Bronwyn's Council Preview

Hello to all of you dedicated Council Newsletter followers, a brief note before we dive into business:

Changes are coming to the Ames Council Preview Newsletter. For four years now, I have sincerely enjoyed writing Council Previews for you. It has been a great way to connect and get input from a robust number of constituents. (1800+ subscribers!) I have been blown away by the number of people who stop me in public to thank me and say they read and enjoy the newsletter. This year, we are changing things up a bit. David Martin (Ward 3 Council Member) will be taking over writing the Council Previews, and I am very much looking forward to what he can produce. As you will soon see, he is diligent, dedicated, and passionate about Ames, and will be a great addition. I plan to transition to resuming the Council Review, a brief summary of the results of our meetings, including motions and vote counts. I look forward to staying involved, and with that, I will let David take it from here!

Thanks for reading,
Bronwyn Beatty-Hansen
At-Large Council Member

David's Council Preview

Hello Council Newsletter People! I'm very grateful to Bronwyn for keeping the community informed over the past years, and for her insight, clear explanation, and sense of balance in council meetings. I relied on this newsletter for orientation when I was campaigning for election in 2017, and it has continued to be interesting to see what Bronwyn chose to highlight from our agendas after I joined the council. And I'm looking forward to being in touch with more of you as we continue on.

By way of introduction, I'm the Ward Three council member. There are four wards in Ames, and the residents of each ward elect their own council member who also resides there. (See the voting ward map.) Note that ward council members have no special powers for their ward; we just live closer to the ward voters than other ward councilors do. Bronwyn is one of the two "at-large" council members (Amber Corrieri is the other). In my observation, though, every council member is always trying to make the right decisions for the Ames community as a whole.

I was born and grew up in Ames and went to Iowa State. I also lived in a number of different places (Berkeley, Denver, Boston, greater Chicago, Germany) before returning to Ames in 2013. In my day job, I'm a software consultant, having previously worked as a computer science professor.

With that brief introduction, let's get started. This is a big meeting.
 

The Ames City Council meeting starts at 6:00 p.m. this Tuesday at City hall. The agenda includes (but is not limited to):

• 40. Hearing on Sale of City-owned property at 1420 Lincoln Way.

  • Due to water system changes in the early 1990s, the city no longer uses its old pump house immediately east of the creek on Lincoln Way. MetroNet has asked to buy this building for part of its planned fiber-to-the-premises Internet service. It seems clear that MetroNet's entry will improve competition in Internet services in Ames. MetroNet's announced pricing for Internet-only subscribers to their 100-Mbps and above service is $30-$50 cheaper *per month* than Mediacom's current pricing.
    
    Since MetroNet also plans to offer fiber TV service, they are also looking for a location near their fiber ring to place a 79' tower/pole with a television antenna to pick up broadcast signals. They proposed the pump house location for this pole as well as their other networking equipment. All such poles need approval from the Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA).  The ZBA discussed the proposal on January 8 but has not yet reached a decision to approve or deny the pole. Many residents attended this meeting and expressed their opposition to the tower proposal. Council has also received many emails on this topic.
    
    The immediate council agenda item concerns whether to sell the property to MetroNet, even though the tower/pole permit issue is currently still unresolved. However, the council can attach conditions to the property prior to sale, including a condition prohibiting a communications tower on the property. Staff is recommending this as a way to support our goal of improving Internet services without burdening the landscape and neighborhood with a tall pole.

• 41. Hearing on Sale of 1417 Douglas Avenue.

  • The City acquired this property in 2019 due to long term abandonment and deterioration issues. Last December, Council agreed to negotiate sale of this property with Mainstream Living so that they can build a five-bedroom, wheelchair accessible Group Home for the purpose of providing affordable housing and services for low income adults with intellectual disabilities. This agenda item allows for comments from the public before formally committing to the  $36,012 sale.

• 42. Hearing on Durham Bandshell Lighting & Electrical Upgrades.

  • This item asks Council whether and how to finalize a contract for improving the main electrical service at the Durham Bandshell, including upgrading interior restroom lighting, exterior building lighting, and shell lighting using LEDs.

• 44. Ames Comprehensive Plan 2040 Preferred Land Use Scenarios.

