Rental Concentration Limits
The Ames City Council begins at 6:30 PM Feb 24th. The agenda includes:
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Item 13 -- Resolution approving purchase agreement with Story County Habitat for Humanity for property located at 1109 Roosevelt Avenue. This opportunity will make available to low to moderate-income individuals a home in Ames. Habitat for Humanity will improve and sell the property.
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Item 27 -- Discussion of Resident Satisfaction Survey policy questions. The Ames City Council oftentimes uses the Resident Satisfaction Survey to discover perceptions and priorities of the community. Council receives input primarily from special interests. On some issues it is very enlightening to touch base directly with Ames residents.
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Item 28 -- Motion directing staff to prepare RFP for disposition of City-owned lots at 519- to 601-6th Street in connection with City's Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program. Another effort at achieving one of the council's current goals: affordable rental housing. The RFP is proposed to allow for medium density and there will be neighborhood outreach to ensure such a use is well understood by those most impacted and to learn from those residents living nearest the properties.
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Item 29 -- Staff Report on Rental Concentration Limits for Low-Density Zones. Low-density zones (RL) are intended and designed for a certain amount of activity. Many residents in the community live in low-density neighborhoods. When homes in these neighborhoods are utilized for rental property, it allows those with limited financial resources to avail themselves of this experience at a lower cost than home ownership and with a shorter-term commitment. However, if many homes in a neighborhood transition from owner occupied to rental housing, the level of activity initially anticipated becomes much larger. Hunt Street is the archetype in our story for this kind of neighborhood. The balance on Hunt is such that most in search of a low-density neighborhood experience, renters and owners alike, will not find it there, even though that is the intent behind the current zoning. While there are opportunities for such intense uses in medium density housing (RM) the transition to a more dense use on Hunt has taken place without zoning changes or public conversation. As rental-housing pressure increases in the Ames community with enrollment at Iowa State University and as the state legislature considers nullifying the current occupancy ordinance that has achieved neighborhood alance in the City of Ames for the past decade, the council should consider the impacts these pressures could have on the balance in our oldest and most unique neighborhoods. Tonight's conversation should be about maintaining the option of such balanced neighborhoods in our community to the benefit of all residents, owner and renters alike.
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Item 30 -- Staff Report on Right-of-Way Improvements. The council will discuss how allowing undeveloped properties in Ames to wait until full development to deploy infrastructure such as, streetlights, sidewalks and bike paths creates challenges for the entire community that can last for decades. The absence of sidewalks and bike paths on sections of Stange road in the past 15 years, is one of the most noteworthy examples.
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Item 31 -- Hearing on rezoning of property at 710 South Duff Avenue from Agricultural (A) to Highway-Oriented Commercial (HOC). Another redevelopment opportunity in the floodplain on South Duff.
Thanks for reading,
Matthew Goodman
City Council At-Large
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