because a lot of the people that I'm familiar with and have worked with, they're carrying two of the three jobs, so it isn't like that's 60,000 people.

No, it's not.

It's probably you know, I hate to guess the number because I don't want to be way off, but I know it's it's not 60,000 different people have a move job.

So we can put a little more architecture around what this is all covering, if it's you know, regular full-time, and there's like the whole non-enfarm wend and sort of thing and seasonality things that work into all this too.

Councilmember Miller, yeah, just take on it because I feel like it's come up a few times is just um if you could give us links where possible to the data source so we can interpret some of these questions.

Yeah, that's not a problem at all.

Okay, uh, and then continuing on, you know, we have this goal, uh obviously of you know creating a vibrant environment for all visitors, um, but then also we want to be a little more targeted and say we want to try to move the needle with some of these strategies around weekend occupancy.

Um, but you know, we have strategies in place that are trying to grow our utilization of an untapped economic resource in the community, which is weekend hotel rooms.

So again, uh experienced Rochester provides this data based on some subscription services they have access to here.

Um but we we did see growth in weekend occupancy year over year.

Um so that's positive, and then there they are able to access the revenue data, and so there was increased you know hotel revenue in that Friday and Saturday night stay uh space.

So we'd obviously like to keep this healthy, want to keep seeing that go up.

There's some inflation, your average cost per room can go up, like all these different kind of factors that work in here.

But as we talk about items like the regional sports and rent complex or you know, how's Rochester sports doing your tracking tournaments and sustaining you know those?

These are the kinds of things we want to see uh there.

And then sales tax collection, just aside from being an anchor for us in terms of a revenue source and capital investment, it you know gives you some insight into you know what is the the retail sales economy looking like are we leaking that?

Is that going down?

Um, you know, we try projecting 16 million for 25.

Um as you know, a lot of our sales tax projections we didn't experience significant, significant uh transitions during the pandemic here because people were still buying things and you know just say maybe sometimes uh we do get sales tax uh for online purchases, so there is a way um that the online providers do end up paying back into sales of use tax uh that's remitted ultimately to the state.

Uh housing access, uh this where things are uh a little tougher, and again, I think you know we're planting a lot of seeds in this space, it's taking a little time for them to germinate.

Um but US new housing is we're down some last year, and so we obviously want to see that a lot of strategies in place to try to encourage that up.

Uh you are you've approved a lot of incentive programs with the economic vitality programs.

You're starting to see a lot, you'll see in the next couple slides, more opportunity for uh vacant land and and so on, but uh from uh new housing units last year perspective, that's not enough.

Uh that's not what we need to keep pace.

We'll just try to get ahead of you on that comfortable problem.

Just get you uh table to but uh so trying to do better there, but we need to do some things to continue to work in that space.

Uh single family homes as rentals, this is down because we want this number to be stable or going down, probably.

Like uh and you can see there's national conversation in this space, but you know, our our single family homes that are rentals.

Um this doesn't break out whether it's short-term, long-term, this is just single family homes that are rented right now.

Um, that did go up uh a year over year, a half a percent or better company.

Uh key.

Yeah, I just wanted to make sure I understood that.

I mean, I I I see that it's a small movement of like a point seven percent or so, but is that really on our full base of houses, like 40,000 single family homes in Rochester that we mean about 500 of them who used to be owner-occupied and are now rental?

However, you do the math, I don't know the numbers on that.

I mean, I didn't know.

I I've done the math, but that's what it came out to.

But that is correct.

So if you have an existing single family home and our inventory is blank, yeah, last year this many were rentals, and now this is the year over year change.

I guess I want to bring it up, I find it alarming.

It's basically people that used to be buying homes are now renting homes.

Yeah, and so that's true.

You're seeing you know, a lot of uh conversion there.

That's what this would indicate here.

Uh, policy conversation-wise, we we have just a limited area of space we can do to influence that it at the state level.

I do know that there's conversations around legislation about institutional investors uh that you know can or that can they or can't they buy and should single family homes really reserved, even at the national level, that conversation is happening across political lines.

