HomeMy WebLinkAbout1997-09-09 AgendaSubject to change as finalized by the City Clerk. For a final official copy, contact the City Clerk's Office, 356-5040.
AGENDA
~,~ Citl/of'
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
September 9, 1997 - 7:00 p.m.
Civic Center
ITEM NO. 1.
ITEM NO. 2.
ITEM NO. 3.
CALL TO ORDER.
ROLL CALL.
MAYOR'S PROCLAMATIONS.
a, Lenity vonBeek Day - September 9
b. Good Neighbor~te~
c. Constitution Wee(~mber 17~~~,~
CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED
OR AMENDED.
a. Approval of Official Council Actions of the special meetings of
August 29 and September 2 and the regular meeting of August 26 as
published, subject to corrections, as recommended by the City Clerk.
b. Minutes of Boards and Commissions.
(1) Planning and Zoning Commission - August 21
(2) Riverfront and Natural Areas Commission - July 16
(3) Iowa City Airport Commission - July 17
(4) Board of Adjustment - August 13
(5) Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission - July 8
(6) Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission - August 12
c. Permit Motions and Resolutions as Recommended by the City Clerk.
(1) Consider a motion approving a Class C Beer Permit for FAP
Enterprises, Inc., dba Gasby's, 1310 S. Gilbert St. (Renewal)
(2) Consider a motion approving a Class C Beer Permit for T&M Mini
Mart, Ltd., dba T&M Mini mart, 2601 Hwy 6 E. (Renewal)
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ITEM NO. 2a MAYOR'S PROCLAMATION -- Leny vonBeek Day ~ September 9
Nov/
We have Mayor's Proclamations for Item #2, however I'm going to interject a
reminder for those of you at home who have not yet voted for the School Board
election. Our polls are open till 8:00 p.m. If you haven't done it, please go vote.
Our first proclamation is Leny vmtBeek Day. (Reads Leny vonBeek Day
Proclamation).
Marian Karr/ Madam Mayor, Leny vonBeek is here this evening.
Council/ Welcome.
Kubby/ Good to meet you.
vo~zBeek/ Thank you. I thaltk you so much for the honor after so many years. I
appreciate it very, very much. In that time my eldest children have studied here,
too, at Coe College, Cedar Rapids, and all three of my children have been here
several times. So, the friendship can go on. Thank you very much.
Nov/ Thaitic you.
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meeting of September 9, 1997.
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#2b page 1
ITEM NO. 2b MAYOR'S PROCLAMATION -- Good Neighbor Day - September 10
Nov/ (Reads Good Neighbor Day Proclamation).
Karr/ Madam Mayor, Debbie Eicher is here this evening to accept.
Debbie Eicher/ I just wanted to invite all of the City Council members and everyone in
our community to visit our stores tomorrow. We've been working hard checking
in 15,000 roses which we will be giving away free starting at 8:00 a.m. at all four
locations. And I'm really looking forward to it, because it's going to be more fun
handing them out than it is getting my fingers all prickled, which is why I only
shook one hand today. So, thank you very much.
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ITEM NO. 2c MAYOR'S PROCLAMATION- Constitution Week- September 17-23
Nov/ (Reads Constitution Week Proclamation). Well, we have a copy of the
Constitution that looks like it's on ahnost parchment. Thank you.
Sabrina Alberhasky/ Pilgrim Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution is
very appreciative of the proclamation of September 17th through the 23rd as
Constitution Week. It will be framed and displayed at our Constitution Week
meeting, which observes the 210th anniversary of the signing of the document.
Thank you Mrs. Mayor. The national society, Daughters of the American
Revolution, was founded in 1890, by four women, two southern and two northern,
when the Sons of the American Revolution rejected their application for
membership. Their goal was to heal the terrible wounds still bleeding from the
Civil War. The founders believed that a call to a common bond, the ancestors
who fought together in the Revolutionary War to liberate us and found our
country, would be a unifying, healing process. The DAR objectives are: historic
preservation -- you'll find several Pilgrim Chapter bronze markers around the
Iowa City and West Branch areas; promotion of education -- DAR schools have
been established, and other schools are given support, including two American
Indian schools. We award several scholarships for various disciplines, and some
members volunteer to live at the, with the literacy challenged -- I need some work
in that area. And the third one, patriotic endeavor. We will annually award
ROTC medals to deserving Army and Air Force cadets at the University of Iowa,
and Good Citizen medals to High School students. Pilgrim Chapter was chartered
in 1898 in Iowa City, and will celebrate their centennial mmiversary in February
next year. Membership is open to interested individuals who want to trace their
lineage to the Revolutionary War. We are welcoming interested individuals at our
meetings. We also have chartered a chapter of the Children of the American
Revolution. This is open to all children under 18, and we encourage all children
to apply. No DAR application is required. Thank you.
Nov/ And thank you for the Constitution.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of September 9, 1997.
F090997
Subject to change as finalized by the City Clerk. For a final official copy, contact the City Clerk's Office, 356-5040.
ITEM NO. 1.
ITEM NO. 2.
ITEM NO. 3.
AGENDA
September 9, ¶997 - 7:00 p.m.
Civic Center
CALL TO ORDER. //
ROLL CALL. /
[YOR'S PROCLAM .
a. ~nny vanBeek D~y'- September 9
b. Neighbor/Day - September 10
c. Cons :ution Vy~ek -_Sept,ember 1.7; 23,
CONSIDER OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED
OR
a. Approy, al )fficial Council Actions of the special meetings of
Augu~4t 29 ;eptember 2 and the regular meeting of August 26 as
pubJi'~hed, subje to corrections, as recommended by the City Clerk.
b, ~i/l~utes of Boards a~Commissions.
/(1) Planning and Zonf~ Commission - August 21
/(2) Riverfront and Natui~Areas Commission-July 16
(3) Iowa City Airport ComiCssion - July 17
/(4) Board of Adjustment- At~.st 13
/(5) Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission - July 8
(6) Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission - August 12
c. Permit Motions and Resolutions as Recommended by the City Clerk.
(1)
(2)
Consider a motion approving a Class C Beer Permit for FAP
Enterprises, Inc., dba Gasby's, 1310 S. Gilbert St. (Renewal)
Consider a motion approving a Class C Beer Permit for T&M Mini
Mart, Ltd., dba T&M Mini mart, 2601 Hwy 6 E. (Renewal)
September 9, 1997 City of Iowa City Page 2
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
?7- .195 (7)
Consider a motion approving a Class C Beer Permit for
Nordstrom Oil Company dba Sunset HandiMart, 1410 Willow
Creek Dr. (Renewal)
Consider a motion approving a Class C Liquor License for
I.C.B.B., Ltd., dba Brown Bottle Restaurant, 115 E. Washington
St. (Renewal)
Consider a motion approving a Class C Beer Permit for Dan's
Short Stop, Corp., dba Dan's Short Stop, 2221 Rochester Ave.
(Renewal)
Consider a motion approving a Class E Beer Permit for Nash-
Finch Co., dba Econofoods #473, 1987 Broadway St. (Renewal)
Consider a Resolution approving a Cigarette Permit for One-Eyed
Jake's, 18-20 S. Clinton St.
d. Setting Public Hearings.
(1)
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION FIXING DATE FOR A MEETING ON
THE PROPOSITION OF THE APPLICATION OF BOND PROCEEDS
AND PROVIDING FOR PUBLICATION OF NOTICE THEREOF.
Comment: This resolution sets a public hearing on
September 23 to allow public comment regarding reallocating a
portion of the 1997 General Obligation bonds from strictly the
Library roof project to other purposes.
The 1997 General Obligation Bond issue included $225,000 to
repair the Library roof. Due to favorable bids and an insurance
reimbursement for hail damage, the net cost to be paid for from
this bond issue is approximately $110,000 ($40,000 paid for
from insurance), leaving a balance of $115,000. The resolution
calls for reallocating up to $130,000 to other projects. This will
only occur if the actual net costs are less than $110,000. Staff
is recommending that the authorized use of the funds be
expanded to include Fire Station #3 expansion, Animal Shelter,
Civic Center roof repairs, and the Robert A. Lee Recreation
Center gym floor and office renovation projects.
e. Resolutions.
(1)
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO
SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST THE RELEASE OF A
HOUSING REHABILITATION LIEN FOR THE PROPERTY
LOCATED AT 913 NORTH GILBERT STREET, IOWA CITY,
IOWA.
Comment: The owners of the property located at 913 North
Gilbert Street received a loan through the City's Housing
Rehabilitation Program on April 14, 1994, in the amount of
$2,025. The financing was in the form of a Rehabilitation
Agreement, a Promissory Note for a no-interest loan, and a
Mortgage. The balance of the loan was paid off on August 21,
1997; thus, the lien can now be released.
September 9, ~1997 City of Iowa City Page 3
(2)
(3)
Zoo
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE WORK FOR THE
IOWA CITY LANDFILL LIFT STATION CONSTRUCTION
PROJECT.
Comment: See Engineer's Report.
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE WORK
FOR THE SANITARY SEWER, WATER MAIN, STORM
SEWER, AND PAVING PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS FOR WALNUT
RIDGE - PART 5, AND DECLARING THE PUBLIC
IMPROVEMENTS OPEN FOR PUBLIC ACCESS AND USE.
Comment: See Engineer's Report.
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE WORK FOR THE
SANITARY SEWER, WATER MAIN, STORM SEWER, AND
PAVING PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS FOR SADDLEBROOK
ADDITION, PART 1, AND DECLARING THE PUBLIC
IMPROVEMENTS OPEN FOR PUBLIC ACCESS AND USE.
Comment: See Engineer's Report,
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE WORK FOR THE
SANITARY SEWER, 'WATER MAIN, STORM SEWER, AND
PAVING PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS FOR GALWAY HILLS
SUBDIVISION, PART TWO, AND DECLARING THE PUBLIC
IMPROVEMENTS OPEN FOR PUBLIC ACCESS AND USE.
Comment: See Engineer's Report.
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE WORK
FOR THE STORM SEWER PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS
FOR HY-VEE NO. 2 (ADDRESSED 812 S. FIRST AVENUE).
Comment: See Engineer's Report.
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING DESIGN REVIEW
COMMITTEE PROCEDURES AND GUIDELINES FOR PROJECTING
SIGNS.
Comment: Recently the Council adopted a projecting sign
ordinance for the CB-5 and CB-10 zones of the Central Business
District. The ordinance requires that the Design Review
Committee approve procedures and guidelines for the review and
approval or rejection of projecting sign permits. The Design
Review Committee approved these procedures and guidelines at
its September 3 special meeting. They are consistent with the
procedures and guidelines previously approved by Council in the
City Code Section 14-6J-SD.
f, Correspondence.
(1) Dave Moore (DTA) - Downtown
(2) Kenneth and Gloria Lacina- deer
September 9, 1997
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
City of Iowa City
Robyn Parks - First Avenue ~
D.J. Beard - First Avenue
Bob and Helen Ramer - First Avenue
R. Lakes- Hickory Hill Park
(7) Beth Shields-leash law enforcement
of City Plaza. (all approved)
Page 4
,
(1) Samuel Joseph Kennan (Ambulatory Vending bracelets
recycled rubber toys) - 1997
(2) Bob Finch (Abilities Awareness Day) - August 30
(3) Eugene Bilyk (ISKCON distribute literature) - September 2-6
h. Use of City Streets and Public Grounds.
(1) Jacki Brennan (Hunter's Run Neighborhood Picnic) - August 31
(2) Deb Miller (Ealing Drive Neighborhood Picnic) - September 1
(3) Kevin Courtney (Wylde Green Road Neighborhood Picnic)
September 1
and
(4) Barbara Lucas (Ginter Avenue Neighborhood Picnic) - September 6
(5) Charity Hix (Doctors Ought to Care Dash) - September 26
ITEM NO. 4.
END OF CONSENT CALENDAR.
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ITEM NO. 3 CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS
PRESENTED OR AMENDED -- Correspondence.
Nov/ (Reads agenda item #3)
Norton/ So moved.
Thornberry/ Second.
Nov/
Moved by Norton and seconded by Thornberry. I would like to propose an
amendment here. Marian? We have two letters from Robyn Parks. The first one
was in our Consent Calendar two weeks ago, can we delete that?
Karr/ Yes.
NoW No.
Is it an exact copy, there wasn't a second letter?
Karr/ Yes, we certainly can.
Nov/ Also, there was a letter from Elizabeth Keeley that was in our Friday packet but
wasn't listed. Can we add that?
Karr/ Yes.
Nov/ Okay. Can we have a motion to --
Kubby/ So moved.
Lehman/ Second.
Nov/ Moved by Kubby, seconded by Lehman. All in favor of this amendment, please
say aye- (ayes). Okay. Back to the discussion of the Consent Calendar. Is there
anything else?
Norton/ I just had a quick question about the funds that were presumably made available
by the low bids for the library roof repairs, and they're going to other projects. I
was just curious, does that mean the other projects were underfunded, or overrun,
or something?
Don Yucuis/ Several, the Animal Shelter project was underfunded. And, the Robert Lee
Recreation Center gym floor was supposed, is scheduled to be a new bond issue
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coming up in FY98, actually calendar year '98, and that project is underway. If
there isn't enough funding to fund that project, we'll do a resolution, we'll present
a resolution to Council to borrow internal funds and pay for it with a 1998 bond
issue. And the o£5ce renovation, there was additional funds needed for that
project at the Robert A. Lee Recreation Center. The Fire Station No. 3 is
tentatively on hold. We may be able to move some funds over with some other
projects in addition to the library roof funds.
Nov/ I was interested in whether or not $130,000 would finish the Civic Center roof?. I
have a feeling we could get a better price if we do it all at once.
Yucuis/I believe that's true, as far as the price goes. I need to analyze all the projects to
make sure we have enough funding for the ones that are going on right now. We
have enough funds to do the portions of the roof project that we scheduled. If we
can expand that te include all of it, we'll try to do that.
Nov/ Okay. This conversation has been about a p.h. which we're scheduling for
September 23rd, regarding allocating some portion of the 1997 General
Obligation Bond Funds. And we're not making this decision today. We'll
discuss it again two weeks from now. Is there any other discussion on this
Consent Calendar? Okay. Roll call- (yes). We have approved the Consent
Calendar.
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ITEM NO. 4 PUBLIC DISCUSSION
Nov/ Item #4 is for Public Discussion. This is for items that are not on today's agenda.
Mike Gatens/ My name is Mike Gatens, and I live at 2045 Dubuque Road, in Iowa City.
And I'm here to clear up some misconceptions, some public misconceptions, not
the City Administration or the Council members' misconceptions about the First
Avenue Extension project. To begin with, Hickory Hill Park, just so everybody
lmows, the First Avenue extended, the plans for First Avenue extended is a
quarter of a mile away from the Park. It is nowhere near going through the Park.
It already fronts on First Avenue, down by Hickory Trail, just south of Hickory
Trail. Someday, it will, the First Avenue Extension will be a good eastern access
to Hickory Hill. And again, the reason I'm doing this is to be seen on TV, so the
public can be aware of a lot of these misconceptions. A lot of people don't even
know where Hickory Hill Park is, or how to get to it. It's a good place. It seems
like it's been a good place to take people upside-down, to be left to die, and a lot
of women, I've talked to a lot of women that won't even go in that park. If it had
borders like Dubuque Street, and Park Road, that our City Park has, I don't think,
it would be a lot more accessible park and used by a lot more people. Dubuque
Street and Park Road are very busy streets, and they don't seem to have a negative
effect on City Park. And the other thing is, I'd like to know where people have
been. This project has been in the papers, in the Gazette and the Press Citizen for
eight years, six to eight years. I want to compliment the Council members that
have supported this, through those years, past Council members, City staff, Steve
Atkins, I think Jeff Davidson, especially, has done a very good job coordinating a
lot with the adjoining property owners between Highway 1 and the existing First
Avenue where it stops to the north. I read in the paper about the people along
First Avenue. They seem to think they're more important than the people on
Lower Muscatine, Muscatine, Kirkwood, Court, Rochester, Bloomington, etc., the
streets that will have less traffic because of this road. And your study that we pay,
the public paid a lot of money for, proved that, and that's one of tlle reasons you
all passed this six months ago. Areother misconception is that no school fronts
First Avenue. Hoover fronts on Court, Southeast fronts on Bradford, Regina
fronts on Rochester. I know that the water line drives this project. I can
m~derstand that, but I also know that a lot of money will be saved by doing this
road at the same time as opposed to a later date, which has been proposed. Why
do it at a later date when we could save money doing it now? The Gatens and the
Larsens accept this. It does disrupt our pipes. It does disrupt our tranquillity. We
have a wonderful area out there. We accept this as a growth, as growth and
progress to make Iowa City a better place for everyone. What really disgusts all
of us is that people are permitted to distribute a petition with confusing
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infonr~ation and tell people wrong information. I have talked to a number of
people that were told fi~at First Avenue would go through Hickory Hill Park, so
they signed the petition. That is wrong. Highway 1 is as close to the Park now as
First Avenue will be. And that's the truth. Highway 1 is as close to First Average,
Hickory Hill Park, as First Avenue will be. A lot of us support Ernie Lelnnan's
proposal to look into the confusion, and I understand, underline confusion, of this
entire petition. Right now, I can ride my bike along the new route, and get to the
corner of First Avenue and Rochester in five minutes. I takes me nine minutes to
drive it. We're only talking about 1,730 feet of First Avenue, to where it will
intercept with Captain Irish Parkway. 1,730 feet. Less gas fumes in the air with
less driving time. That's bottom line. I mean, I'll be able to drive my car in two
mimttes to that intersection, while now it takes nine. So, that's seven minutes less
of driving time one way. Ecologists have gotta love that. The bottom line is this
road will make the northeast side of Iowa City much more accessible to everyone.
