Bronwyn's Council Review

As usual for the review, my comments are red and italicized in the context of the latest Council Preview by David Martin.
 

The Ames City Council meets on Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall.  The agenda includes the following. Note that you can generally click on these individual agenda items to get the full staff report or other explanation.

• 30. Hearing regarding adoption of a new Long-Range Comprehensive Plan for the City of Ames (known as Ames Plan 2040). By my count, this will be the 21st Council meeting where we take action or substantially discuss Ames Plan 2040. Following this hearing, Council will vote on whether to formally adopt it. Ames Plan 2040 is the result of outreach activities in the community, huge time investments by City staff (particularly the Planning Department), guidance from our consultants, and engagement with Council. The plan covers community growth and land use, the city environment, parks/trails/greenways, mobility, neighborhoods, subareas, community character, and implementation guidelines, all to set the stage for decision-making in future years. 
  
  (Reminder: Ames Plan 2040 is different than the Climate Action Plan now underway, even though the two plans will certainly overlap and influence each other. Council previously passed a resolution expressing its intent to review and amend Ames Plan 2040 as may be appropriate to be consistent with the Climate Action Plan, once it is developed.)
  
  After a presentation by staff, Council made some minor changes, such as a clarification regarding our fringe area 28E agreement with select neighboring jurisdictions, but we have reviewed this plan over the course of many meetings (as David mentioned above) so there were no major alterations. The Planning & Zoning commission voted unanimously to recommend. Two members of the public spoke on this topic. One said while the Plan showed some progress over prior land use plans, they believed it to still be auto-centric, lacking enough density, and separating uses through zoning. Another resident said that they believed the southwest growth area south of Hwy 30 should not be considered a Tier-2 growth area. Council took no action specific to those two comments. The Ames Plan 2040 passed, 6-0.
  
  

• 31. Hearing on proposed Zoning Text Amendment to the standards for detached garages and accessory buildings and nonconforming structures. This action goes back to a request from a homeowner who would like to rebuild his rather old garage, but isn't permitted to keep the same footprint due to setback requirements enacted in the zoning code after the garage was built. In October, Council deliberated ways to relax our zoning code to allow for this kind of thing while also trying to provide equity between similarly situated property owners (including those who, for example, never had a garage but did have a similar layout where one could go). Council discussed this thoroughly and voted on a set of changes. Staff reviewed them and brought them to the Planning and Zoning Commission for their own deliberations. Together, staff and the Planning and Zoning Commission recommend additional setback changes to further relax the requirements beyond what Council previously discussed. Now it's up to us to decide which set of changes to pass into law.
  
  This one may not seem like much, but it is quite significant for properties in the older parts of town and their ability to rebuild or build accessory buildings (like garages, sheds, etc.). Prior to this text amendment, if you had a garage beside your house but very close to a neighboring property line, you wouldn't have been able to rebuild it without moving it 8 ft from the property line, which is infeasible for many properties in town. Now, you can rebuild a garage where it stands, or you can even build a new accessory building 3 ft from the property line. Planning and Zoning voted 3-2 to recommend to Council, Council voted 6-0 to approve.

• 32. Future Status of the School Resource Officer (SRO) Program in the Ames Community School District (ACSD). For those of you interested in this issue, I strongly recommend you click through this item to read the entire report. Some excerpts follow:
  
  “As emphasized in the May 28, 2019, Council Action Form regarding the expansion of the SRO program, ‘The School Resource Officer is not a security officer for the schools.’”
  
  “With the return to full-time, in-house classes in August, the ACSD has faced challenges in maintaining a stable and safe learning environment for all of its students. It should be emphasized that these challenges are not unique to the ACSD and are being experienced by many school districts throughout the country. As a result, at the request of the ACSD administrators our SROs have spent more time during the recent months helping to restore order and enforcing ACSD rules than interacting with students in more positive ways to create trusting relationships.”
  
  “Realizing that this change in focus might not be meeting the needs of both parties, administrators from the City and ACSD have been discussing the future vision for the SROs. It has become apparent from our discussions that the primary goals for the SRO program for each party are diverging. The ACSD administrators believe that they have made the necessary changes in staffing and procedures to re-establish a stable learning environment and have reached the point where they would like to try other techniques and resources in lieu of the utilizing Police Officers in the schools to serve the emotional and safety needs of the students.”
  
  Again, please click on this agenda item linked above for the complete report. I understand that the ACSD School Board will be deliberating this issue as well during their Monday, December 13 meeting. 
  
  Council voted 6-0 to allow this SRO contract with the Ames Community School District to expire June 30, 2022.

• 33. XENIA Water Service Territory. One significant constraint on growing the footprint of Ames to accommodate the 15,000 or so new residents expected by 2040 is the availability of water. While the City's water utility has a lot of capacity, the City isn't permitted to serve new areas outside of its legally established water service territory, except by agreement with the current rural water service providers. This agenda item lays out a proposed agreement that City staff has negotiated with the Xenia Rural Water District. The deal is complicated and full of trade-offs, but it does provide a probably-affordable way to ensure that new neighborhoods end up with infrastructure that's up to City standards, including pressure and volume for firefighting—even when the water is not itself provided by the City. Since Council previously approved this agreement in principle, Xenia and the USDA have requested a couple of changes that don't seem to be showstoppers. Council is now being asked for formal approval.
  
  This item passed 6-0.

• 34. Motion directing City Attorney to prepare Draft Ordinance on establishing the map of new wards and precincts. Due to cascading delays tracing back to delayed Census results, Council has to act quickly to adopt new compliant precincts and wards under state law. Drawing ward maps has a similar set of restrictions as congressional redistricting, including that consideration shall not be given to incumbent officeholders, political affiliations, etc., and that wards shall be composed of contiguous territory as compact as practicable. Story County proposed the map below last week. City staff have also prepared two alternative maps that Council could consider as well. Whatever Council decides, we'll have to schedule at least one special meeting to get the required ordinances adopted in time.
  
