HomeMy WebLinkAbout1995-02-28 AgendaIOWA CiTY CITY COUNCIL
AGENDA
REGULAR COUNCIL [V1EETING OF FEBRUARY 28, 1995
7:30 P.IV1.
COUNCIL CHAIVIBERS, CIVIC CENTER
410 EAST WASHINGTON
AGENDA
IOWA CITY CITY COUNCIL
REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING- FEBRUARY 28, 1995
7:30 P,IV{.
COUNCIL CHAMBERS
ITEIV{ NO. 1 -
ITEIV] NO. 2 -
ITENI NO. 3 -
ITEM NO. 4-
CALL TO ORDER,
ROLL CALL,
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS.
Presentation of citizenship awards
Elementary School:
ITEM NO, 5 -
to students of Horace Mann
(1) Damian Lawrence
(2) Rachel Goss
(3) Erin Ponto
(4) Arna Wilkinson
STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS.
IV]AYOR'S PROCLAIV]ATIONS,
a. Fine Art and Fun Days- March 3-12, 1995.
b, Children and Hospitals Week - March 19-25, 1995.
CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED OR
AIVIENDED,
Approval of Official Actions of the regular meeting of February 14,
1995, and the special meeting of February 21, 1995, as published,
subject to corrections, as recommended by the City Clerk.
b, Minutes of Boards and Commissions.
(1) Housing Commission meeting of November 8, 1994.
(2) Airport Commission meeting of January 10, 1995.
(3) Broadband Telecommunications Commission meeting of January
30, 1995.
(4) Board of Adjustment meeting of February 8, 1995.
(5) Planning and Zoning Commission meeting of February 16, 1995.
(6) Board of Appeals meeting of December 5, 1994.
(7) Animal Control Advisory Board meeting of November 16, 1994.
(8) Animal Control Advisory Board meeting of January 18, 1995.
Agenda
Iowa City City Council
Regular Council Meeting
February 28, 1995
Page 2
c. Permit Motions as Recommended by the City Clerk.
(1)
Consider a motion approving a Class "B" Beer Permit for Benjamin
Barrientes dba La Perlita Mexican Cafe, 327 E, Market St.
(Renewal)
(2)
Consider a motion approving a Class "C" Beer Permit for Dell Mart
Corporation, dba Dell Mart //2, 1920 Lower Muscatine Rd.
(Renewal)
(3)
Consider a motion approving a refund of an unused portion of a
Class "E" Beer Permit for American Drug Stores, Inc., dba Osco
Drug Store//448, 201 S. Clinton St. (Renewal)
d. Setting Public Hearings.
(1)
CONSIDER A IV10TION SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING FOR MARCH
7, 1995, ON AN ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING REGULATIONS FOR
SIDEWALK CAFES,
Comment: See staff memo included in Council packet.
(2)
CONSIDER SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING FOR MARCH 7, 1995,
ON AN ORDINANCE AI~IENDING TITLE 1, CHAPTER 9, SECTION
3, "ELECTION PRECINCTS" OF THE CITY CODE, TO AMEND THE
BOUNDARIES OF THE VOTING PRECINCTS IN IOWA CITY TO
INCLUDE PROPERTIES ANNEXED AND TO EXCLUDE PROPERTIES
SEVERED SINCE 1993,
Comment: The City of Iowa City has annexed five areas and
severed one area since the voting precinct boundaries were
amended in 1993. The proposed amendment would add the
annexed areas to adjacent precincts and subtract the severed area
from an existing precinct.
Motions.
(1)
CONSIDER A IV]OTION TO APPROVE DISBURSEMENTS IN THE
ANlOUNT OF $9,234,291,55 FOR THE PERIOD OF JANUARY 1
THROUGH JANUARY 31, 1995, AS RECOIVIMENDED BY THE
FINANCE DIRECTOR SUBJECT TO AUDIT,
Agenda
Iowa City City Council
Regular Council Meeting
February 28, 1995
Page 3
f. Resolutions.
(1)
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN
AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST A PARTIAL RELEASE AGREE-
MENT CONCERNING THE STORMWATER MANAGEMENT
EASEIVIENT AGREEM,ENT FOR WILLOW CREEK SUBDIVISION,
IOWA CITY, IOWA.
Comment: The Subdivideds Agreement and Stormwater Manage-
ment Easement Agreement for Willow Creek Subdivision obligate
the Developer to construct a stormwater management facility.
This obligation constitutes a lien and a cloud on the title to the lots
in the Subdivision, The Developer has substantially completed the
stormwater facility but a general release of the facilities is not yet
appropriate. This Partial Release Agreement removes the cloud on
the title to the lots in the subdivision while protecting the City by
establishing an escrow fund which will be retained until the facility
and further development which may impact the same are complet-
ed.
Correspondence
Letter from Jeff McCullougit, member of the Charter Review
Commission, submitting supplemental information.
(2) Letter from Sally Crowe regarding proposed projects.
(3)
Letter regarding Lake Calvin from:
(a) Stephen Bright
(b) Carol Ann Marlow
(4) Letter from Dan Berry and Gerry Ambrose regarding lighting, street
and sidewalk in the 100 block of Iowa Avenue.
(5) Memorandum from the Senior Center Commission regarding
funding for additional staff.
ITEiVI NO.
(6) Letter from Ed Barker regarding water/wastewater issues.
6 - PUBLIC DISCUSSION (ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA).
#5 Consent Calendar page
ITEM NO. 5 - CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS
PRESENTED OR AMENDED.
Horow/ Moved by Pigott, seconded by Nov. Any discussion.
Nov/
I would like us to make clear that Iowa City has allowed
sidewalk cafes for a number of years. We are now talking about
new regulations, not about an innovative system.
Horow/ Okay, any other discussion. Adoption as amended.
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ITEM NOo 6 - PUBLIC DISCUSSION (ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA).
Horow/ These are for items not on the agenda. If you wish to
address council about an item not on the agenda, we ask you to
sign in, state your name, keep your comments to five minutes.
Chris Randall/ And I just wanted to come here tonight and tell you
all about it. I am a local producer for PATV and it is really
an exciting thing for me to be able to do. You can see it on
what is known as PATV, cable channel 2 and I want to just let
you know why I am a strong supporter of PATV. First of all it
gives me the chance and also other citizens a chance to
produce and broadcast our own shows. So it is really a big
thing. I happen to have a weekly show on local news and events
and it shows once a week and if it weren't for PATV I wouldn't
have this opportunity and neither would others in our
community have the opportunity. The staff are great. They
taught me everything I know about how to use a camcorder, how
to set up microphones, lighting, you name it. So, the use of
technology and equipment is a big part of what happens at PATV
as far as educational opportunities. They assist us when
needed and they are always there to help. They are always
courteous and have a high level of expertise. The point I want
to make tonight is that I understand the city and TCI have not
come to franchise agreement as of yet. And this puts PATV into
a big problem. They can't have a contract until you, the city,
has an agreement with TCI. So, they have not had a contract
for almost a year now. They have been getting a monthly check
from TCI but there is always the possibility that these checks
could stop because there is no contract. so, it could happen
abruptly that there would be an end to funding for PATV. There
is a big concern on the part of people such as myself who use
their services. There is a concern on the part of the board of
PATV. There is a concern on the part of staff of PATV about
their future. About their future being as we now know it. So
I am just here to encourage you to continue your support for
PATV and to urge you to do everything you can to get TCI to
come to an agreement with the city on the franchise and get a
contract going with PATV. Thank you.
Pigott/ Dale, is there a something as far as a little update, a
short update you could perhaps give Chris to take back to-?
Helling/ A short update. We hope we are getting closer to
finalizing the agreement. There is an extension of the
agreement that exists in the three party agreement between
PATV and TCI and the city. In fact, I have in draft form now
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a letter to go to TCI indicating what their annual payment
will be with the escalator for the next funding year which
begins in April and as long as we are in the processing of
negotiating we have agreed-TCI has agreed to maintain the
funding for PATV at that level including the escalator that
would apply. But you are right, until the franchise is renewed
in its final form, the funding is not sewn down. The other
thing that I think you probably all need to be aware if is if
the funding is jeopardized for public access at all, our local
access is more in jeopardy because some of the legislation
before the federal legislature right now than it is from
anything in our negotiations. So I think it is important that
we keep an eye on that and contact our congressional
representatives there, too.
Kubby/ Do we have a time frame? What kind of-this is suppose to be
a two year process and it is turning into a three year
process.
Helling/ It is a three year process turning into a four year
process.
Kubby/ So the end is near but do we have more-
Helling/ We had a meeting scheduled for last week that we hoped
would be the last meeting with TCI representatives. However,
that meeting had to be cancelled because a number of people
were ill. And that is rescheduled to the best of our knowledge
now for the 9th of March.
Throg/ Thanks, Chris.
Horow~ Anyone else care to address council?
Jim Clayton/ I am a resident of Iowa City and I own a business d.t.
on the College Street Plaza. I am concerned about an item that
was in the Consent Agenda about the sidewalk cafes you plan on
discussing at a p.h. next week which I will be unable to
attend. I am concerned that you, as a council and city staff,
let people d.t. who own property and who run businesses, who
rent stores, know what a remarkable change you propose in
making in our d.t. I am not sure it is sufficient to depend
upon the newspaper to do that job. I think we owe it to those
people to write them a note and tell them that there is a p.h.
about this. I have got a lot of questions myself. I would like
to know how pedestrians are going to be able to negotiate the
mall when the cafes are in place. Will they be able to walk
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the entire length of a block next to the building looking in
display window after another? Or will they have to play broken
field running around tables and chairs? When the wind blows
the napkins and the paper-who cleans it up? The people that
own the sidewalk cafe, the city or nobody. Will all the
restaurants and all the bars and all the coffee shops be
allowed to be outside? What will be the criteria to determine
who gets to go out and who doesn't? If you have a bar and you
decide to add a hot dog, does that make you a restaurant and
now you can go outside and serve food? How are you going to
keep track of that? Will the tables and chairs and canopies be
kept outside after the closing hours? Will they be moved in?
Will the DR Committee approve the colors of the canopies or
will we have one big Bud Lite advertisement d.t. in Iowa City?
Who will clean up the other human waste products that are on
our plaza each night? Who will prevent a patron who is
underage from accepting a drink from someone who is sitting at
a sidewalk care who is of age? Who prevents now an underage
patron from getting a drink out the window at the Union Bar
next to me or out of the Sports Column on Dubuque Street?
Nobody that I know of because all you do is slide the screen
back and pass the drink out and you are on your way. Will the
sidewalk cafe be delineated with a barrier or with a rope?