I think people are saying we would rather you know reserve single family homes for people to purchase them versus institutional investors finding a safe place to park money.

And I and I should also say that it's good to have a certain amount of homes that are available for rental.

Like we're not down on rental, it's just that percentage growth.

It's uh it may not sound like a lot going from 9.2 to 10.5, but that's that's a lot of homes over a like a four-year period.

It's uh it's it has a big impact on the housing market.

The other thing I don't think that we know that without the like specific data is whether or not I mean it shouldn't have changed anything, but if our housing stock went up and we do have some housing products that are being built solely for rental.

Um so I don't I don't know how that influences them.

I and I appreciate your comment.

I was looking for that one like spike and everything else, and it didn't work that way.

Right, I I just don't know the answer.

Okay, council member.

I guess this one I really appreciate seeing these together because I think the two uh told more compelling story than either one of them individually.

Um is there an opportunity to dive deeper into some of this housing data?

I mean, I'm curious about like geography, how many are short-term, how many are longer term.

I mean, we could work with community development to um do a side session in the future where we're like isolating a little bit more about and offering that and then staring at Irene and hoping she doesn't cringe.

Um but she's I think there's an opportunity to build in some you know deeper dives on things that are you're interested in because I think I don't think I know there's specific action plan items that aren't showing up here that are related to this and having a better understanding of that might help us hone in on where what are the levers and how dicey might they be, right?

Like some of the levers that you have um may be dicier than parking.

Um so I I just think it would help us to get some context too to understand like what maybe there's something we could track that we aren't tracking to.

I'm curious like even for sale units, like um versus rental units, I mean some of that dichotomy and owner occupancy as we talk about housing access and equity and wealth creation.

Um but yeah, I I personally as an individual on this council would love to see a deeper dive study session into this item particularly.

Yeah, and we can I think have it on our I'm sorry.

Oh, go ahead, you can answer and then we're gonna go ahead, during and then Paul Matt.

Yeah, I think we do have some study session time at some point dedicated idea of like what's happening in the short-term mental space, so little data points, you know, also could inform what we're doing here.

And I suspect as we go through the next few slides, we may have additional questions in this space that might want more clarification or definition through Yeah, and I would actually appreciate a study session on both aspects of this, right?

So that 878 to 446 number is just as concerning to me as the percentage growth in of the single family homes as rentals.

So whether that's gonna recover through projections of things that are in the hopper that we just didn't get accomplished this year or whatever, um, you know, knowing how many new housing units we need to have uh to meet what the Maxfield study says.

See, I I read it too.

Um that 446 number is exceedingly alarming to me.

Uh we have miss Woodward.

I just want to clarify the new housing units also included like any multi-fine multi-family, and I would so that lower number in 2025.

We didn't really have it, but I think there's probably four projects in plant review right now for multi-family.

So I would expect that number to swing back in terms of what's planned.

Swing back or exceed 2024?

I would it would exceed 2024 as if all of those move forward.

Okay.

And it's it's a product of construction.

I understand.

And that's why you kind of see some of those deaths because those are larger uh blocks of units coming here.

Yeah, it looks good, weather.

Uh again, the 2019 numbers, I think would tell a little bit different story on that.

Um, the max um one of the things that I think people are um forgetting a new home or that's uh that's a big number.

And then I think what Mr.

Darwin was getting at was with the minority to um to to increase that so um almost everything together, so it's not just uh pop pop the address one thing for council member team a little bit.

Don't necessarily see that 10.5 as a bad thing.

What's unique to this community, and probably everybody in here knows there's a lot of people that come here temporarily, and they might come as a couple with a one child, two child, all three dogs is more typical, and one and two people, but they like a rental home.

They don't want to go through the process of buying, and then in the year they're transferring to some other medical facility per se, and they have to resell everything.

So having that inventory in this community is is super important.

We see a lot of it, and it isn't like it's a big oh gosh, just you know, this company or that company's taking over all these single family homes.