And in conclusion, First Avenue Extension, is 1,720 feet to the intersection of
Captain Irish Parkway. The Glasgow family own 210 of that feet. If he wanted to
concrete that today, he could. Subtract the Hamdorfproperty on the west border,
670 feet. ACT has 850 feet of it, of the First Avenue extension to Irish, Captain
h'ish Parle, ray. So, you subtract the Glasgow part, Milch he could pave
tomorrow. We're not talking about 1,730 feet, we're talking about 1,520 feet of
concrete that we want to hold up. Again, First Avenue extended is never closer
than 1,320 feet from Hickory Hill Park, and you divide that out, it's a quarter of a
mile. If everybody would read the editorial by Mr. Mark Brooks in tonight's
paper, they would understand why we are disgusted by this petition. You people
should be disgusted with it. Jeff Davidson should. Steve Atkins should. It's an
embarrassment that this was ever brought before you people because you did a
heck of a job, and the people before you did a heck of a job. And Naomi, I see
you looking at your watch, I'm done, and I thank you very much.
Nov/ Thank you, Mike.
Gatens/ Off to Coralville.
Nov/ I did not say this before Mike Gatens started talking but we do like to ask people to
limit comments to no longer than five minutes.
Bob Welsh/ Tlfirty seconds. My name is Bob Welsh. I reside at 84 Penfro. I attended
your informal session last night as you considered the Iowa Avenue streetscape
plan. The sketchy information and my distance from the drawings did not provide
a basis for an in-depth analysis, so I'm not here to make any comments or even to
ask any questions about the plan. I do request that you continue to be open to
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citizen input, and that you do not become locked into the details of the plan
without a thorough review of all concerns and alternatives. Some of us at the
First Christian Church ~~ which I would remind you is the oldest establishment on
the south side of Iowa Avenue, now it's 217 Iowa Avenue. Back in history, it was
a different street number -~ are delighted that Karin Franldin is meeting with some
of us for an hour Sunday morning at 9:15. And, needless to say, all of you are
invited, as well as any other members of the public. Thank you very much.
Nov/ Thank you. While we're on the topic of Iowa Avenue, there was something in
today's paper that said we aren't going to change anything in the block between
Dubuque Street and Linn. And yesterday, when we spoke with the consultant, he
said we are definitely going to have bigger sidewalks, more pedestrian space to
walk through on that block. So, whoever wrote that in the newspaper, fix it,
please.
Welsh/
I was interested in both the newspaper articles that I read about it in last night,
and I think that merely underlines the fact that I think some of the information
presented, and some of us who do not have the background that you all have, and
the distance from the drawings, it was sketchy at that point, so I wouldn't be too
harsh on the reporters at that point.
Nov/ I
made a point of the question last night, because I lmow that block has very narrow
sidewalks. And I said, whatever we do, we need more pedestrian spaces. And, I
was assured we would have more pedestrian space on that block. Would anyone
else like to talk to City Council about an item not on today's agenda?
Candida Maurer/ Yeah, I'm here, again. I'm Candida Maurer. I live at 627 Bradley. I
didn't intend to come tonight, but boy, I read the paper, and I get upset, and I
come down here, so here I am. Basically, it sounded like I've been lying to
people or that people who are involved in the petition have been lying about
Hickory Hill Park. A2~d I really want to clear that up. I want to say right now, I
have never said, nor will I ever say, that the First Avenue extension is scheduled
to run through the middle of the Park. I lmow that's not true. I lmow I've never
said that publicly or privately. I don't believe that other organizers of this effort
have said this either. There may be misunderstandings out there. People hear
Hickory Hill Park, they hear road, they think "Oh my God, we've got to save this
park." So, I admit there may be some misunderstanding. However, I really
encourage people, and I am talking to the people at home tonight, too, to contact
me, contact other people who are involved in this, and get the facts. So, you can
ask, what are the facts? What we have said, from the beginning, is that running a
very busy arterial road along the eastern edge of the Park will spoil the last
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remaining open space surrounding the Park. That is simply true. It will destroy
the scenic vista that the draft of the Comprehensive Plan urges the Council to
preserve. And, it will bring further noise and air pollution into the Park
enviromnent. No one who is honest can deny this reality. 1,500 feet is not very
many feet when you're talking about ecosystems, and you're talking about
environment and sensitive areas. Even Jeff Davidson, your traffic planner, has
admitted that the road will change the Park, that it will create a boundary to the
Park that does not now exist. The second set of facts concerns the very real
impact that an additional 4,300 cars per day at minimum will have on First
Avenue, and the safety issues associated with such a large increase in traffic. No,
there are no schools with addresses on First Avenue. I lmow that. Everybody in
this town, I hope, lmows that. But, what there are, is there are a whole bunch of
school children that cross First Avenue every single day to get to no less than four
schools that are located along it. And that's hundreds and hundreds of school
children. If you go down there at around 8:00 a.m., you can see them, they are
there, and they're crossing the street. Additionally, First Avenue was never meant
to carry this load of traffic. There are simply too many driveways backing out
onto it. There are too many steep hills. And there's too little room to
accommodate a major arterial road. Further, Scott Boulevard was built for this
purpose. And again, I'm simply urging that we use it for the purpose it was
intended. Finally, I would like to say that the debate about First Avenue can
occur in a fair and open manner, without lies, without accusations, or without any
of the things that seem to come with making a big decision. That is why we
pushed for the petition in the first place, is to give the community the chance to
have input on this issue. All that petition said is we want to defer this project long
enough for the community to have input on how this area of the town gets
developed. That's what we're looking for, just input. Therefore, I ask that all
who speak on this issue speak truthfully. Speak fairly. And with the task of
finding common ground, with the task of finding consensus, with the task of
finding compromise. Thank you.
Bemxett Brown/ Hello, I'm Be~mett Brown, 802 E. Washington Street. I have a graphic,
I wonder if it might be possible to show it on the cameras as I hold it up as well.
Is that possible? I understand that there have been accusations that petitioners
misinformed the public about the road going near Hickory Hill Park, saying that it
would go through Hickory Hill Park. I am extremely upset about those
accusations, and I question whether or not they are true. It is tempting to launch
into retaliation, and I will not do that. However, I do want to set the record
straight. As part of this petition effort, we distributed many packets to over 40
petitioners, over 40 people circulated the petition and gathered signatures. Every
single one of those people had a map which accurately shows the exact location of
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the proposed First Avenue extension and its relationship to the Park.
Furthermore, we distributed over 300 brochures identical to what I just showed
you, to people who were interested in the subject. We distributed over 700 flyers
that also showed a map showing where the road and the Park were in relationship
to each other. I question, before the petitioners began to raise this issue with the
public, what did the Council do to raise public awareness and to make an attempt
to educate the public on this issue? In my view, the petition was an enormous
effort that was successful in educating the public as to what the Council intended
to do. Let me clarify why it is that we talk about "First Avenue along Hickory
Hill Park" and why it is that we feel that it will destroy the Park, although it does
not go through the Park. This map, which was distributed to Council members in
the Council Packet, but not to the public, shows the Park in shaded gray and
black. Is that visible to the cameras? This way? Outlined in red is currently
undeveloped land. Some of that land is prairie. Some of it is agricultural. Some
of it is forested. If the First Avenue extension were to go through, that land would
change zoning. It is currently, the Larsen's land here, which is 80 acres, is
currently zoned IDRS, and I realize you all are aware of this. Correct? However,
I don't think that the public is sufficiently aware of it, and I am continuing my
effort to educate the public on this issue. And it upsets me deeply that accusations
have been made otherwise. If that road goes thorough, this land will be changed
from Interim Development for Residential to Residential. It currently cannot be
developed with houses, until there is road, water lines, and sewer lines, servicing
that land. If the First Avenue extension, with the water and sewer lines that are
part of the project, go through, then this land will be able to be developed.
Houses would be able to abut the Park, as I've shown on the map. I asked Jeff
Davidson, who is the planner that made calculations for you regarding the First
Avenue extension, what calculations were done in an attempt to prepare you to
make that decision? I asked him, did you calculate the number of miles of trails
in Hickory Hill Park that would become, that would change their status from trails
that did not have development visible to them, to trails that were next to
development? No, that calculation was not done. Did you calculate the number
of acres that would be visible, that would have development next to them or
visible to them, before the extension and after the proposed extension? No, that
calculation was not done. Did you make any attempt to assess the impact on the
Park that the First Avenue extension would have if completed? No, there was no
attempt. And in fact, he told me, and I quote, "No one considered the impact on
the Park until the public raised it, after Council had made the decision." After the
fact. Why? Because Conncil did not play their role, and I'm sorry to make tlfis
accusation, but I do not accuse you of misinformation. I only wish that you had
played your role to inform the public and involve them in your decision making. I
also question the reasons that Council actually did do the change, did perform the
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change in when this extension was to happen. The stated reason is for traffic. I'll
make it short, I see you looking at your watches. I question whether or not Jeff
Davidson's numbers are correct. I asked him whether or not he included in his
model the traffic that would result from people going and coming to these houses?
No, there was no attempt to do that, because it would be completely unpredictable
how many houses there would be. I question whether it is completely
unpredictable, or whether some attempt could have been made. And if that
attempt had been made, perhaps it would show that traffic on First Avenue and on
Dodge and Rochester, which you claim to try to avert, would actually be
increased. Why, then, would the Council try to develop, try to pave that land?
The only reason that I have been able to come up with that makes sense to me is
to develop this land. And that is why I'm concerned about the Park. Why delay
the decision so that we can reach some solutions? Because the solutions are
obvious. If this land was purchased by the City or by the community on behalf of
the City, before the road extension went through, then the threat to the Park would
not exist. I calculated, I went to the auditor's office and found out how much that
land is assessed at. It's assessed at $25,000 for 80 acres. That's the tax that's
being paid on that land. That is obviously not what the land is worth, but that's
the tax that's being paid on it. Let's be generous to the Larsens and the Gatens
that own that land. I don't begrudge them the desire to turn a profit on their land
through speculative development. Instead, let's pay them $5,000 an acre, $3,500
people signed that petition, and this is my 1/3500th of the cost that it would take
to buy the 80 acres of the Larsen's land and make it part of the park. Here's the
check, I'm happy to give it. If would be no cost to the City if people did that.
And, my question is, are the people that are so excited to have the First Avenue
extension, who by the way, I met very few of, are those people willing to pay their
share of the $4 million project to extend First Avenue? Thank you very much for
allowing me the time to speak to you and to the public.
Nov/ Thank you.
Derek Maurer/ Hello, I'm Derek Maurer. I live at 328 S. Governor Street. And, as you
may lmow, I am seeking one of the two at-large seats in this fall's City Council
election. I came again, like my sister Candida, at the last moment, because I, too,
am concerned that the discussion of the First Averole extension get out of hand
and blown out of proportion and turned into a series of charges and cottoter-
charges. Let me state that I believe the petitioners, almost all of them, if not all of
them, were very sincere in their motives. And lest the public have a mis-
perception about the petition process, this is not some sleight of hand. This is a
democratic form of civic participation that our City's Charter allows citizens to
undertake in order to place issues that concern them on the ballot. The fact that
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these petitioners collected the number of signatures that they did in a very short
amount of time, with requirements that are very stringent about the names that
appear, that they be registered voters, that they appear exactly as they appear on
the voter rolls, only adds to my admiration and my congratulations to those
petition signature gatherers. I think they deserve our congratulations as citizens
and not our condemnation. Maybe I could just read the resolution as it is written,
and as it will, I believe, as it should appear on the ballot this November. It states,
"Whereas the extension of First Avenue along the eastern boundary of Hickory
Hill Park would significantly affect the ecosystem of the Park and experiences of
Park visitors; and whereas the First Avenue extension would make it much more
expensive for taxpayers to maintain the current size of Hickory Hill Park, should
parkland be converted to cemetery; and whereas the First Avenue extension
would change a residential street into a busy traffic artery, unsafe for residents
with driveways backing out onto First Avenue, and a serious hazard to children
attending the four schools on First Avenue; and whereas the Council avoided
public discussion of the First Avenue extension by abruptly changing the City's
seven-year Capital Improvements Program, rushing to complete the extension in
the spring and summer of 1998, even though the Council's 1994, 1995, and 1996
seven-year programs said the project would not be considered until the year 2002.
Now, therefore, be it resolved by the electorate of Iowa City, Iowa, that one, the
extension of First Avenue along Hickory Hill Park be prohibited in fiscal years
1997-1992, 1999; two, the 1997 Capital Improvements Program, adopted by
Council without public discussion, be amended so that the First Avenue extension
is removed from fiscal years 1997 and 1998, and is instead listed in the program
for fiscal year 2002, as it was in the Council's previous programs." That is the
entire text of the resolution. It may not be perfect, but I've visited with Bennett. I
know that he was meticulous in trying to craft a resolution that would be legal and
that would convey the essence of the desire to halt this project long enough for
there to take place a civic dialogue and an open discussion about this project and
about the future of northeast Iowa City. I wish Mr. Gatens were still here. I
would like to congratulate him for coming before the Council, showing his face,
saying his name, as so many others who opposed this First Avenue project have
already done. And, I say to Mr. Gatens, and to the rest of Iowa City, let's have an
open and civil dialogue about this issue. I, personally, will be voting for the
resolution on November 4th, I believe, and I urge my fellow citizens to do the
same. Thank you very much.
Nov/ Thank you, Derek. Is there anyone else? Okay, we'll move on to the agenda.
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F090997
.September 9, 1997 City of Iowa City
ITEM NO. 5. PLANNING AND ZONING MATTERS.
Page 5
Consider a motion setting a public hearing for September 23 on an
ordinance amending the Zoning Chapter by changing the zoning
designation from RS-5, Low Density Single-Family Residential to
OPDH-5, Planned Development Housing Overlay Zone, for property
located east of Somerset Lane and south of Wellington Drive, and for
preliminary plat approval of Village Green Part Fifteen, a 36.75 acre,
1-lot residential subdivision with 3 outlots. (REZ97-0012 & SUB97-
0016)
Comment: At its August 21 meeting, by a vote of 7-0, the Planning
and Zoning Commission recommended approval of the rezoning and
preliminary OPDH plan. Staff recommended approval in a report dated
August 7.
Action: ~_~/Y~
Public hearing on an ordinance amending the Zoning Chapter by
conditionally changing the zoning designation from RM-20, Medium
Density Multi-Family Residential, and RS-5, Low Density Single-Family
Residential, to OSA-20 and OSA-5, Sensitive Areas Overlay Zone, for
approximately 1.9 acres located at 1122-1136 N. Dubuque Street.
Comment: At its September 4 meeting, by a vote of 6-0, the Planning
and Zoning Commission recommended approval of the rezoning and
Sensitive Areas Development Plan subject to conditions. Staff
recommended approval subject to conditions in a memorandum dated
August 15.
Action:
#5b page 1
ITEM NO. 5b Public hearing on an ordinance amending the Zoning Chapter by
conditionally changing the zoning designation from RM-20, Medium Density
Multi-Family Residential, and RS-5, Low Density Single-Family Residential, to
OSA-20 and OSA-5, Sensitive Areas Overlay Zone, for approximately 1.9 acres
located at 1122-1136 N. Dubuque Street. (REZ97-0003)
Nov/ (Reads agenda item #5b). P.h. is now open. Anyone who would like to discuss
this topic, please come forward.
Laura Ruth/ My name is --
Nov/ I was going to say five minutes, once more.
Rnth/ Okay. My name is Laura Ruth. I reside at 122 Evans Street, Iowa City. I have a
couple questions, and I apologize for my ignorance. If I'm out of place, please
tell me, and I'll leave. Is this ordinance or change going to affect the Glasgow
property on N. Dubuque Street lmown as "The Cliffs" and if so, in what way?
Nov/
It will affect that property. It is that property that we're trying to help. We're
trying to see if we can do something about the erosion. If you'd like to just sign
in to show that you've been here, and then sit for a few minutes, we're going to
get the engineers to talk about this and give us more explanation, all right?
Ruth/ Thanks.
Kirsten Frey/ My name is Kirsten Frey, and I live at 2011 Rochester Avenue. I'm the
attorney representing the applicant in this process, and I'm here to discuss this
grading and sensitive areas development plan with you. With me tonight are
Andr6 Gallet from Terracon Engineers, Jim Jacob from VanWinlde-Jacob
Engineering, Jolm Cruise, and Jim Glasgow, two of the owners of the property. I
thiltk most of all, the Council wants to hear from the engineers, so I will just make
a few comments to start off with, and then let them explain the plan to you in
more detail. I just want to assure the public and the Council that we have spent a
great deal of time carefully considering the situation, and analyzing all of the
potential solutions to the erosion problems, and the slope-stability problems at
The Cliffs. In the forefront of our mind, when we were looking at the alternatives
to this problem, were three principal considerations. The first consideration was
the effectiveness of the solution. This problem has attempted to be remedied
before, and it didn't work, and we want a solution that is going to work and that is
going to work for a long, long time, so that we don't have to be here again. The
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second consideration that we thought of, in light of, and analyzed in our
discussions, was that we wanted to minimize the damage to the surrounding
enviromnent and adopt a plan that was sensitive, that was consistent with the
goals and aims of the Sensitive Areas Ordinance. Thirdly, we wanted to develop
a plan, or come tip with a plan, that would be implemented to the satisfaction of
the public, the surrounding neighbors, and the City of Iowa City. I'd like to
briefly explain the process by which we arrived at this plan. We began working
with Terracon consultants who were retained to perform a soil-boring analysis on
the property. That was done late last spring and early last summer. Once
Terracon had preliminary findings, we met and sat down and discussed several
alternatives to the slope-stability problem. We selected the alternative that we felt
was the most appropriate given the site conditions and the concerns that have been
expressed by the public and the P/Z Commission. Once Terracon's report was
received, Jim Jacob of Jacob-VanWinkle Engineering designed a plan based on
Terracon's recommendations. Terracon then reviewed the plan and made
suggestions. Those suggestions were implemented, and it is that plan that you
have in front of you. In other words, Terracon and Jacob-vanWinlde Engineering
have cooperatively developed a plan, and this plan will, within a reasonable
degree of professional certainty, stabilize the slope. This approach was also an
attempt to minimize the damage to the surrounding area. Unlike the previous plan
considered by my client, this plan will not change the vista from above. The
number of trees that will have to be removed is substantially less, and we've done
as much as possible to minimize the number of trees that will need to be removed.
