Dan DeGeest's Council Review

Hi Friends,

I was unable to attend the City Council meeting last Tuesday as I was volunteering to sell basketball programs at the last ISU Men's game to raise funds for my ten year old daughter's dance team.  But thanks to technology, and a great behind the scenes crew at City Hall, I was able to watch a video recording of the meeting the following day.  I can also go back and view previous meetings if necessary.  It is quite a valuable resource you might not know about.

On that note I'd like to let you know that this review newsletter contains new VIDEO LINK  items. These links *should* take you directly to the recorded video for the given council agenda item (if not you will find links in the video player to jump you to the correct location). This is an experiment and if it proves useful to subscribers it may be continued in future newsletters (drop me a line and let me know).  Also note that there is now a Council Comments section at the end of the newsletter. Long time city council watchers know that this is often the way to get early notice of future agenda items.  Council comments are often the most entertaining part of the council meeting and sometimes quite worth the two, three, or five hour wait. Check out the Council Comments video (VIDEO LINK).

As always thanks for reading.
 

Dan DeGeest>>
 

The Ames City Council meeting for 02/28/2017. The agenda included:

• 34. Resolution approving Plat of Survey for 2510 - 2526 Lincoln Way.
  This plat of survey is being initiated by the Randall Corp. to consolidate 3 buildings into one lot. At this time, no infrastructure improvements are needed. If redevelopment is sought, the next step would be a site development plan.
  
  This action is somewhat unfortunate in my opinion.  While totally valid and clearly within the property owner's rights, this new plat paves the way for the demolition of these buildings to make room for a much larger scale structure.  Again, this is not necessarily bad or wrong but to me it signals the start of the end for this remaining 2 story, pedestrian scale block of Campustown.  But maybe there is a bright side.  Could this open up the possibility of finally creating the community gathering space in the lot behind these buildings that has been talked about so many times?  It seems like there would at least be potential.  City Council does have the power to help shape what happens here through it's Urban Revitalization Area and other incentives and I hope they spend the effort to really do a great job. It's too bad they didn't add the non-formula retail requirements to the URA to help ensure the new development has some locally owned shops to maintain the eclectic make-up of this block.
  
  Passed 6-0
  
  

• 37. Discussion of additional questions to Resident Satisfaction Survey to replace previous one-time special topics of interest. (VIDEO LINK)
  2017 marks the 35th anniversary of the Resident Satisfaction Survey. Some room is reserved in the survey for policy questions that City Council would like to ask the citizens. Last year's special questions related to incentives for non-formula businesses and use of public property for development in Campustown and Downtown.
  
  A few ideas where thrown out such as ranking capital improvement projects, downtown housing urban revitalization areas, and a demolition ordinance for historic buildings.
  
  Motion to move forward and consider above feedback passed 6-0.

• 38. Proposal to hold Firefly Country Night on Main Street on Friday, September 8. (VIDEO LINK)
  At our last meeting, Council directed staff to communicate with the Main St. Cultural District about the timing of Firefly Country Night. Event organizers are planning to schedule this event (the second of two planned Country Nights this summer) for the Friday evening of Cy-Hawk weekend, September 8th. Organizers have made several changes to the event, to mitigate the chance for any disturbances that might involve the Police Department. Such changes include ending alcohol service at 8 p.m., ending the event by 9 p.m., hiring security, and setting price points to attract "an older crowd", among other things.
  
  Thanks to the well known problems during the now defunct VEISHEA celebration, we are a community that is very wary of any type of outdoor event that includes alcohol.  This particular event also has the additional red flag of being held the same weekend as the Cy-Hawk football game (Ames' largest outdoor drinking event) and one council member in particular is very concerned that the combination of these two things could lead to problems that simply could be avoided if the Firefly Country Night was held on a different weekend.
  
