Complete Streets Plan, Welch Ave Redesign, South Grand Progress
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Bronwyn's Council Preview |
The City Council meeting starts at 6 p.m. this Tuesday at city hall. The agenda includes (but is not limited to):
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19. Presentation of City of Ames Complete Streets Plan.
For at least 3 years, the City has been working toward the adoption of a Complete Streets Plan, and it is exciting to see it come to fruition. To recap, previous street design in cities like Ames focused solely on motor vehicle traffic, but modern transportation has different needs. Modern transportation users are increasingly walking, biking, or busing, for health and environmental reasons, and cities have needed to adapt. A complete streets plan is one that considers all types of users when designing or redesigning a roadway or path system. Once this plan is adopted, it can be cross-referenced in all related plans, such as the Long-Range Transportation Plan, Capital Improvements Plan, Land Use Policy Plan, and any neighborhood and corridor plans. -
20. Welch Avenue Reconstruction Preferred Cross-Section.
We just saw the final draft of our first Complete Streets Plan, and here's a chance to implement it. For the redesign of Welch, we wanted to make a point to solicit as much public input as possible. We surveyed students, residents, consulted with ISU and city departments, had an online survey and held multiple public meetings. Four options were presented to the public to vote on, the top two vote getters being removal of parking for bike lanes and one-side parking with wider sidewalks. Staff have presented the following option, a hybrid of the two favorite concepts.
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21. South Grand Avenue Extension Project.
Council is being asked to declare intent to use eminent domain to acquire the property needed to proceed with the South Grand extension. The first part of the South Grand extension includes an extension of South 5th St. Currently, plans are nearly complete and some property has been secured, though there is a parcel of land that has not yet been secured. According to the staff report, the landowners want their remaining land to be rezoned high-density residential, but under Iowa law, rezoning is not a consideration during right-of-way land acquisition. The second phase, after extending South 5th, is to extend Grand Ave south to South 16th St. Again, most of the property has been secured, but in this case there is one landowner who has made demands including realigning the roadway, building an additional bridge, building out the eventually-planned 4 lanes immediately, adding a fence along the length of the roadway, and providing a driveway off of South Grand to the Coldwater golf course. (Staff responses to each of the demands are detailed in the report.)
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23. Reconsideration of Annexation Petition for three parcels owned by R. Friedrich & Sons., Inc., and Friedrich Land Development Company located along Cameron School Road and George Washington Carver Avenue.
We had originally moved to pursue an 80/20 annexation in this area, but at the last meeting a motion was introduced to reconsider the possibility of pursuing 100% voluntary annexation. Staff are asserting that any property not brought into the city now can be brought in at a future time, so staff are again recommending the 100% voluntary annexation.
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24. Zoning Text Amendment to revise the Development Standards of the Neighborhood Commercial Zoning District.
Mostly at the request of Fareway (for the renovation of their downtown store), staff is recommending changes to both the base zoning for the Neighborhood Commercial classification. These alterations include changes to max lot area, street setback, front yard setback, allowing limited outdoor sales, and possible changes to sign size allowed, among others. While Fareway is the most prominent example lately of NC zoning, other districts include the intersections of South Hazel and Lincoln Way, 6th and Grand, 24th and Grand, and 35th and Grand, as well as some properties along West St. and Reliable St. -
26. Iowa State University Research Park, Phase IV and minimum assessment agreement.
Phase IV of the Research Park is now underway, the impetus being John Deere's desire to build a sprayer test facility on the property. Luckily, both federal and state dollars are available for the phase iv expansion (over $3 million, combined).
Thanks for reading,
Bronwyn Beatty-Hansen
At-Large Council Member