The plan does not require extremely large construction equipment to come in from
above the slope, so we won't be having to cut a driveway for large construction
equipment. The area of the fix is not that much larger than the area of the
problem, so that the area that we will be grading is mostly previously disturbed
property. We're not trying, we're trying to minimize the disturbance to
previously untouched land. We also intend to replace as many of the trees as
possible. The plan calls for 1 1/2-inch honey locust trees to be planted all along
the bottom of the slope, and those trees were selected not only for their shallow
root system, but also because they're fast-growing, and they're intended to shield
the corrected area, as much as possible, from Dubuque Street. The plan also calls
for the planting of evergreen trees at the top of the slope in an attempt to minimize
the change so that the people at the top of the slope can't see the corrected area,
and also to minimize the noise that they will, that any noise change that they
would suffer. In short, we believe this plan is an attempt to be consistent with the
spirit and intent of the Sensitive Areas Ordinance. Finally, we've built as many
safeguards as possible into the plan. We've reached an easement agreement with
the Ostergaards, and that is executed and now ready for recording. We have made
arrangements with Terracon for its continued involvement in the construction, and
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therefore, if there are site conditions that are unexpected, or the work doesn't
conform to their specifications, there will be a Terracon engineer on-site to make
the necessary corrections. We are negotiating with Jay Crawford in Solon to do
the actual work, and we've agreed with the City of Iowa City to provide them
with a construction schedule and periodic updates of the construction process, so
that they're made aware of what's going on as it happens. There've been some
concerns that even with these safeguards, we will not be able to meet our
November 1 deadline. If things go well, they tell me that it's possible. If things
don't go well, it might not be possible. But, I think we'll need to run, we'll need
to deal with that issue if and when it becomes necessary to do so. In the
meantime, however, the slope needs to be stabilized. This plan is designed to be a
comprehensive, long-term solution. The plan is supported by Terracon's report.
The plan is in compliance with the City Code. The plan is consistent with the
goals of the Sensitive Areas Ordinance. And, most importantly, this plan will
stabilize the slope. I would ask that the City approve the plan. Thank you.
Nov/ For the purposes of clarification, this is just a public hearing. The plan approval,
rezoning, etc. will be two weeks from now.
CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 97-126 SIDE 2
Andr6 Gallet/ My name is Andr6 Gallet. I live at 3021 Circle Drive NE in Cedar Rapids.
I'm the office manager of Terracon Consultants. We are specializing in soil
mechanics. We are, I'm considered a geo-technical engineer. I am the engineer
that analyzed and evaluated the stability problem. I'm the engineer that provided
the recommendations and I answered a lot of question from the P/Z Commission,
and if there's any questions, I'd be glad to answer any of them.
Nov/ Okay. I asked yesterday about the color of the rock that will be used to stabilize
the slope. I'm reluctant to, say, white granite type looks, so what are we going to
get here?
Thomberry/ White granite.
GMI~/
We're probably looking at a limestone-type of rock. I'm not exactly sure where
they're going to quarry the, which barrow area they're going to get the material,
but I'm looking at more of a rock, a limestone rock, white, I'm not sure exactly
what's the color.
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Nov/ A little bit more color than white, if we can arrange it?
Gallet/I'm not purchasing the rock, I'm sorry. I cannot cmmt on that.
Nov/ I'm putting in my two cents. We'd like something that's not going to be catching
the sunlight and reflecting back, and etc., etc., so if you can get something like
that.
Gallet/ Okay.
Thornberry/ We're talking like river rock. I understand these aren't going to be little
pebbles.
Gallet/ No, it's not.
Thornberry/ It's going to be fairly large rock, I mean, fairly older-ish type.
Gallet/ Based on the specification we requested, you're talking about the average rock
would be weighing about 90 pounds.
Lelyfinn/ Is this pretty much rip-rap size?
Gallet/ It's called the erosion, it's the erosion stone. It's relatively large stone.
Kubby/ Is there, has there been any quantification of the difference between the number
of trees that would be disturbed with the previous plan, compared to this plan? I
mean, we've been told fewer trees, but what does that mean? Or even an
approximate --
Gallet/ I believe the initial plan was to remove the entire embankment, and here, we're
probably going to encroach about 10 feet on the top of the embankment, versus
taking down the entire hillside.
Norton/ Do rods go back, extend into the bedrock somehow?
Gallet/ Excuse me?
Norton/ That is, what really ties the wall firmly there? Do you have some kind of rods
back into the bedrock, or what?
Gallet/ I'm assuming you're talking about the keystone wall.
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Norton/ Yeah.
Gallet/
It's not rods, it's what we call geo-grid. It's layers of synthetic material placed
horizontally, and essentially what's retaining the wall from rotating is the weight
of the soil on top of it.
Lehmm~/ The rock you mean.
Gallet/ And the weight of the rock.
Norton/ On those various steps.
Gallet/ On, exactly.
Nov/ Have you done this on other hills?
Gallet/ We've stabilized numerous embankments, yes.
Nov/ And with the same system.
Gallet/ Not exactly. Not every single site is the same.
Nov/ Are we brealdng new ground? Is this new technique from other things that you
have done with other hills?
Gallet/ No.
Nov/ Thank you.
Norton/ What's the, what's the weakest point in the plan? Where do you expect trouble
if it COlaes?
Gallet/ I don't expect any trouble. I, bottom line is, we're going to try to, we made
certain assumptions based on the limited data that we obtained from the soil
borings, and we believe those assumptions are to the best of our lmowledge, and
we hope they're accurate.
Kubby/ Is there an easy way to describe what this plan is so that the public knows what
we're talking about? That we're having, I mean, is there a way we can put a
picture up, or, I mean, we're basically talcing destabilized soil off and putting a
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terraced wall in, and putting this geo-teclmic barrier, or whatever, on top, and
hoping that the rock stabilizes all that, and then planting trees.
Gallet/ Essentially--
Nov/
Karin Franklin, did you bring your transparency of this? Can we see the side view
with the terracing? I think if the general audience didn't see that yesterday, that
might make some difference.
Kubby/ And while Karin's getting that, I appreciate the answer that instead of taking the
entire hillside, we're only, the property owners will only be disturbing 10 feet.
Do we know how many trees will be disturbed within that 10 feet?
Gallet/ I believe there is an exact, or an estimated count. I'm not the engineer. I think
Jim Jacob could address that.
Kubby/ Okay. Maybe tonight, someone could come up and give me that number. Thank
you.
Thomberry/ Microphone problem.
Letnnan/ Well, this slope, when it's finished, is not going to be a terraced slope. The
terracing is beneath the rock --
Norton/ Right.
Lehman/ So we have an even sort of slope. Is that correct?
Nov/ Yeah, but with a little pointer, we could show what they're actually doing in terms
of engineering the slope.
Kubby/ Well, look for the red dot on the map.
Gallet/
Essentially, if you can see this dashed line, that's the existing slope. We're
assuming that the original slope is basically level to this original grade, and when
they came in during the construction, they excavated the tow. Essentially, the tow
was resisting the embardcrnent from sliding down. What we're doing here is,
we're cutting into this embankment, and we're stair-stepping and what we call
benching, into the native soils. And this whole mass is going to be what we call a
rock buttress. Essentially this rock buttress is going to resist the slope from
failure. The weight of the soil has a tendency to want to rotate, and that's what
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we're doing right here is creating a rock buttress to resist that from sliding down
any further. Earlier, you talked about the tensor and the keystone retaining wall.
Norton/ Yeah.
Gallet/
The keystone retaining wall is located right here, and essentially, we needed to
create a satisfactory factor of safety against the global stability. We needed some
additional weight at the surface, at the front end of the, so we need to raise this
retaining wall. There's an existing retaining wall that's there, about five feet.
We're essentially raising it to ten, to eight feet. To stabilize that further, we're
adding this tensor grid, horizontally, so this acts as a unit, and it won't have the
tendency to want to rotate. This whole stability analysis is based on, there's a
lower existing concrete retaining wall here, and we're assuming, and I have great
confidence in Jim Jacob who's going to be speaking later, he is a structural
engineer, and he designed this retaining wall, and it's anchored and tied into the
bedrock, and with that assumption, this whole embanlcment's going to be
stabilized.
Kubby/ Thank you for that explanation.
Nov/
Yeah, thank you. That was certainly helpful. And if people look up at the lfigher
picture, you can see a row of evergreen trees at the top and a row of other trees at
the bottom, all those circles.
Gallet/ This is the top of the embankment. This is going to be at the bottom of the
embankment.
Nov/ And the trees at the bottom are going to be with the trunk bottom at the eight-foot
level, at the top of the wall.
Gallet/ Yes. Essentially, the rock buttress is going to be this portion, it's going to be the
inface of soil, and the rock's just going to extend right here, so actually, the trees
are going to be on the soil portion of the embankment.
Kubby/Thanks.
Nov/ Any other questions from Council? Mr. Jacob, I heard you're going to talk to us
about this, also?
Jim Jacob/ My name is Jim Jacob. I live in rural Solon. I'm the engineer that certified
this plan and am in responsible charge for the plan itself. We based our plan, as
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Andr6 said, on his calculations and report, and I'm here to answer any questions.
I think Andr6 has pretty well explained what's going to happen with the slope.
But if there are any further questions that I could help clarify, I'd be glad to help.
Thank you.
Nov/ Okay, thank you.
Irdrsten Frey/ I'm Kirsten Frey again, and I just wanted to clarify a couple of things.
First of all, one of the questions that I'm most often asked about this plan is, is it
possible to put dirt on top of the rock and plant a ground cover, so that we don't
see rock? And the answer to that is no. When we discussed it with our engineers,
the engineers have said if you do that, you lose your factor of safety and the slope
isn't stable. So, that's one of the questions I wanted to answer. The other thing
that I'd like to talk about is the trees a little bit. Councilman Kubby asked about
the number of trees that we'll be talcing out, and I, ifI can put this up here, this is
the, we went out and did a count of all the trees that would be within the area. I
think the thing that's significant to note is that there are nine trees that are over
eight inches in diameter. Of those nine, at least three of them either are dead, or
are dying. There are a number of smaller trees that we're taldng out, and those
trees are all volunteer, or mostly volunteer locust trees. Those trees are less than
eight inches in diameter and have just sort of sprung up like locust trees do. They
certainly are valuable, and I don't intend to indicate that, you know, they don't
count because they're small, that's not the point of what I'm trying to get across.
I think what I'm trying to indicate for the Council and the public is that we are
replacing all trees of over eight inches in diameter. We are also replacing a
portion of those less than eight inches in diameter. Our agreement also calls for
us to replace any trees taken out on the Ostergaard property that are outside the
actual rock area, but within the construction area. We are replacing as many trees
as it is possible for us to replace and still stabilize the slope. So -~
Kubby/ You don't know how many trees that is that will be taken out due to construction
that's not on this slope?
Frey/ No. What our plan is to do is not take them out unless it's necessary for us to do
so. This counts all the trees that we'll be talcing out on a permanent basis. In the
temporary construction area, we hope to take out very, very few, because we are
coming at the project area from the bottom as opposed to the top, and so our goal
is to trim them where possible, to leave them alone if at all possible, and if it is
absolutely positive, impossible to do that, and we have to take them out, we will
be replacing them with like species.
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Kubby/ Okay, thardc you.
Nov/ Laura, do you have any questions, now that you've heard this much? Please come
to the microphone.
Frey/ I'll get out of your way.
Ruth/
The phrase "slope-stability problem" is a bit euphemistic for me, and I'd just like
to remind folks of the history of this problem, and implore you not to ever let it
happen again. I'm wondering who's paying for this, and how much money's
going to come out of City coffers to repair a problem that should never have been
caused in the first place.
Nov/ Okay, there is no City money in this.
Ruth/ Okay.
Nov/ The owners of the property will pay for it.
Ruth/ Okay. How much are we talking?
Nov/ I--
Thomberry/ Doesn't matter.
Nov/ Doesn't matter, it's not our money. Whatever it costs, it's their money. What we
have in terms of the November deadline is a court ruling. They are under court
order to do this and to do it by November 1st. If it tums out that the weather or
any other reason happens that they can't do it by November 1st, they have to go
back to the judge and ask for an extension. So we have done whatever we can,
and all we can do now is say okay, they're allowed to do something to stabilize
that hill.
Kubby/ Well, we can also, if there are problems in that the November deadline is not
met, we have the ability to ask for an environmental infraction fine of, I think,
$1,000 a day.
Nov/ (Yes). I forgot about that, thank you, Karen.
Ruth/ Is that the only recourse that the City has if, for some reason, this process does not
work?
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Nov/ If the process doesn't work, they have a responsibility to make it work. The
engineer from Terracon said they may run into some different soils than they
expect. They may change it in order to make it work. But, because they will have
an engineer right there while all the construction's going on, they will be able to
change it. If they have to change it, our City Engineer has to be notified. They
can't just do it.
Kubby/ Eleanor, if, say, five years down the road, we find that there are some problems,
what is the City's or the public's recourse?
Eleanor Dilkes/ I suppose we could, I mean, if it's not stabilized and it's in violation of
our ordinance, we could probably do another municipal infraction, I would
asslime.
Nov/
Also, I wanted to tell you, in terms of future development, prevention of this kind
of thing happening, we now have a Sensitive Areas Ordinance that requires
engineered grading plans for developments in this type of area.
Ruth/ I'm aware of that, and I'm also aware that the owner, or part-owner of this
property, prior to the implementation of the Sensitive Areas Ordinance went into
property that's just on the other side of the ravine there and clear-cut a bunch of
trees, literally, 24 hours prior to the implementation of that ordinance. And so, I
as a citizen and as someone who grew up in that area, am worried that if this isn't
resolved, that ultimately, the City taxpayers are going to have to foot the bill for
y'all to continually have to deal with this. And it frustrates me to see this
particular developer be allowed to go into other sensitive areas. And I would just
implore you to remember that this has happened, and how it's being dealt with,
and that we not ever do this again. Let us learn from the history.
Nov/ Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to address this topic?
George Starr/ Hi. My name's George Starr. I'm Chair of the Iowa City P/Z
Conunission. And I thought it might be worthwhile to just bring a perspective of
the Commission's history with this particular application. I can't go back prior to
March 20, 1997, as far as the development of this property, because I probably
wasn't around then. But, the Commission first saw this application on March 20,
1997. As is the Commission's policy, we deferred it because it is a re-zoning.
We deferred this to it's next meeting of April 3rd. We have a two-meeting policy
on re-zoning, so that we have ample public input. And basically, the Commission
found the first application that was put in front of us March 20th unacceptable.
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From April 3rd through June 19th, which would be a total of six P/Z Con-nrfission
meetings, the applicant requested deferral of this item at each meeting. At the
June 19th meeting, the applicant again requested a non-time-specific deferral and
the Commission deferred it to its next meeting of July 3rd. From July 3rd through
August 7th, which is a total of three meetings, the applicant requested deferral at
each of those meetings. On the, at the August 21st meeting, a plan was submitted
to the P/Z Commission. The Commission deferred this after public discussion,
and significant discussion with the engineers and the applicant. This item was
deferred to the meeting of September 4th because we felt that this plan was
significantly different from the plan that was put in front of us at the March 20th
meeting. And we felt that it required the, again, the two-meeting rule. And also,
we had questions remaining pertaining to the agreements with both Terracon and
the Ostergaards, which I understand have since been completely taken care of, and
I think the Commission felt very, very comfortable with that. At the September
4th meeting, the Commission unanimously recommended approval of this plan,
and I feel like I can speak for the Commission at this point that there was a
significant amount of trust that this plan is going to solve this problem. We had
concerns from day one that we wanted this done, we wanted it done right. It's
been a long-standing problem, and the Commission felt comfortable with this
plan. This was a total of twelve meetings at which this item appeared on the P/Z
Commissions' agenda. I would like to reinforce that the Commission did not, in
any way, delay the progress of this item, and I felt that the Commission handled
this in a very timely fashion. In response to a question that was raised last night,
the Cmmnission did not address the color of the rocks. I knew we should have,
but we didn't. The minutes will reflect, however, that the Commission's concern
which was the opportunity to resolve a very long-standing environmental safety
and health concern. The Commission strived to mold an overlay zone addressing
these concerns, and I believe that this has been accomplished through this
application. If you have any questions from the Commission standpoint, I would
be happy to try to answer those.
Lel'nnan/ George, I have one question. Obviously, this has been going on for a lot of
years, and there've been some, I suppose, ill-fated attempts at solving the
problem. Is there, is the engineering firm, is Terracon, is anybody guaranteeing
this job? I tkink that's very, very important. We're accepting something that we
would be living with for a long time, and I would share this yotmg lady's concern
that the City should never have to go in and pay for repairing this slope.
Starr/
I don't disagree with you. As far as having an in-writing guarantee, to the best of
my lmowledge, and I'm going to look back to my corner here, I don't think we
have an in-writing guarantee that this is going to work.
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Kubby/ We do have engineer's certification and reputation on the line.
Starr/
Absolutely correct. As we all know, this is nature though, and as much as, I'm
going to defer to an engineer on that. But yes, it is certified, the Commission feels
comfortable with it. The Commission feels that this is going to be done right, as I
mentioned earlier, and I think I mentioned at the March 20th meeting, we want
this done one more time. We want it done right, and we want it to last. And from
the Commission's standpoint, I feel that this application is going to do that.
Kubby/Okay.
Lelunan/ Well I don't disagree with you at all, but I just, I guess I share the young lady's
question. If this fails, after four years, or five years, or at some point in time, I
suppose failure maybe wouldn't be relevant. But, does the City have recourse
against the owner of the property if this fails in, you know, not withstanding an
act of God.
Dilkes/ I think so.
Leluuan/ Okay, that's what I wanted to know.
Thomberry/ Then, I would imagine that the applicant would have recourse against the
engineering company.
Dilkes/ That's the way it should work.
Lel'nuan/ I'm just voicing concern about protecting the City.
Nov/ Laura, one more comment, and then you can come back.