  • Council is now being asked to deliberate and possibly make its most significant decision to date in the 2040 comprehensive planning process: what is our preferred land use option to accommodate 15,000 new residents who are expected to look for a home in Ames by 2040? For example, one option is to plan for land use in each of the four corners of the map shown below (annexing land into the city as owners become willing to do so), in order to take advantage of remaining capacity in the already-built streets and sewer and water infrastructure. These areas are called "tier 1" growth areas and are shaded blue in the map. The other colors are for tiers 2-4 and correspond to significantly more infrastructure improvement costs. Another option would be to plan for more substantial growth in one particular direction that could lead to a more distinctly new type of place in Ames, rather than adding onto all of the existing edges a little at a time. It's a big puzzle.
    
    There is also a lot of interest in encouraging infill (e.g., building vertically and/or redeveloping existing sites) rather than growth at the edges, both from council members and from members of the public. Our staff and consultants project that there could be room to accommodate about 3,000 of the new population with infill development. But it's harder for at least one obvious reason: there are more property owners per square mile inside the city than out in the country, which means there are more owners, neighbors, costs, and interests involved in every attempt to increase housing. Not impossible, but slower, harder, and less predictable than annexing large tracts of agricultural land and putting neighborhoods on it.
    
    Ultimately, as staff pointed out in the January 7 meeting when discussing infill, this is a fundamental question for us to discern: are we going to be investing internally or on the perimeter? What are Ames's priorities for investment? This will be an interesting and consequential conversation.
    
    

• 45. Initiation of annexation of Champlin/Lloyd property.

  • ​The Champlin Lloyd Farm is asking to add 145 acres of land in the southwest to the City of Ames using a voluntary annexation procedure. Given the existing land use policy, if annexation is completed, this land is likely to be zoned for residential use (though only some of it is buildable). Note that this annexation request is not part of our 2040 land use planning; as far as I know, it is simply happening at the same time. In other words, Council's approval of this request would not commit us to grow even further in the southwest. However, members of the public have expressed concern about the wisdom of promoting residential growth towards areas of intense agricultural activity in this direction, whether part of our comprehensive plan or not.
    
    Iowa law prefers cities to have uniform boundaries, so whenever land is annexed to a city, the proposed borders are checked to see if nearby land should be included as part of the annexation. Under the so-called 80/20 rule, land can be annexed even if up to 20% of the proposed land has owners opposing the annexation. Of interest in this case is the neighborhood of Worle Lane and its five properties, at least some of whom oppose annexing Worle Lane. Worle Lane is shown as the island in the center-right of the map below.
    
    

• 46. 321 State Avenue affordable housing -- Staff Report regarding multi-family housing with Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and Resolution awarding contract for engineering services.

  • In December, Council voted to investigate the option of building multi-family apartment buildings at the 321 State Avenue affordable housing site in addition to previously discussed single-family affordable housing for that site. In addition to explaining the tax credit program that could fund low-income apartments, this agenda item lays out two possible schedules for action: one rather tight schedule for completing the application on March 11, and a more relaxed schedule aiming at the 2021 application period.

• 47. Request from Sigler Companies to purchase Airport property for 3100 S. Riverside Drive.

  • Ames owns the property that Sigler Companies is renting; it's part of the municipal airport. Sigler has asked whether Ames is interested in selling the property. In this agenda item, staff explains how they arrived at the mutually-agreeable sale price of $2.8 million. If council approves the sale, then actually completing it may turn out to be complicated, because FAA approval is also needed.​
    
    

Non-Agenda Packet: The following items are requests and communications to the council that are not on the agenda.  This includes staff reports and communications/requests from constituents/developers. Typically the council will ask city staff for more information (a memo), put the item on a future agenda for deliberation and possible action, or just accept the communication (taking no further action). Council generally processes these requests and communications during the agenda portion called "Disposition of Communications to Council."
 

• Ames Main Street Facade Grants.
• Brookridge Parking.
• Caremoli CGA.
• CGA 2nd Email.
• J Dodge - 802 Delaware.
• Req From BBOA - Sign Code.

Boilerplate background: The Ames City Council is your elected city government. Each of the six elected members has an equal vote; in addition, an ex-officio ISU student member participates in deliberations but does not vote. The Mayor presides at Council meetings. The Council's role is not to manage day-to-day operations, but rather to set the city government's policy and priorities, enact and revise city ordinances, and authorize the city's budget including certain taxes and fees. For phone and email contact information, visit https://www.cityofames.org/government/mayor-and-city-council.

Thanks for reading,

David Martin

Ward 3 Council Member