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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-07-03 Transcription#2 Page 1 ITEM 2 FLOODING COMMENTS AND INPUT. Bailey: I believe that we'll just start with public comment. I understand there will probably be more correspondence coming in and we'll just accept that in one motion. So this is an opportunity for public comment regarding flooding issues. If you have a comment to make to the Council, please step to the podium, state your name for the record, and limit your comments to five minutes or less. McGuire: Thank you, uh, City Council, Iowa City Council Members, uh, giving us a chance to talk today. My name's Steve McGuire and I am, uh, one of those Parkview Terrace, uh, neighborhood folks. We have as a group come together and we've done this actually pre-flood, uh, in putting together the sandbags, uh, and...and the like, and we're moving forward, and we actually...I'd like to begin with just a note of appreciation for a number of folks. Steve Miller, who many of you know, uh, made an outstanding contribution, both to the City and to our neighborhood. I work with Steve from the morning, uh, about 6:00 I'd see him in the morning, at midnight, uh, I would go back to bed and he may still be in the neighborhood. Steve worked incredibly hard throughout the week. Accompanying Steve were a number of folks who, uh, I'm really proud to have, uh, to...make me proud to be part of this city. A lot of times people say those bureaucrats just don't understand what it is that, uh, that we're going through. The response from (noise on mic, unable to hear) so I'd like to note David Wilson; he's done a tremendous job in his response. Rick Fosse, who's here. I mentioned Steve Miller. Jeff Davidson actually has apprised the City Council, and us, of what the procedures are for, uh, what is termed a FEMA buyout, the HMG funds. Norm Cate who has done just about everything with quick response to facilitate both the cleanup and then the...then the sandbagging initially. Tim Hennes, the City inspector, has been outstanding. Those people who were in attendance the other night, uh, saw, uh, their questions answered. Julie Talman, unbelievably consistent, straight-forward, uh, correspondence throughout, and then finally Michael Lombardo, who very quickly has learned a lot about Iowa City, and I am so glad that you guys chose to hire him. Okay. We have a petition, as many of you are aware, and I'll read that petition and then I'll deliver it, uh, to you folks, so that you've got everybody's signature. Whereas we are homeowners of the Parkview Terrace neighborhood, who've been devastated by recent flooding, and whereas we believe that the development and water management projects from urban and agricultural land upstream, the loss of Coralville Reservoir capacity as cited by the Corps, and regional, global climatology have increased the likelihood of flooding in what has historically been identified as the 100 and 500-year flood plain make it impossible to adequately protect our neighborhood from risk of future flooding. Whereas we believe our ethical and fiscal responsibility as citizens of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Special Formal meeting of July 3, 2008. #2 Page 2 Iowa City requires we not rebuild our homes in the neighborhood we have lived and loved. We understand...we the undersigned, uh, homeowners of Parkview Terrace neighborhood respectfully request that the Iowa City Council make application to the Hazard Mitigation Grant project available to the State as part of the most recent Presidential Disaster Declaration, to fund voluntary buyout of homes in Parkview, uh, Neighborhood Terrace, to expand Lower City Park. I believe that we have around 70% of the neighborhood. I think there are around 136 homes, uh, those signatures are on here, but I will say that because we're scattered about, we are still in pursuit of those people, uh, who are in different locations throughout the city. Thank you very much, and uh, I will say that we will help you in any capacity that we can from the minutest detail to being strategic, as you make a difficult decision and help the city move forward. Bailey: Thanks, Steve. Others wishing...who wish to comment, regarding flood matters? Step to the podium and limit your comments to five minutes or less, please. Linder: My name is Marc Linder. I'm representing Roberta Till Retz, uh, who lives at 605 Manor, who is undergoing surgery at this very moment. I just wanted to provide a little bit of historical background, uh, for the Council. The land on which the, uh, Parkview Terrace neighborhood is now located was a cornfields in the 1950's, cornfields on which large lakes formed every spring. The land was not even annexed by the City until the (noise on mic, unable to hear) it was, uh, part of, uh, unincorporated Johnson County. In the, uh, late 50's the owner offered to sell the, uh, land to the City for $75,000 as a golf course. The City declined, and uh, a little bit later he