David's Council Preview

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

• 29. Discussion with ASSET Volunteers regarding FY 2022-23 ASSET Priorities. Ames participates in the ASSET process to send a portion of the City's local option sales tax to human services providers. In the current 2021-2022 fiscal year, the total amount of City money allocated to ASSET is $1,601,093. The City relies on a team of ASSET volunteers to allocate that pot of money to individual programs using the City Council-approved ASSET funding priorities. Now that the county-wide Community Needs Assessment has been completed, our volunteers are recommending some corresponding updates to the City's ASSET priorities for the next fiscal year. The recommendations include a higher priority for mental health initiatives and the introduction of priorities that specifically concern suicide prevention and financial literacy and education.
• 30. Downtown Plaza. The City previously contracted with Confluence, Inc. to develop a conceptual design for a new downtown plaza next to City Hall. The design presented to Council on January 26 was very well received, and the City is now proposing that we engage Confluence to perform a full design of the plaza and manage its construction, rather than bidding out these services. The time savings involved in continuing with the same firm could allow for construction of the plaza in Summer 2022. 
• 31. Downtown Reinvestment District Urban Renewal Area and Plan. On June 25, the Iowa Economic Development Commission approved provisional Reinvestment District funding of up to $10 million towards the concept outlined in Ames's proposal. To qualify for these funds, the City must designate an appropriate Urban Renewal Area (URA) and Plan (URP)—and that's what this agenda item does. Establishing the URA and URP doesn't obligate the city to undertake any particular projects, but it does allow the City to issue related bonds and establish related TIF districts, in addition to being required for the Reinvestment District funds. The proposed URA map is shown below.
  
  
• 32. Motion directing staff regarding the issuing process for General Obligation Bonds relating to the Indoor Aquatic Center. After accounting for $9 million in outside contributions and $10 million of anticipated Reinvestment District income, it looks like the proposed aquatic center will require about $11 million in public borrowing. That's a substantial reduction over the $19 million bond measure previously requested for the Healthy Life Center (HLC). In addition, the Aquatic Center is being planned for a much more central location than the HLC, and it won't include a gymnasium, weight/cardio room, or other amenities that might compete with those at private fitness facilities. 

  
  At our last meeting, Council agreed to decide tonight whether to schedule an election to gauge voter support for the bonds needed to pay for construction of the aquatic center, or alternatively, to authorize the bonds based on the new URA designation (see item #31 above), understanding that a qualifying "reverse referendum" petition could compel a public vote as well.
  
  Personally, I'm in favor of not relying on a public election up front, for at least these reasons: (1) the City has responded to the HLC vote loss by isolating the aquatic center component and moving it to a better location, and this addresses some of the main objections raised about the HLC; (2) the $10 million Reinvestment District funding requires establishment of an URA, and yes, we do want that $10 million; (3) Iowa law treats URA bonds as "essential corporate purpose" and does not call for a public vote unless triggered by a petition; and (4) while the earliest practical date for an election is in November, our municipal indoor pool of the past 50 years is to be demolished in 2022, and the longer we wait, the more expensive it will be to replace. 

• 33. Staff Report regarding addressing the need for small industrial lots. Earlier this year, Council received a letter from a property owner and developer proposing the creation of a TIF district for new small-sized industrial lots on their land off of Dayton Ave. Approving this would amount to a dedication of new property tax received here towards construction costs or some form of developer rebate rather than being used for ordinary City purposes (streets, public safety, etc.). In response, City staff examined available land within Ames and concluded that "there is very limited land remaining for small scale industrial uses in Ames that are practical and cost effective for development. While the aggregate amount of total unbuilt GI zoned land seems generous when viewed altogether, a closer look reveals that empty small-scale industrial land outside of the floodplain and along paved streets is quite limited." This is illustrated in the diagram below, which shows small unbuilt industrial lots that are outside of the floodplain. But rather than going with the first development proposal that arrived, staff recommends that Council initiate a competitive bidding process with proposals describing the size of the development, cost of infrastructure, timing, planned uses, and level of City subsidy for a TIF infrastructure project. After all, it may be that other land in town would be a better fit to Ames's needs than this one.
  
  
• 34. Motion authorizing initiation of application for Voluntary Annexation of land located along North 500th Avenue north of Lincoln Way. Council discussed this annexation request in June. The developer intends to develop single-family detached homes on this property within the next two years. Staff has reached out to the neighboring property owners with frontage on N. 500 St., who report that they do not wish to join the voluntary annexation. The main question for Council tonight is whether to proceed with the voluntary annexation only, or to also include the non-consenting neighboring property owners in an 80%/20% annexation, as we recently did with some nearby Lincoln Way property. In any case, Council's action tonight will only set the boundaries to be used at the beginning of the annexation process and does not itself complete an actual annexation to the City. 
  
  
• 35. Resolution pledging up to $246,000 of local monies to be used to meet the minimum local match requirement of the FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Application for the Well Field Standby Power Project. Emergency backup power for our water wells was scheduled into our Capital Improvements Plan even before the derecho hit last year, but that catastrophe really accentuated the risk. When we lost our well power and kept drawing down water from our towers, we came within mere hours of our spigots simply running dry in Ames. Follow this link for a stirring and detailed recap of this crisis and our City staff's amazing response. Anyway, yes, let's improve our emergency power supply for well water.
• 36. First passage of ordinance amending Urban Deer Management Program regarding reporting requirement. Council previously agreed with staff's recommendation that urban deer management reports should be produced every 5 years rather than annually; this ordinance implements that change.

Communications to Council: The following items are requests and communications to Council that aren't published on the agenda, so we won't deliberate them substantially.  This includes staff reports and communications or requests from constituents and developers. Typically, Council will ask city staff for more information, put the item on a future agenda for deliberation and possible action, or just accept the communication, taking no further action. 
 

• Parking at Former Tribune Building. The new owners of the old Tribune building downtown are contemplating its use as a performance venue and ask Council to adjust parking requirements to make that practical.

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