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Home My WebLink About01092023 Planning & Zoning Joint Special Meeting Minutes City of Seward,Alaska P&Z Joint Special Meeting with City Council Minutes January 9, 2023 Volume 7, Page 566 CALL TO ORDER The January 9,2023 joint special meeting of the Seward City Council and the Planning and Zoning Commission was called to order at 5:30 p.m. by Mayor McClure. OPENING CEREMONY Police Chief Alan Nickell led the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. COUNCIL ROLL CALL There were present: Sue McClure,presiding,and John Osenga Liz DeMoss Mike Calhoon Randy Wells Kevin Finch Robert Barnwell Excused—None Absent—None PLANNING & ZONING ROLL CALL There were present: Clare Sullivan and Tessa-Verhey Nathaniel Charbonneau Victoria Monaco Brenan Hornseth Troy Staggs Sea Excused—Verhey, Ulman Absent—None comprising a quorum of the Council; and Janette Bower, City Manager Brenda Ballou, City Clerk Brooks Chandler, City Attorney CITIZEN COMMENTS ON ANY SUBJECT EXCEPT THOSE ITEMS SCHEDULED FOR CITIZEN COMMENTS Carol Griswold, inside the city, wished everyone a Happy New Year. She said the commercialization of neighborhoods needed to be balanced between making money with being as fair as possible to all. Principally residential zones should be more restrictive than principally commercial zones. She believed that multi-family housing units, including duplexes, that were located in principally residential zones should require owner occupation to be eligible for short-term City of Seward,Alaska P&Z Joint Special Meeting with City Council Minutes January 9, 2023 Volume 7, Page 567 rental, leaving the other units for long-term rentals. Griswold believed that new whole-house rentals should not be allowed in principally residential zones after the passage of this ordinance. She had sent an email with more detailed notes she wished council would consider. Doug Schoessler, inside the city, had been digging into some research recently on short- term rentals and had discovered these concerns were happening across the country and had been increasing over the past decade. One common issue he discovered across many communities was whole-house rentals in residential neighborhoods wherein there were increased noise and parking complaints. His home was in the Auto Commercial zone, and that afforded him a lot of flexibility. He wanted to protect that flexibility and the value it brought.He was concerned that this ordinance proposed to make restrictions on commercial zones, and he wished the focus would be placed more on residential zones; commercial zones should not be restricted to the same extent as residential zones. Mike Insalaco, inside the city, owned a rental unit downtown. He believed every community was struggling with housing regulations like Seward was, and he wondered what the best solution was. He asked council to be careful in their approach to regulating commercial zones; commercial properties paid taxes at a higher rate than residential and were valued higher. Ristine Casagranda, inside the city, owned commercial lots downtown that were vacant; she didn't appreciate that the city was potentially going to put a time constraint on developing property.She had plans for developing her properties,but needed time to work on her plans. Nicole Lawrence, outside the city, was generally supportive of this ordinance, with some exceptions. The housing market would continue to evolve, and natural attrition would have an impact; approximately 26% of nightly rentals were in residential areas, so restricting the growth in those areas would be beneficial. She didn't think it was fair to restrict business operations in commercial zones. Jackie Wilde, inside the city, didn't believe businesses should be restricted; that's what brought customers and people to the town. She thought short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods should be restricted, however, because people purchased homes in residential areas to have a neighborhood. She lived on a cul-de-sac and when her neighbors started having short-term rental businesses, it fundamentally changed the atmosphere of her neighborhood. COUNCIL AND P&Z APPROVAL OF AGENDA AND CONSENT AGENDA Motion (DeMoss/Charbonneau) Approval of Agenda and Consent Agenda Motion Passed Unanimous The clerk read the following approved consent agenda items: There were no consent agenda items. City of Seward,Alaska P&Z Joint Special Meeting with City Council