Jolm Cruise/ I'm John Cruise, one of the property owners there. I just want to add a
couple comments. For the last year, we've been working very seriously on this
process, and I thnrk we have done everything we've been asked to do. When we
submitted the first plan, and it was not acceptable to the Commission, or to the
neighbors, we changed it. And, we worked seriously with our engineers and City
staff, and they've all been very helpful, and we're hoping that we can get this plan
approved as quickly as possible so we can get it built as quickly as possible. I
don't want to look around and say, and cast blame as to why it's taken us this long
to get this to the City Council, with all the deferrals before P/Z, but I do need to
say that we've been worldng at it diligently. It took a lot longer than I expected to
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get engineering work done. It was a lot more complicated than I ever realized,
and I wish I would have asked for more time at the outset to accomplish the
engineering work that was required. But Terracon and Jim Jacob have really
worked very hard on this. It's a matter of scheduling, getting the soil borings
done, getting testing results, and all that, and that's why it took all those several
months throughout the summer, to finally get the plan that we could finally
present to P/Z. One other thing I want to also mention is that we are ready to
construct. We, Irdrsten mentioned that we were negotiating with Jay Prophet,
well, we're not negotiating. Jay Prophet is committed to do the work when we
need him to do it. grad he is sitting, waiting for our plan approval so we can get
this rezoning completed and get our permit. So, we will get this done as soon as
we have that completed.
Nov/ If we were to pass this by, let's say, September 23rd, is your construction team
ready to start on September 24th?
Cruise/ Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. And, we were, well, the sooner the better. We still
have dry weather. We still have some good weather to operate in, and we'd like
to get working in it right away. So, thank you.
Nov/ So, anyone else?
Ruth/ I'd just like to state for the record that I'm not necessarily opposed to this plan. I
would perhaps partially suggest that a bad-actor bill be drafted on the part of the
City, that in the future, if the developers are tinable to control these kinds of
events, and unable to remedy them in a timely fashion, that they not be allowed to
develop, particularly sensitive areas. Thanks.
Nov/ Thaak you. Now, are all the papers in order? Can I close the public hearing?
Dilkes/ I believe so.
Nov/Okay. P.h. is closed.
Thornberry/ I think I heard, without so many words, but they sorted wanted an expedited
consideration of this. Would there be any problem with that?
Nov/ I didn't hear that.
Thornberry/ So they can get started?
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Nov/ I didn't hear that. We'd need a letter requesting that, and I haven't seen it.
Kubby/ It talces three votes, and it's not on the agenda, so we couldn't vote first
consideration tonight anyway.
Thornberry/ No, I understand that.
Kubby/ But for second and third, we could certainly talk about it then.
Nov/ We can do it the next time.
Thornberry/ To collapse it into maybe four weeks instead of six weeks.
Nov/ Well, we could do it.
Kubby/ And a letter requesting that would be helpful.
Nov/ We'd have to have a letter requesting it.
Thornberry/ Okay.
Baker/ Tell me about putting this on. Don't you have to have a formal meeting for the
City Attorney Interview Process?
Thornberry/Yes.
Nov/Yes.
Baker/ Could you have a one-item agenda, just to start the process? Just a suggestion.
Nov/ Well, what do people think, put it on for Friday?
Thornberry/ I think that if we're going to, if we're going to approve this, I think if we're
going to approve this ordinance, this project --
Lelunan/ The sooner the better.
Thornberry/ The sooner the better. Getting it going, getting it done, if we think it's all
right, which I really do, I think they've done a, I think it's going to work, bat'ring
an act of God --
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Kubby/But that meeting is very soon. Not many people will have seen this explanation.
How many members of the public, it wasn't in the paper, the explanation of the
strategy.
Thornberry/ I would say, Karen --
Kubby/ I don't want to do, I would prefer not to do it tiffs week. I would be happy to
expedite second and third consideration, but don't want to put it on our agenda for
Thursday.
Thomberry/ I'm saying that if we don't, if we don't expedite consideration of this, then
we should not expect them --
Nov/ Okay.
Thornberry/ To get it done by the first of November.
Kubby/ The timeframe is their problem, franldy, --
Thornberry/ Well, it's not their problem --
Kubby/ I mean --
Thomberry/ It's their problem, but we can help mitigate that problem, if we so desire.
Kubby/ And I'm willing to do that on second and third consideration, which I usually
don't prefer to do unless there's a rational reason. And this, to me, seems like a
rational reason.
Nov/ You're talking about two different --
Thomberry/ Karen, you've done it week after week after week --
Nov/ You're talking about two different kinds of expediting. If we have first
consideration, for example, on Friday, we still have two more considerations.
Thornberry/Correct.
Nov/ If we have first consideration two weeks from now, then we'll collapse it, and it
will be four weeks. It's basically very similar.
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Thornberry/ Similar.
Lehman/ But I thinlc what Dean is saying, if we did have first consideration Friday we
could expedite in two weeks, and have it over with.
Norton,/ On the 23rd, you'd have to --
Lehman/ In other weeks, two weeks --
Nov/ Oh, oh.
Thornberry/ If this is okay. Why put them into a bind with a $1,000 per day penalty just
because we can take additional time?
Kubby/ To give the public a chance to see the meeting, to see the explanation, and to
give comment.
Baker/ But we're not going to pass it on Friday.
Nov/ We're talking about four weeks in sixteen years. I'm not in a rush.
Thornberry/ Well then, don't charge them $1,000 a day.
Kubby/ That's a future discussion.
Thornberry/ I can't help it. I think we should do all we can to expedite this --
Lynda Ostergaard/ Is the public hearing over?
Nov/ It is.
Kubby/ It is, but we have continued the discussion, and if there are other people who --
Lynda Ostergaard/ I'm Lynda Ostergaard, and I personally want the project to get done,
but I don't really, I don't think we need to expedite it for the benefit of the Cliffs'
owners. They truly could have done these things a lot faster than they have. I've
lived on that hill the entire time, and watched it erode, and do little jobs that never
did anything. And the only reason the hill is the way it is now is because of what
they did. The plan they have now is very nice. Well, maybe I shouldn't say very
nice. It's a lot better than it was before, and I think it probably will work, and we
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have agreed to it. But I don't think we need to expedite things for the Glasgows
to prevent them fi'om paying $1,000 a day fine.
Nov/Okay, Lynda -~
Ostergaard/ They could have done some of these things faster. It isn't really the fault of
the City or anyone else.
Nov/ We understand that, but if we can do this in four weeks instead of six weeks, we
probably will, just based on the fact that the construction season will interfere.
Ostergaard/ I'm married to a contractor. I understand about the construction season very,
very well. All I'm saying is, I'd like it to be for the right reasons that we expedite
the plan. To get it done, not because we can save someone money.
Nov/ Well--
Ostergaard/ Thank you.
Nov/ Well, that was not my intention, though. That is what Mr. Thornberry said.
Baker/ Can I just say for the record, there's no love lost between me and the developer. I
was not suggesting that for his benefit. I see this as a public benefit to get this
thing done.
Nov/ Lan'y, how many years ago was this?
Baker/ It was 198--
Norton/ '83, '83 1 thi~ak.
Baker/ 1983. Right after 1983, yeah.
Nov/ All right, and there was an environmental ad hoc committee. And Larry and I were
both on it. Because of this hill.
Lehlrtan/ We have an ordinance.
Nov/ Because of this hill, we have a Sensitive Areas Ordinance.
Baker/ That is correct.
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Nov/ So we're expediting not for the sake of the fine, but for the sake of the construction
season. And I think the best we cax~ do is four weeks. I can't, in good conscience,
think that it has to be any faster than that.
Thornberry/ Well, we can collapse the second reading.
Nov/ Second and third reading Call be collapsed.
Leltman/ Which would be a four-week process.
Nov/ This would be a four-week process. But, if we can at least expedite the one
reading, I think we should.
Thornberry/ I understand the Ostergaard's concern. I'm, Bob Ostergaard built my house,
a very good contractor. And I am not that vindictive. I, you know, mistakes are
made all the time. I understand this project has been in the mill for a long, long,
long time. But to just delay it to be vindictive, I just can't do that.
Nov/ It's not being vindictive, it's just following our standard procedures. Four weeks is
about as fast as we'd expedite anything else. So we'll do it that way.
Thornberry/ That's fine, as long as we can collapse second and third readings.
Nov/ Yes, we can. And we usually do in this instance.
Thornberry/ But we need a letter.
??/ We need a letter, Kirsten.
Nov/All right.
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September 9, 1997 City of Iowa City Page 6
Consider an ordinance amending Title 14, Chapter 6, entitled
"Zoning," Article E, entitled "Commercial and Business Zones,"
Section 2, entitled "Neighborhood Commercial Zone (CN-1)," to
permit any retail or personal service use in the CN-1 zone with a size
limitation to help ensure neighborhood compatibility. (Second
consideration)
Comment: At its July 3 meeting, by a vote of 5-0, the Planning and
Zoning Commission recommended approval of the proposed
ordinance. The Commission's recommendation is generally consistent
with the staff recommendation in the June 19 staff report.
Correspondence from Harry Wolf (Southgate Development) requesting
expedited consideration included in Council packet.
Action:
Consider an. ordinance amending Title 14, Chapter 6, entitled
"Zoning," Article N, entitled "Off-Street Parking and Loading," to
increase the parking requirements for residential uses in the CB-5,
Central Business Support Zone. (Second consideration)
Comment: At it June 19 meeting, by a vote of 7-0, the Planning and
Zoning Commission recommended that off-street parking requirements
be increased for residential uses in the CB-5 zone.
Consider an ordinance amending Title 14, "Unified Development
Code" of the City Code by amending Chapter 9, Article A, entitled
"Parking Facility Impact Fee" 'to revise the formula for payment in the
CB-5 Zone. (Second consideration)
Comment: At the City Council's May 5 work session, a decision was
made to proceed with amendments to the zoning ordinance and the
Parking Facility Impact Fee Ordinance, as those ordinances relate to
required parking for residential uses in the CB-5 zone and the ratio by
which fees may be paid in lieu of required parking. The ordinance
under consideration requires that a fee equal to 75% of the required
spaces for any residential use in the CB-5 zone be paid, and that no
fewer than 15% and no more than 35% of the required parking
spaces be provided on site.
Action: ~/~'~~
#5c page 1
ITEM NO. 5c Consider an ordinance amending Title 14, Chapter 6, entitled "Zoning,"
Article E, entitled "Commercial and Business Zones," Section 2, entitled
"Neighborhood Commercial Zone (CN-1)," to permit any retail or personal
service use in the CN-1 zone with a size limitation to help ensure neighborhood
compatibility. (Second consideration)
Nov/ we're on item #5c, and in this case, we have received a letter requesting expedited
consideration. (Reads agenda item #5c).
Thornberry/ I move that the rule requiring that ordinances must be considered and voted
on for passage at two Council meetings prior to the meeting at which it is to be
finally adopted, finally passed, be suspended; that the second consideration and
vote be waived, and that the ordinance be voted on for final passage at this time.
Vanderhoef/ Second.
Nov/ Moved by Thornberry, seconded by Vanderhoef that we give this expedited
consideration. Is there any discussion? Roll call- (yes).
Thornberry/ I move that the ordinance be finally adopted at this time.
Vanderhoef/ Second.
Nov/
Moved by Thornberry, seconded by Vanderhoef that we do the tltird consideration
at this time. Is there any discussion? Roll call- (yes). We have approved this
ordinance, and you can go ahead and finish the construction. By the way, I drove
by there today, and it's looking nice. They have apartments above the stores
there. Moving along.
Thornberry/ They keeping the streets clean?
Nov/ The streets? The streets could be improved.
Thornberry/Careful.
Nov/ Yes, tell the contractor that a little mud off the streets wouldn't do any harm.
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,September 9, 1997 City of Iowa City Page 7
Consider a resolution approving the preliminary plat of Windsor Ridge,
Parts Nine through Fourteen, a 80.1 acre, 127-1ot residential
subdivision located at the north terminus of Arlington Drive and
Barrington Road. (SUB97-0012)
ITEM NO. 6.
Comment: At its August 21 meeting, by a vote of 7-0, the Planning
and Zoning Commission recommended approval of the preliminary
plat, subject to the approval of a Sensitive Areas Site Plan prior to
Council consideration of the preliminary plat. The Sensitive Areas Site
Plan has been approved. Staff recommended approval in a report
dated August 21.
PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS, FORM OF CONTRACT, AND ESTIMATE OF
'COST FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE BURLINGTON STREET/GOVERNOR
STREET SIGNALIZATION PROJECT, ESTABLISHING AMOUNT OF BID
SECURITY TO ACCOMPANY EACH BID, DIRECTING CITY CLERK TO
PUBLISH ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS, AND FIXING TIME AND PLACE
FOR RECEIPT OF BIDS.
Comment: This project consists of the installation of fully actuated traffic
control equipment including over lane mast arms supported traffic signals.
The total estimated cost of this work is t~51,000. Funding will be
provided by 'Road Use Tax.
PUBLIC HEARING
Action:
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING
#6 page 1
ITEM NO. 6 PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS, FORM OF CONTRACT, AND ESTIMATE
OF COST FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE BURLINGTON
STREET/GOVERNOR STREET SIGNALIZATION PROJECT,
ESTABLISHING AMOUNT OF BID SECURITY TO ACCOMPANY EACH
BID, DIRECTING CITY CLERK TO PUBLISH ADVERTISEMENT FOR
BIDS, AND FIXING TIME AND PLACE FOR RECEIPT OF BIDS.
a. PUBLIC HEARING
Nov/ (Reads agenda item #6). P.h. is now open. Is there anyone who would like to talk
about the signals at Burlington and Governor?
Ruedi Kuenzli/ My name is Ruedi Kuenzli. I live at 705 S. Summit Street. I would like
to speak in favor of putting lights at Governor and Burlington which function
differently from the current ones. I go through this intersection every day, and I
find this intersection one of the more confusing ones in the whole City. At
present, traffic moving east on Burlington doesn't have to stop. The confusion
occurs when cars traveling east turn into Governor Street going north. They often
stop in the middle of the intersection, since they do not Imow that oncoming cars
traveling west on Burlington Street do no have to, do have to stop. And, I think
we have all experienced that. We talked to some neighbors. Some neighbors
mentioned that whenever their mother comes to visit, they show her a map of
Iowa City, to stay away from that intersection. Tharfl~ you.
Nov/ Thank you.
Cecile
Kuenzli/ My name is Cecile Kuenzli, and I live at 705 S. Summit, and I didn't
know Ruedi was going to speak tonight. As long as you are addressing traffic
issues in that section of the City, I would like to urge you to look at the possibility
of alleviating some of the crowding on IQrkwood that's caused by a four-way stop
at Keokuk, where Keokuk comes into Irdrkwood by making Dodge Street two-
way between Kirkwood and Burlington. I think that would give people who are
northbound another option, and might avoid some of this traffic backup that is so
awful on Kirkwood Avenue.
Thornben'y/ There is a big backup there on --
Norton/ It's half an hour sometimes.
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Thornberry/ And I think that probably another north-south arterial would alleviate part of
that congestion. Would you recommend that we put the stop sign back at Smm~ait
and Kirlcwood?
C. Kuenzli/ I would not.
Thornberry/ No, I didn't think so.
Kubby/ Although, the two one-ways were re-evaluated when looking at this stoplight.
That was something that Council looked at and said that when we finally do do
the stoplight, when it comes to the top of our list of lights to put in, we want to re-
evaluate the one-ways. And I asked about that, and found that it wouldn't relieve
traffic on Summit, and wouldn't relieve much traffic on Irdrkwood. Where it
would relieve traffic was on Gilbert Street, which is interesting, in that in doing
so, we'd have to give up all the residential, on-street parking on Dodge, and the
amount of traffic that would be diverted from Gilbert didn't seem like a good
trade-off for the loss of parking on Dodge. It seems like a shame not to use the
width of Dodge Street in that one section, but all the traffic counts and projections
just don't show that it's going to do what we think, what our common sense --
C. Kuenzli/ Well, if any traffic situation can be alleviated anywhere, I'm in favor of it.
There, as far as giving up traffic parIcing on Dodge Street, there is, on the vast
majority of properties there, adequate parking off-street. I've walked the alley to
check that myself. There might be one property or two properties, a lot of people
have provided off-street parking on the alley behind the houses on the alley off
Dodge Street. I don't think that would be a big issue if you took parking off
Dodge.
Kubby/ Well, we've heard froin people from along Dodge who would disagree.
Norton/ You talking about the alley to the east or to the west?
C. Kuenzli/ I'm talking about the west alley particularly.
Norton/ Right.
Nov/ What about the houses down the east side of Dodge, do they have an alley?
C. Iiuenzli/ Oh, I can't remember. Do you remember?
Thornberry/ Yes, they do.
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Lehman/ They do.
Thomberry/ That was my paper route when I was a pup. And I know Dodge Street real,
real well. And it used to be two-way and it worked real well. But we've grown
and we've gotten bigger and now, with the one-ways being Dodge going down,
and Governor -- and I lived on Governor Street growing up -- so, it was two-way
also. But again, with all the cars having to use those two arterials until First
Avenue can go through and alleviate some of the traffic on Dodge Street, we're
going to have to live with that problem.
Kubby/ And that's not clear. We haven't heard from our plan, traffic engineers as to
how much First Avenue Extended will alleviate --
Thomberry/ Well, it'll alleviate a whole lot of cars, from what they're telling us. So, if it
was moving 5 or 6 cars a day, I don't thinit we wouldn't need it.
R. Kuenzli/ Karen, I do not lmow why you would have to give up parking on Dodge
Street, because Dodge Street is the same width as Summit Street, it's about 28 or
30 feet. We have on-street parking on Summit, and we have a bus route going
through, which Dodge Street doesn't have. If you have parking and you keep
parking on Dodge Street, what will happen is that you will slow down the traffic a
little bit, because it's a very long block. And people are a little bit more careful
when there is parking. And I would keep the parking.
Kubby/ It really is the same width? Because perceptually, it seems, it feels more narrow.
I wonder if--
R. Kuenzli/ They're the same width.
Kubby/ I wonder if it's set-backs, because of the set-backs of the houses, it maltes it
seem wider on Summit.
R. Kuenzli/ But it doesn't affect the street --
??/ (Can't hear) the landscaping on one side goes up.
Kubby/ Goes up.
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Baker/ This is the first I've heard this proposal discussed. It may have slipped by before.