With some kind of outline as to where it is? Will we have
enough police coverage to sort out which cafes music is too
loud and which one is hassling the most passerbys? Right now
my employees walk out of our store when they leave work and
they go out to the middle of the plaza to walk to the east or
to the west. If they walk next to the Union they have to
listen to people who are either employees or customers sitting
behind those screens making cat calls, making suggestive
noises, and nasty comments. Who is going to pay attention to
that? Will you allow other non-food businesses to use the
plaza? I have to get a permit when I want to go out for
sidewalk sale. Am I now going to be in the position where I
can go out as long as I indemnify the city on any kind of a
basis? Can I put a food cart outside? I mean what are the
limitations that we are going to have on these things. When
you read the paper and see the OMVI arrests, the underage
drinking arrests, the open container arrests, it makes me
wonder whether we need to do anything at all d.t. to increase
and encourage the consumption of alcohol. Has anyone on the
city staff talked to the University? They publish an annual
report of local student criminal activity and they assemble
this report with the aid of our Police Department. Has anybody
looked to see what percentage of students at the University of
Iowa are in difficulty with the University because of their
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F022895
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alcohol' related problems? Are you going to approve this
because the Police Department needs more work for alcohol
enforcement? I don't really think they are getting the job
done right now. Are you going to have a fund to replace the
windows that get broken down on College Street? We had five in
February. All alcohol related. Will the city clean the plaza
on Saturday and on Sunday? You don't work those days now.
Those are the days when it is the biggest mess of all out
there. I am not opposed to drinking but I am not going to
ignore the problems it causes. I don't see restaurants
clamoring to serve food on the plaza. I see them clamoring to
serve food and alcohol. Alcohol seems to be the key. If
someone would say well, we don't need alcohol out there I
probably wouldn't be standing here quite so upset about it.
Councilman Pigott wants to hear the tinkle of wine glasses on
the plaza. That wonderful ambiance. Ah contraire Bruno, the
only tinkling you are going to hear is some broken windows and
that other secret tinkling in the quiet dark vestibule d.t. I
have been in business in the Bermuda Triangle d.t. for 15
years. That is Vitos, the Union, the Field House. I am right
in there. I have been there in the day time. I am there at
night. I have been down there at 2:00 A~4 when the police
called and say a drunk has been thrown through my front
window. I have cleaned up vomit, urine, feces and garbage from
my vestibule.
Horow/ Jim, your time is up.
Clayton/ I don't think we need anymore ambiance.
Pigott/ Could I just say something for a second? Jim,. I think you
raise a lot of good concerns. I count at least 12 down here
and I think what we should do is get you a copy of the
o~dinance as well as other business owners in the d.t. plaza
area because I think some of them, at least, might be
addressed by the draft ordinance. Most of them are. And I
would also encourage you to talk with myself. I would be happy
to talk with you to address any of the other concerns you
might have once you look at that and say I just don't think
those concerns-my concerns are addressed because I would be
happy to do that and there is a committee of people that is
also working on this and I think that your legitimate concerns
should be answered as we approach this issue. I would be happy
to speak with you.
Kubby/ The other important part of other changes that we are
looking at to our current sidewalk ¢afe regulations is that it
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F022895
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comes to council. And so if abutting property owners or people
who lease abutting property to where someone has applied to
use the public r.o.w., council needs to address those concerns
and has the ability to deny the license because of concerns
from neighboring or anybody, actually. Can we make sure,
Steve, that d.t. folks get whatever revised set of regulations
that co~mmittee comes up with after our discussion tonight. I
really think that most of the concerns are addressed except
for the daily litter and the Saturday/Sunday clean up on the
plaza. I don't remember us speaking about those issues but we
have discussed I think all of the other ones. It doesn't mean
you agree with what we come down with either.
Horow/ Thank you. Anyone else care to address council on issues not
on our agenda?
Mike
Rose/ I hope that this is the appropriate place for me to make
my comments. A little bit of budget in here but there is more
to it than that. So let me make my statement and hopefully it
is the right time to speak to you. I have been a citizen of
Iowa city for the last 27 years and over that period of time
I have had many relatives or friends from around the country
come and visit our great city and rave about what a wonderful
place you live, Mike, and you are so lucky to be here and what
a wonderfully safe city this seems to be and my wife and I
have shared that perception until we became victims of an
armed robbery at our home on an early Sunday evening last
October. Incredibly the Iowa City Police Department
apprehended the perpetrators in less than an hour. It was
quite amazing that they were able to do that and that is not
always the case and this can be exemplified by the situation
this weekend at Happy Joes Pizza. I want to mention the fact
that the Police were able to help us feel human when we were
exposed to a very dehumanizing and terrifying situation. Every
s~ngle police officer that we encountered, and there were
many. I think up to ten officers who were assisting on this.
They were so professional. We were so impressed with their
dedication and their competency. I think it is worth
mentioning at this point that recently the FBI released a
study that points out that every citizen in this country now
can expect an act of random violence against them sometime in
their life time. This is the first time the FBI was ever able
to make a statement like that. I would like to commend the
council for accepting the Crime Bill grant for funding up. to
8 new officers. I think that is terrific. I hope that the
climate in Washington allows us to go forth with that. And in
conclusion., I just want to say that I implore you, the
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F022895
#6 page 6'
council, to give the utmost consideration to any and all
budget requests from the Iowa City Police Department for the
FY 1996 budget. They do a great job and should never be taken
for granted. Thank you very much.
Horow/ I think we could have taken that under p.h. but we are glad
to hear it anyway. Anyone else care to address council that is
not on the agenda? Not the p.h. for the budget or anything
like that. Okay. Okay, declare the public discussion-the end
of that.
!0
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F022895
Agenda
Iowa City City Council
Regular Council Meeting
February 28, 1995
Page 4
ITEM NO. 7 - PLANNING AND ZONING MATTERS.
Consider setting a public hearing fdr March 28, 1995, on an ordinance
establishing the Moffitt Cottage Historic District for property located
between Muscatine Avenue and Ralston Creek, north of Court Street.
Comment: At its February 16, 1995, meeting the Planning and Zoning
Commission, by a vote of 6-0, recommended approval of an ordinance
designating the Moffitt Cottage Historic District as an Iowa City Historic
District. The Commission's recommendation is consistent with the
Historic Preservation Commission's recommendation.
Public hearing on an ordinancb conditionally amending the use regula-
tions of approximately 13.09 acres located at 655 Meadow Street from
RM-12, Low Density Multi-Family Residential, and RS-5, Low Density
Single-Family Residential, to RS-8, Medium Density Single-Family
Residential. (REZ94-0020)
Comment: At its February 2, 1995, meeting, the Planning.and Zoning
Commission, by a vote of 7-0, recommended approval of an application
submitted by East Hill Subdivision, Inc. for a rezoning from RM-12 and
RS-5 to RS-8, subject to three conditions. '[he Commission's recom-
mendation is consistent with the staff recommendation contained in the
staff report dated January 19, 1995. A protest petition representing the
owners of 20% of the property within 200 feet has been submitted and
thus a three-fourths (six of seven members) vote.of the Council is j
required to approve this rezoning. ,~'.,~ .
Consider a resolution'a~p~4~t hWe final pl~t/o~ J&L~Su [~d.visi~n, a~ ~
acre, four lot commercial subdivision located on the south side of I
Highway 1 West, west of Sunset Street.
Comment: At its February 16, 1995, meeting, the Planning and Zoning
Commission, by a vote of 7-0, recommended approval of the preliminary
plat of the D&L Subdivision, subject to approval of the legal papers by
the City Attorney's Office and construction plans by the Public Works
Department prior to City Council consideration of the final plat. The
Commission's recommendation is consistent with the staff recommenda-
tion included in the staff report dated February 16, 1995. It is anticipat-
ed that the legal papers and construction plans will be approved prior to
the February 28 Council meeting.
#7b page 1
ITEM NO. ?b.
Public hearing on an ordinance conditionally
amending the use regulations of approximately 13.09
acres looated at 655 Meadow Street from RM-12, Low
Density Multi-Family Residential, and RS-5, Low
Density Single-Family Residential, to RS-S, Medium
Density Single-Family Residential. (REZ94-0020)
Horow/ I declare the p.h. open. I would ask you to come, sign in,
state your name and limit your comments to five minutes. I
will remind you when your time is up.
Kubby/ One thing that would be real helpful for me is when people
are speaking is if you don't want us to change the zoning,
what is being proposed. If you do want it to keep current
zoning, if someone could speak to that it would be helpful.
Nicholas Chmaruk/ This may take more than five minutes and so I do
have notes from people. One lady-
Horow/ We really can't do that. We have done this before and people
are not exactly happy with that. If you could kind of try to
compress it I would really appreciate it.
Chmaruk/ Well this statement here. There are some people here that
might provide me with their five minutes. So these people
couldn't be here.
Horow/ No, I can't do that.
Chmaruk/ Okay, just people who are here.
Horow/ I am not even wild about that. Okay. Did you say who you
are?
Chmaruk/ 909 Dover Street. To date, over 60% of the 77 property
owners within 200 feet of the exterior boundary of the applied
for rezoning site have submitted signed and notarized protests
of rezoning with stated objections. There is no controversy in
the community about what is good for the neighborhood. With
over 60% of the property owners protesting the rezoning and I
respectively add there will be more. I hope the city council
respects these filed statements in opposition to rezoning the
site. These objections cite traffic related and safety
problems which currently exist and that would be exacerbated
should rezoning occur and the developer's concept plan or
whatever plan they come up with makes it through the
subdivision planning stage. These objections address problems
D
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F022895
#7b
page
regarding traffic congestion, traffic volume, peak drive time
traffic, children safety, congested curb side parking, streets
not designed for this level of traffic, single point of access
to the site. Added traffic, existing traffic and its behavior
through traffic, clustered housing, dense population,
emergency vehicle access and hilly blind sloping curves.
Following the first meeting of the P/Z Commission January 19,
addressing this application for rezoning, 6 proper.ty owners
met and I was designated to be the advocate. I have provided
you with a copy of the letter I circulated to property owners
within 200 feet of the rezoning site. I have also provided you
with a prepared statement read before the P/Z Commission
February 2. I asked that the members of the city council
please read each of them and also read the signed and
notarized objection statements. Okay. Regarding the objection
of t~affic. volume: The January 31 single day traffic count
which took place three days after a major ice storm does not
provide an accurate or reliable base line from which to
project added traffic impact. City Traffic Engineering totals
of 790 vehicles on Dover Street and 680 vehicles on Meadow
Street does indicate more vehicular traffic on Diver Street
than on Meadow Street. I have provided you with DOT's seasonal
change statistics which over the past four years find between
21-27% increase in daily traffic due to seasonal traffic
volume change. Okay. Dover Street without any additional
traffic is already, by definition, over burden. Staff member
Scott Kugler said at the February 2 P/Z meeting, "Dover Street
is built to local street standards although it functions as a
major collector. By adding even half of the projected 504
vehicular trips into and out of the proposed development site
with the single access. The city guidelines for a local street
recommended at 1,000 vehicular strips per day would be far
exceeded. Mr. Kugler added, "that they may actually exceed
~his guideline a bit. But that is just a guideline and not a
hard and fast requirement.,, If you were to check with Traffic
engineering and the Police Department, you will find that
there have been numerous, many calls from Dover Street
residences concerning traffic problems. Okay. This is because
Dover Street is a spine street connecting Friendship and
Muscatine and is the only connection between Scott Blvd. amd
First Avenue. The behavior of drive through traffic, using
Dover Street as a short cut, presents problems for residents.
CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 95-34 SIDE 2
A single access to the proposed development site. The history
speaks towards itself. In 1983 when the new zoning code was
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F022895
#7b
page 3
adopted, the current zoning of the vast majority of the site,
P~-12, allows for special exceptions for a cemetery. According
to Mr. John Dane, "We always intended to develop it for
cemetery use." RS-8 and RS-5 do not provide that special
exception. Development on this site was denied between 1960
and 1974 because the local residents were worried about
children walking to school with the added traffic according to
Dr. Paul Langehough. Okay. Jay Honohan who was City Attorney
between 1963 and 1974 confirmed this, "Application was denied
involving Dean Jones' application to develop this property. In
the 1981 Iowa Supreme Court case Oakes Construction Company
versus the City of Iowa City, Iowa. The Supreme Court upheld
the city's position of he necessity of secondary access to a
44 dwelling unit subdivision which just happens to be the 800
and 900 blocks of Dover Street where we live right now. Okay.
testimony from city staff members outlined the following
reasons why a single means of access to the proposed
subdivision would be inadequate. 1-The ability of the overall
street network in the vicinity to circulate traffic would be
inadequate. 2-It would exacerbate existing traffic problems
and negatively impact the adjacent neighborhood. 3-Emergency
vehicle access would not be adequate and 4-Non-local traffic
would be added to a street with an elementary school. These
reasons Jeff Davidson cited in his October 12, '92 memo to the
city council regarding re-evaluation of secondary access
policy or what us residents on Dover Street and friendship
Street are concerned about. Dover Street and Friendship Street
cannot handle the anticipated traffic which will be generated
should rezoning pass and subsequent development occurs on this
site. In the memo Jeff Davidson concluded, "It is reco~mmended
the city.'s policy on secondary access be based on the existing
language in the comp plan but that there be more specific
standards on when secondary access should be required." She
page 3 of the memo for the staff checklist of criteria. You
have that in your packet there. In a memo from Jeff Davidson
to the city council on December 9, 1992 the P/Z Commission
stopped short of including secondary access standards in
subdivision regulations which would have brought them to the
city council's attention. Instead, staff has been directed to
use the standards as guidelines pr6viding latitude. A request
due to-what the neighborhood is encountering with regard the
issue of this application for rezoning andtentative concept
plan by the developer to build 72 living units on the site
should the rezoning pass. Okay. That the city council, before
voting on the rezoning application, please review the city's
secondary access policy and establish some kind of standard so
neighborhood residents don't feel this subdivision is being
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F022895
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railroaded down their throats. Guidelines simply mean that on
the subject of secondary access, the city can do whatever it
darn well pleases. Even Fire Chief Pumfrey sent a memo on
August 5, 1992 to Jeff Davidson regarding re-evaluation of the
City of Iowa City secondary access policy. The concept plan of
the developer for the site shows a large cul de sac
subdevelopment within a subdivision which Chief Pumphrey said
in his memo, "Quite frequently conflicts with the ability of
providing prompt emergency services thereby delaying he
emergency response.,, And a copy of that memo is included in
your packets. In the minutes of the P/Z commission, February
2, 1995 meeting, Commission member Jacobsen said that from
purely a planning point of view it is better to have a
development within the city than undergoing an annexation
procedure. Development of an in city site should occur before
land is annexed. Currently O~kland Cemetery is almost full.
The city is in the process to annex two acres of Hickory Hill
Park for cemetery expansion. Ever since I did my undergraduate
curriculum at the University of Iowa in the later 1970's I
have seen Hickory Hill Park encroached upon. Memory Gardens
Incorporated has current zoning which allows for cemetery
special exception to meet burial demands way into the future.
Given the preponderance of objection evidence from those
protesting rezoning it is evident that the current traffic
related problems on both Dover and Friendship Streets are at
their zenith. Citing section 409A of the Code of Iowa excepted
in 1969 in the Iowa Law Review one quote, "Once an area of the
city is developed the cost of change becomes prohibited and it
becomes evident that a subdivided has cast the pattern for the
future of the community." That occurred when our street, Oakes
Subdivision, was built. The excerpt continued, "Since
urbanization of raw land at the city's edge is now the most
important development area, it is here that most significant
public influence should be exerted." Shire and Hattery did the
paving on Oakes Subdivision and the as built actual of Dover
Street, Perry Court and Meadow Street and that shows some
alarming facts. Meadow Street at the point of access, single
access to the proposed subdivision is at a 9.6% grade as is
the curb immediately adjacent to the access point. The inside
radius of that curb is only 25 feet. The one and only access
point to the concept plan 72 unit subdivision is dangerous,
unsafe, extremely precarious and ill conceived. It is
impossible to imagine 504 vehicles entering and existing
through that one exit without having accidents waiting to
happen. The application for rezoning is downzoning and I
recognize that. Everything I have said in this statement
recognizes the problems associated with that downzoning which
This represents only areasonebly accuratetranscription oftllelowa City council meeting of Febmary28,1995.
F022895
#7b page 5
is what these protests address. What happens with the
downzoning and subsequent development is what we strongly
protest because of the market impact, the negative impact it
will. have on our community. We protest RS-8 for stated
reasons. that does not mean that we welcome development at RM-
12. We do not and neither does P/Z staff. In the staff report
of January 6, 1995 Scott Kugler said existing RM-12 zoning
appears to be inappropriate for that site do to its limited
access. As the objections to rezoning to RS-8 state We feel
the same way Scott does but we feel that way about RS-8 also.
I hope the city council will agree that rezoning to RS-8 is
not quic~ fix to un-land lock the site. If the city council
can provide a secondary access to the site that does not
impact on us in a negative way as does the single access, th~n
we have no beef. Nothing to protest or object to. But where
the single access is and the nature and reality of our streets
with traffic related problems as they currently exist-how can
you expect us to bow down to such a plan. Thank you very much.
Kubby/ Is there a residential zone that would be acceptable to the
people that you are advocating for?
Chmaruk/ RS-5 would drop the count from 504 to 455. Would that
remedy the situation?
Kubby/ But that would be acceptable to the neighborhood, at least
those people that-
Chmaruk/ I think a secondary access is probably the way to go. You
know. If the secondary access was available, like I said, we
have no beef.
Throg/ Let's assume that no secondary access is available. I think
Karen's question then is if no such access is available, would
RS~5 be, if you will, be acceptable to the community?
Chmaruk/ By definition, given the definition of what constitutes a
local street or even a sub-collector, you know, we are looking
at,when you project the seasonal changes in traffic flow, that
~ushes it way over 1,000 even with a- I mean, we are over
1,000 already with just in this one day test. Without adding
504 vehicles and the ~tajority are going to head out towards
Muscatine Avenue. Then the question is if you put a stop light
at Muscatine and Dover, just the same thing has happened in
that S~preme Court case. People are going to go over by the
school to make the short cut at peak drive time to avoid that
stop sign to make and get access onto Muscatine. There is no
This represents only a reasonably accura(e transcril~iion of the Iowa City council meeting of February 28, 1995.
F022895
#7b page 6
easy answer. The history speaks for itself.
Kubby/ So you are saying RS-5 would still be too dense.
Chmaruk/ I am trying to be logical about this and it appears you
are only dropping the count what by 49. You are in a
precarious situation. P/Z is in a precarious situation. You
know. but under the current zoning at least there is the
special exception for cemetery lots and that has value. It
maintains value.
Horow/ Anyone else care to address council?
Gene
Kroeger/ With East Hill Subdivision. We are here for a
rezoning which as I think you all understand is a downzoning.
in consultation with the city staff we tried to meet all the
city regulations and city traffic codes to make this
subdivision conform to the uses that are currently existing in
the Dover Street area. We have tried to meet the 500 unit
traffic load per day. We have tried to meet all the
qualifications of the existing area. It should, I think, be
noted that everyone who purchases a home in the Dover Street
area would have purchased it with this zone RM-12, the vast
majority. It was zoned that way in 1983. So everybody had the
right and the obligation to look at the zoning and see what it
was and decide if they wanted to live there. It was zoned
higher than that, I think RM-44, prior to that date. We want
to try to conform to the area. We want to try to build units
that are similar to the ones in that area and we are asking
for rezoning based on those things and based on consultation
with city staff. If you have any questions, I would be. happy
to try to answer them at this point.
Baker/ Why do you even want to downzone the property? Couldn't you
do basically the same project with the current zoning?
Kroeger/ We could, yes we could. We could have just submitted a
plan. But we talked with th~ city staff and they wanted it to
be consistent. Basically should I fail, should I run out of
money, whatever and I sell it then the successors to me would
have to live with that zoning and we did this based on
consultation with the city's pro~essional staff. We weren't
going to it-
Throg/ Gone, can I restate that to make sure that I understand.
Just put it in my own language. Right now the area is zoned
primarily RM-12 with a small strip of RS-5, which is s.f. low
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F022895
#7b page 7
density development on the northern strip of the property. So
with that current zoning you could, right now, if you chose
to, develop that property, all the RM-12 property, in accord
with the RS-8 provisions. You can do the duplexes just as you
have proposed in your plat proposal except for the northern
strip and that would have to be s.f. homes. Is that right?
Kroegsr/ Correct. We could develop it if we chose to a to a level
of ~17 units approximately. We could do all of this without
downzoningo We did it after consultation with staff. We could
have just represented a preliminary plat and do it.
Throg/ All right, so it is your legal right to do that now. Can I
ask Linda a question on that point? If they chose to submit a
plat proposal or you know a proposal to plat the area and
develop the area in accord with the current zoning, RM-12 and
RS-5, what flexibility would the city have in responding to
that? What in terms of deniability, denying the application?
What flexibility would we have?
Woito/ You would have the factors that the' gentleman before spoke
about. That he was quoting out of Oakes Construction. That
case dealt with subdivision and whether the city had authority
to tell the developer they had to provide secondary access.
That is something the city can do. If you were to look at it
in a subdivision context, you would be able to answer all of
these questions that people have now presented to you which
are not exactly in the proper form now in terms of rezoning.
But you would have flexibility to determine safety, traffic
pattern, density, all the issues that are raised in terms of
the platting process.
Baker/ But you could also deny subdivision requests (can't hear)
based on lack of secondary access?
Woito/ Yes.
Throg/ If we sought to completely deny development of the area
because any additlonal traffic in our judgement would be
dangerous. What does that lead to?
Woito/ One more car. Is that what you are asking? If you added any
additional cars to the area, would that be dangerous and
therefore you could deny it?
Throg/ I am trying to get to the takings issue. Where does it come
into play and explain what that-?
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F022895
#7b pag~ 8 ·
Woito/ I think what you ask is is it reasonable for the city to
deny any development of the property based on one additional
car or ten additional cars or 500. At some point between if
you deny the property development for one additional car, that
is a taking because you would leave it only for cemetery land
and I think that is a drastic reduction. If you say well you
can build X number of houses and you can allow 300 or 400
cars, then you are closer to being reasonable and not
arbitrary. But it is a continuum and it is going to depend on
the facts and how many development rights that we are taking
away by reason of our regulations.
Baker/ But in a subdivision process, not a rezoning, a subdivision
plat approval, regardless of neighborhood objections would
only be a four vote majority necessary.