  Event organizers where on hand to discuss all the extra precautions that will be put in place and in the end a motion to allow the event to move forward passed 5-1 (Betcher NO)

• 39. Request for City incentives from Barilla regarding its expansion. (VIDEO LINK)
  Barilla is deciding whether to expand their operations in Avon, NY or Ames, IA. The city of Avon and the state of New York are offering significant financial incentives to Barilla, and so there is some pressure on Ames to offer a greater incentive than is standard in order to ensure the expansion happens here. Three options are presented in the staff report, ranging from the approx. $1 mil standard offering for redevelopment of this type to TIF in the amount of $3 mil. Staff recommend the $3 mil TIF on the grounds that Barilla is a long-standing corporate customer, the 2nd highest tax payer in the city, and this investment may spur future investments in this facility.
  
  This was the big ticket item of the night - literally and figuratively.  I'm not totally sure how I feel about this item.  On the one hand it's great to have industry thriving in Ames but do we really need to open up the City's wallet this much to make it happen?  I especially don't like Barilla basically pitting two cities against each other with the high bidder winning.  But I get why they do it - because it works. They have the City of Ames practically falling all over itself trying to sweeten the deal.  Perhaps they should call the bluff and see if Barilla really wants to build in Avon - there are many more factors to decide where to build than just which City ponies up the most money.  Maybe the Ames rail system is better, maybe the central Midwest location of the Ames plant is better then New York for their distribution network, maybe they can pay worker a lower wage in Ames due to cost of living differences - they could have all sorts of reasons for wanting to expand here that don't include us giving them a huge incentive.
  
  The second thing that bothers me is the funding to job ratio - nearly $150K incentive for each job created.  I bet if you tossed out $150K to some local entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, or other existing local business owners that they could create a lot more than 1 job.  But the City doesn't really fund things like that, these smaller fish have to scrape by some other way while Barilla, without much effort at all, can snag nearly $6 million of incentive funding just by threatening to go somewhere else if their needs are not met.

• 40. Motion approving content and form for Request for Proposals for 321 State Avenue. (VIDEO LINK)
  This is the first draft of the RFP for the city's long-sought affordable housing development at 321 State Ave. If Council is satisfied, the RFP will be issued and developers who feel they can meet all the requirements laid out in the RFP will have until April 14th to submit a proposal for consideration.
  
  Motion to formalize the draft RFP passed 6-0.  It will be very interesting to review the proposals in April - stay tuned.

• 41. Multi-Modal Roadway Improvements Program Locations. (VIDEO LINK)
  When approving this year's CIP, Council modified the page containing on-street bicycle improvements after some feedback from the Ames Bicycle Coalition. The changes to the CIP remove two projects currently in the LRTP, in favor of other, more impactful projects.
  
  Motion to change LRTP as suggested passed 6-0

• 45. First passage of ordinance modifying requirements for Sidewalk Cafes. (VIDEO LINK)
  With the passage of this ordinance, restaurants will be able to have outdoor service areas which can be off-set from the building, use parklets, and serve alcohol (until 10 p.m.).
  
  This was discussed in great lengths at previous meetings and the first reading passed easily 6-0.

• 46. Campus and Community Commission. (VIDEO LINK)
  One of the City Council's goals is to "Promote a Sense of One Community". In light of that, Council is voting on a resolution to initiate a new Campus and Community Commission. This commission would study matters affecting student and resident relations.
  
  Resolution passed 6-0

• Council Comments  (VIDEO LINK) The non-agenda packet is comprised of correspondence from citizens, organizations, developers, other interested parties. During the Council Comments section of council meetings, these items may be brought forth for more information, or to direct staff to put the topic on a future agenda. On this week's non-agenda packet:
  
  -Request from property owner at the intersection of I-35 and 190th to amend the urban fringe plan map to allow for a self storage facility on the property.
  -Letter from the Ames Human Relations Commission with several recommendations for improving the City's score on the HRC's Municipal Equality Index, which measures LGBTQ inclusiveness for municipalities.
  -Report from staff regarding a water leak issue for a resident who was concerned that the City's policy to have homeowners pay for such repairs could end up costing citizens through lost water.
  -Memo from staff about U-Haul's request for a text amendment to allow for greater roof height at their properties at 710 and 720 S Duff Ave.

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