The next level that is some of those single family homes are in such rough shape.

They're the only people that can afford to fix them up and get them back into the market on a rental level at least.

They're uh they're bad, they're neglected.

And it's it's so that's something I just I want to share with you.

Go ahead.

No, I I appreciate the comment.

And I I think there is definitely as I said, we we don't want to be like against the idea of renting houses.

I think there's a market for that and also good service with that.

The growth in it is bothersome.

And the antidotal stories I'm hearing is that people are being outbid by these other people buying them up and fixing them up, as you say, but then they those same people that could have bought those and start fixing them up, are now renting them to somebody else, and and I find that to be a bad way to grow our community for the next 20 or 30 years.

Council member Miller, so the question for community development about the short-term uh portion of single family homes with rentals.

Do we communicate to the assessor's office uh which homes are rented short term?

Because there is a higher rate, right?

We do.

Okay.

These are data points and like we don't necessarily have the license to interpret it statistically that they are causation points but I think going back to that other slide that indicated job growth 15,000 jobs 13,000 or so of which are medical related could be contributing to your rental market.

So we don't have the statistical license to interpret that but there are a lot of levers that potentially impact one another so if we have more jobs that are in the medical field than they are potentially people who are going to be here for a shorter period of time you may actually need more rentals in your market.

So it's question like we have to be cautious about the data and making assumptions that they are directly connected versus some sort of correlation that isn't necessarily causation.

I just think that's important as we have started in the KPI round just to put that out there as a reminder.

Yeah the next basket of these uh relate to like land development availability and try to get through a handful of them so just acres of vacant residential land uh there was an increase of vacant residential land or the potential to be developed as as residential so you're always looking and we'll get to the next couple of slides more refined in terms of you know what's your flat lot supply and and some of that but um just good to know that this numbers if it's stable or high is a good thing so it's kind of neutral right now but uh as we look at this longer term we'll have the ability to say yeah we in the urban reserve only have blank number of acres available and all that um lower on the in field and in fill development this year as well so that's low and we obviously want to encourage infill development but like Irene said data points here timing on permitting can be very on point right so we had three big projects come online last year and I counted in the unit count for uh 24 um and then didn't have any come through for 25 so there can be timing issues clearly you've seen new infill development that's leasing up and then in development and all that but this is just about when we grab the data points.

Can I ask a question on what are the parameters for infill development what is there a size are we talking of one lot versus a 40 acre site yeah I think maybe maybe the titling on this is just a little off like we we say infill development but this is really grabbing development within downtown zoning and R2X.

So if you think just those two zoning districts it's within those which is is a targeted infill area but if you're talking about like a multifamily complex that's developed with existing infrastructure in place you know downtown and R2X is going to trend toward redevelopment or you know limited smaller lot development but it really is focused in those two areas so maybe you should we'll tighten that up yes or yeah clarify yeah it uh comes from over King and I just had a clarifying question I'm looking at these maps it says 20 it says 2025 but I could read that to be the beginning of 2025 and not a year end number those numbers we're looking at year end 2025 numbers I I think they're I think they're year in but yeah I believe they're here on okay all right it's just from a mapping almost looks like the beginning of 25 and now we're gonna go through 25 and get a number but I think you're saying that no it's more more digital it's the year end 25 number is zero.

And the year in 2024 we know that the year okay all right for each one comes a final part of clarification on the uh infill does that not then include MXT zoning yeah I don't believe it does I think it's those two but okay I I don't believe it includes FXT I would have to double check but I don't think so could it uh I could it could it I mean I feel like there it we can look and see how easy it is to pull that data but yeah I I'm sorry to make it properly adjusted.

