David's Council Preview

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

• 27. Motion Approving Request for Proposals for Climate Action Plan Scope of Services. One of Council's goals is to complete a Climate Action Plan. To do this, we'll engage a consultant partner to undertake the required research and collaboration with staff, Council, and the broader community. The draft RFP in this agenda item explains the process we have in mind while spelling out the role for the consultant. Approving an RFP allows the City to advertise the job to potential bidders. When the bids come in, we'll hopefully be able to choose the best fit among a number of qualified consultants.
• 28. Motion Approving Request for Proposals for the Waste-to-Energy Options Study Scope of Services. This is also a draft RFP seeking a consultant. In this case, the consultant will be asked to help us evaluate options for improving our waste-to-energy system currently operated at the Resource Recovery Plant and Electrical Plant.
• 29. Staff Report Regarding Iowa Reinvestment District Program. The Iowa Reinvestment District Program allows approved civic projects to designate a geographical Urban Renewal Area to capture and retain sales tax that would normally be sent directly to the state. City staff and our partners at the Ames Economic Development Commission feel that Ames should consider applying for this competitive program. There are a number of conditions that would have to be met for success, but over a 20-year period, it might provide over $10 million towards an indoor aquatic center that would otherwise have to be funded primarily by property tax. Due to proximity constraints, the only plausible location for the aquatics facility in this scheme is at 122 North Oak Avenue, across Lincoln Way from the Iowa Department of Transportation (which currently owns the land)... centrally located and on Cy-Ride.
  
  The current municipal pool is slated to be demolished in early 2022, and replacing it is a Council priority. If Council decides to support this application, then the City must move very quickly to get everything ready in time for the application deadline in February. So, what do you think? Take a look at the agenda item. If you have opinions, let us know as soon as possible. There is not likely to be a public referendum on this; rather, it's going to come down to a series of Council votes, with the first being on Tuesday night. 

• 31. Special Request for Urban Revitalization Tax Abatement in 2021 from 311 Ash Avenue (Farmhouse Fraternity). Although Farmhouse Fraternity completed work on their property qualifying for Urban Revitalization tax abatement in 2016, they didn't file an application for the abatement within the required period after project completion. They're now asking Council to approve an exception allowing them to benefit from the remaining seven years of the ten-year abatement schedule. 

• 32. Staff Report Regarding Outreach Related to Small Lots and Increasing Housing Type Diversity. In June, Council considered a staff report on "Small Lots and Increasing the Diversity of Housing Types." We expressed interest in (1) simply decreasing the minimum lot size in residential zones and (2) creating a new Planned Urban Development overlay that would allow developers flexibility to propose sensible combinations of lot sizes and other housing characteristics. Staff has reported on a meeting with local developers on these issues and is looking for direction on next steps: essentially whether to draft some combination of zoning changes/additions now, or to hold a workshop to dive deeper into the topics. 

• 33. Staff Report Regarding Cameras in Campustown. "In 2017, the City Council directed staff to proceed with a concept for the installation of security cameras in Campustown. This decision was reached following a series of staff reports provided to the Council dating back to 2011 regarding camera technologies, operations, and policies." The cameras were to be owned by the City but operated by non-police personnel at Iowa State University, as a compromise to address community concerns about real-time monitoring by police. However, since 2017, various incidents have occurred in Campustown whose investigations might have been aided through the use of cameras, and staff is additionally expressing concern that housing the recordings at ISU may lead to unacceptable investigation delays. 
  
  Therefore, staff is now recommending that the Ames Police Department operate the surveillance cameras and maintain its recordings. The draft policy states that cameras "may be placed in strategic locations throughout the City to detect and deter crime, to help safeguard against potential threats to the public, to help manage emergency response situations during natural and man-made disasters and to assist City officials in providing services to the community" while also stating that "Video surveillance in public areas will be conducted in a legal and ethical manner while recognizing and protecting constitutional standards of privacy." The cameras will not record sound. The policy also states "Systems such as gunshot detection, incident mapping, crime analysis, and other video-based analytical systems may be considered based upon availability and the nature of department strategy." There are many other interesting items in the draft policy. I'm not aware of any of previous Council deliberation of the policy at this level. It should be an interesting discussion.

• 34. Hearing on an Amendment to the Annexation Moratorium Agreement with the City of Nevada. This item effectively permits Nevada to annex 100 acres of County land near the Verbio property, while otherwise extending our city annexation moratorium with Nevada for another ten years.

• 35. Revisions to Short-term Rentals Necessitated by a New State Law that Prohibits Local Governments from Regulating Short-term Rentals Differently from Other Residential Uses. This is one of those areas where City staff and Council did a lot of work to craft appropriate policy for our community, and then the state legislature decided they knew better and made our ordinances illegal. (By the way, here's a hat tip to our state legislative delegation — Senator Quirmbach and Representatives Wessel-Kroeschell and Wilburn — for voting to preserve local control on this; unfortunately, they were outnumbered.) The revised ordinances below adhere to the new state law and otherwise incorporate, to the extent possible, the policies we had previously determined for short-term rentals ("Guest Lodging").

  • a. First passage of ordinance amending Chapter 29 (Zoning).

  • b. First passage of ordinance amending Chapter 13 (Rental).

  • c. First passage of ordinance amending Chapter 35 (Guest Lodging).

  • d. Resolution repealing fee for Guest Lodging Licensure

• 41. Budget Issues/Guidelines. This agenda item presents a long and detailed overview of the City's current finances in preparation for budget decisions early next year, along with a report from the Town Budget Meeting and budget requests from other organizations. The City is asking for Council direction on select components of the budget (e.g., overall funding levels for human services and arts) and any further general funding or service level direction.

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."
 

• Downtown Parking Requirements. This staff report responds to a Council request to explore possibilities to reduce parking requirements for small residential developments downtown. Council will decide whether to explore this possibility further as a full agenda item.
• Mediacom Rate Increase. Mediacom sent this letter to the City announcing their rate increases mainly affecting TV subscribers. The letter also includes commentary on industry trends and information about some of their lower-cost Internet services.

Thanks for reading,

David Martin

Ames City Council, Ward 3