Dan DeGeest's Council Review

Hi Friends,

This past week was a short council meeting with  just a couple of procedural votes followed by a workshop.  Please see below for details.

Thanks for reading,

Dan DeGEEST>>

The Ames City Council Meeeting & Workshop for 03/21/2017. The agenda included:

• 5. Discussion of high-speed internet service in Ames. (Video)
  Current internet providers will be present to discuss current service issues and their future plans. Some cities, such as Cedar Falls, provide municipal high-speed internet. While Ames currently has no plans to become a municipal internet service provider like Cedar Falls, I regularly hear comments about the need for faster, more consistent internet service in Ames. Hopefully the service providers present can explain their plans for improving high-speed internet service moving forward.
  
  Honestly I'm not really sure what was accomplished with this workshop.  Various representatives from a handful of the local internet service providers (ISP) were on hand to give, in my opinion, a sales pitch for their respective company's services.  They all touted their investment in newer technologies, network upgrades,faster speeds, and better reliability but at the end of the day that's what they have to do to retain their current customers and be competitive for new ones.
  
  The City doesn't have any roll in providing the actual service but what they could do is be more proactive in facilitating infrastructure improvements.  Existing and older neighborhoods will always be a challenge but the City could take steps on all new road, subdivision, and other development projects to make it cheaper and easier for network and service upgrades regardless of ISP. This was discussed a little, mostly just the ISPs complaining they aren't brought in during construction and have to come back and do expensive work to bring in service. So while the workshop had some informative bits and allowed a few in attendance to vent about their current service woes, there really were no action items or significant takeaways from this meeting.

• 6. Discussion of public parking and public gathering space for the Welch/Chamberlain/Hayward interior space in Campustown. (Video)
  One of Council's goals is to explore options for public spaces in Campustown, and the largest city-owned parcel in the area is the parking lot within the block surrounded by Lincoln Way, Welch Ave, Chamberlain St, and Hayward Ave.  This parcel does include a recent access easement for the Campus Plaza LLC development, which means the driveway from Welch Ave. into the parcel needs to remain open for vehicular traffic. This does reduce the useable size of this parcel, but a smaller piece of space could still be carved out for public use. Plans are also in the works for the redevelopment of properties at 2510-2526 Lincoln Way, which could spur additional interest in a public amenity in this lot. The idea of an elevated plaza has also been suggested, though costly. These are the options that Council will be discussing Tuesday. Letters of invitation to this workshop have been sent to ISU, Student Government, adjacent land-owners, CAA, and other stakeholders. (As always, the public is also welcome to attend this workshop.)
  
  This project has been knocking around for quite awhile now and frankly is starting to sound like someone half heartedly planning a vacation.   Should we go to Hawaii?  How about Cancun?  Ooh, I heard Puerto Rico is really fun and cheap.  Should we drive?  Flying might be easier.  We need to find a dog sitter.  The next thing you know another year has gone by and you never actually made a choice and ended up not going anywhere.
  
  So it goes with this project.  We could build it.  We could not build it.  It could be in the location indicated in the map below or maybe a different City owned lot in the Campustown area.  Perhaps we should build it on stilts so cars can continue to drive and park under it.  But wait, it might be loud when it's full of people enjoying it so what will we do to mitigate all that noise.  How will we deal with that sloping terrain.  What about the dumpsters! Maybe we could relocate that fire station and create a pedestrian mall on Welch.
  
  At some point somebody needs to decide how to move forward and I hoped that the discussion would be less focused on "solutions" and more so on formulating some action plan to move this project forward or finally just decide, nope, we aren't going to do anything.  After a fairly lengthy discussion, and to be fair with some interesting ideas thrown out, I feel we are still in the same place with this project - it's an interesting idea with no solidified action plan, the various land owners not in agreement, and no clear vision for a path forward.
  
  
   

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