I guess originally asked the question is what is your objective in showing this device how are we to use this and if adding adding the MXT in there adds to that objective so what's the objective I mean I think what you're trying to accomplish here is to say like you know are we developing an advancer pattern are we taking advantage of existing infrastructure investments so we don't have to continue to expand outward outward outward there's always part of that conversation but I think it's saying like high return on our previous infrastructure investments is in these infill areas so we want to be you know developing that now can we do things from policy perspective to further encourage that I think that's that's why it's in front of you that way and if I if I can I would just add you have specific goals in your comprehensive plan of how many how many units are developed in downtown and in infill areas versus in suburban expansion areas and so it's interesting over time to know the percentages of how many housing units are created in those different areas from the time the component was originally created to 10 years to the 15 years etc yep.

And if I if I can, I would just add you have specific goals in your comprehensive plan of how many how many units are developed in downtown and in infill areas versus in suburban expansion areas, and so it's interesting over time to know the percentages of how many housing units are created in those different areas from the time the company was originally created to 10 years to the 15 years, etc.

Okay, yep.

Um the next one is really maybe a titling thing.

Uh but if you look at the description, so this is the portion of the urban service area not impacted by early development.

So you have like these conversations about early development on the edge uh within the urban service area.

This would be right now, and this is again something that would be more relevant over time to show you know what the effect of land use policies is both with the townships, the county, and the city in terms of the ability to effectively develop once it's time in our urban service area.

So right now uh 80% of the land is uh not impacted by early development, which means 20% is right, and so that might not be as efficiently developed in the future, it might cost us more in that space.

Uh undeveloped lots with full infrastructure.

So, this is a stronger, you know, like a lot of times you want to say, like we have blank years of lot supply available if we're trying to meet the Maxfield goals or if we're trying to keep our historical pattern in place.

Um, undeveloped lots with full infrastructure is a good indicator, and that grew a lot.

I mean, you saw a lot of plotting action last year on the council agenda, and so that doesn't mean the units are online yet, the houses are built, but the potential for that has existed, and the potential for developers to start bringing in infrastructure is also there.

So a good I think that's a good reflection.

That's a sign of you position yourself for years to come, uh for a few years to come to meet the lot supply needs.

Uh yeah, uh road miles per capita and deep.

So this is kind of a weird one, and it's got a really tight range on it.

Um so just bear that in mind.

It may look a little, you know, like more of a dip than what it really is, but uh what you're wanting to have here is a lower number, and we were sort of trending down, down, down in that space again with a pretty tight tight margin.

We're talking the we're measuring the tents here.

Um, but that's just saying, like, you know, it's another representation reflection of our development pattern and density.

Um that also could have meant that a new road came online last year and pushed the numbers, so just have to you know dig a little deeper into that.

But so I noticed that's off target.

Uh could is there a target where you would have marked that green?

I mean, I think you're in the ideal world, you're trying to keep moving down.

Yeah, okay.

That's more of the trajectory than the number, I think.

It's a comparison between last year and this year.

Correct.

Council member Palmer.

Just two questions.

One on the undeveloped lots.

Is this all lots?

Is this all commercial, residential industrial that standards residential lots?

That's about residential lots is four times right now.

We also have the commercial data system that we're showing here.

And then it's my understanding that as a good housing market, you want to have um three times what you typically would have.

So we should have three thousand residential lots available.

Is that not a the number they use?

I mean, I I'll just jump in and while Irene's thinking about it here.

Like three thousand would be like match our numbers from like the early turn of the century when we were really developing single family lots at a high level.

Um that would not be our last 10-year number.

You know, this would, if I recall correctly, this would fit within our last 10 years fine, but it doesn't put them back to the Maxwell study.

We would love to get that up, but this is positive.

One that it went up, so that's good, and two, that you know, it does reflect and is in alignment with what we've seen in the recent history, not back in the early 2000s.

So if the Maxwell study says we need about a thousand single family residential lots, which is about the right number, and you need three times on the mount, you should have three thousand residential lots available to have a good market.

I think you meant a thousand homes, we can thousand homes here.

No, single family lots.

That's what they're saying we should have, so we should have three times more.

Yes.

Again, it's that's the goal.

I mean, to meet the demand, however, that just that's a production level we haven't seen for a long time.