  Council voted 6-0 to move forward with the map prepared by the County Auditor. It is prohibited to consider demographics or incumbents' residency when deciding how to re-draw ward maps. Council members who no longer live in the ward they were elected to represent would face elections in two years.
  
  
   

• 35. Resolution approving City of Ames participation in the National Opioid Settlement, and approving the National Opioid Settlement Agreements, and the Agreement among the state of Iowa and local government entities. The Story County Board of Supervisors recently voted to take part in this national settlement and asked the City of Ames if we wish to participate as well. Participating is apparently guaranteed to increase the amount of funding coming to the State and County, and may provide for funds to be sent directly to the City of Ames as well. All funds are to be used for purposes of opioid abatement and prevention. 
  
  This item passed 6-0.

• 36. Resolution approving Restrictive Covenants and Regulations for Single-Family Homes in Baker Subdivision (321 State). The Baker Subdivision will provide for 15 affordable single-family homes, 11 market rate homes, and hopefully one Prairie Fire multi-family development with 36 units (at least 31 affordable). In this item, Council will approve covenants and regulations applying to the land to ensure they'll be used for the intended purposes even after the land is sold to qualifying buyers. This will hopefully allow for housing structures to be constructed starting in spring or summer 2022.
  
  Staff presented the proposed covenants, and Council make two motions before eventually passing the covenants 6-0. The first motion involved asking staff to consider adding an HOA system, which passed 6-0. The second motion was to allow backyard chickens, in addition to dogs, cats, and other common household pets. This motion passed 4-2 (Betcher and Gartin voting Nay).

• 37. Initiation of Voluntary Annexation for 2105 and 2421 Dayton Avenue. The owner of this land has expressed interest in using it to create small industrial lots. Council previously approved designation of this land as "planned industrial" in the Ames Urban Fringe Plan in support of this idea. The owner has now applied for annexation to the City, as expected. Following usual Council policy, we now have an opportunity to approve or deny the application. As staff states, "There are no surrounding properties that are obvious candidates for being included in the annexation and the proposed annexation causes the City’s boundaries to align optimally for more uniform boundaries than current exist in this area."
  
  This item passed 6-0.
  
  

• 38. Budget Issues/Guidelines. This yearly 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. Happily, the federal government has allocated $14,257,623 from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) for Ames. These funds can be used to directly address the pandemic's economic impact in various ways, including replacing lost revenue and investing in water, sewer, and/or broadband infrastructure. The Local Option Sales Tax revenue fund is also doing well this year. 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. 
  
  Staff presented an overview of the financial condition of the City as we head into budget time. The outlook is mostly positive, with hospitality sectors taking a hit from the ongoing pandemic but sales tax and property tax values remaining strong. The City Manager reviewed a list of projects (many relating to the growth tiers from the Ames Plan 2040) that he recommends using ARPA funding for: 
  
  $2,700,000 Sanitary Sewer extension east along 13th Street across Highway 30
  $1,800,000 Water/Sanitary Sewer extension from 580th to 590th 3
  $200,000 City Auditorium HVAC Improvements
  $965,000 Huong/Hunziker Sanitary Sewer Oversizing (West Growth-Tier I & II)
  $3,200,000 South Sanitary Sewer Line (South Growth-Tier I & II)
  $425,000 14” water main down US 69 (South Growth-Tier I & II)
  $220,000 Water main from Wilder to CLR (West Growth-Tier I)
  $965,000 12” Sanitary Sewer Mortensen to Lincoln Way (West Growth-Tier I & II)
  
  Council wasn't asked to approve this list at our meeting, it was just a heads up for what we can expect to see at budget time. Council voted 6-0 to have staff estimate the cost of a pedestrian/bicycle facility on East 13th St. under Hwy 35.
  
  Three items requiring Council action were the allocations for ASSET, COTA, and other outside funding requests (which includes organizations such as Ames Main St., the Historical Society, CAA, and others.) Council voted 5-1 (Gartin voting Nay) to recommend an 8% increase to the ASSET allocation. Council voted 4-2 (myself and Betcher voting Nay) to increase COTA (Commission on the Arts) funding by 12.1%. The Outside Funding requests all totaled $277k, which Council voted 6-0 to approve. Finally, a motion to have staff consider more $ for planting trees passed, 6-0.

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.
 

• Update on Prairie Fire Low Income Housing Tax Credits. This memo explains that, while this affordable multi-family housing development did not receive its requested 9% housing tax credits due in part to disaster (derecho) set-aside projects, alternative funding sources might well provide support at about the 8% level. This included attachment shows the competing projects, with the Ames entry highlighted.
  No action was required on this item.
• RDF reduction. This letter advocates for a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save money on the whole by installing previously discussed sorting equipment and implementing a voluntary plastic recycling program to reduce the load of resource-derived fuel (RDF) that must be burned, thereby reducing our need to run both of our enormous boilers and turbines for generation of electricity.
  Council has undertaken a Waste-to-Energy Audit, so this suggestion will be considered as part of that process.
• Ioway Creek Project Through Brookside Park. This memo from Public Works explains the process underway for outreach on the erosion control project for Ioway Creek in Brookside Park and gives Council an opportunity to intervene if necessary.
  No action was required on this item. Several outreach meetings will be held for the public in Jan/Feb before this project is finalized.

Thanks for reading,
Bronwyn Beatty-Hansen
Ames City Council, At Large