Woito/ That is correct.
Kubby/ And we can say yes to a rezoning but no to a plat based upon
secondary access?
Woito/ Yes. That is exactly what happened in the Oakes
construction.
Kubby/ Then I guess I have a question for Gene about and I guess I
don't need an answer tonight. But at what point does it become
economically infeasible for you to develop? Are you at that
point at 72? Could you go down to 44 and I guess I would like
to know what the range is?
Kroeger/ Based on what we are paying for the land. I come to the
city, I ask the council-their professional staff. I mean, they
are professionals in it. I try to be cooperative with the city
and try to do what is right and try to do what is zoned. There
is commercial on two sides. We are trying to do it right. We
depend largely on the staff, They are-that is what we hire
them for and they have the answers.
Kubby/ I think this issue would come up whether you are at a
rezoning or whether it is an issue of a plat at the same-It
may not have been brought to our attention in the same manner
but the same issue is there.
Kroeger/ The issue of traffic was certainly brought up in staff
report and if you read it they said it was adequate. Obviously
more traffic always creates problems but-
tO
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F022895
#7b page 9
Kubby/ At some point I would like to hear how flexible you would be
and I guess I bring this up because part of the conditional
zoning agreement states 70 to no more than 72 units and that
might be a point of discussion among us which I might want to
continue the p.h. in order to at least give us the option of
discussions without that number.
Kroeger/ We are flexible to go down from 117 to 72 and we are
willing to do that and we are willing-
Kubby/ Because there are some wonderful things about this. Having
that flood plain dedicated to the city. Having a pedestrian
access connecting to different pedestrian access sites. Those
are wonderful things about the project.
Kroeger/ We are from Iowa City. We are happy to do that. They are
good things. I am all for that but we are trying to cooperate
with everybody and all I can say again is we need to listen to
the professional people.
Nov/ I have one more access question. Have you tried to establish
a southern access point?
Kroeger/ You know, to the west of course is the cemetery which is
obviously inappropriate. To the south is George Gay Funeral
Home and if you have ever been there for a service it is
overrun. It is mostly all paved. We haven't talked to him but
I am sure that that is going to be very difficult. There is a
AAA Travel and that is about it. I don't think it is feasible.
It is certainly not feasible to build streets without lots.
(Can't hear).
Horow/ okay, any other questions? Thank you, Gene.
care to address council? If there isn't anyone
certainly-
Anybody else
else you can
Throg/ While Sandy is signing in I think if Gene can still hear us
out there, I think I would encourage him to at least have a
conversation with Gay's Funeral Home to verify the point about
secondary access to the south.
Pigott/ Yeah, that would be really helpful.
Throg/ Or to find out that maybe you are wrong. Thanks.
Richard Rhodes/ I live at 2014 Rochester Avenue. One of the points
about this proposal, concept plan, is completely right as
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F022895
#7b page 10
Karen Kubby stated is the dedication the city of the flood
plain land along Ralston Creek. This allows the opportunity to
develop a non-vehicular traffic way along the creek that will
connect down into the new Eagles Commercial Center at
Towncrest. But I really want to emphasize that these non-
vehicular traffic ways are a vital essential integral part of
development such as this and any development in Iowa City. I
thus was a little bit disappointed in the conditional zoning
agreement. It is very vague about the extent to which the
developers will contribute to the development of the trail.
You may think this is an inappropriate place to bring this up
because this a platting matter but rezonings, I have been told
numerous times at the P/Z Commission are the place where the
city is most able to negotiate for concessions.
Kubby/ Wouid you read that section?
Rhodes/ The section is 3.c. in the conditional zoning agreement
(reads section).
Throg/ And what are you suggesting?
Rhodes/ It is a very nice sentiment but it does not commit the
developer to putting in a paved trail, a trail that connects
to anything, a trail that has a compacted rock surface,
anything along those lines. It is very vague at this point.
There was a far more definitive statement in the conditional
zoning agreement for Windsor Ridge that it would be a system
that was acceptable to the city. That may be implied here but
it is not stated. And I am just saying that this is a very
important segment in getting a green way trail system along
Ralston creek that will connect, partially connect,
re$.idential areas. Indeed, there is a rational nexus here
because this very residential area that is being proposed will
prgbably have the greatest use of that trail and certainly
that segment of the trail to get children to the school, off
of vehicular traffic ways. To me these bicycle pedestrian
trails are just as important to component of the
transportation matrix as streets and paved sidewalks along
streets. So I just wanted to bring your attention to this but
.I do want to con,mend the developer for being willing to
contribute and I do want to thank P/Z Commission for being
w'illing to negotiate to include this concession within the
conditional zoning agreement. Thank you very much.
Pigott/ Thank you, Sandy.
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F022895
#7b page 11
Horow/ Anyone else care to address council?
Baker/ Sue, before you close it, can I ask Bob Miklo-
Woito/ You can't close it. We don't have a signed agreement anyway.
Baker/ Bob, what is the staff's interpretation of the clause that
Sandy just read?
Miklo/ That at the time of ~ubdivision we will negotiate the
developer's responsibility for the trail and the city's
responsibility. When this was before P/Z, the P/Z Commission
staff had recommended against actually putting in language
regarding the trail at this time. The reason being we do not
have an easement to the west of this property or to the east
for the continuation of a trail. With this development we are
going to get an easement for the trail over this property but
it may be some time before we are able to continue that trail
either to the east or the west and we thought it would be
premature to put a trail in place not knowing where it is
going to connect or where it is going to go. The language that
is in the conditional zoning agreement was recommended by the
P/Z Commission.
Woito/ It could be a lot tighter.
Pigott/ Is there willingness to work with that? Bob did I talk to
you, somebody, about fire access to that street and whether
there was concern at the Fire Department or elsewhere.
Miklo/ At the time of the zoning review, the Fire Department did
not have a comment about access. I will be able to visit with
the Fire Marshall between now and the next meeting.
Pigott/ That would be great.
Miklo/ To have a more definitive answer.
Pigott/ Thank you.
Baker/ (Can't hear) explain what is the advantage of the city with
(can't hear) leaving this as an RS-5?
Miklo/ If it is left at an RM-12 zone and another property owner
buys, they can come in a propose a multi family apartment
complex with more than the 72 units that are proposed. At some
point, I think, because. of lack of secondary access we would
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F022895
#7b page 12
have to tell a developer that it would be no more than
whatever number of units that we felt that would be accessed
in a safe manner and that is according to our current
guidelines that is 500 vehicle trips per day or approximately
70 dwelling units which this application complies with.
Anything above that we would have some concerns and leaving it
RM-12 provides the opportunity for a developer to propose
something above that and there are of course legal concerns
when we deny a development.
Baker/ If the present one was left in place,
over that flood plain area?
would we have control
Miklo/ If there is not a rezoning, we would not have the
opportunity to negotiate dedication of the trail area or the
limitation on the number of units or that the building of the
trail itself. Most developments on this site would fall under
our Neighborhood Open Space requirements so there might be
some land dedication for neighborhood open space. But with the
rezoning we have more leeway to negotiate.
Kubby/ Although, from what we discussed earlier, no matter what the
zoning is because of the lack of secondary access we would
have some ability to limit the number of units on that
property.
Miklo/ That is correct.
Kubby/ So I understand the 500 cars on {he local street, the street
that would be within that development. What level of
responsibility, I guess this is a Planning and a legal
question, do we have for how that impacts the local street
connecting to a local street-whether or not it functioning as
a minor arterial or designated as a local street? I mean at
what point do we say can we legally say no more traffic onto
that street that currently has X number of cars?
Miklo/ I think that is a little more difficult and that the
standards you refer to, 500 vehicle trips per day, is a
standard we apply before secondary access is required. The
number of local trips per day recommended in the comp plan for
local street are approximately 1,000 vehicle per day. National
standards are up to 1,500 vehicle trips per day. On a
collector street it is 2,500 to 5,000. As we have indicated,
this is designed as a local street but it is functioning as a
collector street. Therefore, we felt that even though we would
be exceeding the 1,000 vehicle trips per day on Dover Street
This represents only s reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 28, 1995.
F022895
#7b page 13
if development occurs, that. it is less than what would be on
a-coll%ctor street and although that is not ideal. it is close
to the guidelines of 1,000 vehicle trips per day.
Throg/ You know, Bob, it strikes me that something about that
reasoning is a little bit ddd and I don't mean to be critical
of you but if it is designed as a local street and functioning
as a collector street, I think that is precisely the point the
neighbors are making. That there is too much traffic on the
street as it is now given its design ad their fear is and
having walked there I think fear has considerable merit~ that
another 500 cars onto an already over burdened local stree~ is
too many.
Miklo/ Actually there are not 1,000 vehicle trips per day.
Throg/ 700 currently, I understand.
Horow/ Is there anyone else from the audience that wishes to
address council before council continues discussion?
Throg/ I think I have a request, Sue, that just fits right in. If
no one else wants to speak I think the lady who wanted to
speak before despite the fact that Nick had taken some of her
ti~e, should have a chance te speak.
Horow/ I had said that to her.
Throg/ Oh, I am sorry.
Horow/ I thought she was going to speak. Yeah, that is okay.
Kubby/ Sue, before we continue I request that-
Horow/ We do have to continue.
Suzanne Gurnett Streitz/ 847 Dover and I just wanted to bring up a
couple of issues that have been brought up earlier but I just
wanted to reiterate the fact that the traffic count that was
taken was taken the day after the worse ice storm we had in
Iowa City this year. And that road is very windy and steep and
we avoid that part of Dover, actually Meadow street, on those
days. It is also a through street to Mercer Park during the
summer so traffic on that street gods up very much in the
summer time. And so taking the count in I believe it was the
end of January is not a very. accurate picture of what that
street is like during the summer and what it could be like
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 28, 1995.
F022895
#7b page 14
du~ing a really bad weather time in the winter time. So I just
wanted to point that out that I think to really get an
accurate picture, a new traffic count should be done. Along
with that I have some real concerns about children walking to
school in that area. If traffic count goes up by what they say
500, the children need to cross over Meadow Street to get up
to Robert Lucas School and that was a concern back when this
subdivision was put together earlier and I think that is still
an issue. The other point that I would like to make is that
when we are talking about what is the maximum number of units
and how many drives per day that person or trips that person
makes from their home. We are already over the amount that
that street should have on it. So let's just say 5 years from
now if the area which will probably just grow in there in 240
acres that are being developed east of Iowa City and I think
this area is just going to continue to become buslet because
it is a through street up to Muscatine from Friendship in the
area over there. if our traffic count went up to 2,000, they
just keep using 500 as the limit in addition to whatever is
already there and I think what we really need to look at is
what is there already and what is the limit and they are
saying that the limit is I believe 1,000. Is that correct for
the guidelines. Let's say it is more accurate to say we are at
1,000 and I don't think that it is conceivable that we can put
500 cars
confused
accurate
not sure
still be
on that road today. So I guess I am a little bit
in that when the traffic counts are maybe not
and there is a proposed limit on that street, I am
how you can determine that 500 cars in addition would
safe today. Thank you.
Horow/ Anyone else?