So just again, but this is why we're measuring it.

It's important to understand where it is, and if we're going up or down, I think it's really if you have a study that says this and you pay for a study, and you're only doing a hundred and eighty-five houses last year.

Well, we didn't even build any of them, so I think there's context here.

I didn't say we I didn't say we built them, but but in our community, we need to have that done.

And there's two levers to that.

So there's a lot of policy that's been put in place in recent years that has to get traction for the development community to then I'll say take advantage, but I mean that in a positive way, take advantage of the policy development in order to get the lots ready and go through the process and have them be prepared to be able to build on them.

And so we don't control in totality all of those things.

We have tried to go to place that will move that number up, but it won't happen overnight because there's a whole process that any private landowner still has to go through and they have to decide.

Are they ready to actually get that?

Are they ready for that?

I think you have another discussion you would need to have.

Are you ready to really change your rate policies and completely change how you pay for water and sewer if you were going to have more production like that?

That's a very significant conversation that you would need to have in order to have more influence, but the way that you tend to pay for those things is the ratepayer ends up absorbing more new development.

So there's ways to do that, and the question is whether or not there's policies that you want to move forward differently than you've been moving forward on in order to influence the production from the private sector.

I mean, I think you want to answer council member Palmer's question.

So you're starting to see the impact of some of those policy decisions in terms of that increase, and I would expect that to continue as well.

I I we're not quite what Maxfield is, but I think we're headed in the that direction with some of the policy changes that have taken place, and there's clearly a significant increase from what was pretty flat for those prior years.

Just a clarifying question, since you mentioned the access fees, do those vary depending on whether or not I can be efficient and both so we have the info goal.

But do those fees change whether it's in an infill area or new growth in the urban service area going outwards?

Maybe to defer to Tyler, but generally they're you know either unit based or land area based.

It depends on the fee.

So in some cases, no, but in some cases, yes, but like if you have a tighter pattern, you have like less stormwater fees, you're gonna pay like you know, in terms of the you know that piece, but you want to some of it comes down to the history of how the site has paid for that in the past as well.

Um so it's panel case by case.

Okay.

But generally, I think your growth growth management plan encourages more dense development through some of the wastewater fees at the at the least.

Yes, correct.

All right, and so this is like your mode shift targets.

So this is really a creature of something we've been tracking for a while through the integrated transportation studies that were done in 2017 and 18.

Um more recent history here, kind of commitment to try and track this annually moving forward, not major swings, you won't see major swings in this year over year.

Um it'll be interesting to see what happens when we comes on, and certainly that's a strategy, but you did get a moderate decrease in uh single occupancy vehicle, you know, uh traffic uh some of that you know on the other side of it, and there's an additional percentage of folks that are working remotely, so that took some pressure off of the commuting system, and then a little bit of a swath between biking and walking um in that space, so biking up a little bit, walking down, uh the other two uh council member dooring.

Are these 2024 numbers or 2025 numbers?

Three and four, yeah.

Sorry.

Okay.

This is the data that was available.

Yeah, yeah, okay.

Yeah.

I just wanted to make sure it wasn't mislabeled or whatever.

Okay.

Yeah, so again, we'll when we get the data that does that on transit and and uh carpooling relatively consistent.

Go ahead, come to my just out of curiosity.

Could you for describe the data source of this?

I got this from the transit team, I can uh ask it.

Council member Frederick.

Yeah, I find it interesting that we keep putting multi thousands of dollars in bike leads, and we only got two percent of people using them.

That's just doesn't seem to balance to me.

Yeah, I mean I would this is a this was a pretty hot topic of conversation when the ITS studies came through.

Um I'd say the system's been pretty disruptive.

So, like, how do you uh understand if it's ultimately gonna work?

I think all these things have had really significant states of transition, uh whether it be pandemic and we had this sort of shift to the remote, like that wasn't really radar even back in 2019 when we did the original goal setting.

Um so there's there's definitely that.