sold it to another group, including a, uh, construction company which then, uh, proceeded with, uh, requesting approval of platting and subdivision. The, um, during the run-up to this City Council decision on June 16, 1959, the Iowa City Planning and Zoning Commission was very concerned about the, uh, the use of this land and uh, on October 13, 1958, directed a communication to the Mayor and the Council, uh, about the flood plain, which is the subject, according to the Commission, that has caused it considerable anxiety, uh, and it is presented at this time because we are now being asked to consider a change of zoning for an area adjacent to the Iowa River that will be flooded in the future. It goes on to say this is not a new problem, but a very old one, and the operation of the Coralville Dam, which had just been built, will control most of the seasonal fluctuations and short periods of high water and low-ground flooding; however, the engineering data showed that in certain, uh, conditions of natural runoff from the drainage basin produced floods beyond the capacity control of the reservoir. And they go on to say that a degree of complacency has developed in Iowa City by a lack of understanding of the flood history of the Iowa River (noise on mic, unable to hear) possible by the Coralville Dam. There is no question of the value This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Special Formal meeting of July 3, 2008. #2 Page 3 and importance of the dam in alleviating the situation, reducing the hazards; however, we could be charged with a culpable lack of foresight if we did not call to your attention that certain hazards yet remain. The growth of Iowa City and the urge to use vacant land on, uh, close proximity to the University makes the old problem a critical one for solution in the near future. Four days before the, uh, Council voted on the, uh, the platting and the subdivision, the Zoning...Planning and Zoning Commission directed another communication to the Council on the proposed Parkview Terrace subdivision, uh, stating, and I quote: In view of the location of the proposed subdivision on the flood plain of the Iowa River with its vulnerability to high ground level waters, wash from surrounding bluffs and even possible flooding on rare occasions, it is believed that this area is not suitable for residential development. The Council, nevertheless, approved the subdivision, uh, four days later and the platting, although there were some changes made later. That summer, that same summer, and I haven't gotten to the bottom yet of this quid pro quo, that same summer, the same people who...who developed this land sold 27.1 acres to the City for $500 an acre to extend City Park. City Park did not, uh, extend as far as it does today, uh, and the City contiguous to the, uh, to the residential area now, and the City then went ahead with that. My conclusion from reading part of this historical record is that the City got it right in 1959 in buying the land for the Park. You got it wrong to approve the, uh, the neighborhood back then. It's even more catastrophically wrong today, and I would really hope that a connection with the FEMA buyout (noise on mic, unable to hear) uh, return the residential part of this land to City Park. Thank you. Bailey: Thank you, Marc. Jones: I'm Douglas Jones. I live at 816 Park Road. It's just (noise on mic, unable to hear) Parkview Terrace, very much a "mosquito flats," now that the mosquitoes are breeding so vigorously in the area. Uh, in...I've made a handout here that you should all have copies of, and it's also available from the, uh, PVT Flood Response web site under post-flood alternatives. Uh, and I've tried to outline some of the options. In talking to people who were involved with the development of Parkview Terrace, and uh, some of them are still around. I ate lunch with the wife of one of the developers, uh, only two weeks ago. Uh, I learned that there had been a second exit planned for the neighborhood when it was originally developed. I think that any attempt to do a cost benefit analysis on the buyout has to include that the alternative to the buyout includes fixing things that were done wrong in the development that simply should never have been done. One of them is the lack of a second exit. Trying to evacuate at 2:00 A.M. a neighborhood of 128 or 130, 140 houses through a street which actually has its low spot near the exit is utterly absurd. There should be a second exit and I think any attempt to, uh, to keep the subdivision in operation This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Special Formal meeting of July 3, 2008. #2 Page 4 should involve building a second exit. I put a map in here, it's the third page of the handout, taken from the County, uh, GIS online. Where I drew in the three obvious second exits, two of them connect Granada Court and would require acquiring at least one house each in order to get road access to Granada Court from...from uphill. The two I've proposed, use existing ravines