Is the trade-off that simple? Parking on Dodge Street versus less traffic on
Gilbert?
Kubby/ I don't think that's the only thing.
Baker/ Is there some sort of--
Kubby/ I don't lmow, Doug is here --
Baker/ (Can't understand) has looked at that issue?
Kubby/ Doug, were you part of that evaluation of the one~ways?
Doug Ripley/ No, I was not.
Norton/ Let me say, we need to take a look at that. The delay on Kirkwood, and I travel
it every day and have for fifty years, and I find the delay on Kirkwood not all that
long. It's just time to think a little.
Kubby/ Maybe what we need is a brief report from Jeff Davidson about the re-evaluation
of the one-ways.
C. Kuenzli/ Okay.
Kubby/ Along with the traffic.
C. Kuenzli/ Okay, because I don't third~ you've received any kind of formal report.
Kubby/ No, I just called about it, because I remember us saying we need to re-evaluate
that issue at this time, so if we're going to make changes, we should make them
all at once.
Norton/ Yes, we should look at it pretty carefully.
Nov/ Okay, and we're not yet talking about removing the signal at Summit and
Burlington.
Karin Franldin/ No.
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Nov/ Okay. What about the design of this signal at Governor. Do we have any plans for
dedicated left-turn signals or any other changes there?
Rick Fosse/ It's going to be a fully actuated system that's going to rest in the east-west
direction. And there will be protected left turns for that. Eastbound traffic on
Burlington Street.
Kubby/ Can you turn left without, when the arrow leaves, will there still be a green light,
so if there's not westbound traffic, you can still turn left?
Fosse/ I believe that is a protected, permissive setup that we have there. I can confirm
that and get back to you.
Kubby/ Oh, it's a protected, permissive system.
Norton/ How will the --
Nov/ That's a good system. Let's put in more and more signals on Burlington.
Norton/ How will that light be coordinated with the light at Burlington and Summit?
Fosse/ They'll not be interconnected.
Lehman/ They won't be.
Norton/ Okay. You have to stop at the light now anyhow, I guess. You get lucky
sometimes.
Thornben'y/The resting means that it's going to be green going east and west on
Burlington, and will only be activated if someone were to come up Governor. Is
that correct?
Fosse/ That's correct.
Thornberry/ And it would turn, eventually, the thing.
Fosse/ Yes.
Thornberry/ Okay.
Nov/ Okay. Any other discussion? P.h. is closed. We need a motion.
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F090997
September 9,
ITEM NO. 7.
306,
1997
City of Iowa City
Page 8
PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS, FORM OF CONTRACT, AND ESTIMATE OF
COST FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE IOWA CITY LANDFILL FY98
CELL CONSTRUCTION PROJECT, ESTABLISHING AMOUNT OF BID
SECURITY TO ACCOMPANY EACH BID, DIRECTING CITY CLERK TO
PUBLISH ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS, AND FIXING TIME AND PLACE
Comment: This project consists of constructing an a al II on the
west half of the landfill. This new cell will be constructed in accordance
with all federal and state regulations. The Engineefts estimate for this
project is t~1,500,000. Funding for this project will be provided by landfill
revenues.
PUBLIC HEARING
Action:
ITEM NO. 8.
b. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING
AMENDING THE FY98 OPERATING BUDGET.
Comment: The public hearing is to receive public comment regarding the
proposed FY98 budget amendment for all funds.
a. PUBLIC HEARING
Action: ~.~___~_~ ~
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING
Action: 4/,c~ / ~)~_~~
#7 page 1
CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 92-127 SIDE 1
ITEM NO. 7 PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS, FORM OF CONTRACT, AND ESTIMATE
OF COST FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE IOWA CITY LANDFILL
FY98 CELL CONSTRUCTION PROJECT, ESTABLISHING AMOUNT OF
BID SECURITY TO ACCOMPANY EACH BID, DIRECTING CITY CLERK
TO PUBLISH ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS, AND FIXING TIME AND
PLACE FOR RECEIPT OF BIDS.
a. PUBLIC HEARING
Nov/ (Reads agenda item #7). P.h. is now open.
Fosse/Last night, I passed out a memo sharing with you some of the good news about the
design of that, and if you'd like, I can spend a minute and go over that.
Nov/Let's hear some more about that.
Fosse/ Okay.
Nov/ And for the record, this is Rick Fosse, City Engineer.
Fosse/
It's geo-technical night. First The Cliffs, and now the Landfill. What we've
done, Dan Scott, and engineer in our office, has worked with Howard R. Green to
develop a performance-based liner design that takes advantage of the clays that
are available there at the landfill. And what that does is it prevents the need to put
in a more expensive synthetic liner that would otherwise be required by the EPA
rules enforced by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. We have one cell
out at the landfill with a synthetic liner. We found it somewhat expensive to
install, and also, finicky and expensive to maintain. We had a small rip in it that
we had to bring in a specialty contractor to repair, and that was about $1,000.
We've had problems with this side of the liner itself getting water underneath it
and then getting bubbles underneath the liner there. They type of liner that we'll
use on this project is five feet of compacted clay. And what that means for us on
this project is we'll save about $91,000 over what a synthetic liner would cost.
And what it means for us in the remaining cell projects on the west side of the
landfill is a savings of about three-quarters of a million dollars for the cells and
the caps. And that's certainly good news. It's ftm to be able to put a pencil to
something and be able to come up with some good savings. And Dan Scott and
Howard R. Green need to be complimented for that. We also expect significant
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F090997
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savings in the operations, because the clay liner is more, easier to maintain, and
less prone to problems.
Kubby/ Do we need to do any additional or more expensive monitoring because it's not
an impervious surface, that is, our liner now?
Fosse/ No. What we were able to do is to satisfy the EPA that the clay liner that we are
proposing, because of the clays that we have available to us, is in a performance
which is equivalent to the synthetic liner.
Kubby/ Because it's so compact and because there's so much, so little space in-between
the molecules of clay --
Fosse/ Right.
Kubby/ So dense.
Fosse/ The rate at which fluid can travel through there is extremely slow, and the
thiclmess helps make up for that.
Nov/Will you still have monitoring wells in a cell like this?
Fosse/ Yes.
Norton/ What's the layer of clay, how thick?
Fosse/ The cell will have five feet of compacted clay beneath it. Take it out, and re-
compact it denser titan it exists naturally. And we are fortunate to have good
clays in our landfill.
Norton/ But that's not more earth-moving, it sounds like.
Fosse/ It is more earth-moving, but the clay liner and the installation, excuse me, the
installation of the synthetic liner are very expensive.
Kubby/ Does this mean that our landfill will have fewer cells in it because of the, it's so
much bigger per cell?
Fosse/ No, it won't change the number of cells.
Lehman/ The size of the cell is still about the same, isn't it?
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Fosse/ Yes.
Kubby/ Right, but we can't dig into the liner to do the cell next to it. So, --
Fosse/ Right. And you --
Thoruberry/And these --
Fosse/ Oh, go ahead.
Thomberry/ And these cells, Rick, will be there forever?
Fosse/ I believe so.
Thornberry/ They don't biodegrade at all? Because there's no air getting to thein, getting
to the contents up there.
Fosse/ Well, when we've, when we've dug into cells that are 15-20 years old, I haven't
seen a lot of decomposition of the waste. It's pretty smelly, but it hasn't changed
much.
Thornberry/ You can still read a phonebook, huh?
Kubby/ Yeah, the newspaper.
Norton/ We aren't using that gas yet.
Kubby/ We'll mine it for resources later when we run out of certain things.
Norton/ Yeah.
Fosse/ That's a good point. The gas is the next thing that we will be addressing at the
landfill is meeting cleaner air standards out there. And we will be working with
Howard R. Green to do that, figure out what is the extent of the gas that's being
generated, how it can be collected and dealt with.
Norton/ Think of your diesel engine.
Kubby/ Yeah.
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F090997
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Fosse/ That's one possibility.
Kubby/ How can we use it?
Nov/ Is there any other public discussion? Is there any other Council discussion?
Thornberry/ Just a point. I know that Coors brewery, out in Golden, Colorado, went into
the garbage collection business in Golden, and they burn it to create power for
their plants that they have, the brewery and the porcelain plants in Golden. And it
may not be far off that, as Karen said, as far as digging them up and using them,
eventually, for energy. So, it's a possibility sometime.
Nov/ If we run out of landfill space, we'll put up an electricity generating plant and we'll
bum it.
Norton/ (Can't traderstand).
Thomberry/ Coors does.
Norton/ Put a pipe in it.
Nov/ We're stockpiling it right now.
Thornberry/ Yeah, we're stockpiling it.
Kubby/ I like that.
Nov/ Okay, we've closed the p.h. We need a motion.
b. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING
Lel~2an/ So moved.
Thomberry/ Second.
Nov/ Moved by Lehman, seconded by Thornberry that we approve the resolution. Any
further discussion? Roll call- (yes). We have approved this resolution.
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F090997
#8 page 1
ITEM NO. 8 AMENDING THE FY98 OPERATING BUDGET.
a. PUBLIC HEARING
Nov/ (Reads agenda item #8). Amendment hearing is open.
Don Yucuis/ Hi, this is Don Yucuis, Finance Director for the City. We're hitting you
with two budget amendments this year. I've been a little uneasy on not amending
the budget at the beginning of the fiscal year to carryover funds from the prior
fiscal year, and with the Department of Management at the state level, I get a little
uneasy because their rules are pretty strict, if for some reason someone contests
our budget. We have a significant amount of budget carryover from the prior
fiscal year. We're carrying over, or amending approximately $27 million in
expenses. And the majority of those are carryovers of projects that were in place
as of June 30 of 1997, and we're just carrying over that budget authority from one
year to the next. This officially does it. I also think it's more timely for you to
understand what things are in the new budget as we amend it, because we, we've
administratively carried it over in the past, and then in May of that fiscal year, we
would come to you with a formal amendment. This, I think, does a better job of
informing you of what projects have been carded forward, specifically and which
ones haven't been. I think its' a better informational tool, even though it looks
large for carryovers, it's appropriate that we do the formal amendment now, and
get our budget up to the correct level that it should be, formally.
Kubby/ So, Don, if a citizen comes to your office and wants to look at the budget,
because they're looldng at a specific area of the City's budget, will these
amendments be somehow collated in to a budget that is handed out to the public,
or will they have to look at the past budget from this Council and then look
through the amendment books on the sections they're most interested in?
Yucuis/ What I would probably direct them to is, the budget book is a good document,
but unfortunately, it's a picture as of March 15th, of the previous year. So, a lot
of things change between March 15th and the end of the fiscal year. And then,
again, when we carryover the budget, so the document itself, although it's good
and it's what's been approved, when we do these amendments, then we go into
other documents where we can show the actual activity expenses and revenues
and the budget, and so if people want to know where we're at a a certain time of
year, I would probably direct them to a quarterly report for operations, which we
hand out. We have monthly reports that we do generate. We just started
generating a quarterly Capital Improvements Program report, which has been
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F090997
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needed, and so, to get a better picture where we're at right now, the budget
probably will not show that.
Kubby/ But all those reports are available to the public?
Yucuis/ Yes, they are.
Kubby/ I£ desired.
Yucuis/ Yes, they are.
Norton/ There's no way you're going to look at one document and get a handle on this,
though. It's really, you have to look at several documents to really get a handle.
Yucuis/ Correct. On a monthly basis, we keep the departments and department heads
informed on what is happening as far as budget and actual revenues an expenses,
and that's been a good tool for all the departments to kmow where are they at at a
specific time. That information is available to the public if they'd like to have it,
and I'd be more than happy to go over that with anyone or present information to
them.
Nov/ In terms of amendments, I assume you'll have second amendments at the end of the
fiscal year, the way we have done it in the past?
Yucuis/Yes, you will. My assumption is that the document will be just as thick, but the
dollars will be less.
Nov/ Sounds reasonable. Any other discussion? P.h. is closed.
b. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING
Kubby/ Move adoption of the resolution.
Norton/ Second.
Nov/ Moved by Kubby, seconded by Norton. Any discussion? Roll call- (yes). All
right. We have one more public hearing, and then I think we should have a break.
(Break)
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F090997
September 9,
ITEM NO. 9.
997 City of Iowa City Page 9
CONVEYANCE OF THE VACATED PORTIONS OF ST. JOHN'S ALLEY
AND ST. IVIATTHIAS STREET RIGHT-OF-WAY LOCATED NORTH OF
DODGE STREET AND IMMEDIATELY ADJACENT TO ROBERT'S
HOMETOWN DAIRY AND HY-VEE, TO ROBERT'S HOMETOWN DAIRY
AND CONSOLIDATED PROPERTIES, INC.
Comment: On July 15, 1997, the City Council considered and passed an
ordinance vacating portions of St. John's Alley and St. Matthias Street
located north of Dodge Street and adjacent to properties owned by
Robert's Hometown Dairy and Hy-Vee. Robert's Hometown Dairy owns
all property surrounding the vacated portion of St. John's Alley, and
Robert's Dairy and Hy-Vee (Consolidated Properties, Inc.) each abut
portions of the vacated St. Matthias Street right-of-way. Appraisals have
been performed on all portions of the vacated right-of-way, as well as on
the Dodge Street right-of-way which the City is acquiring from Robert's
Dairy for the future expansion of Dodge Street. Consistent with the
appraised values, Robert's Dairy has offered to acquire the St. John's
Alley right-of-way for $16,925 and a portion of the vacated St. Matthias
right-of-way for $12,943. Consolidated properties has offered to
purchase a portion of the vacated St. Matthias Street right-of-way for the
appraised value of t~3,407. Along with these transactions, the City is
purchasing the Dodge Street right-of-way from Robert's Dairy for the
appraised value of $20,000.
a. PUBLIC HEARING
Action:
ITEM NO. 10.
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING
Action: 4;~-~'~~/.~~
CONSIDER AN
VEHICLES AND
ROAD" BY ADDING A NEW SECTION 12 THEREIN TO MANDATE LANE
USE CONTROL ON MELROSE AVENUE FROM UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS TO
BYINGTON ROAD. (FIRST CONSIDERATION)
ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 9 ENTITLED "MOTOR
TRAFFIC," CHAPTER 3, ENTITLED "RULES OF THE
Comment: This action is being taken as part of an agreement between
the City and the Melrose Avenue Neighborhood Association to adopt, by
ordinance, the lane usage and pavement marking on the newly
reconstructed segments of Melrose Avenue between University Heights
and Byington Avenue. Lane usage and pavement markings will provide
three (3) 11' travel lanes and two (2) 7' shoulders from University
Heights to S. Grand Avenue and two (2) 11' travel lanes and 5' shoulders
from S. Grand Avenue to Byington Road. The design and agreement to
incorporate into ordinance is contained in Resolution No. 95-321.
ction:
#10 page 1
ITEM NO. 10 CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 9, ENTITLED
"MOTOR VEHICLES AND TRAFFIC," CHAPTER 3, ENTITLED "RULES OF
THE ROAD" BY ADDING A NEW SECTION 12 THEREIN TO MANDATE
LANE USE CONTROL ON MELROSE AVENUE FROM UNIVERSITY
HEIGHTS TO BYINGTON ROAD. (FIRST CONSIDERATION)
Nov/ We're on item #10. (Reads agenda item #10).
Kubby/ Move first consideration.
Leilanan/ Second.
Nov/ Moved by Kubby, seconded by Lehman. Discussion?
Kubby/ The purpose of this ordinance is so that at an informal meeting, there can't just
be four nods of a head by Council to change the markings on the new Melrose
Avenue, which is marked as three lanes, but actually has enough pavement to
have four lanes. And this ensures that there'll be some community process before
that kind of change that might be contemplated could take place.
Norton/ Do I understand that the lanes marked with the diamond are for what, bikes,
buses, what's permitted there?
Nov/ Both. It's a way for a bus to pull over, and the traffic to go around it. Or, the way
for a bicycle to be out of the traveled lanes.
Norton/ It's not the side for high-occupancy vehicles.
Nov/ I don't think so.
Thornberry/ Bicycles.
Norton/ Well, which is the side in some places, same symbol used for carpool.
NoW Oh.
Thornberry/ Let's hope that the buses are high-occupancy.
Nov/ In those narrow lanes, I don't think so. Any other discussion?
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Lelunan/ Yeah, just one comment, Naomi. As I recall, when we talked about Meh'ose,
we decided that we would do this by ordinance for the very reason that Karen
gave, that University Heights was concerned about this being a four-lane road.
We felt that three-lane was appropriate, and to see to it that it would require a
more extensive process to change it, we agreed to put into the form of an
ordinance.
Nov/ Yeah. And I remember there was discussion about putting it into a resolution, and
we decided to make it even more difficult. A resolution could also have public
input, but an ordinance would require three meetings, and give people a chance to
comment. Anything else? Roll call- (yes). We have approved that resolution, I
mean, that ordinance.
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September 9, 1997 City of Iowa City Page 10
ITEM NO. 11.
CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING' TITLE 9, ENTITLED "MOTOR
VEHICLES AND TRAFFIC," CHAPTER 1, ENTITLED "DEFINITIONS,
ADMINISTRATION AND ENFORCEMENT OF TRAFFIC REVISIONS,"
SECTION 9, ENTITLED "ACCIDENTS," BY REPEALING PARAGRAPH A,
ENTITLED "REPORT OF ACCIDENT: INABILITY TO REPORT." {FIRST
CONSIDERATION)
Comment: This action is being taken as part of a cooperative effort
between the Iowa City Police Department and the Johnson County
Council of Governments to provide better traffic accident information for
traffic engineering and traffic planning purposes. The ICPD is currently
providing copies of officer-completed crash reports to JCCOG for traffic
engineering data purposes. The current participant-completed crash
reports are less reliable and less informative than the officer-completed
reports and thereby unnecessary as long as cooperation continues
between the ICPD and JCCOG. The amendment will reduce paperwork
for both ICPD and JCCOG.