Minutes January 9, 2023 Volume 7, Page 568 NEW BUSINESS Other New Business Committee of the Whole:Ordinance 2022-016,Amending Seward City Code;15.10.140(b)(49) Definitions,Lodging; 15.10.226(b)Land Uses Allowed,Modifying and Including Additional Regulations Relating to Lodging, Short-Term Rentals; and 15.10.226 Land Uses Allowed Table. Motion (DeMoss/Monaco) Go into Committee of the Whole to discuss Ordinance 2022-016, Amending Seward City Code; 15.10.140(b)(49) Definitions, Lodging; 15.10.226(b)Land Uses Allowed, Modifying and Including Additional Regulations Relating to Lodging, Short- Term Rentals; and 15.10.226 Land Uses Allowed Table. Motion Passed Unanimous Council and P&Z went into Committee of the Whole at 5:51 p.m. Council and P&Z came out of Committee of the Whole at 6:26 p.m. Motion to Amend (DeMoss/Osenga) Amend Ordinance 2022-016 by excluding all Central Business, Auto Commercial, and Harbor Commercial language in the proposed amendments and adjust the Land Use Table accordingly. Motion to Amend Passed Yes: Calhoon, Wells,Barnwell,Finch, DeMoss, Osenga,McClure No: None CITIZEN COMMENTS Jackie Wilde, inside the city, said she could circumvent the city code in less than five minutes; she asked what the enforcement process would be to ensure compliance. She wondered how the city would prove that the business was actually occupied by the owner. Wilde said ordinances should protect everyone, not just a few; the code language should be strong enough to prevent circumvention.It wasn't enough for the city to have policies;the language needed to be in code.She suggested the ordinance be revised to provide some measures of having owners prove their residence.She said this ordinance would not stand the test of time because there were no teeth in the city code; where there were no penalties, there would be no compliance. She stated that the term "grandfathered"did not exist in code, so it had no bearing. City of Seward,Alaska P&Z Joint Special Meeting with City Council Minutes January 9,2023 Volume 7, Page 569 Ristine Casagranda, inside the city, said if council was going to consider putting caps on short term rental, she wanted to see caps by zone. Doug Schoessler,inside the city,thought the city should be careful when considering having a cap,and suggested council consider including Office Residential in the amendment they made to the ordinance. Carol Griswold,inside the city,didn't believe that council accomplished what they intended to accomplish;she was disappointed that Office Residential was not included in the amendment and suggested it was discriminatory. She said it would be fair and adjust code to allow one short term rental in an owner-occupied four-plex while requiring the remaining three units to be long term housing.As well,she said duplexes were not included in this ordinance.Griswold said non-owner- occupied whole-house rentals should be allowed in all commercial zones. She said definitions needed to be addressed: bed and breakfast should refer to short term rental, and there should be a definition added for long term rental. She wondered where the policy was that was guiding the reference to a business operating for "60 days"; had this been vetted with the Internal Revenue Service(IRS). She said there were policy statements that appeared to be guiding this ordinance,but the policies were nebulous and important. Nicole Lawrence,outside the city,thought the amendment was good,but thought that Office Residential should be included in the amendment. Office Residential was predominantly commercial, and it was discriminatory to exclude it. She agreed there needed to be some teeth for enforcement; she was aware of lodging businesses that were operating with a permit,but illegally. She understood how those were getting through the city's system and offered to provide the city with her understanding of where the blind spots were in the lodging permit application process. COUNCIL, PLANNING & ZONING, AND ADMINISTRATION COMMENTS & RESPONSES TO CITIZEN COMMENTS Calhoon said they weren't done yet. Osenga thanked everybody. Finch appreciated this session with P&Z and hoped there could be more joint meetings like this in the future. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 6:57 p.m. epos I F , /lit( Brenda Balt Cl' e Sullivan City Clerk ��r SEAL •• s a • 9• • CJN °'•q OF P�-P ma`s �.-gliesseass `• City of Seward,Alaska P&Z Joint Special Meeting with City Council Minutes January 9, 2023 Volume 7,Page 570 (City Seal)