Um under some form of perpetual construction for a while here, and I think you do have to kind of see in the transit space and the bike lane space, walking, you know, the death that walks into your development pattern and density conversation too.

So we're familiar.

Well, and I would just note to my earlier question if this is just commuting data.

What's a fraction of how people move during a day?

Yeah, this is targeted on like your your how do you get to work?

Yeah, yeah.

So if people are walking to the grocery store, if people are walking to a park, right?

People are going to Thursdays on none of those trips are likely captured in this data set.

So strictly AM and PM peak, how you how are you getting to work?

All right.

I like the power pool piece.

Yeah.

Uh this is uh another metric uh that we have.

So um just as kind of again just trying to reflect the album patterns.

So we have in the uh city employees break or serve.

So I think you can see the data here.

Yeah, so 0.0273.

That has gone up a little bit.

Remember, we've got some supplemental limited term positions we've added in in the recent years for a couple of projects as well as um both and bone.

So that's sort of your escalation that's generally happened there, but a slight uptick, but still fairly historically consistent, a pretty tight margin, you know, that you're working with and the property tax capacity per acre again.

Correlation doesn't equal causation necessarily.

You want to maximize the value per acre that you have so you don't you know a less dense distributed development pattern, we'll have less property tax capacity per acre, uh, more density, we'll tend to have a higher valuation.

Although you you can see with this number would be highly influenced by appreciation of existing value in the community, so just remember that people's valuations have gone up year over year, and residential is a significant portion of your base here.

So but no, you're you are getting higher property tax per acre over time, which isn't the case in every community.

There's some people that are more constrained there, so this number going up is a good indicator of economic health, too.

Uh environmental stewardship, a lot of great great things to talk about here.

So greenhouse gas emissions, fairly self-explanatory, those are going down.

That's what we want to see.

Um renewable energy capacity in the community going up, and we're on the march, you know, again to 2030 to be at 100% here.

Uh this next slide really talks about us as an organization.

Um, our greenhouse gas emissions uh you know have generally been going down.

They they bumped up just a little bit last year, um, but not in a material or significant way.

Um, and then we will start to trend our data here on what our energy consumption per square foot is over time.

So we'll be able to get some time series data uh there on how are we doing per square foot of building because that number changes for us too.

So you'll be able to normalize, you know, as we add square footage sometimes.

I I just wanted to I I was looking for note for the source of these of the greenhouse gas measurements.

Yeah, um, I think you know, the sustainability team works on both the community level and is an in-house number, not not uh like a DMC number or right, right?

Oh, it's just okay, yeah.

So you see how they're accessing the data for that.

Um they're they're providing that, and then the energy prescription consumption per square foot.

We enter all of our buildings into something called B3, and that sort of just tracks our energy consumption over time and normalizes it for how to keep and cool days and all that kind of good stuff.

Thank you.

Um transpirational capital projects again.

This is point in time moving forward, but 86% are on budget, um, 80%, same percent about unschedule and time.

This will be more interesting as we go ahead for you to look at how we're tracking uh with things.

And then grant funding, you know, this is marked as uh something that isn't on target, but that's just because the revenue went down, but still we pulled in 26 or almost 27 million dollars in the community last year that was not from Rochester.

Um, and honestly, we were just in a pretty sweet spot for a couple of years there.

There was a lot of federal money and a lot of external resources available.

We did amazing on bonding for a year or two there, and so uh we might not see 42 million again or 43 million again.

Um, but let's let's try it.

We are we're always trying sort of our say no to say yes to the best philosophy where we want to pursue things that are meaningful um and advancing your priorities here as well.

So with that, I think we can stop.

Those are the KPIs, we'll be back with you again in August.

Um, and we're happy to stand for any other questions uh that you have.

Any any other questions?

Thank you.

Great hour feedback, council member key.

Yeah, just feedback again.

I am glad to see these.

I remember the the you know, the old discussions on trying to set up at the beginning of the year what are our you know key performance indicators and then tracking them through the year.

I think it is it's a it made sense early on that if you're getting these in place for 2026, and we're in good shape a couple of months into it.