Action:
#11 page 1
ITEM NO. 11 CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 9, ENTITLED
"MOTOR VEHICLES AND TRAFFIC," CHAPTER 1, ENTITLED
"DEFINITIONS, ADMINISTRATION AND ENFORCEMENT OF TRAFFIC
REVISIONS," SECTION 9, ENTITLED "ACCIDENTS," BY REPEALING
PARAGRAPH A, ENTITLED "REPORT OF ACCIDENT: INABILITY TO
REPORT." (FIRST CONSIDERATION)
Nov/ (Reads agenda item #11)
Thornberry/ Move adoption of the ordinance.
Nov/ Moved by Thornberry.
Vanderhoef/ Second.
Nov/ Seconded by Vanderhoef that we give this ordinance first consideration. Is there
any discussion?
Norton/ I have a question about, I'm certainly in favor of paperwork reduction, I just
wanted to be clear about something. Does the driver still have to file an accident
report with the State?
Ripley/ Yes, they will. This only eliminates the need for them to send a copy of that
State report --
Norton/ Okay.
Ripley/ To the Iowa City Police Department, which I don't lmow if you're familiar with
that, but it looks something like this. It's just a simple, one-page, gives us
basically names, location, and a few minor details. The police reports are
completed by officers. They can obtain all the information, and usually non-
biased, because they're not involved in the crash, and also, diagrams, so it's much
better information for us to work with.
Norton/ Does the person involved, or persons involved in the accident, sign the report
that the officer turns into the City?
Ripley/ I don't believe that that's true. They also do not sign this one, the copies that I
get.
Norton/ The perceptions by the public of situations are sometimes different.
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Ripley/ The copy that I get of the police report does not contain a participant signature,
but neither does the copy of the DOT's report that I receive, so in regards to that,
it doesn't change from the data purpose for JCCOG.
Nov/And you're not as concerned about who had the accident as how many accidents?
Ripley/ Mostly, I'm concerned with where they were, how they happened, why they
happened, and what we can do to prevent them. Who was involved really makes
no difference to me, from a data perspective. The information on the police
reports also give us driver information as far as age, sex, that type of thing,
whether they lived in town or out of town, that information is still on there, so we
are receiving that. But in regards to the names, I generally don't even look at
them. They have no relevance to the data purposes of traffic engineering and
traffic planning.
Nov/ Okay, thank you.
Norton/ I'm still concerned about one question. Suppose there's a legal question, or an
insurance claim, or a suit of some sort. Who's report is controlling in that case?
Ripley/ I'm not sure that I--
Norton/ If there's a difference between the one the police department gets, filled out by
the officer, and the one that the State gets, filled out by the person.
Ripley/ Well, the State also receive a copy of the police report. As far as insurance
claims, that's one of the reasons why we're going to the police reports, because
for a data purpose, we're getting the non-biased infonuation. When insurance
companies call, regarding the accidents, they generally are looking for the actual
information. If they want a copy of the participants' reports, they can still receive
those from the DOT.
Nov/ But they don't call you for that infonuation.
Ripley. No. They generally just call because the DOT has tried to revoke their license, to
see if we've receive it.
Dale Helling/ Just for your information, too, these reports are available at the Police
Department to insurance companies, attorneys, the parties involved in the
accident. I know that, because I just recently dealt with one of these situations
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F090997
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with the Police Department. So they are available to people who want them, and
who need them for their pro'poses.
Nov/ Yeah. That was my comment. I though, if I were an insurance agent, I would go to
the Police Department, not to the travel-accident records.
Ripley/ The only time they come to me is if the police department has already given me
their copy, and I keep them on file. Any other questions?
Nov/ Anything else? Roll call- (yes).
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F090997
September 9, 1997 City of Iowa City Page
ITEM NO. 12.
CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 9, ENTITLED "MOTOR
VEHICLES AND TRAFFIC"; CHAPTER 5, ENTITLED "PARKING METER
ZONES AND PARKING LOTS," SECTION 6, ENTITLED "PENALTIES;
PARKING TICKETS" TO CREATE A SENIOR CENTER PARKING TICKET
REVIEW PANEL TO REVIEW PARKING TICKETS ISSUED BY SENIOR
CENTER PERSONNEL. (FIRST CONSIDERATION)
Comment: Currently, a three member review panel which includes the
Senior Center Coordinator reviews administrative appeals of parking
tickets issued by Senior Center personnel for parking violations in the
Senior Center's North Lot and Linn Street permit parking areas.
Generally, the deciding vote as to whether to dismiss or uphold a ticket
issued by Senior Center personnel is made by the Senior Center
Coordinator, These decisions, which to some have appeared to be
arbitrary, often leave the Senior Center participants and staff members
feeling less than satisfied with both the process and the outcome.
The creation of a Senior Center Parking Ticket Review Committee
("SCPTRC") will offer a far more objective peer review process for
consideration of appealed parking tickets. The SCPTRC will be comprised
of one member of the Senior Center Commission, one member of the
Senior Center Council of Elders, and one Senior Center participant, as
well as a Senior Center staff advisor. The SCPTRC will only review
parking tickets written by Senior Center personnel for parking violations in
the Center's North Lot and the permit parking area next to the Senior
Center on Linn Street. Appeal forms for these tickets will be available at
the Senior .Center. The SCPTRC will meet monthly and make final
determination on appealed tickets.
Initial reaction to the SCPTRC indicates that Senior Center participants
will find the parking ticket administrative review process much more
credible and objective because the review will be administered by a group
of peers who are familiar with the parking regulations and parking
problems at the Senior Center. The SCPTRC should also help reduce the
number of complaints the Senior Center receives regarding parking
tickets.
Action: .~ .~-/Z~
#12 page 1
ITEM NO. 12 CONSDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 9, ENTITLED
"MOTOR VEHICLES AND TRAFFIC," CHAPTER 5, ENTITLED "PARICING
METER ZONES AND PARIGNG LOTS," SECTION 6, ENTITLED
"PENALTIES: PARICING TICKETS" TO CREATE A SENIOR CENTER
PARIGNG TICIrd~T REVIEW PANEL TO REVIEW PARKING TICIrd~TS
ISSUED BY SENIOR CENTER PERSONNEL. (FIRST CONSIDERATION)
Nov/ We have been asked to eliminate Item #12. We talked yesterday about possible
deferral, and we're just going to take it off the agenda.
Kubby/ Can we do that?
Nov/ I was told that's what we do with it.
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F090997
September 9, 1997 City of Iowa City Page 12
ITEM NO. 13.
CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 14, ENTITLED "UNIFIED
DEVELOPMENT CODE," CHAPTER 6, ENTITLED "ZONING," ARTICLE S,
ENTITLED "PERFORMANCE STANDARDS," SECTION 11, ENTITLED
"SCREENING" BY ADDING CHILD CARE CENTERS TO THE LIST OF
AREAS WHICH MUST BE SCREENED FROM COMMERCIAL AND
INDUSTRIAL USES. (FIRST CONSIDERATION)
Comment; Sootion 14-05-11, City Cod6, providoa that commercial or
industrial u~es must provide screening when they abut or are across a
street, highway, alley or railroad right of way from residential zones,
office and research parks, schools, and recreational areas (including
parks, playgrounds,. or the Iowa River). With recent zoning amendments,
child care centers are now permitted in zones that allow intensive
commercial and industrial uses, but are not included among those uses
which are to be screened from commercial/industrial uses pursuant to
Section 14-6S-11.
Child care centers engage their clients in activities similar to those in
schools and playgrounds, and provide an atmosphere that should be
protected from the dust, noise, and distractions of intensive commercial
and industrial activity. Adding "child care centers" to the list of uses that
must be screened from industrial and commercial activity is in keeping
with the intent of Section 14-6S-11.
In cases where a child care center is built across from or adjacent to a lot
which already contains a commercial or industrial use, it will be the
responsibility of the child care center to provide screening pursuant to
Section 14-6L-1D.3.
ITEM NO. 14.
CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CITY CODE TITLE 1, ENTITLED
"ADMINISTRATION," CHAPTER 5, ENTITLED "MAYOR AND CITY
COUNCIL," TO CHANGE THE COMPENSATION AND REVIEW PROCESS
FOR CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS AND THE MAYOR {PASS AND ADOPT)
Comment: At their February 10 Budget discussion, the City Council
agreed to a 9500 salary increase per Council Member and compensation
for the Mayor to be the same rate as a Council Member plus ~1000. The
increases were incorporated into the FY98 Budget approved in March.
State Code requires Council increases be officially acted upon by
ordinance. This ordinance will be effective January 1, 1998.
September 9,
ITEM NO. 15.
?7-.
ITEM NO. q6.
ITEM NO, 17.
1997 City of Iowa City Page 13
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION RESCINDING THE 1995 COMMERCIAL
DRIVER'S LICENSE SUBSTANCE ABUSE PREVENTION PROGRAM FOR
DRUGS AND ALCOHOL AND ESTABLISHING AN AMENDED
COMMERCIAL DRIVER'S LICENSE SUBSTANCE ABUSE PREVENTION
PROGRAM.
Comment: To meet federal requirements Council adopted a Commercial
Driver's License Substance Abuse Prevention Program for Drugs and
Alcohol on July 18, 1995, The program has been updated to reflect
change in federal law which have occurred since then as well as changes
to City practices, A staff memorandum detailing the changes has been
included in the packet,
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AMENDING THE INVESTMENT POLICY FOR
THE CITY OF IOWA CITY.
Comment: The investment policy for the City of Iowa City requires
periodic review and updating. The revised investment policy incorporates
minor changes in investment objectives, the types of instruments in
which to invest, the diversification of investments, reporting
requirements, and Iowa Code chapter references, Staff memorandum
included in Council packet.
Action: 7~~~ ~:::~~~
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO EXECUTE
AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST TO A 28E AGREEMENT AMONG THE
CITY OF IOWA CITY AND CERTAIN OTHER CITIES AND INDEPENDENT
FIRE DISTRICTS IN JOHNSON COUNTY, IOWA, FOR MUTUAL FIRE AID
PROTECTION.
Comment: This resolution allows the Mayor to sign the Johnson County
Fire Protection Mutual Aid Agreement on behalf of the City of Iowa City.
The Mutual Aid Agreement provides additional firefighting equipment and
personnel to the participants in the event of larger than usual fires, and'
additional resource sharing. A draft of the agreement was provided in the
August 29 Council information packet, The Fire Department supports
this agreement.
Action', ~;:Y~./-~4 _..~J/,~.~..~
#15 page 1
ITEM NO. 15 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION RESCINDING THE 1995
COMMERCIAL DRIVER'S LICENSE SUBSTANCE ABUSE PREVENTION
PROGRAM FOR DRUGS AND ALCOHOL AND ESTABLISHING AN
AMENDED COMMERCIAL DRIVER'S LICENSE SUBSTANCE ABUSE
PREVENTION PROGRAM.
Nov/ (Reads agenda item #15).
Vanderhoef/ Move adoption of the resolution.
Kubby/ Second.
Nov/ Moved by Vanderhoef, seconded by Kubby. Discussion?
Kubby/ I would like us to add, at the very beginning of this, some kind of general
statement about that this policy is to, while following the federal law, we still
want to respect the integrity and the privacy of our employees, while still abiding
by the federal law and living up to these expectations. There's really nothing at
the beginming that, there are some statements later on that are very specific in
talking about individual privacy issues, and how urine samples are collected at
Mercy and all that kind of thing, but at the very beginning, it would be nice to
have just a simple sentence that talks about respecting the integrity and the
privacy, and I think there are some changes being made in this to help reduce the
anxiety and the naturally invasive nature of substance abuse tests.
Nov/ Did you have some words in mind? Did you write something?
Norton/ In the first paragraph you mean?
Kubby/Yeah, at the very begimping.
Nov/ Section One, Purpose and Construction?
Kubby/ Yes.
Norton/ That might be under "Purpose"?
Kubby/ Yeah. I don't have specific language. I did not do that. And, I thil~k, in voting
on this, I think we can just direct staff to have a one-sentence thing that they can
put in. I would trust them to write the appropriate sentence, but we could talk
about that.
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Nov/ It does not say anything like that in the resolution, this resolution can be voted on
with just general directions to staff to change the wording in the first paragraph of
(can't understand).
Kubby/I don't have any objection to adding that kind of--
Norton/ Which is basically to say with every intent to protect the privacy, and so forth,
right.
Thomberry/ But all these things, all these things, can and will be done as far as --
Kubby/ Right, the process --
Norton/ Where did this document come fi:om, I mean, what's the basis, did you generate
it, or did we pick it up from some other -- ?
Kubby/ It's federal law.
Helling/ It's federal. It was generated by Sylvia in Personnel staff, but it's the result of
federal law.
Norton/ And it's been all over with the Union, of course.
Helling/ I mean, they all have copies, you lmow, every employee who is affected --
Kubby/ It's not a negotiated item.
Helling/ Buy it. And no, it's not negotiable. This is something that we have to do. But,
we have had several discussion in Labor Management Committee meetings with
the Union about this, and one of the major changes here, which is the chm~ge in
the service provider for the testing, that came as a result of those discussions.
Kubby/I think, there were some problems with employees not able to get information
very quickly about the results of their test, or being told to call the MRO and not
being able to get through. There just weren't enough people, employees at the
company, to deal with the number of clients that they had, so we're switching
companies. And I like that it's so close, as well.
Norton/ Yeah.
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Kubby/ To the city property.
Helling/ That did occur on one or two occasions, and it had to do with the number of
people at that particular MRO, and the company was contracting with were the
same service. We think that that will improve, and also, that the MRO will be
local now, so that will make a difference.
Nov/ Dale, will you ask Sylvia to write another sentence in to convey the sentiments we
would like to convey?
Helling/ Sure.
Kubby/ Thank you.
Nov/ Is there any fm'ther discussion? Roll call- (yes). We have approved the resolution.
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ITEM NO. 16 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AMENDING THE INVESTMENT
POLICY FOR THE CITY OF IOWA CITY.
Nov/ (Reads agenda item #16).
Thomberry/ Move adoption of the resolution.
Lelyarran/ Second.
Nov/ Moved by Thomberry, seconded by Lehman. Discussion?
Kubby/ I had two questions. Oh, go ahead, Dee.
Norton/ No, go ahead.
Kubby/ We're deleting the reference to an Investment Committee, and I know that we're
pretty limited in what ldnd of investments, now that we can partake in, but what
would such a committee do, if we had one that was functioning?
Yucuis/ Again, this is Don Yucuis, the City Finance Director. The Investment
Committee has been comprised mainly of myself or Kevin O'Malley, and we
have a staff person in Treasury who does the calling, soliciting bids on
investments on a daily basis when we have money to invest. When that is done,
then we review that information and see how far we should go out, where we have
a spot open to fit into an accounts payable run or a payroll run, and then we
determine, can we go out that far? That's the Committee.
Norton/ It's an information corm~ittee, basically.
Yucuis/ It's an informal committee. When Sara Sproule was in our Treasury Division,
who does our cash-flow analysis on a daily basis, can determine that we have
funds available to invest, then we'll quickly solicit some bids from the local
banks and someone on goverm~ent securities and then quickly determine which is
the best bid, and how far we can go out.
Kubby/ Those functions will still be in place, even though we're talcing the Investment
Committee language out of our policy.
Yucuis/ Oh yes, definitely, definitely.
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Nov/ And, as I understand it, the final decision rests with Don Yucuis, no matter what
the language.
Kubby/ The buck stops there.
Yucuis/ That's correct. It's a quick thing that has to be done. When you're soliciting
bids, normally, you have to make a determination by 10:00 if you want to get
money wired out that day. So, it's, you make some quick calls in the morning,
and we have a small pool of banks that we've been dealing with, and getting good
rates on, and then we also have the govermnent securities that we do compare
those to, and it's a quick, pretty quick process that has to be followed, or else we
can't get the money invested that day.
Norton/What does it mean that the City is able to invest a little further out than in prior
years?
Yucuis/ It just means we have more funds available, either in our reserves, or just in fund
balance. We pool all of our funds together, except for bond ordinance restricted
funds. gn~d by pooling it all together, we're able to invest it further out. We
ladder our investments, so we have money coming due pretty much every time we
have an accounts payable run and a payroll run. So, it's 26 times a year you have
money coming due to cover payroll, and accounts payable is done 25 times a year.
So, it's almost every two weeks we have ftmds coming due. And then you add
that to your regular revenue that comes in and you're able to just invest that a
little further.
Kubby/ You mean that by time?
Yucuis/ Correct.
Kubby/ Rather than geography?
Yucuis/ Rather than six months, you can go eight months.
Nov/ As far as the distance in geography, you're very limited.
Yucuis/ We're very limited on Certificates of Deposit. We can invest in our county or an
adjacent county. And that has to be within our state. Prior, approximately 4 or 5
years ago, we were calling nationwide for CD, Certificates of Deposit, that were
under $100,000, and we were getting between a quarter and a half percent higher
on interest rates at that time. By restricting us, we're doing okay. I think we
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could probably do a little bit better if we could go out a little bit further, out of our
geographical area, but it's not that bad. It makes it easy to invest, I'll tell you that.
Kubby/ Did we ever look at financial institutions, community reinvestment act portfolio
as part of our decision-making process of where to invest or how much to invest?
Yucuis/ We haven't looked at that on an ongoing basis. We looked at it periodically
over the last couple years, but it's not part of our decision-making process. It's
more we're looking at the rate and we do invest in the local institutions. Almost
all of our local institutions have funds from the City to them.
Kubby/ Which is really important because I go from the City to my local institution to
get a mortgage and to get a business loan and to get a personal loan, and it's part
of our local economy.
Yucuis/ I've tried to work pretty close with the local banks to see what their needs are. If
they say we can invested a little more money with them and could guarantee that
the money will be there a little longer, as well as we can guarantee it, then they
can give us a little more favorable rate. But if we're investing the funds with
them and then six months later we're going to go out for bids again and we would
probably pull that money, we probably won't get as good a rate. If we can say
well, we have the ability to invest with you, what's your rate going to be, and
we'll not 100% guarantee we'll reinvest with you at the time of maturity, but the
likelihood will be there that we can reinvest with you, and they'll give us a more
favorable rate.
Kubby/ Thanks.
Vanderhoef/ I just appreciate that you are upping your minimum standards for
benchmark. That this is an important thing to recognize, that you're willing to put
that out there for yourself. Thank you.