Karr/ Could we have a motion to accept correspondence?
Horow/ Moved by Pigott, seconded by Kubby to accept correspondence.
Any discussion. All those in favor signify by saying aye
(ayes). Karen, you said you had three-
Kubby/ I have a couple of things I want to ask staff to doo Two of
them are Decause we are going to be continuing this anyway, to
speak with the developer about how flexible that number is in
terms of the number of units. 2-Is more specific language
about the trails. Even if it is as vague but tighter than it
is about eventually being acceptable to the city and the
developer is at least now seemingly saying that that is
agreeable. 3-I have heard a couple of different figures about
what the grade of Dover is at the point around which the new
Thisrepresents only areasonably accuratetrenscrlption ofthelowa City council meeting of Februa~ 28,1995,
F022895
#7b page 15
street would come into it and so I would like to hear a third
number to see if it matches any of the other numbers I have
heard. 4-The issue of would we want the Traffic Engineer to 4o
another count within the next week or if that would make any
difference.
Throg/ I don't think it would do any good to take another count
next week. The point that Suzanne was just making had to do
with seasonal.
Kubby/ Being the day after an ice storm and what the street is like
now is very different.
Throg/ Whatever number we end up with in the short run is going to
be arguable. Her point is correct and it is just an arguable
number.
Kubby/ The fifth thing I would request from staff is some kind of
accident and traffic report on Dover or at intersections with
Dover in between Muscatine and Brookside. I don't know if that
is the exact range that should be done but that would be
interesting information. And I guess I have a 6th request for
council that if you 5aren't already done so, drive or bike.
Walking didn't give me the impact that actually driving my car
around those curves with the slopes° I would find these
arguments less thought provoking if it were a straight street.
Horow/ Chair would entertain a motion to continue the p.h. to March
7. Moved by Pigott, seconded by Throg. Any discussion? All
those in favor signify by saying aye (ayes).
Thisrepresents only er~asonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa City coun~l meeting of Februa~ 28,1995.
F022895
#7c page
ITEM NO. ?C..
consider a resolution approving the final plat of
D&L S~bdivision, a 6.41 acre, four lot commercial
subdivision located on the south side of Highway 1
West, west of Sunset Street.
Horow/ (Reads comment section of agenda #7¢.) Is that so?
Woito/ No.
Horow/ Okay. Chair would entertain a motion to defer this to March
7.
Kubby/ I thought last night we-heard all those papers were in but
not-
Woito/ They were expected but they did not arrive from Davenport.
Horow/ Moved by Kubby, seconded by Nov. Any discussion? All those
in favor signify by saying aye (ayes).
Thisrepresents on yereasonablyeccurete ~enscriptlon ofthelowaCi~ councilmeeting of Februaw 28,1995.
F022895
Agenda
Iowa City City Council
Regular Council Meeting
February 28, 1995
Page 5
(/5 ~ ~/
Consider a resolution approving the preliminary plat of Orchard View
Estates, a 107 acre, 34 lot residential subdivision located partially in
Fringe Area 4 in Johnson County south of Dingleberry Road NE,
approximately 0.6 mile east of its intersection with Highway 1.
Comment: At its February 16, 1995, meeting, the Planning and Zoning
Commission, by a vote of 6-0, recommended approval of the preliminary
plat of Orchard View Estates, a 107 acre, 34 lot residential subdivision,
located within Fringe Area 4. The Commission's recommendation is
consistent with the staff's recommendation contained in the staff report
dated February 16, 1995.
Action:
Consider a letter to the Johnson County Board of Supervisors recom-
mending approval of the rezoning of a 0.73 acre property from A1,
Rural, to RS, Suburban Residential for property located in Fringe Area 4
near the southeast corner of Newport Road and Prairie du Chien Road.
Comment: At its February 16, 1995 meeting, the Planning and Zoning
Commission, by a vote of 6-0, recommended that the City Council
forward a letter to the Johnson County Board of Supervisors stating that
since the site will be used for farm family purposes, the application is
consistent with the Fringe Area Agreement and the City recommends
approval. The Commission's recommendation is consistent with the
staff recommendation contained in the staff report dated February 16,
1995.
Action:
Consider a resolutien apprg(,ing the preliminary
Sedlacek 2nd Addition, a 3-1or residential subdivision located in Fringe
Area 4 near the southeast corner of Newport Road and Prairie du Chien
Road.
and final plats of
Comment: At its February 16, 1995 meeting, the Planning and Zoning
Commission, by a vote of 6-0, recommended approval of the preliminary
and final plat of Sedlacek 2nd Addition, an 18.19 acre, three lot
subdivision located within Fringe Area 4, subject to the approval of
CZ9503, a rezoning request for a portion of the property (see item e
above), and subject to three corrections being made to the plat and/or
legal papers prior to Council approval. The Commission's recommenda-
tion is consistent with the staff recommendation contained in the staff
report dated February 16, 1995. The plat and legal papers have been
submitted and are being reviewed by staff.
Act,on..
#7e page 1
ITEM NO.
consider a letter to the Johnson County Board of
Supervisors recommending approval of the resorting
of S 0.73 acre property from A1, Rural, to RS,
Suburban Residential for property locatsd in Fringe
Area 4 near the southeast corner of Newport Road
and Prairie du Chien Road.
Horow/ Moved by Nov, seconded by Throg. Discussion.
Kubby/ This is really maybe a question about the plats. But if the-
can the land then, because it is 18 acres for three lots, can
they then be resubdivided and sold non-family dwelling
purposes in the future?
Miklo/ Any further subdivision of this property would require
additional rezonings and subdivision approval by the city.
Kubby/ Okay.
Horow/ Any further discussion? Roll call- All those in favor
signify by saying aye (ayes). I am assuming I don't have to go
to the Board of Supervisors with this.
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F022895
#7f page
ITEM NO. 7fo
Consider a resolution approving the preliminary and
final plats of Sedlacek
residential subdivision located in Fringe Area 4
near the sou2heast corner of Newport Road and
Prairie du Chlen Road.
Horow/ Moved by Pigott, seconded by Nov. Any discussion?
Nov/ How are the legal papers?
Woito/ They are reviewed and approved.
Horow/ Okay, great. Any further discussion? Roll call- (yes). The
resolution passed.
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F022895
Agenda
Iowa City City Council
Regular Council Meeting
February 28, 1995
Page 6
ITEM NO. 8 -
PUBLIC FlEARING ON PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS, FORM OF CONTRACT, AND
ESTIMATE OF COST FOR THE ROHRET ROAD RECONSTRUCTION, PHASE
2.
Comment; Phase 2 of this project involves reconstruction of Rohret Road
from Irving Weber School to Mormon Trek Boulevard. Construction includes
new pavement, storm sewer, sidewalk, and landscaping. Estimate of cost
for Phase 2 is 91,780,000.OO. Funding for this project will be provided by.
1994 General Obligation Bond proceeds and Road Use Tax funds.
Action: ~__..,'.~
ITEIV1 NO. 9 -
45- %~
ITEIVI NO. 10 -
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS, FORIV]
OF CONTRACT, AND ESTIMATE OF COST FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE
ROHRET ROAD RECONSTRUCTION PROJECT, PHASE 2, ESTABLISHING
AMOUNT OF BID SECURITY TO ACCOIVlPANY EACH BID, DIRECTING CITY
CLERK TO PUBLISH ADVERTISEIViENT FOR BIDS AND FIXING TliViE AND
PLACE FOR RECEIPT OF BIDS AT 10:30 A.M. NIARCH 21, 1995.
Comment: See above comment.
Action:
PUBLIC HEARING ON THE PROPOSED FISCAL YEAR 1996 OPERATING
BUDGET, FISCAL YEARS 1996 THROUGH 1998 THREE-YEAR FINANCIAL
PLAN AND THE SEVEN-YEAR CAPITAL IIVlPROVENiENTS PROGRA[V1
(FY1995 THROUGH FY2001 ).
Comment: City Council has reviewed the fiscal year (FY) 1996 Operating
Budget, the FY1996 through 1998 three-year Financial Plan, and the seven-
year Capital Improvements Program (CIP). The City Council will be reviewing
and possibly reprio, ritizing the seven.year CIP.plan in April or May 1995.
#8 page 1
ITEM NO. 8 -
PUBLIC HEARIN~ ON PLANSt SPECIFICATIONS, FORM OF
CONTRACTt AND ESTIMATE OF COST FOR THE ROHRET ROAD
RECONSTRUCTIONt PHASE 2.
Horow/ I would ask you to keep your comments to five minutes and to
state your name and write it in.
Charles Lisle/ Rohret Road. For anybody that's not totally aware of
what Rohret Road is, this is the road that now leads to the
new Irving B. Weber School and it's being widened to
accommodate that particular problem. Yesterday I spoke on the
phone to Rob Winstead, who is the engineer who is in charge of
this project. And he told me things that they'd initiated to
· make the project go faster and these neat things such as fast
curing concrete, six day weeks for the contractor, pay
incentives for finishing early, pay deductions for finishing
late, good things. But they don't quite follow the particular
problem though that a lot of us have there. If you look at
your map or any map you'll see that there's no access to roads
during the phase 2A for families on the South side of Rohret.
If you live between Irving B. Weber School and Duck Creek's
Drive. That's 3 1/2 to four months of being isolated. My
family and seven other families are going to be land locked
for four months unless these initial plans are expanded and
amended. Rob said that one of the things that they w=ie
considering was making a parking lot for families at the
Rohret end of the intersection of Pleasant Valley. That's a
good road back here and that's a gravel road that leads right
into Rohret. Making some sort of a parking lot for these eight
to ten families with some sort of temporary planking across
the road for people to carry their groceries and supplies.
There's problems with that, and some of the problems we will
have the way things stand right now, I'll just read you a list
of some of these. Like mail delivery, what's the mailman
supposed to do; newspaper delivery, give up reading the
newspaper; garbage recycle and pickup, what on earth do you do
with your garbage; UPS delivery; repair and maintenance
people; building contractors; kids going to school; bad backs;
weak hearts; and most importantly let's talk about things like
fire, police, ambulance. Tonight I saw three rescue vehicles
speeding on Rohret Road to the SW Estates. There's an
ambulance, fire engine, police car. They'd never make it to
any of our houses during phase 2A. So what happens if someone
has a stroke or heart attack or gets electrocuted during phase
2A if you have the misfortune of living on the south side of
the road. Would rescue take ten minutes longer?
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F022895
#8 page
CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 95-35 SIDE 1
Charles Lisle/ We had people tuck pointing the building, a couple
of people, and they had a big metal ladder and they hit a
power line. And it knocked them down and they were turning
blue, but this was a group that was prepared. It was within
one minute they were giving mouth to mouth resuscitation.
Within three minutes an ambulance was there and in ten minutes
they were at the hospital. those people lived because things
could be done rapidly. You can't do anything rapidly on the
south side of Rohret unless something is done to make the
situation better and there's some thoughts on that. You may
have better ideas, but here's some ideas. What if there were
a temporary 'road running east west on the south side of the
road right im the, going along with what you're going to be
tearing up anyway. not a magnificent road. This simply could
be one lane. It could weave in and out of trees if it had to.