Um I think I think last year in 2025 we had a really good year as far as staying on our capital projects and not falling off in any big way.

But I am so worried that even though we would say we're at like 27% of bus rapid transit and and these other things, these are the points where things can get really difficult.

So I hope we stay focused on that.

And with that, I'd like to ask for like somewhere in the June July time frame that we do do sort of a deep dive on like two or three of the main capital projects.

I'm not sure if anyone else wants to see it, but um usually we do see things like six street bridge when it's going through the process right now and going towards bids, but um, when something's in execution, like BRT is something that big or the some of the other buildings being built.

I just want to stay close that we don't end up with a big income near the end.

I believe that on March 9th we are going to have some degree of that with the supporting transformation update is not super descriptive, but supported transformation means a lot of projects that are happening downtown.

Okay.

Um so actually, as soon as uh we two weeks from now, that plus the spongy moth.

There you go.

And we can also at the next action plan update, we had intended to highlight the ERP project, um, which is more of an internal organizational project, but just again, schedule budget, how's it going?

And we could bring a couple of other the other transformational capital projects into that meeting as well.

That's what I was gonna ask is so we see this twice a year at the KPI.

Yeah, so the KPI is once a year, the but the action plan.

Oh, that's what I mean.

Yeah, and I would just say the second time I've seen it.

So yeah, as an adjunct to this, we are uh in process with going out for our community survey, and so we do that every other year, and we're you know, working on on rolling that out, and so timing kind of be finalized with the vendor, um, but that's also give us some nice time series data that we can share with you later in the year too.

Great.

Thank you.

Great report, lots of information that you want.

So uh council member you can go.

You just said that we're doing a survey.

Is the questions on the survey going to come to the council so we can yay or nay those, or are they just gonna be staff-driven?

Um, so the way the survey has been set up in the past is it's we participate in uh the national community survey.

So the a lot of the questions are very standardized from that perspective.

Um that allows us to benchmark across the nation for like and like communities, so you not only get like what our Rochester data is, but you'll get you know what we have for you know similar communities throughout the country.

We do have one page of questions that we can customize, and so um if you have feedback or thoughts in that space, we are sort of open right now to what that might want to look like.

Um, and we can tailor those.

So we in the past we did something around the library and rec facilities, um, but certainly open to what that uh those supplemental questions could be.

For my my two cents worth, I would like to see us be as consistent as we can.

So from year to year to year, it's not well the number doesn't make any sense.

So it gives you a little bit of a round way there.

Council member Frederick.

How many people do you get feedback from on those surveys and how much does it cost?

Yeah, so you know, when you do the normal surveys, it is sort of uh voluntary response, and you have to understand that with the data you're getting that you know could be encouraged by other group that wants the thing.

Um in this one, uh, we do it two ways.

We do have a voluntary path and option, uh, but we also have the um the scientific, you know, I think it's within 5% or something is our target uh for degrees of confidence.

So that one there is some degree of like rigor put to the data, so it isn't just voluntary.

Um, and I think to get that 5%, was it 500 responses is what we need to be able to generalize it all.

And we try to get we'll get you like a number that's per ward, um, as well as we we get a series of demographic data, and we'll we get the cross tabs where you can then look at that and say, you know, this group in the community was really thinking this way, but so that might be a little different from the general stuff.

But this one is more scientific, and is it 25,000?

Is that the cost?

I think it's in that 25,000 plus or minus.

So that's yeah, that's that's inclusive of our polco subscription as well.

Okay, okay.

So this is what I ask.

And forgive me for being too simple here.

Yeah, but for 25,000, you're getting 500 responses.

So there's that's that's the number I heard, right?

So there's the randomized sample that they do that they send out mailers to the community, and then there's also the opt-in responses that's open to the entire annual subscription to Polco.

So, like the survey that went out today that was about indoor recreation facilities, is also good.

So you get multiple surveys for 25,000 and how many?