Norton/ (Can't understand).
Nov/ Any other discussion? Roll call- (yes). We have approved the resolution.
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ITEM NO. 17 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO
EXECUTE AND THE CITY CLERIC TO ATTEST TO A 28E AGREEMENT
AMONG THE CITY OF IOWA CITY AND CERTAIN OTHER CITIES AND
INDEPENDENT FIRE DISTRICTS 1N JOHNSON COUNTY, IOWA, FOR
MUTUAL FIRE AID PROTECTION.
Nov/ (Reads agenda item #17).
Thornberry/ Move adoption of the resolution.
Kubby/ Second.
Nov/ Moved by Thornberry, seconded by Kubby. Discussion?
Vanderhoef/ I just have a couple of questions that I think would be of interest to a lot of
people. Just how often is our department called outside the city limits?
Andy Rocca/ We're called out less than we call in, actually. We probably, I would say,
anywhere from eight to twelve times a year will request mutual aid, and I would
say a half a dozen times we would provide mutual aid outside.
Vanderhoef/ That isn't all that often.
Rocca/ No, it's not. It's not, the, I believe it was the first part of this year when the fire
chiefs got together and looked at the existing document. We recognize it was a
little dated. I think it's about ten or eleven years since it's been revisited. There
were some minor revisions to include, or make it more a real working document
for what's currently going on with resource sharing with HAZMAT, EMS
Rescue, public education activities.
Norton/ HAZMAT the most common call out?
Rocca/ No. No, in fact, the HAZMAT language that you see in this document doesn't
really relate to the County team at all. It relates more to the County fire
departments and their need to have additional personnel with an anhydrous leak or
a propane leak, or something of that nature where you don't actually call the
Johnson County HAZMAT temp.
Norton/ Have any of the other jurisdictions acted on this yet?
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Rocca/ A number of them are ready to sign it, and as soon as we have our signature,
we'll route it around for official signatures.
Kubby/ Do we go outside of the city limits for the confined space rescue unit?
Rocca/ Well, we've been called out on one occasion, however, the person was recovered
prior to our an'ival, so we have not used that in their City at this point either.
Nov/ I thought it was interesting that we have not only people who provide this help, but
people who receive it. For example, University Heights has no fire department.
We can't call them, but they could call us if they had a fire that whoever else
came in to do wasn't able to.
Rocca/ It's my understanding they're contracting their fire protecting with the City of
Coralville. And, through that of course, the City of University Heights needs to
be a signer in the agreement, so we can share resources back and forth.
Nov/ So, officially, the Coralville Fire Department would call you if they had a major
fire in University Heights.
Rocca/ Correct.
Vanderhoef/ And it's, it isn't shown here, but tell me about the 20/80 agreement that you
have with the University. I'm not sure that that's common knowledge either.
Rocca/ Are you talking about the contract for fire protection?
Vanderhoef/ Is it a contract?
Rocca/ It's a contract. It's not a 20/80 agreement.
Vanderhoef/ Okay.
Rocca/ Correct.
Vanderhoef/ And do you see that this creates any additional financial burden to the City
to have this agreement?
Rocca/ No. As the language points out in there, if we damage our equipment, we're
responsible. If somebody comes in and damages theirs, they're responsible. The
same would go for personal injury, you know, we're responsible for our
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personnel. Outside of the City, but in the County, as well as other jurisdictions
when they come in, they're responsible for their personnel. Again, legal staff has
reviewed the document. It's pretty much in its normal format, probably in excess
of 20-25 years with the minor revisions that I related.
Vanderhoef/ Thank you.
Rocca/ Thank you.
Nov/Thank you. Any other Council discussion? Roll call- (yes). We have approved the
resolution.
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September 9, 1997 City of Iowa City Page 14
ITEM NO. 18. ANNOUNCEMENT OF VACANCIES.
a. Previously-Announced Vacancies.
(1)
Iowa City Human Rights Commission: One vacancy to fill an
unexpired term ending January 1, 2000. (Dereck Hall resigned,)
(7 females and 1 male currently serve on this Commission.)
(Correspondence included in Council packet.)
This appointment will be made at the October 7 City Council meeting.
ITEM NO. 19. CITY COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS.
males currently serve on this Board.)
Consider one appointment to the Police Citizens' Review Board: To
fill one three-year term, ending September 1, 2000. (2 females and 2
ITEM NO. 20. CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION.
ITEM NO. 21.
REPORT ON ITEMS FROM THE CITY MANAGER AND CITY ATTORNEY.
a. City Manager.
b. City Attorney.
ITEM NO. 22.
ADJOURNMENT.
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ITEM NO. 19 CITY COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS.
Nov/ (Reads agenda item #19). We would like to appoint Patricia Farrant, and we need a
motion.
Norton/ So moved.
Thornberry/ Second.
Nov/ Moved by Norton, seconded by Thornberry. Discussion? All in favor, please say -
Kubby/ I wanted to say something.
Nov/ Oh, okay.
Kubby/ Sorry, I just wanted to see if anyone else wanted to say anything. I definitely
will be supporting Patricia Farrant, although last night we did have a discussion
about three candidates that we all agreed were well-qualified, and my preference
would've been to choose another qualified candidate that would have helped us
expand our age and racial diversity on the Board, which is lacking in my mind.
And I think it's an important community value, especially for this Board,
especially for the first one, although I definitely support and think that Patricia
will do a good job for the Board.
Baker/
Naomi, could I just briefly comment? Just so there's no misunderstanding, it's a
very delicate issue. This Council went out of its way to secure as many
applications as possible from as wide a group as possible. We had forty, I believe.
I know that you made a concerted effort to contact the University and ask them to
help us secure minority applicants. I called people. I lmow at least two other
Council members called, and I think that's one of the reasons that we've had such
a very well-qualified pool to choose from. When you get right down to it last
night, we had three very good applicants, and I think if we removed the names
and sex, race, extraneous factors like that, which are all important in their own
way, it was very clear that we've made the best choice. That is not a reflection of
or denigration of the other applicants, and I think it reflects well on the process
that the Council went through that we tried to widen the pool as much as possible,
came up with good people, and I think we made a good choice.
Norton/ I'd like to add to that a comment because there's some stories out today that
imply that this process was hasty. I want to assure everybody that, listening or
watching, that the Council, as far as I know, made extraordinary efforts to talk to
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these people. We were not, after all, we were screening applicants. We were not
recruiting. Applicants were asked to call Councilmembers, and many of them did.
Most o£us spent a lot o£time on the phone talking to these people. Some of them
came over and talked personally, and others of us were calling references on those
who didn't call us. So, we, I did want to assure people that a very thorough job
was done in looking at these applicants, and I think the Council should be proud
of the process we went through. We had some glitches that were not due to our
process.
Kubby/ I think we also have a very good Board, and I'm anxious for them to get started
on their work. I also think we missed a great opporttmity.
Nov/ Well, this Board is getting started tomorrow evening.
Kubby/ That's right.
Nov/ Moving along.
Norton/ Did we have the vote akeady?
Nov/
No, I'm waiting to finish the comments. We have a motion on the floor, we need
an approval. All in favor, please say aye- (ayes). Opposed same sign. Motion
carried.
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ITEM NO. 20 CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION.
Nov/ Mr. Baiter.
Baker/ A couple of quick things that came out o£our discussion last night about loading
zones. I had a couple of calls this agemoon from downtown merchants, one of
which made the suggestion that if trucks paricing in the middle of Dubuque Street
are a problem, which I think we all agreed were, are we giving them tickets?
Steve Atkins/ They're permitted to park there.
Baker/ Why?
Atkins/That's what the ordinance provides.
Baker/ In the middle of the street?
Atkins/ (Yes).
Kubby/ I believe so.
Baker/ What's the time limit?
Atkins/ I couldn't tell you. I mean, I think it's, it's not an uncommon complaint, either.
I've always understood that our ordinance permits them to do that.
Baker/ Because that--
CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 97-127 SIDE 2
Baker/ So we just brought this on ourselves, then, huh? How long has it been titat way,
do you lmow?
Atkins/ As long as I've been (can't understand).
Kubby/ And is it just commercial vehicles?
Atkins/ Yeah, I think it is.
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Dilkes/ I think so.
Atkins/ Yeah, there's something, it's pretty specific to commercial vehicles, certain
times, middle of the street. A lot of those businesses didn't have any other way to
get services.
Nov/ I would really like to do something in our ordinance about time.
Atkins/ Yeah, that was the next --
Nov/ Like prior to 7:00 a.m. (Can't understand).
Baker/ That's a great idea, time-specific loading.
Atkins/ We'll pull the ordinance and read it and take it back to you.
Baker/ And also, the other complaint was they park in the middle of the street to deliver
the beer at the Sports Column and stay for lunch.
Nov/ They do?
Baker/ Yeah.
Atkins/ I understand they want to eat, but ~-
Norton/ Well, they've got to sample their product.
Baker/ Pull it out and give us, we can look at that again.
Nov/ Good.
Baker/Okay, and then we'll, the thing about the timed parking we'll come back to first.
And loading.
Atkins/ Yes.
Baker/ Okay.
Atkins/ If that's what you'd like.
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Baker/ Another merchant downtown suggested that we look at what other cities are
doing about skateboards and bicycles and people who ride on the Ped Mall
downtown and then say well, I didn't lmow I wasn't supposed to because the
signs are not clear. There's some confusion about the signage down there, and
this suggestion was that if you look at some other communities, they actually
mark the sidewalk through painted stencils on the sidewalks. That works well.
Kubby/ Larry,--
Baker/ I don't lmow if that's a good idea or not, but --
??/ You'd have to spray paint that brick.
Norton/ Yeah.
Kubby/ But maybe there's another solution besides spray-painting --
Norton/(Can't hear) signs along the entrance, maybe they just don't see them.
Kubby/ They just don't look.
Baker/ Well, whatever. The idea was that --
Atldns/ Our signing is inadequate. I tell them that.
Kubby/It's kind of low. It's old.
Dilkes/ There has been more signing put up since we had that discussion.
Baker/ Well, maybe it'll all come back in the downtown refurbishment.
Norton/ Okay, right.
Nov/ When you look to the bright blue, iridescent turquoise, something that you really
can't miss.
Lehman/ Neon. Projecting (can't understand) down there. Animated. I'm just kidding.
Baker/ That's it, ma'am. Thank you.
Nov/ Thank you.
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Atkins/ Before you move on, you asked me last night, and I looked it up, so I have to
answer that questions. On the gravel road in the Soccer Fields.
Baker/ Oh yeah, I'm sorry.
Atldns/ That's all right. Staff went to that effort.
Baker/ You are sharp as a tack.
Atldns/ we've never had any complaints.
Baker/ (Can't understand).
Kubby/ (Can't understand).
Atkins/ However, Rick pointed out a couple of things I think are important. One is the
portion of the road on the Langenberg property, through their property, is
temporary and will be relocated, removed at some time in the future. That was
intended to get folks into the park. Secondly, I asked Terry about it, and he
suspects the complaints are roadway because the parldng lot's pretty much in
good shape. And he will consider and check on the cost of doing some chipseal,
after it compacts itself, and I think that should take care of it.
Baker/ It is the real concern. That's the complaint.
Atkins/ Yeah.
Baker/ Thank you.
Atkins/ Yeah.
Nov/ Okay. Dee Vanderhoef?
Vanderhoef/ Okay. In our packet, this week, we had a letter from the Downtown
Association about parlcing on the City streets from 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m., and
wondering if that could be eliminated. One of the concerns we talked about last
night, and I just thought we should put it out was that we have a snow removal
situation in the downtown area there. I would consider moving it a half an hour to
2:30 if that can be worked out, I don't know.
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Atkins/ We talked briefly about, I'm not so sure that makes a whole lot of difference. I
think we have, I think it's blanket now, 2:00 a.m. period. And I asked them, what
about Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays or something such as that --
Nov/ No, I --
Atkins/ Then we can do a specific snow removal requirement at the time of snow.
That's not uncommon to have that. So we'll look at some options for you.
Nov/ I didn't look at a half-hour difference. For the person who works until 2:00 and
wants to move the car sometime between 2:00 and 2:30. And if it means then that
we go 2:30 to 6:30, I don't know that it would make a huge difference in terms of
snow removal. And I hesitate to say certain days are exempt.
Vanderhoef/ I agree with Naomi on that.
Atkins/ We'll give you some options on it. I just didn't have the chance to look at it.
Vanderhoef/I'm more interested in finding a way to accommodate the workers.
Kubby/ I would be cautious moving it to 6:30 because there are people who are going to
work at that time of day as well.
Atkins/ 2:30 seems, I think 6:00 is about it, because folks are starting to show up in
downtown.
Kubby/Yeah.
Vanderhoef/ Maybe.
Nov/ Well, ask this group who's looking, what they can do, if they can handle 2:30 to
6:00.
Atkins/ We'll get you some options.
Nov/ Okay.
Vanderhoef/ The other thing that we talked about a little last night was the parIcing along
the edge of Scott Park, and --
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Atkins/ I called Terry about that and we do not schedule that area for soccer anymore,
but as he said, there are folks that will take their teams there for some practice, the
pick-up games, there is off-street parking available. We deliberately put that curb
cut. And I think probably the best thing we can do, if kids are running back and
forth, I think we need to get to the soccer parents, because they're the ones that
are doing the parking.
Vanderhoef/ Those may be just pick-up games that are doing it, too. But my concern is
the parking along the edge of the street.
Atldns/ Yes, we agree with you.
Vanderhoef/ And it's posted no parking, and it's perhaps time that we start enforcing that
again, and maize sure that people know that this is a no paricing area.
Atkins/ We'll take a run at education then we'll try the enforcements. We tried the
enforcement once, and it wasn't one of our better PR moves.
Nov/ Well, can you say --
Vanderhoef/ Was that when there was maybe not as much, there was more activity and
fewer parking spaces?
Atkins/ Yeah.
Vanderhoef/ And now that we have less activity there and fewer cars coming--
Atkins/ It was a specific neighborhood complaint. I recall it because the person claimed
it was no parIcing, and I don't think this person was particularly wild about soccer
folks up and down the street all weekend long, so that had some bearing on it. I'll
just take a run on it. We'll get to the soccer folks. We'll see if we can take care
of it for you.
Vanderhoef/ Thank you. That's it for now.
Thornberry/ Periodically, I fill in for Ernie Lehman on a talk show on Friday morning.
He usually does that, but I've been asked to fill in now and then on that Friday
morning talk show, and it's a call-in show for a local station, and what, while I
was on there, I got calls, and it was a gentleman wanting to lmow about the
sidewalks along Bowery Street. I couldn't remember that there wasn't any
sidewalk along Bowery Street in a one-block area. Brought it to the attention of
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the City, and they said Geez, there's no sidewalk there, it's a path. It looks like a
sidewalk, but it's dirt. And just to let the gentleman know, the sidewalks will be
completed, I believe, in October, so your call was well worth the time. You can
call in to Ernie Lehman on Friday morning --
Lehman/ Not this Friday.
Thornberry/ Most Fridays, at (can't understand).
Kubby/ Oh, are you filling in for him this Friday?
Thornberry/ I don't lmow.
Kubby/ Now you're going to be with us.
Lehman/ He'd better be at the same meeting we're at.
Thornberry/ The only other firing that I've got --
Atldns/ Can I answer that, being also a listener, that was done by the property owners,
not the City.
Thornberry/ That is correct.
Atkins/ We contacted them, asked them, and they chose to do it.
Thornberry/ That is correct.
Arkins/ /M~d that one property owner who was just having trouble getting a contractor.
we'll get it fixed.
Thornberry/ We've all had trouble getting cement contractors, even the City and some of
our subcontractors. I would like to mention that Highland Street is now open.
Kubby/ I knew you were going to say that.
Thornberry/ In the south part of Iowa City, Highland Street is open, except for the corner
of Highland and Plum, which is not open yet. But, soon. But the access to
Burger King is now available. The only other thing I've got, we've been talking
about it, and Dee Norton's been concerned about it as we all have, and that's the
excess deer we've got in certain areas of the City. Cedar Rapids, I see in the
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news, is working on this problem, too. The DNR will not help eliminate the
problem, or even curtail the problem in any way. In other words, they're not
shooters. They're not movers of deer. They're not, they just tell us that there is a
potential problem, and where the problem is. And it's up to our Deer Committee
to come up with a solution. I understand that the DNR prefers, or at least
recognizes bow hunting of the deers as opposed to shooting them. But if they
won't participate, why can't we come to our own conclusion, Mr. City Manager?
Atldns/I'm not real sure. I lmow that the DNR has the legal authority, and they're
responsible for the State's wildlife. I lmow that that issue is being discussed and
debated in ottr own Committee. And exactly where it is, I don't lmow. I lmow
we owe you a report on it.
Norton/ Pretty quickly.
Thornben'y/ It's getting closer
Norton/ The seasoh's coming on here.
Thornberry/ The season's coming on, and the rutting season's coming on, too, so --
Dikes/ Our office recently received a request from Lisa to look at what the DNR's
authority is with respect to that, and whether they preempt us and that kind of
thing.
Thomberry/Thank you, Eleanor.
Dilkes/ That's being looked at.
Thornberry/ We're looking at it, folks. That's all I have.
Nov/ Okay. Ernie?
Lehman/ Well, I mentioned last night briefly, m~d Eleanor, I thi~tk you let me lmow that
it's, I'm concerned about the wording on the First Avenue initiative on the ballot.
g2~d I traderstand that is done by the City Charter, and that, misleading or not, it
stays the way it is. Is that correct?
Dilkes/ The ballot question won't be changed. It's a Citizen Initiative, and pursuant to
Charter, you are required to put that Citizen Initiative on the ballot. And it won't
be changed. I see no authority for changing it. Tom Slockett, if he believes it to
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need clarification, has the authority under State Code to include a summary
clarifying it. And that he informs us that that would appear prior to the ballot
question. But that is, that's his power, not ours.
Lehman/ Well there's just, I guess there's one clarification that I think we should make.
Because I think that if this vote is to 'be significant and have any real impact, I
think the public really, really needs to lmow what the question really is. And the
wording of this Initiative, I think, is somewhat misleading. If you want First
Avenue to be extended, you must vote "no". So, if you want the road, vote "no".