Rob mentioned some concern about trees and maybe it could run
all the way to that corn field that's between my house which
is the last house on Rohret prior to the school and the- ~11
the up to Mayer Avenue. They built, replaced that fence with
the farm land there, terrific fence. You could be on the south
side of that if you could make an agreement with the
landowner, and run this up there. And this would be a way for
the people who are landlocked to get all the way to the
ou(side world. And in case of emergency or fire or burglary or
heart attack the rescue units could also come in. Another
thought: what if there was a- you know Rob talked about
putting a sort of temporary planking across that you could
walk across, but what if you had a sort of temporary bridge,
something wide enough and strong enough to support a car to
connect, going across right to that Pleasant Valley extension
right where he was talking about putting a parking lot.
Kubby/ Charley, with that you would get to Pleasant Valley, go down
the gravel, cross Rohret on the plank and then take that east-
west temporary road or drive across?
Lisle/' Yeah. That'd be the way.
Kubby/ Or whatever to get through?
Lisle/ ¥eah. But you've got people who have families with kids.
We've got people who have little businesses. There's at least
one family with a business. It's dead in the water if it's
shut off for three months. But what really scares me worse
than anything is fire, because there's no you know are you
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F022895
#8 page 3
going to run a bucket brigade across this little plank. You
need something better. You're talking eight families in great
hazard and I think, I think that's something that you probably
can solve.
Horow/ I think I'd like to have you work with the staff on this. I
know that having gone through Kirkwood Avenue reconstruction
over the past two summers, there is a way of getting these
things accomplished. Trust me. It's a nuisance, but it's not
going to get done-
Lisle/ Yeah but if you're going to tear up the land anyway put'a
road this wide through there. We can pull in each others
driveways and let people pass.
Horow/ Let's have you work with the staff on whatever.
Lisle/ How would I initiate that?
Horow/ Keep going through Mr. Winstead. As a matter uf fact his
boss is back there if you really want to corner him. Rob's
back there as well. They'll work with you on this.
Lisle/ Okay. Sounds good.
Horow/ Thank you for alerting us.
Throg/ Susan. We might ask Steve to report back to us next meeting
about how we're responding to this and dealing with the clear
public safety issue.
Horow/ The anxiety level on a street that's going to be
reconstructed is high. Trust me. Having lived through it, but
it works out.
Lisle/ Yeah, but that interminable length.
Horow/ Yeah. I know. Trust me. I lived through two years, two
construction seasons of this.
Nov/ We went through it once.
Horow/ Yeah. Once there was.
Nov/ He's talking about a distance that's greater than a block or
half a block.
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F022895
#8 page 4
Jim
Bates/ Resident of Hunter's Run area. I would like to propose
a slight'amendment to phase 2B of this project. As the plans
are, as the plans stand now, for approximately four months the
overpass over Interstate 2- or Highway 218 will be closed and
all the residents of Hunter's Run and SW Estates will be
forced to take a approximately five mile detour in order to
get into the neighborhoods. And the point that I'd like to
make is that for a good part of the phase 2B section from Duck
Creek to Coll Drive is already paved road in excellent
condition it's either the bridge or the concrete apron on
either side of it and there's only about fifty yards or so of
road that actually needs to be repaved and if the phase 2B
could be modified so that part was paved first, and with the
shortest possible delay, than the bridge could be opened and
people could travel across the bridge and access Mormon Trek
from Coll Drive. And that would cut the amount of time that
people would have to make the five mile detour from four
months down to a few weeks presumably. And many of the same
concerns that were expressed by the previous speaker about
fast access for emergency vehicles, not to mention during all
this time, during this four months most of that school will be
in session and all the school busses that need to go to Weber
will be.making the same detour. And the intersection at Mayer
Road and Highway 1 is an uncontrolled intersection and Highway
1 is a 55 mph speed limit at that intersection so there's also
a safety factor if you're directing a lot of traffic out
through that direction. So I don't know how practical it is
but I would suggest it at least be considered.
Kubby/ How practical is this suggestion?
Fosse/ A good share of the portion of the existing paving that you
were talking about will be taken out because we've got to
lower the grade through there to lower the impact on the
property south of Rohret Road there, so we will be
reconstructing a good share of ~that. So that lengthens that
stretch there. And we've equated this project to kind of like
taking off a bandaid. You jerk it off, you get it done quick
or you can split it up into a lot of pieces and then it takes
a lot longer time and you know how that goes. It just gets
stretched out and what is proposed for this summer is a full
seasons worth as we envision it and if we break it up into
additional phases, it very well could tail into summer of '96.
And that's one thing we'd like to avoid if possible.
Kubby/ But really just saying that it's fifty feet of concrete that
will be laid isn't really true because we'll be taking up
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F022895
#8 page 5
parts of.this and replacing it after doing grading.
Fosse/ Right.
Kubby/ Did we have any reports of, I guess it'd be a question for
the county, of problems that when we did the other part of
Rohret Road at Highway 1 and Mayer Avenue?
Atkins/ From the county?
Kubby/ Um-huh.
Atkins/ I don't recall any.
Kubby/ I mean that wouldn,t be reported to the city, any kind of
traffic accidents or problems there that would be reported to
the sheriff.
Woito/ Rob would be able to answer that.
Kubby/ Did you hear of any traffic problems at the corner of mayer
and Highway 1 on the first phase?
Winstead/ There are none that I'm aware of. We proposed some
improvements to that intersection because we knew that we
would have an increased amount of traffic there. We made a
written request to the DOT requesting temporary warning
devices on Highway 1 to alert motorists to the fact that
there's going to be more turning movements there. We got a
written response back from the DOT denying our request. They
based it upon the fact that they felt that there was adequate
sight distance at that intersection and that there was a stop
sign at Mayer Avenue at Highway 1. And therefore no further
measures they felt should be implemented.
Kubby/ Are there many more houses that will be affected and ~sing
that detour than on the first phase, because this seems more
developed? It might be worthwhile making that request again
stating the difference in the number of calculated trips per
household, because we're using the number of seven which to me
sounds amazingly high, but that's what we use.
Throg/ That's normal.
Kubby/ Well I guess I'm not normal.
Winstead/ My original request of-
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F022895
#8 page 6
Kubby/ I shouldn't say that, should I.
Winstead/ My original request to the DOT which was about a year
ago, at that time, I believe we were making the request for
both project. We. mentioned the fact that Hunter's Run
subdivision would be part of that traffic that would be
heading that way. So, we can make that request again.
Kubby/ Could we do that so just so that we know we've done
everything we can do to make that one intersection safe. And
if they say no then at least we tried.
Winstead/ Okay.
Craig Kohl/ Rohret Road. Basically I have just one comment about
this project and that being the sidewalk on the north side.
Which is supposed to be eight feet wide. I think-that's sort
of excessive. It's not exactly a standard size street
throughout the rest of the city. One of the reasons why they
said they wanted to keep that eight wide is to accommodate
bicycle traffic. There's already five feet being provided on
the southside and the north side of the street. I think that
eighteen for bicycles is too much. And yes I'll admit it's
through my front yard they want to put that eight feet. My
primary concern there is preservation of trees that are
already there. Other than the sidewalk being excessively wide,
I have no particular complaints about it. The rest of it's
just going to have to be worked through and put up with.
Kubby/ I think we want the bike lanes and the wide sidewalks
because we don't necessarily want to encourage elementary
school aged children to ride in the street, but to be able to
ride to school.
Kohl/ Okay, I think that most of the elementary traffic that would
be heading toward the school would be after the work traffic
is already headed east. And it would be the same in the
afternoon when they'd already be out of school by the time the
work people would be coming home.
Kubby/ I think that will change over time as the west end of Iowa
City changes.
Kohl/ But also it would be, the present road structure down there
I think that most of the.residential areas are down below the
hill and there would be access to Weber School from the lower
levels rather than necessarily up on Rohret.
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F022895
#8 page 7
Throg/ Thanks craig.
Nov/ Is there anyone else who wants to speak on the Rohret Road
addition? I declare the p.h. closed.
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FO22895
#9 page 1
ITEM EO. 9 -
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVIN~ PLANSt SPECIFICA-
TIONS~ FORM OF CONTRACT~ A~;D ESTIMATE OF COST FOR
CONSTRUCTION OF THE ROHRET ROAD RECONSTRUCTION
PROJECT~ PHASE 2, ESTABLISHING i~/(OUNT OF BID SECU-
RITY TO ACCOMPANY EACH BIDt DIRECTING CITY OLERK TO
PUELISHADVERTISE44ENT FOR BIDS AND PIXING TIME AND
PLACE FOR RECEIPT OF BIDS AT 10:30 A.M. MAROH 21,
1995.
Nov/ Moved by Baker, seconded by Pigott. Is there any discussion?
Kubby/ I think staff got the clear message we want you to deal with
better access for people on the south side of Rohret,-and
we'll get an update in a week.
Throg/ Looks like they're doing it right now, too.
Kubby/ I think they fired into action. I love it.
Nov/
They're going 'to have a little neighborhood engineering
conference right here. I appreciate all the neighbors who came
and brought this along to give us their ideas on this.
Kubby/ And as far as Charley coming up with some specific
alternatives, I think that's very helpful for us instead of
just saying I need something, giving us some choices.
Throg/ Yeah thanks.
Nov/ Okay. Roll call- (yes).
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F022895
#10 page 1
ITEM NO. 10 m
PUBLIC HEARIN8 ON THE PROPOSED FISCAL YEAR 1996
OPERATING BUDSET~ FISCAL YEA~S 1996 THROUGH 1998
THREE-YEAR FINANCIAL PL~uN AND THE SEVEN-YEAR
CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS PROGRAM (FY1995 THROUGH
FY2001).
Nov/ Declare the p.h. open.
Harold Engen/ Senior Center Commission. I've been here a number of
times. I represent a large delegation of seniors so it's my
responsibility to at least come before you tonight and review
the requests that we've been making. We've had letters to the
editor. We've got articles. We've had promos on television.
We've had a real involvement of seniors and I'll be perfectly
frank with you. I almost resolved the fact that you would
never grant the request that we've been making, because we
request it so many times, so many different times for
additional staff, because the numbers are increasing. And
hopefully the numbers will continue to increase. What we're
attempting to do is, a lady gave me this and I thought it was
kind of neat, a bridge to a new community. Seniors coming in,
it's a bridge to a new community and that's one of the very
important things. I'd almost given up until I read the 1993
November Post and you've got a beautiful comment in there
which I'd like to state.
Baker/ Sounds like an election statement.
Engen/ I don't consider you politicians. I consider you fellas
citizen's who are doing a public service.
Nov/ Thank you.
Engen/ We asked the question, what do you think the city council
can do to ensure that older people who move to Iowa City will
continue to find our city responsive to their changing needs
and concerns? Here's your answer. The city must maintain a
high quality of life for all of its residents. For older
people, safety and services must be specifically targeted.
