​	David's Council Preview

The Ames City Council meets on Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. on Zoom.

The evening starts off with a joint meeting of the Ames Human Relations Commission and the Ames City Council. The single agenda item is the Presentation of the 2019 Annual Report.

A meeting of the Ames Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (AAMPO) Transportation Policy Committee follows directly afterwards. Its single agenda item is the Review of Scored Project Ranking and Funding Summary for the 2045 Metropolitan Transportation Plan. At the previous AAMPO meeting, staff explained the process leading to identification of the projects in the draft Metropolitan Transportation Plan. These projects now have high-level cost estimates and have been placed into priority tiers. During this meeting, the policy committee has an opportunity to request further information on projects or change individual project priorities. The image below is a map of the identified bicycle and pedestrian projects, color-coded for priority. The roadway projects for motorized vehicles are shown in a separate map. (Spoiler: adding turn lanes at 13th and Grand Ave. is considered to be a high priority!)

On to the regular City Council meeting. The agenda includes:
 

• 28. Staff Report on Delinquent Utility Accounts related to COVID-19. Now that the COVID-19 CDBG federal funding source that Council dedicated towards utilities, rent, and mortgage payments for qualifying applicants is up and running, and delinquent utility account balances have reached about $750,000, the City is planning to resume its delinquent account process. Once a utility account is identified as delinquent, the City will attempt to contact the customer with a notice of delinquency. If the customer doesn't respond, the City will post a shut-off notice at the service address. The City will also attempt to contact the customer by telephone. The City utility will disconnect services only when the customer fails to respond to all notifications, leaving the City uninformed as to the customer's ability or intention to pay for their usage. The City wants to work with its customers in need. The City will help make customers aware of other financial resources, such as the CDBG program, the Bridge Home (formerly the Emergency Residence Project), Good Neighbor, LIHEAP, and others. In addition, the City will try to arrange a payment plan over 12 months (6 months in some repeating situations). If the City does ultimately have to cut off service, it almost always shuts off electrical service only, even when the utility bill also covers water and sewer fees.
  
  Unfortunately, a late-announced rule from HUD is complicating the use of the COVID-19 CDBG funds for utility payments. It sounds like the federal government will happily let us direct CDBG money to privately-owned utilities, but the rules don't let cities direct CDBG funds to their own utilities, even though it's the qualifying customer's fees at issue. The City is seeking a waiver to remove this obstacle. In the meantime, the City is recommending that the utility shut-off moratorium continue for those customers who have been identified to meet the CDBG program requirements until the problem can be resolved.
   
• 29. Staff Report regarding sidewalk construction for Bricktowne Development. Council discussed this issue on August 18 but did not make a final decision. Here's the recap: the City has halted issuing building permits for Bricktowne due to the lack of sidewalks required by a 2017 agreement. In this item, the developer requests that City Council waive the sidewalk requirement due to conditions of the ditch in the right-of-way and because the sidewalks in question do not connect to other areas.
   
• 30. Request of Verbio to annex to the City of Nevada. Ames City staff is recommending that Council approve the request to allow Verbio to annex the "Evergreen Lane" parcel near the old Dupont plant to Nevada. Due to a joint no-annexation agreement between the cities that covers this area, some extra steps would be required to allow this to proceed.
  
  
   
• 31. Resolution approving private Water Main Agreement between Harvester Land Holdings, LC, and Dickson and Luann Jensen for uses on the seven existing lots. In this item, the property owners have asked to connect City water to a private water main to serve their lots just south of the city limits. The proposed agreement sets out the rights and responsibilities of the parties and ensures that the private water main will be upgraded to city standards if the property is ever annexed to Ames. As is usually the case when a contract appears on an agenda, the owners have already signed the contract; only Council approval is required to proceed.
  
  
   
• 32. Hearing on the Domani property located at 2200 Oakwood Road. A developer requests rezoning for a 24-acre Planned Residence District (PRD) with 63 residential lots at 2200 Oakwood Road, extending to the south. One of the unusual aspects of this project is that many of the homes will be built right at the property line on one side (that's the "zero-lot-line"), creating a series of side-yard patio/courtyards. See p. 40 of the item for an illustration. The Planning and Zoning Commission and City Staff recommend approval with a number of additional conditions.
  
  
• 33. Hearing on 2017/18 Main Street Pavers (Clark to Burnett). Happily, bids for this portion of the Main Street Pavers project have come in a little below estimate, including the desired existing curved pattern that recalls the historical rail lines. This project has been coordinated with the Ames Main Street organization and the City's Public Art Commission. 

Non-Agenda Packet: The following items are requests and communications to the council that are not on the agenda for full discussion.  This includes staff reports and communications or requests from constituents and 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.
 

• Gift card memo. At our previous meeting, Council asked staff to gather information regarding a proposal to distribute gift cards as rewards to people who are observed adhering to the face covering ordinance.
• MetroNet service to Kingman Road and Ironwood neighborhoods. In 2018, Council adopted a goal to explore improvements in Internet service in Ames; that work is ongoing. In 2019, the private fiber Internet company MetroNet announced its plans to offer competitive service throughout Ames, although the exact locations for service were yet to be determined. As MetroNet's build-out progressed, Council became aware that two somewhat isolated residential neighborhoods (Kingman Road and Ironwood) were missing from their construction maps. Thanks to the City's outreach, it appears that a technical solution may be feasible allowing MetroNet service to be constructed to both neighborhoods.   
• Rose Prairie Opportunity. The president and members of the Friends of Ada Hayden Heritage Park recommend acquiring Rose Prairie property to the west of the existing park to address runoff problems, to improve water quality through more appropriate vegetation and land use, and to expand the existing park.

Thanks for reading,
David Martin
Ames City Council, Ward 3

P.S. The continued uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic makes mail-in voting in the November general election a compelling option. If you live in Story County and would like to vote by mail, you can fill out and mail in a postage paid mail in ballot request form.  If you live outside of Story County, look for the correct information via the Iowa Secretary of State's absentee ballot site.
 

And if you're not registered to vote -- the November election will be here before you know it! You can register to vote or update your voter registration online using your Iowa a driver’s license or ID number at Iowa Secretary of State website.  Those without a drivers's license or ID number can get forms and information here https://www.storycountyiowa.gov/638/Voter-Information-Forms.