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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/26/2024 Study Session 301 MINUTES YAKIMA CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION March 26, 2024 City Hall —Council Chambers -129 N 2nd Street, Yakima, WA 5:00 p.m. Study Session -conducted in person and virtually via Zoom 1. Roll Call Present: Mayor Patricia Byers, presiding;Assistant Mayor Matt Brown and Councilmembers Reedy Berg, Janice Deccio, Rick Glenn, Danny Herrera and Leo Roy Staff: Interim City Manager Dave Zabell, City Attorney Sara Watkins and City Clerk Rosalinda I barra 2. Public comment(allow 15 minutes) Alex Durrin, city resident and downtown business owner, expressed concern regarding paid parking in the downtown parking lots and urged Council to explore alternative revenue generating solutions. Tiffany Hein, city resident and downtown business owner, stated she experienced a decrease in sales revenue when the City implemented parking changes and suggested that the City enforce the two hour on-street parking. She reported that in Washington state only Seattle and Spokane charge for downtown parking lots and other communities offer two-hour street parking. Corte Ratliff, city resident and downtown business owner, would like to see the two hour on- street parking enforced and encouraged more events downtown which would provide economic growth. Jeanna Hernandez, city resident, appreciated Council's attention to the downtown parking issues and asked Council to redirect funding to downtown parking efforts. 3. Update on ARPA Funds Allocations Interim Director of Finance & Budget Rosylen Oglesby provided an update on the American Rescue Plan Act(ARPA)funds that have been obligated and funds yet to be allocated. She described the eligible and ineligible use of ARPA funds with an emphasis on the revenue replacement category. The revenue replacement category allows for a variety of expenditures, triggers less compliance requirements, and limits the administrative burden. She also noted that Yakima must obligate all ARPA funds by December 31, 2024 and funds must be spent by December 31, 2026, in accordance with directives issued by the US Department of the Treasury. Page 1 of 2 302 Ms. Oglesby further described the eligible projects that are still pending, which include: Mill Site, Sewer& Water, Women& Family Shelter, Community Partnerships, and Community Projects. The City will continue its outreach with the pending eligible projects and plan to revisit this matter again soon to determine whether these projects will move forward or identify alternative eligible projects for reallocation of the remaining funds. Councilmembers asked staff to research whether ARPA funds can be used for downtown parking lot maintenance under an eligible category. 4. March 21 parking meeting update Interim City Manager Dave Zabell provided an overview of the community feedback received from the March 21 public outreach meeting regarding staff's preliminary recommendations for improvements and regulations of the city-owned parking lots within the downtown core. In addition to previous recommendations, Mr. Zabell shared new and future policy recommendations to include striping of spaces, allocation of permit spaces, moratorium expiration and enforcement, explore QR code option, and public education outreach coordination with businesses. The City Council could review a draft ordinance at their next business meeting and then direct staff appropriately at the April 9th meeting. After discussion, the Councilmembers reiterated the possibility of using ARPA funds for parking lot maintenance. 5. Adjournment MOTION: Brown moved and Deccio seconded to adjourn to the next City Council regular meeting on April 2, 2024, at 5:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall. The motion carried by unanimous vote. The meeting adjourned at 6:19 p.m. ,r,CERTIFICATION ,, Vi( , / READ AND CERTIFIED ACCURATE BY COt} CIL M ER DATE i---.4 , _ ,,.••...\, COUNCIL MEMBER DATE yp,K1Mq �h% ATTES' t Al (,Lk 1k A S 10a ki N:', RT: ? • y %, ::BEAD: *� CITY CLERK ,114 ip,*NING. of MAYOR Page 2 of 2