This is the one I like. The Senior Center Commission must be
the eyes and the ears of the council and help it identify
concerns before they become problems. That's what we do. We
come to you with concerns hopefully to head off problems that
are coming Upo That's what we're having right now with the
numbers we have and the technical aspects of the Senior Center
television and all of these different ones. Then I read would
you support increased staff hours for the Senior Center to
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F022895
#10 page 2
meet the quality and variety of opportunities at the center
expressed by the growing number of older persons in the
community. Once again I was very pleased to see that Naomi
said, I would support increased staff hours at the Senior
Center when funds are available. And Larry said, when funds
are available, the Senior staff will be high priority for me.
Ernie said, I would certainly support increasing staff hours
at the Senior Center is as much as financially feasible. And
Jim said, I'm using you first names to kind of be intimate
here. When you talked about the number of volunteers
performing most of the work, a lot of the work there, you may
recall your statement. Given that fact I would still support
modest increases in city support for the center. As a matter
of fact I would rather support the Senior Center than build a
new airport. That was an issue at the time.
ThrQg/ Well, and I've done that too.
Engen/ Yeah. I hope you enjoyed reading my memo to you. The memo
that I said that I'd been reading the book The First Grade
Class call The Boy Who Called Wolf. We are not crying wolf. We
provided you with data and I still think you are citizens and
I can believe your statements that you want to support and you
will support when finances are available. I only hope the
finances come pretty soon. And I really thank you for your
help in the past. I have one nice thing to give you this
evening. You know I always come with a gift. You remember I
brought you other gifts. The Telegraph Herald in Dubuque did
a two page article on the Senior Center. Let me quote a couple
of things here. The Iowa City-Johnson County Senior Center in
the city's former post office building, they give a picture of
it there. A Dubuque group wants the center as the model for a
senior center in Dubuque. It's another indication of the
quality of our program and here's another one that I think
you'll like. You might use this if they come and contact you.
Iowa city Center for Seniors is the envy for the Dubuque
group° I'm going to give you copies of that so you have them.
And then someone else probably has a few statements to make.
I thank you for your attention.
Nov/ Thank you, Harold.
Throg/ Those are good words to hear from Dubuque.
Engen/ You bet. They are one of the only large cities that don't
have a senior center. (can't hear)
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F022895
#10 page 3
Carol Thompson/ Chair of Free Medical Clinic Board. We had a
request for funding which I understand has made it to the
final budget proposal and I want to thank you all for the
careful consideration that you gave our request. Several of
you visited the Clinic, you listened to our concerns and we
felt that you very sincerely tried to understand the Clinic
and our financial situation. out of 4,000 clinic visits almost
last year, 2,500 of them told us they live in Iowa City. We
feel we make an important contribution to the public health of
this community and we really need this funding. I hope that
you will approve our request in the final budget. Thank you.
Pigott/ Thank you, Carol.
Mary Kathryn Wallace/ Hello. I live in Johnson County and I am a
new member of the Senior Center Commission appointed by the
Johnson County Board of Supervisors. Earlier this evening we
heard Mayor Horow. speak of the city's pride of
accomplishments and we at the Senior Center also have feelings
of pride of accomplishment as you have witnessed tonight by
the record that has been brought before you. I am a new member
to the co~unity. I am a returnee. I am semi-retired and chose
this as a place to spend many of my later years and one of the
reasons I chose this was because my husband had a PhD from
here. But also the quality of life that I find and an
attraction to me was the Senior Center. We want to expand on
quality of life for all persons. I have for you several pages
of the petition signed by seniors, over 100 signatures, giving
their support in our request for additional funding so that we
can serve the growing community of seniors in this area. In
1991 Johnson County census show that there was almost 17%-
16.9% increase in persons 55 and older. Picking up newspapers
around the United States we know that the largest growth in
population is in the older population and so a Center that
serves that population, the need for quality services will
only continue to grow. The Senior Center is a focal point for
activities and services and we are very proud to say that it
is a model center. We have gained national recognition. As a
newcomer .I am quite astounded that this is done with so few
staff to serve and the numbers of individuals who come and the
high quality that is there. But I think we are at a break even
point because the senior growth is there in the population.
Before people retire their greatest concern is will I have
enough money. But after they retire they make adjustments and
their greatest concern is the meaningful use of time. And that
isn't busy work. That is the meaningful use of time. As people
age we become more of who we are. We become more
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F022895
#10 page
individualistic, We come a more diverse population. So all 61d
people are not the same and you .can't have a program.that is
going to meet the needs of the entire population. So we have
many needs'for a diverse program for a diverse population.
There at the Center are 600 individuals who want to be
involved and we have a waiting list of over 300 who would like
to be matched for an activity that is meaningful to them. You
can't just walk in and take a number and say do this. You need
to know the person, you need'to know their skills. You have to
give them an opportunity to perhaps for the first time in
their life develop a new part of themselves that will enrich
their own'life and the~tgeerr com~munity. And all of this is
possible at the Senior here. So, with our request f6r
increase in staff we are hoping. to expand a program to meet
needs and also to do further outreach for those individuals
who cannot come to the Center. i thank you for your
consideration and it doesn't .seem to difficult in that we all
are aging and that we want a good high quality of life for
each of us and so just put yourself there. Thank you~
Throg/ Welcome back to Johnson County.
Wallace/ Thank you. I am happy.
Jay
Honohan/ Mayor Novick, members of the council, I am Jay
Honohan. I think you all know that by now. I am not on any
.board or commission. I am here to speak on the Senio~ Center.
I believe you have a letter that I 'sent to the council. I
would like to look at the Senior Center request from a couple
of different standpoints than the facts and figures which you
are all familiar with. I think that the Senior Center is
important and the efforts of the city council should be
important to reward people who have contributed to the
community of Iowa City most of their lives. I think too often
we neglect the older or-elder person. It is very hard to grow
old in our society. We are not geared for older people. We are
geared for the young. I can remember my mother· as she grew
old. She is 91 now. But I can remember the trauma she had when
her ungrateful son took away her automobile and said she
c6uldn't drive anymore. She just bounced off a couple of
parked cars. These things happen to older people. They need
our support and I think the Senior Center is one way that we
can support~ them and I would urge you to strongly consider
changing the budget as I understand you are now proposing it
to add the extra staff for the Senior Center. My second point
about your budget. In a budget the size of Iowa City and I
have some familiarity with budgets of the City of Iowa City
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F022895
#10 page 5
having been here as Police Judge for two years working out of
budget there and 11 years as City Attorney. I found that when
you are talking about an amount like we are talking about for
the Senior Center, you are really talking priorities. This is
a very small amount of money compared to the total budget that
this city has proposed for next year. I think that you could
shift some priorities. That you could shift that small amount
of money in perspective for the employees that they are asking
for to the Senior Center from some of these other departments.
I urge you to do that. I think you should I would hope
bonsider not an elaborate but a simply cost benefit. ratio.
Just think about the money that they are asking for and the
people that it will benefit and in affect rewarding people
that have contributed to the city and that now need our help
in an age when they are not favored and the young are. Thank
you.
Terri Miller/ I am with the Senior Center Commission and I am hear
tonight to speak on behalf of the Senior Center in support of
their budget request for additiona]. staff. An item that I
would just like to bring to your attention is the fact that
one of these positions that we have asked for, one of the job
duties that this person would have would be to look at some
fund raising issues and activities for the Senior center. As
we have learned in our past request for staff it is not easy
to get additional staff and we know that there is always the
finite budget. We have a certain amount of money to work with.
We have certain places that it must go. We know that. We know
there is a reality to that and so when we started looking at
the fact that we really did need this additional person, we
started to think about what ways do we need to become more
independent. How can we ~tand on our own feet a little more
and try to get moneys from other places besides the city. And
when we looked at that issue, we decided that this person that
we were going to ask for would need to take on some duties,
some research activities to look into ways that we could raise
more moneys. As you probably already know, some of our
programs are funded by partnership relationships with certain
companies in town, with some banks, that type of thing and so
we have got some great programming and funding in this way and
we certainly would like to'look at this more in the future. We
feel that for us to be able to grow, for us to realize a lot
of the dreams that we have in expanding the Center and in
being able to reach more people that we are going to have to
become a little ore independent and with your help in funding
some additional staff, hopefully we can look in this direction
and become a little more independent on our own. Thank ~ou.
Thlsrepresentsonlyareasonablyaccuretetronscrlptlenofthelowa Ciw council meeting of Februa~ 28,1995.
F022895
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Ron Vogel/ I'was looking at this budget and I notice that there is
$30,000 budgeted for trails in the next year and zero the year
before that and zero the year before that and I thought you
just like to know where you stand among a few other cities in
Iowa. I called up Davenport and Bettendorf because I used to
live there. I don't know what the numbers are for other cities
but Bettendorf for this coming year has $300,000 budgeted for
trails. In the next seven years they have a total of $3.6
million budgeted for trails. In the last five years they have
spent about $700,0~0 for trails. In Davenport, in the last
five years, they have spent $1.2 million for trails. This year
they have budgeted $200,000 for trails. These cities are made
up of working people. They don't have a billion dollars worth
of federal funds coming in like Iowa City does. Thanks.
Pigott/ Steve, are those numbers-are those right for the last year?
That was zero for the trail system?
Atkins/ We have budgeted and I think Ron is looking at the inter-
city bike trails you have in your seven year plan. We
allocated $30,000 a year for inter-city bike trail. And the
Iowa River Trail System we have $700,000 budgeted for the next
three FYs and we also have a grant pending for the bridge and
I don't recall what that number was.
Kubby/ It was not just in one category.
Atkins/ There is two categories, yeah. Plus, remember you do secure
bike trails through the subdivision process. That was talked
about tonight, too, and that is not calculated in here.
Freida Shannon/ Hi. I am a member of the Senior Center Commission
also and in the last few minutes and also in the last few
weeks and in fact, the last few years, you have been bombarded
with data about the staff ratio of staff and participants.
Iowa city is the envy of many cities because of its vitality
and growth and so is the same true for our Senior Center.
Visitors and newcomers that come to our Center are always
amazed at what we have to offer. It would seem that when such
obvious growth, whether it is in the city or at the Senior
Center that some kind of provisior: would be made to take care
of this increase. My concern now is what kind of criteria does
the Senior Center have to meet in order to secure additional
staff? As.I have said, we have told you about the population
increase of participants and have explained through a memo
from Susan Rogusky, our volunteer specialist, of 'our
philosophy of using mainly volunteers in the operation of the
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F022895
#10 p. age 7
Center. But it takes someone to train them. Many of you have
come to our .programs and have seen by the large crowd how
important it is for older citizens to participate in attehding
our functions. Most of which are new, different, and quite
appealing to senior citizens. It would seem that we are
expected to continually operate with the same staff while the
number of participants keep increasing. Some how this growth
factor needs to be reckoned with. It will not go away but
instead it will increase as time goes on. Thank you.
