Dan DeGeest's Council Review

The review of the November 22, 2016 City Council meeting.  The agenda included:
Hi Friends,

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  No matter what is going on in the world we can always find things to be thankful for if we really take time to reflect.  We should try to do this daily but it seems Thanksgiving week is often the impetus that affords us time to really take a step back and acknowledge the things that make our life great.  The City Council covered quite a range of topics including several projects that have been in progress over the last year such as the Lincoln Way Corridor Study.  Please see below for some highlights.

Thanks for reading.

Dan DeGeest>>

• 14. Iowa Clean Air Attainment Program (ICAAP) Grant Application for Grand Avenue Extension Improvements. 
  The City is applying for $931K in Iowa DOT funding to assist with parts of the Grand Avenue extension included in the 2016/17 CIP. As the grants being sought are through the Iowa Clean Air Attainment Program (ICAAP), an emissions report will also be required after the project is completed.
  I understand that we need to go for available State and Federal funds when we can but I can't help but think that that building a $17 million dollar road project that simply diverts traffic from one road to another is a stretch for claiming a reduction in emissions.  We will have the same number or more cars on two roads instead of one not to mention all of the fuel and energy that will be used to build the actual roadway.  Fewer trips made in a car is a great way to reduce emissions - I would like to see the City go after some funds and projects to further that goal. The Lincoln Way Corridor Study, discussed later, highlights a strong public desire for creating a more pedestrian and bike friendly community.  An emissions report will be required with this grant and I look forward to seeing documentation of actual emission reductions.
• 20. Hearing on Annexation of territory east of Ames between Interstate 35 and 590th Avenue (East Industrial Area).

  Council initiated annexation for this area at the August 23rd meeting, this is the next procedural step in the process.
  As I have said at previous council meetings, if the build-it-and-they-will-come strategy doesn’t pan out, the City will find itself being asked for more and more along the way. If industry is slow to develop, we’ll be asked to install additional infrastructure, waive water buyout fees, further incentivize with public dollars. I am not against the concept of increased industrial land, but I think the size of this undertaking is risky.
  There really was not much discussion on this issue, by now it is a done deal and the big arguments for and against it were made before some of the current council was even elected.  The challenge now is to secure really good industrial tenants who can bring both economic growth and jobs.  A major part of the current national dialog is about bringing manufacturing jobs back to the the United States.  With this stated goal, having 1600 acres of industrial sites ready to be developed should be a highly marketable asset.  If we don't see significant growth in this area over the next four years I would question the validity of all of these claims and would share in Councilwomen Beatty-Hansen's concerns about what further incentives the City will have to offer in order to attract development in this zone.