As many as we want to put in the Polco and uh maybe the other part of this community survey piece is I mean they have the instruments, there's cost of sending out the millers and all the data.

Yeah, the data analysis and we engage with someone to come and deliver the results as well.

So it's not just the service.

Okay.

Because I'm sitting here thinking I didn't sales for a lot of years.

Yeah.

I could go out and get you a thousand responses in about a week.

But it has to be statistically relevant.

So they are looking at the survey in your hand when you go over it.

I'm just saying there's a way that we can get a lot more response for less money even.

We probably aren't getting a basic.

Budget.

Think of budget.

Okay, council member uh go ahead.

In years past, when you get the scientific one, you can you can tell people this is scientific, and what's kind of interesting to it um is that the vocal one that then becomes available to anybody, the numbers almost correlate, and so they'll send it out to five thousand, I think five thousand households, five five thousand households randomly.

And so it's not just well, I love this, and I'm gonna call up and say we need more of this.

Uh and so for me, it's been very useful um to watch the numbers and come back.

So enough for me.

Yeah, thank you, John.

And is there uh I in our conversation last week or two weeks ago study session, we talked about community engagement, council members uh reaching out.

Is there opportunity for uh council member feedback, city feedback on issues as well in that POCO survey like the custom questions if you have some joint some consensus with the group on what the custom questions want to be again?

It's like uh half a page or a page, it's not a huge amount.

Um, but if you feel like there's a topic in the community that you want to hear about, uh you know, we have a we have flexibility there for sure.

Council member, but I guess I appreciate you bringing up that point because I think the better public meetings process is an attempt to ask the community how could we be more responsive?

And I wonder if some of those recommendations or even engaging Nick with that project maybe generates a couple of um custom questions that we get a broader representation because I I know that was disappointment for me that we didn't have broader uh feedback on that process, and just understanding if people want uh town halls in their neighborhoods or if they want um you know have they ever come to a city council meeting for connecting to right, but just trying to get a better data set to that same project that the mayor is bringing up, and I appreciate uh council member Palmer uh bringing up two of just how we wish that we could engage more of the community in that process, and perhaps this is a way to extend the reach of the better public meetings effort.

I don't want to write a question though.

They help us to be able to do that.

But that's an area, yeah.

That's an area for us to explore if that's where the council's at for sure.

I would write the I don't want to write questions.

Anything else for our theme.

All right, thank you very much.

And I'll just say I sort of give you a hint.

That's the study session.

Um so we have on the next study session supporting transformation update, so um lots of different projects and um policy items that are happening primarily um in the downtown floor, but um uh depending on how you look at the downtown floor, you might not feel like it's the downtown floor.

Um we also will have an update from our partners at the Minnesota Department of Agriculture about spongy moth and their treatment plan for the spongy moth.

Um, not to be confused with Spongy Moss, which is what I thought it was for a while when I got the first phone message.

Um how's and then a housing code update, so maybe continuation of some of this conversation that you've had here today.

Um, and then um Deputy Administrator Parrish did point out that on the March 23rd um session, that is the uh redo of um um strengths and leadership with uh Need von Steibers.

Um, and maybe a happy accident will end up coinciding with um some community engagement later that evening in the same space.

Um and um so maybe that will actually be a very positive thing.

Um I believe the funding is feeling much better now, and so that is good.

Um she did present to our um leadership uh our supervisors a week about a week ago.

Um she was full of energy, like on the board.

Um did just want to take an opportunity to point out your next um council meeting on Monday.

I will not be there deputy administrator uh parish and deputy administrator uh Steinhouser will be here.

Um and we do have the as school's reference today, um Sixth Avenue um design as well as uh reimagining the connections downtown.

You have the transit um uh follow up spring service changes.

You have the transit um uh fall up spring service changes we have moved from fall to spring um also on the agenda and you are on scale to have an economic development authority meeting um to talk about city walk so uh housing creation and rules and guidelines are in there well consent hopefully not too fancy unless some appointments uh see nothing no other business we are as well.

Thank you.