Because a "yes" vote means we don't build the road.
Nov/ No, it means we build the road later.
Lelynan/ It doesn't mean we build it at all, it means we delay it.
Nov/ It means we delay it.
Lelxrnan/ Okay.
Nov/ Okay.
Lehman/ If you're concerned about the Park, and you're worried about what the Park
might, you know, what the road might do to the Park, you must vote "yes" which
would delay the road for two years instead of"no". So, I think it's a little
confusing --
??/ (Can't understand)
Lehlr~an/ Oh, no, those folks were genuinely concerned about that Park, and I respect
their concerns. But, I'm just saying that a "yes" vote means the road will be
delayed. A "no" vote means the road will be built. And I think a lot of folks are
going to view this as "shall the road be constructed? .... Yes" means it would be
constructed, "no" means it wouldn't. But, the opposite is true in this case, so that,
I think it would be a source of some confusion, in addition to the wording.
Dilkes/ Well, the wording says "the road shall be delayed".
Lehman/ I realize that. But the question for most people is going to be "should First
Avenue be extended?" Well, "no" means it will be.
Norton/ We're getting more confused.
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Kubby/ No, it's just important for people who feel strongly
Lehman/ They need to understand.
Kubby/ And wm~tt to lobby the community on where to vote is to do political education
on what a "yes" vote means.
Lehman/ That's exactly right. Because I think there is a confusion over what the yes and
no mean.
Norton/ Well, I want to ask, in connection with that, Ernie, if I can, what was, someone
at the mic tonight read a statement, it's not two parts, there's just one statement
for the ballot isn't there? It's not a two paragraph thing?
Dilkes/ That's right. The ballot question, we use, he was reading their actual resolution.
That will be, that will appear in the ballot box. The Charter requires that that be
provided to the voters at the polling place. But that is not the question.
Norton/ But the question that's voted on is the other one we've seen. The one sentence
thing.
Dilkes/ It took their two-part thing and tried to form it into one question that was as true
to their two part thing as --
Norton/ That's what's voted on.
Thornberry/ I've got it, Ernie. A "no" means "no delay".
Lehman/ That's correct.
Kubby/ And it seems, and I'm glad that kind of a conversation that we've been having on
Council kind of last night and tonight has kind of shifted to instead of having our
discussion about this issue being really focused on the word "along", which I
think is really a distraction from the real issue, the real issue is do you want the
road built now, or do you want a two-year hiatus which can be used for
community discussion, or just delayed for two years. But to me, that is the crux
of the petition. And talking about the language of the ballot is really a disservice
to the whole issue. But the way you framed it tonight, I think is very helpful for
the community discussion about that road and about the whole northeast of Iowa
City.
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Thomberry/ Let me ask this, Steve. If the road is delayed for two years, would that delay
laying the pipe for the water?
Lehman/ Pipe's not delayed.
Atkins/ If I recall saying to you at the meeting that I'm assuming that we have authority
to proceed with the project on a water-line period.
Thomberry/ Yeah.
Atkins/ I mean, we can build a water-line and no road.
Thomberry/ And we said yes.
Atkins/ And we had authority, and you said yes, we could.
Norton/ I think I want to add here, before it slips away, as I read the ballot, it doesn't say
just two years. I thought that would indicate, that would be quite important, but it
doesn't say two years, it's 2002.
Dilkes/ That's right. But you have to remember the language of the Charter that only
binds a Council to a Citizen Initiative that's passed for a period of two years.
Norton/ Okay, thank you.
Vanderhoef/This is what has been real confusing to the citizens, also.
Norton/ Precisely.
Vanderhoef/ In that no matter what, if the "yes" votes win, this issue, they may expect
nothing to happen for four years.
Norton/ But, in fact, it could happen in two.
Vanderhoef/ In fact, it can happen in two. And I think this is a very big concern for
people too, to understand this.
Kubby/ And that's not the fault or because of anything that the petitioners did --
Norton/ No, oh no. That has nothing to do with the ballot.
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Kubby/ That's just a fact of law and how our system works.
Norton/ Yeah.
Vanderhoef/ (Can't understand). I didn't understand it until it was explained to us the
other day, that it would only hold up for two years. So we're all learning on this.
Nov/ Well, we don't have this very often. Ernie, do you have anything else?
Lehman/ No.
Nov/ Karen?
Kubby/ I just had a few things. Two of them are requests for information that Council
has made that we haven't seen yet. One is getting former Assistant City
Attorney's opinion about our ability to have a local mobile home tenant ordinance
here, and--
Dilkes/ I can speak to that. Dennis, I just, I asked Dennis to take a look at that. He, just
for a little background, when I looked back at the file to see where you were at
when that issue was left, it appeared that there had been two areas in which it was
suggested that mobile home tenants were disadvantaged, and perhaps there should
be local regulation. And although there was an opinion given that in general,
there was no preemption, in other words, we could do some local regulation, you
have to look at those specific things that you want to do and see if they're
preempted. Dennis has given me a preliminary opinion. I just sent it up to Steve.
We need to talk about it. I think, in fact, I just did that today. It's probably in
your --
Atkins/ Okay.
Dilkes/ Stack somewhere. But, I've got some preemption concerns, so I need to --
Kubby/ Flesh those out.
Dilkes/ Flesh those out. So that's coming.
Kubby/ Okay. And the other one was, when we were talking about reviewing different
policies and procedures of the Police Department, we kind of had a short list of
things that we set aside and said that we're going to deal with those later. And I
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want to get that list back out and make sure that we continue to work on them. I
can't really remember all the things that were on there. I lmow one of them was
philosophy of non-violence. There were, I think there were like four --
Nov/ Four short, a dog, a canine corps --
Atkins/ There's four or five of them.
Kubby/ And so if you would remind us about what those are, and we need to start
scheduling that continued discussion.
Atkins/ I'll bring those up.
Kubby/ Great. Okay. Lastly, I just wanted to armounce that the Social Change Training
for the Women's Resource and Action Center is still continuing. And this
Saturday, September 3rd, from noon to twelve, the training's topic is culturally
competent organizing, dealing with issues of diversity, and the two trainers will
be both from the University, one from the School of Social Work, Salome
Raheim, and Diane Finnerty from the Affirmative Action office. You can call the
WRAC at 335-1486 to register. It's only $10, and there are scholarships
available. And that will be, again, Saturday September 13, from 10:00 to 12:00 in
the Kirkwood Room of the IMU. And you can go from there to the Women's
Music Festival out on the grounds of Hancher. That's all I have.
Nov/ Okay, thank you. Mr. Norton?
Norton/ A couple of quick matters. I've had a long concern, and I've had a conple of
calls recently about the sidewalk policy. And I would, I know it may be too long
a topic to take up, but somebody just pointed out tonight that somebody was
concerned about Bowery. But there's a good many other streets, and I've been
asked what are we doing, and I'd like to just hear anything.
Atkins/ You recall that we changed sort of our tactic in attempting to get all of our
sidewalks up to, up to speed, I don't lmow what you call it, up to grade. And we
divided the City into ten districts, and we finished our first year, and the district
that we did this year was the southeast portion of the community, south of
Highway 6 and east of Gilbert. According to the information I got from Rick this
afternoon, we contacted approximately 250 property owners were notified of
needed sidewalk repair. That began in the spring, and they were given until
September. The biggest problem we have noticed is finding a contractor. That
people are having trouble getting their work completed in a timely fashion. The
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general reaction has not been good or bad. We have folks saying okay, I have to
fix my sidewalk. Generally, most folks go on about their business, and just
simply get the thing fixed. But it really is a problem getting contractors. We
went through it on our own with the ADA program that we had. I'm not sure
what we can do, other than we're trying to work through the neighborhood
associations. Possibly, we can try to get these folks together so it is a worthwhile
project, and--
Kubby/ Yeah, and it would be cheaper per square.
Norton/ (Can't understand)
Atkins/ Yes, the contractor will do the bigger job, it's the back and forth. And just for
the heads up, next year, we will be west of Sunset Street.
Norton/ I think the idea of consolidating some of those that you have, that would be
wonderful.
Atkins/ we'll stay after them. Most folks have been very responsive. I think they
recognize their own liability, as well as just a favorable reaction to the
commrmity's need.
Kubby/ And that's a great function for neighborhood associations to help coordinate that
ldnd of effort.
Atkins/ So, we'll see what happens.
Norton/ And in the process, may identify some people who are in need of assistance.
Atldns/ (Yes)
Norton/ The other question I wanted to ask about the cemetery. I've had, you lmow, the
talk about the Park and all that and the possibility of cemetery expansion into
what has, the Gaulocher property that is presently being used as Park, and I didn't
know what, we're getting down where the --
Atkins/ Here's the numbers. As of this afternoon. The terminology used is "pinned out"
and that's how they set up with is an actual lot. We have pimped out, in other
words, they're ready to be sold, 2 monument spaces. And that's where you're
probably hearing that. 114 flush. 12 for military, 40 for small children and
babies. Now, the flush could become monument, but that's recommended by the
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cemetery management's staff. But, we appear to be doing pretty well with
respect to available spaces. We have another area that is not pimped out, that is,
they haven't, they're still doing some of the fill and some of the cleanup work.
That will provide 90 flush or monument, depending on the decision we make.
And then, we have on the far back side, right up against Hickory Hill Park, we
have an area that we could, sort of a reserve, that we could put together about 70
spaces out of that. The decision that we've made as a staff is leave that alone until
you make your decision on Hickory Hill Park cemetery, whatever. I think bottom
line is yeah, we're getting up against it. I figure we use these up at a rate of about
70 a year. we're okay.
Nov/ We're okay for a few years.
Atkins/Yeah, we can do that without going in.
Norton/ Including ones for headstone monuments.
Atkins/ Yeah, we have a couple of them, yeah. But we try to encourage the flush
because it's easier to maintain.
Baker/ Back up a step. I mean, I'm hearing the same numbers as you are, but
interpreting them differently. We're in good shape is what you're saying.
Atkins/ Generally, we knew that we had two or three years to make this decision when
we talked about this abont a year ago, and I think we're moving right along at
about that pace.
Baker/ We've got two marked spaces available --
Atkins/ Two monument --
Baker/ Two monument spaces available, and the, how soon could the other spaces be
available for monument spaces?
Nov/ The ninety?
Atkins/ We're just now getting that worked done. We just haven't done that yet.
Baker/ If the demand was there --
Atkins/ Oh yeah, certainly. If the demand was there, we'll be fine.
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Norton/ I also understand that we're making some progress on getting a consultant -~
Atkins/ Yes.
Norton/ To help the Parks and Rec people looking at how much, if any, the other
property of park use should be converted?
Atkins/ We relieved the first person of the responsibility and brought a new one in, and
they've already been here and done some site work, and we expect them back.
They appear to be very responsive for us. We'll have something for you, I'm
hoping, at budget time.
Vanderhoef/ Is that the same group that's doing the trail?
Atkins/ Yes.
Vanderhoef/ Or in conjunction.
Norton/ In conjunction with that. That's it, Madam Mayor.
Nov/ Okay.
Atkins/ I had two more items that you brought up that I looked up.
Norton/ Okay, very good.
Lehman/ All right.
Norton/ I was trying to stop when I was ahead. You going to talk about Rohret Road?
Atkins/ I make these notes when you write these things.
Nov/ Okay.
Atkins/ Two things. One of them was Ryerson's Woods, the annexation. We are
awaiting Hill's. In fact, they're supposed to meet this week. They're supposed to
give us some response to some earlier information we sent to them. And as a
reminder, this item is on the joint meeting I think you scheduled for -- Is that
correct, Marian?
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Karr/ (Yes).
Atkins/ For the --
Norton/ The 17th?
Atkins/ This, yeah, and the fairgrounds is on the 17th, and they're kind of related
because the issue about annexing the fairgrounds and Ryerson's is all tied together
although they're separate issues. And lastly, you asked about the Comp Plan
schedule.
Norton/Yeah, when we're going to see that.
Atkins/ It appears that P/Z should report this thing out on the 18th. Now, this is a rather
generous schedule. That means that we would likely have it in front of you, to set
a hearing, on the 7th of October. You could have a hearing as early as the 21st.
As Karen and I talked briefly today, I think you're going to want a work session
in there, just on this item.
Norton/ You'd better believe it.
Atkins/ So, it depends on how you really want to conduct the business on this. Do you
want to have a hearing, and then do it yourselves, whatever. Target, let's try to
get it done by the end of the year.
Leluuan/ Can we have in our packet this weekend, prior to our meeting next Wednesday
with the Supervisors, a short, I suppose updated, synopsis on the rationale for the
annexing of Ryerson's Woods and fairgrounds?
Atkins/ Sure.
Nov/ We're not talking about the fairgrounds. It's not on the agenda.
Kubby/ But it will come up.
Vanderhoef/ What I'd like is just a little line map to show that area.
Atkins/ And a map, yeah.
Kubby/ It's on the agenda to talk about the fairgrounds, and the issue of annexation will
come up, so we should be prepared to --
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Lehman/ We need some background.
Nov/ Well, I think we need to prepare ourselves to say we're really not asldng for the
fairgrounds.
Atkins/ Okay.
Norton/ And we'll also have the SEATS info, won't we?
Nov/ Yes.
Norton/ The SEATS briefing.
Atkins/And one thing I'm going to send down, I didn't leave at your places, something
new we're kind of trying and we're going to make this available to you all and the
public.
Kubby/ Bright.
Atkins/ Yeah, it's so you don't forget it. we're going to try something, because you all
are getting calls. we're going to try to put this out weekly. It's kind of what's
going on with the project. We removed Highland Avenue from the list.
Nov/ Oh, am I doing this wrong?
Atkins/ So, it's just something we're going to try.
Kubby/ I'm kind of wearing black on my bike home, ldnd of dangerous. I'm going to
pin this on the back of my sweater.
Norton/ We're not ready for Halloween, are we?
Afttins/ How we, I thirdc there was some extra old paper somewhere, so that's kind of
how it is.
Lehman/ Great.
Atkins/ That's all I have.
Nov/ Okay. Steve, while we're on a roll, do you have anything else to add?
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Atkins/ No.
Nov/ I'm back to me, if that's the case. And this colorful construction update reminds
me that we have been receiving calls about Halloween. Trick or treat.
Lehman/ Did we cancel it?
Nov/ No, we dich~'t cancel it.
Thornberry/ Geez.
Nov/ I am prepared to announce the night is October 31st from dusk to 8:30 p.m.
Karr/ We'll have a proclamation on the next agenda on that, because you do have to
proclaim it.
Nov/ We'll proclaim. But in the meantime, people have been calling, so --
Kubby/ Get your costumes ready, Councilmembers.
Baker/ Go to The Deadwood. Ify'all would do it, I would do it.
Kubby/ Costumes?
Baker/ Costumes.
Vanderhoef/Oh, sure, I can do that.
Nov/ We have election results. In the School Board elections, Left and Wallace have
been elected. Left had 1,547 votes. Wallace had 1,504 votes. Vernon had 635
votes. And the voter turnout was 4.41%.
Kubby/ Congratulations to the winners.
Lehman/Yes.
Kubby/ You've got some work to do.
Baker/ I thought you said you had the Cotmcil election results.
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Nov/ Oh well, would you really like those? We'll get some --
Kubby/ Palm readers?
Nov/
Somebody like that to give them to you. All right. I'm going to announce two
Special City Council meetings. The first one is September 1 lth, this Thursday, at
8:00 a.m. The second one is September 12th, Friday, at 8:00 a.m. Both of these
are going to be Executive Sessions for the purpose of evaluating some City
Attorney applicants. Also, I have an invitation which I cannot find today, but the
female City Council members are invited to a Business and Professional
Women's reception which is September 16th at First National Bank at 5:30. If
you would like to go, please let me lmow because I have the phone number to
respond at home, and I will call.
Baker/ Men can't go?
Nov/ I don't believe you're invited. Not the way I read the invitation. Fashion show,
Larry, if you really want to go.
Vanderhoef/ There's your costume time.
Nov/ You're going to be out of town anyway, why are you worried about it?
Norton/You can't take umbrage if you're out of town.
Nov/ Right. You can't take umbrage.
Baker/ I take it a lot, but won't take it out of town.
Nov/ Right. Anyhow, I'm sorry the invitation is somehow lost in my shuffle of papers.
Oh, and I went to Roclc, vell Collins this morning to help them start an OSHA
voluntary protection program application. They're going to be able to apply,
hopefully, to be accepted into a program which will allow them to do some
special health and safety regulations and be a little bit more strict than standard
OSHA regulations. And they're very proud of themselves, and they're
celebrating with a fair all week, and I went to provide some encouragement.
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F090997
City Council Meeting Schedule
and Tentative %Y/ork Session Agendas
September 5, 1997
September 6 - September t2, t997
[] = Telecast Live on Cable Channel 4
I September 8
7:00p
COUNCIL
7:00p
7:15p
7:25p
7:35p
8:20p
8:40p
9:10p
9:25p
9:40p
9:50p
Monday
WORK SESSION
Council Chambers
Review Zoning Matters
SEATS Update
Angle Parking Downtown
Iowa Avenue Streetscape
Washington Street Two-Way
Public Art Program
Iowa River Corridor Trail Split-Bid
Court Street Financing
Consider One Appointment to the Police Citizens Review Board
Council Agenda/Council Time
September
7:00p
FORMAL COUNCIL MEETING
TuesdayI
Council Chambers
September
8:00a
SPECIAL FORMAL COUNCIL MEETING
Executive Session - City Attorney Interviews
ThursdayI
Council Chambers
September 12
8:00a
SPECIAL FORMAL COUNCIL MEETING
Executive Session - City Attorney Interviews
FridayI
Council Chambers
Keg Ordinance
Hickory Hill West
Water Project Costs
Waste Pickup - 4-Plexes
Proposed U of l Parking Facility
Chutes and Vaults
Deer Management
FUTURE '~,X~'ORK SESSION ITEMS
Landfill Master Plan
Sand Point Wells
DARE Program Review
Sanitary Sewer Repair - New Policy Update
Cemetery
Sales Tax