and, uh, and therefore, there...from an engineering point of view, easier to use an existing ravine than to make one, uh, and the third one uses existing public land, and requires a minimum acquisition of private land connecting to Oakridge Street and the end of Manor Drive. And if the...if the buyout isn't done, then I believe that the City must do this, because it's absurd to leave the situation the way it is. Uh, the second issue is storm drainage. We saw during the flood of 1993, and again during the, uh, current flood, backflow through the storm sewers became a significant problem. Of course during the peak when the floodwater overtopped all the, uh, all the attempted sandbag levees, that was irrelevant, but during the run-up to the peak of the flood and during the end of the flood, uh, water was flowing back through storm drains. The attempt at sandbagging the storm drains almost completely failed because it was done wrong, in a way which was very natural, but unfortunately, ineffective. Uh, and then a storm drain was uncovered too soon, so river water rushes in through the storm drain instead of out. Backflow prevention valves of some sort must be installed on the storm drains, in any low-lying neighborhood where someone would be attempted to sandbag to protect the neighborhood. With those backflow prevention valves, pumps can be put in the catch basins of the storm sewers to keep the water level below street level. Without those backflow prevention valves, uh, you end up with enough water to threaten to damage vehicles when they're evacuating. And in fact, I saw at least one City truck blow the heads on its engine trying to go through, trying to suck flood water into its carburetor. It doesn't work very well for engines. Uh, and the final thing is, I really think that Parkview Terrace if it remains as a neighborhood, uh, needs a serious levee, and looking at the alternatives, uh, there's a page that has the alternatives I could come up with. There...they're really four categories of alternatives. One of them is to try to use the existing line that the sandbag levee protected. That line is the, is really the only line that allows existing housing to remain, but if you build a permanent levee along that line, first you block access from the existing houses to the river, and, uh, believe me, a house with the back patio door opening on a mound of dirt that goes up five feet is not a very appealing way to look at a river. Uh, and the second thing is, it's choking the river. Across the street from the downstream end of...of Normandy Drive is a cliff on the opposite bank of the river, and that means that the river has nowhere to spread. If you build a very narrow channel bound by a levee on one side and a cliff on the other side, then the water must go higher in a high flood. The FEMA definition of the floodway is defined in terms of causing no more than aone-foot rise in the flood level in the 100-year This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Special Formal meeting of July 3, 2008. #2 Page 5 flood. Ina 500-year flood, the FEMA defined floodway would probably lead to a rise significantly higher. Anything done in "mosquito flats" that would raise the flood level in the Coralville strip is something which a lot of people would be unhappy with, mainly all those people in the strip in the apartment buildings in Coralville that were flooded. I don't think it's responsible to build...to choke a floodway with a levee. Pulling the levee back from the river means either taking the entire line of houses along Normandy Drive, or pulling the levee back behind those houses. And I show as alternative "C" what strikes me as the most natural alternative, given the existing development pattern of the neighborhood, and that is elevating Normandy Drive along its entire length, parallel to the river, so that the entire pavement of the street is lifted up to a level appropriate for a levee. Actually it's the river side sidewalk of the street would probably be the levee. The storm drainage system on the street would be...would become part of the, uh, the drainage inside the levee, which is very important. Uh, that would almost certainly involve offering buyouts to everyone on the river side of the levee, and I think that's something that the City should simply say the minimum mitigation plan for "mosquito flats" is that...is offering buyouts to everyone on the river side of the levee. That's the minimum. And... Bailey: Doug? Jones: Yes? Bailey: You need to wrap it up. Jones: Oh, thank you! Well, I am wrapped up, except that I, uh, that I...I do believe that we have to look at these alternatives. I hope that someone can come up with better alternatives. I mean, this is an entirely amateur, uh, effort, but I would like, uh, I would like this...I would like to kick off the debate on alternatives, and emphasize that if the alternatives cost more than buying out the neighborhood (noise on mic, unable to hear) fiscally responsible thing to do is buy out the neighborhood. Bailey: Thank you. Other comments? Chappell: My name is Wally Chappell. Good morning to you. Hi, for those of you who we used to know so well. LJh, I'm here with my wife, Karen, tonight, and uh, this morning, um, and we have another proposal for the expansion of City Park, which is namely the Idyllwild development. We reside at 118 Pentire Circle. I believe you have all received a letter from Sally Kline who's the Association President of Idyllwild. Have you all? I know that Dale was at our meeting, uh, the...last week, in which we voted unanimously to seek a buyout form FEMA. I have noticed too that the FEMA buyout has upped the ante to 90%, which may be a help to us. Our This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Special Formal meeting of July 3, 2008. #2 Page 6 particular property has lost its value completely, and probably is not saleable in the future, as you know. The Association agreed to a mold mitigation at a cost of $2 million. Uh, which is about $25,000 a unit, but we personally, Karen and I, cannot afford to rehab either the outside or the inside, which could cost very much, uh, what the property originally cost us. Um, I, uh, also read in the paper this morning that the Cedar Rapids intends to buyout everybody in the 100-year flood plain. The city has announced that. And that Coralville is also buying out Edgewater Drive. So I would urge you to consider a buyout of Idyllwild. Thank you very much. Bailey: Thank you, Wally. Dilkes: I think we probably should just clarify right now that the 90% does not apply to the buyout. That's, uh, relates to public assistance. So we're still at 75% for the FEMA buyout. Bailey: Thank you for clarifying that, Eleanor. Other people who wish to comment? Okay. Um, I would entertain a motion to accept correspondence. Hayek: So moved. Wilburn: Second. Bailey: Moved by Hayek, seconded by Wilburn. All those in favor say aye. Those opposed same sign. Motion carries. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Special Formal meeting of July 3, 2008. #4 Page 7 ITEM 4 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING THE IOWA CITY SMALL BUSINESS FLOOD ASSISTANCE PROGRAM. O'Donnell: Move the resolution. Wright: Second. Bailey: Moved by O'Donnell, seconded by Wright. Discussion? Hayek: Michael, do we have any... any additional. news from the Chamber, in terms of their efforts to come up with. their half? Lombardo: We're in the process of scheduling a meeting to talk it through. Uh, my understanding is that Coralville is also interested in...in a partnership of a program and working through the details of that. This would be our contribution on this end, and we'll work out the details, um, probably early next week would be my guess. Hayek: If...if the 75,000 in Iowa City's CDBG funds is put into that pool and you have a different jurisdiction joining in, is there a way to work around that and.. . Lombardo: I think there's a way, our Economic Development funds certainly will remain in Iowa City, and as would Coralville's funds, but uh, the contribution from broader organizations -we'll work out acost-share type plan, or, uh, or in the review process come up with the protocol for that. Hayek: Thank you. Bailey: Other discussions? Go ahead, Amy. Correia: ...flood related cleanup include, um, the rebuild? We want businesses to reopen. That was (mumbled) part of the (mumbled) within six to twelve months, and be open for the next eighteen months. Lombardo: The guidelines are purposely broad so they can apply them to any flood- related cost associated with cleaning up and getting inspections done, so that they can get reopened. Correia: Okay. Bailey: Other questions? Okay. (several talking) Okay, roll call. Item carries 7- 0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Special Formal meeting of July 3, 2008. #5 Page 8 ITEM 5 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO ENTER INTO A LEASE FOR SPACE FOR TAE ANIMAL CARE AND ADOPTION CENTER. Wright: Move the resolution. Wilburn: Second. Bailey: Moved by Wright, seconded by Wilburn. Discussion? Correia: Are we...is this, um, the relocation...relocation of that animal control center, would this apply...would we be able to apply to FEMA public assistance for reimbursement for temporary relocation and cleanup? Lombardo: My understanding is it would, um, but, I'm not sure what the percentage, what category it would fall under, but I would believe that it would (mumbled) Correia: So we'll be including that in any application that we have for public assistance. Bailey: Were there other comments or questions? Champion: I was just wondering if there was any idea where this would be? Lombardo: We're presently negotiating on a site, um, the terms, uh, some details to work out. Hopefully it's going to work out, but I guess I'd rather not announce until we know we have something secure. Bailey: Well, at least that's good news. Other discussion? Roll call. Item carries 7-0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Special Formal meeting of July 3, 2008.