• 
• 21. Hearing on 2016/17 U.S. Highway 69 Improvements Program (South Duff Avenue Traffic Signal).
  At the Oct. 11th Council meeting, plans and specs were approved for traffic flow improvements near Wal-Mart on South Duff. This is a report back from staff saying only one bid was received, $163K over the engineer’s estimate (with no contingency funding). Staff need time to discuss funding alternatives with other funders (Wal-Mart and Hunziker) before making a recommendation to Council on how to proceed.
  Want to get a lot of people to show up at City Council, then all you have do is suggest some changes to any of the major roadways in Ames.  I find it interesting that you hear pretty much on a daily basis how bad traffic is on South Duff is yet the minute you put forward a project that will attempt to address traffic issues people come out of the woodwork to fight it - some even suggesting the City is working unfairly to cater to one particular developer.  Hunziker initiated it, it is being partially funded by Hunziker, and Hunziker owns a major development right next to it, which does seem a bit dubious.
  No one else in attendance spoke in favor of this project.  The main argument is that it will hurt their business because customers might have to go an extra block or two because the median will prevent turns across the traffic.  In the case of Howe Welding, there are concerns it will make it physically impossible to get large trucks in and out.  Those in opposition also cited the Grand Avenue extension project, which they seem to think is going to fix all sorts of problems on Duff despite analysis and modeling that shows that Grand will mostly be a South Duff bypass and have little or no affects on the traffic interactions for cars still using Duff to reach businesses. 
  There have been multiple studies and public input sessions to facilitate this project.  Computer modeling was done to help determine the impact of the proposed median and traffic signal.  I personally feel confident the City traffic engineer has no bias and simply wants to do what he studied and trained to do - design roadways, solve traffic problems, and build the best and safest transportation system possible.  Clearly South Duff is a mess, the question is if this is the best project and the right time to address it.
• 22. Staff Report on Emergency Residence Project FY 2015/16 draw-down request and definition of Ames Resident.
  In July, Council directed staff to hold off on paying out $28K to the Emergency Residence Project while staff looked into some billing issues. After comparing notes with the County, staff is satisfied that all but around $2K of the $28K can be paid out under current contract terms. In addition, the police depart refers individuals (192 of them non-Ames residents in 15/16), and if the Council also includes those in the calculations, the entire balance can be paid out. In addition to the matter of funding, staff is asking for clarification on how Council measures Ames residency.
  After further review (and staff  time) the City has determined that all of the money they were holding back from the current ERP funding could be paid out.  The only real question was if they should pay for stays for clients that came from police referrals since the person's previous residency was unknown.  Allowing for these APD referrals used up the entire $28K of remaining funds.  I was pretty incredulous on this issue the first time it came up and this outcome underscores my point to some degree.  Namely, ERP tries to house  homeless people and they turn away more people than they can shelter.  Getting in the weeds about which agency should pay and spending more staff time and money to audit their billing seems somewhat unproductive.  Homeless people were sheltered, ASSET funding supported this mission. Success!
• 23. Presentation from United Way of Story County regarding Clear Impact Scorecard (Human Services Outcomes).
  United Way of Story County is implementing a program called the Clear Impact Scorecard. Since they are already going to require agencies they fund to keep records through this internet based system, they are inquiring with other ASSET funders (City of Ames, Story County) to see if there is interest in piggy-backing on the use of this system.
  At a high level it appears that standardizing record keeping could provide a lot of efficiencies and better overall reporting.  The Council directed staff to do some further research and evaluate if this system could be incorporated into the ASSET process and to report back at a future date.  
• 24. Motion directing staff to prepare Zoning Ordinance pertaining to Supervised Transitional Living Homes.
  In an August meeting of the City Council, staff were directed to develop a text amendment which would make the approval of supervised transitional homes an administrative level decision. (Not requiring Council approval.) At the time of the August meeting, there was also a question of regular inspections, and the Fire Department reports that facilities such as this could be included with commercial and social service inspections, on a schedule every 3 years. Staff is recommending proceeding.
  Motion to move forward with ordinance passed.
• 25. Ames Urban Fringe Plan Amendments.
  At the 9/23 Council meeting an amendment was initiated for the Ames Urban Fringe Land Use Framework Map, requesting a change from Highway Oriented Commercial (HOC) to Urban Residential for a piece of land directly to the west of Ames along the south side of Lincoln Way. Staff recommend maintaining the HOC designation along Lincoln Way. To annex this property as HOC would require a change to the 28E agreement between Gilbert, Ames, and Story County.
  Council went with Staff recommendations on this issue which meet the applicants needs and simplify the land use map changes.
• 27. Update regarding Lincoln Way Corridor Plan Focus Area Workshop. 
  This is the first update in a while from the consultants tasked with the Lincoln Way Corridor Study. A slide show was in the council packets and will be presented by the consultants to Council on Tuesday.
  I've said in previous reviews that often the staff presentation seems redundant but in this case it was very detailed and helpful.  Kelly Diekmann, Director of Planning and Housing, filled in lots of information that was not readily obvious in the packet materials.  This is pretty progressive stuff.  Combining parcels to facilitate bigger developments near Main St like a hotel and event center with parking garage.  New housing types, reintroduction of alleyways, and more to allow Lincoln Way to be configured as a truly multi-modal corridor through the City.  It will be interesting to see the final recommendations and even more interesting to see if we have the will as a City to make some bold moves.
• 28. Planning Division Work Plan discussion.
  Delayed from last week: The last time Council set priorities for additional Planning and Housing projects was 13 months ago. Item #32 lists 12 committed and future projects, but Council has 25 additional items they have referred to planning staff, and now need to prioritize these remaining projects.
  The Planning Department works hard, bottom line.  Their work accounts for the bulk of most City Council meetings and there appears to be no signs of things slowing down.  There was some discussion on which projects to prioritize over the next year but overall this entire thing was a bit overwhelming and the City Council was happy to basically just go with the recommendations in this staff report.  I don't know about the City Council, but I'm glad we have a hard working and knowledgeable person like Kelly Diekmann heading up this department.