Larry Eckholt/ I am president of the Board of Directors of the Iowa
Arts Festival and first I would like to thank volunteers from
the Senior center who a couple of weeks ago stamped all of our
about 3,000 fund raising letters. And I appreciate that other
support from the citizens of Iowa City. What I am about to say
is a distillation of an article that I submitted to the Press
Citizen in response to a couple of articles that have appeared
recently including a one column long editorial about the city
council's informal decision to give $5,000 grants to each of
the Iowa Arts Festival, the Iowa City Jazz Festival and the
Friday Night Concert Series that is sponsored by the DTA. And
I want to commend the city council for directing a portion of
the Hotel Motel Tax for this purpose. I am here to go on
public record that contrary to the Press Citizen, the Iowa
Arts Festival is not turning to the city council to bail our
the Festival or to shift responsibility of funding of these
festivals to public revenues. We have maintained for several
years that the Hotel Motel Tax is an appropriate source of
revenue to help support community wide events such as the Iowa
Arts Festival that draw many visitors from out of town. We are
not suggesting that you create a new category in your budget
called to dependent festivals. We are simply and I have to
quote this, we are not asking for bundles of ~ax money as was
stated in yesterdays Press Citizen editorial. We are just
asking for a small investment from public resources that can
directly benefit the operating budget of the festival which
goes for the most part of pay artists fees and also to create
the kind of festival atmosphere that draws 40,000 to d.t.
during the festival week. I realize that this is a one time
allocation but look forward to working with staff and.council
on how this concept might be fully realized in future years.
But I want to thank you for the support that you have shown
and hope that you stick with that commitment.
Nov/
Larry, while you are here, do you want to say what you are
doing in terms of fund raising for yourself? I mean for the
festival, not personal.
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F022895
#10 page 8
Eckholt/ The other real misconoeption in the article was that this
was the first year that we have ever started a comprehensive
fund raising program for the Festival. The Festival exists
because there has been a comprehensive fund raising effort. As
I mentioned, we just sent a mailing to over 3,000 local
citizens. In the past we have gotten more than $10,000 of our
budget comes from small $10, $25, $50 contributions from
individuals. All of the major events of the Festival are
sponsored by major corporate sponsorship. $3,500 for each of
those daily main events and we have with the exception of half
of one sponsorship that we are still working on, we have lined
up all the sponsorships for this summer's Festival. We get,
this year we get $3,000 grant for the Iowa Arts Council. We
missed the deadline and are not getting a Department of
Cultural Affairs grant this year but for all practical
purposes the usual fund raising is successful. We are right on
schedule for this years budget and that this kind of support
only shores up not only this year but gives us a little push
into planning for the next years.
Wendy Ford/ I am the director of the CVB for Iowa City and
Coralville. And in light of the council's impending decision
to reduce the funding formula to the CVB I would like to make
a few comments. On behalf of the 1,800 employees of the
tourism industry and the board of directors of the Iowa
City/Coralville CVB, I would like to remind council of the
mission of the CVB and that is to advance the economic welfare
of the Iowa City/Coralville communities through the promotion
of the communities as a tourist attraction, convention site
and location for special events. And I think the operative
word in that mission is promotion. This is the mission that
the CVB board had in mind as it had developed its newest
program for 1995. The community promotional funding program,
a program that might have assisted ten organizations needing
promotional funding assistance this coming year. Realizing the
daunting task for divvying up limited funds, I am sure you are
all very familiar with, the Bureau board had decided to cease
its old grant program and refine it to better meet the needs
of the city's continued flow of tax dollars. The mission of
the Bureau, promotion of the community, and for the events
needing assistance. Over the past ten years the Bureau has
distributed nearly $50,000 and we were prepared to continue
that tradition with an even better program this year. It is
important for everyone to remember that the CVB is funded by
a portion of the Hotel Motel Tax, not the property tax. Hotel
tax is a very unique source of dollars that come in the hip
pockets and purses and even piggy banks of the people that
Thlsrepresents onlyareasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa City council meeting of Februa~ 28,1995.
F022895
#10
page 9
stay over night in our hotels. Because we are the only tourism
marketing organization for the community and we are funded by
some of the very dollars that we help draw into the community,
we feel strongly that the most effective use of those dollars
is a reinvestment in continued marketing. The continued
marketing and development for an already established $5.8
million Iowa City hotel business can be thought of as an
engine that drives the continual benefits we see as increased
business in the d.t. shopping areas, in the malls, in the
restaurants, the supplier businesses and etc. The marketing of
the Iowa City hotel businesses also eases the tax burden of
our local residences. Because $.75 of every tax dollar
collected stays in city coffers to fund our police patrol and
parks, we can in a sense credit the CVB for easing over
$300,000 of the cost of services and amenities we, as
citizens, enjoy. It is imperative that we keep stoking the
engine of tourism, promoting the area to outside visitors that
spend as much money in our stores as they do in our hotels, if
not more. To do this most effectively, we must use those brand
new visitor generated hotel tax dollars and promote, promote,
and promote. Our community is like a business, to sell it you
need to
CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 95-35 SIDE 2
To account for marketing visitor business. Just like it is
hard to account for marketing the tooth paste business. I can
tell you that you would be a lot less likely to buy Crest
Tooth paste if it weren't advertised. CVB is the marketing
staff for Iowa City just like Proctor and Gamble has a
marketing staff for .its products..If you ask them today how
much tooth paste did they sell because of their marketing
efforts, they probably wouldn't know. But what they would say,
is look at the bottom line, sales are up. We are exactly the
same. Two things are at risk today. The city council cutting
back on the funding formula for the bureau cuts away at the
marketing potential we can give the city. That means the
citizens of Iowa City are going to be shouldering more of the
burden for the services and amenities that the Hotel Motel tax
has provided in the past. And two, that our nearest
co~petition for hotel guests is adding to their product. When
there are more hotel rooms in the area and I am talking about
Coralville, there is less demand for hotel rooms as a whole.
prices will fall, tax collection becomes smaller and occupancy
is spread out between the two communities. Finally t~e Bureau
board of directors~ is asking the city not to reduce the
formula funding for CVB and to consider now some joint long
Thisrepresents onlyareasonablyac~ratetranscrlptlon oftholowa Ci~ council meeting of Fobma~ 28,1995.
F022895
#10 page 10
range planning for the promotion of our community. If nothing
else, the Bureau, the area festivals and everyone deserves to
have the courtesy of some long range planning afforded themby
the city. Thank you for your time.
Throg/ Wendy, I would like to ask you a question and first to
praise you for the quality of your presentation. It is
persuasive. So the question is would you agree that events
like the Jazz Festival and the Arts Festival and the Friday
Night Concert Series provide important qualities that make up
Iowa City so marketable?
Ford/ Wholeheartedly.
Throg/ So, we are choosing to direct some funds or proposing to
direct some funds to festivals that make the place so
marketable and make it something that you want to direct
attention to.
Ford/ And I understand where you are leading with that. I also know
that we have one of the smallest advertising budgets of any
CVB in the State of Iowa and there is a fine line that we
tread in sacrificing the potential visitors that come and help
generate hotel tax, $.75 on the dollar at least for the City
of Iowa City and funding a quality of life event for the
community. I don't know where that line. is. All I know is that
when $10,000 say of what had been directed to the CVB in
efforts to promote this community are redirected, something
gives on the CVB's promotion ability and we just can't deal
with that. We might look at it in terms of being less able to
for example last summer run an ad in the Illinois Newspaper
Association which is comprised of 140 local. Illinois
newspapers that promote it. Not only the Thursday night in the
park in Coralville but also the Friday Night Down Town Series
that we had. We did that-on our own because they are %wo
wonderful events that encourage extended stays if not entire
weekends in our area and benefit all the communities here.
That is the kind of thing that gets sacrificed. That
prQmotion, that suggestion to somebody outside of our city
limits to come into town and best scenario stay over night and
put some dollars into our community and in worse scenario just
make it better for everybody in town. It is a fine line. I
don't know where the line is. I do know that we are opera%ing
on a very limited advertising budget.
' 9
Throg/ May I ask a follow up question. As best you understand it,
have we proposed to cut your CVB's budget relative to last
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F02289~
#10 page
year?
Ford/ I think we are into semantics. I have given this-
Pigott/ It is not any lower. We haven't reduced the amount of money
to CVB.
Throg/ Compared to last year.
Ford/ You can look at this in two different ways. If you say that
the CVB can have 25% of the Hotel Motel Tax that is collected
although this year we are going to mandate that you spend
$10,000 of it our way, then yes, I consider that a reduction
in our ability to direct marketing for the commtunity.
Pigott/ But if you look at it in terms of dollars it is not a
reduction in dollars.
Ford/ I don't think that you can be so certain in saying that
because when you compromise your marketing ability you also
compromise the other end, the numbers of people aren't going
to be the same. So, you could end up with a flat Hotel Motel
Tax line that comes in and that was part of the reason I made
the point with Coralville's hotel motel product inventory is
increasing practically daily and we are losing potential
guests to the hotel room glut. So any time that happens there
are more hotel rooms than there are demand for those prices
fall. When the prices fall, the 7% is also lower.
Nov/ We did not lower the dollar figure.
Kubby/ There could be some affects because of inflation and cost of
advertising. You can argue all of that stuff.
Baker/ (Can't hear) You said the Iowa City's budget is smaller in
relationship to other cities' budgets. Where are those cities
budgets funded? The same source?
Ford/ Yes, they are funded primarily from the Hotel Motel Tax and
interestingly the City of Waterloo, unless they have changed
in the last month, directs 100% of their Hotel Motel Tax to
the CVB and mandates that 50% of that is granted out by the
bureau with their funding criteria to area festivals and
organizations.
Baker/ So the other CVBs are funded the same way ours is? Is that
what you are saying?
Thisrepresents only areasonably accuratetranscription ofthelowa City coun~l meeting ofFebruary28,1996.
F022895
#10 page 12
Ford/ Yes, there are some variations.
Baker/ (Can't hear).
Ford/ That is right. And if I could have one more second to just
say in no way is the CVB staff or board of directors against
the festivals or any of the events that-
Kubby/ Is the Waterloo CVB mission statement different than because
of that 50% of the money is for local festivals?
Ford/ I would have to check on the exact wording but I don't know
that any CVB mission differs greatly from this one. Perhaps
they have a foundation that actually is the financial
instrument for distributing the extra 50% of those taxes which
might have a separate mission statement but which is linked
with the CVB.
Kubby/ Thanks.
Ford/ Thank you.
Kubby/ You know, since I have been on council this is the most
people that have ever spoken at a budget hearing and I am
really glad to see it. A couple of years ago we had three and
last year we had five which is a huge increase.
Jim
Clayton/ I couldn't find the item I am objecting to in the
budget but I know it is in here. We all spend tax dollars to
support the Iowa City Area Development group under the
direction of Martin Kelly. Mr. Kelly had some things to say in
the Daily Iowan on the 15th that I was very interested in. He
indicated that we should be directing the concern of d.t. Iowa
City to making it a campus town because that is where the
market is. We have, he said, 27,000-28,000 students and he
thinks to succeed we have to cater to that student market. He
also says that in his efforts to develop Iowa City he works to
entice new corporations into town. He likes new businesses
that are national chains because they provide more and better
jobs and they pay more oddly enough too than our local stores
do. He is dead wrong. Iowa City's d.t is not a campus town. I
am only one of many businesses that see our peaks occur in
business activity when the student are on hiatus. When they
are out of town there is more room in town and there is more
people shopping and more people spending money and so while
some of the businesses might experience a down cycle when the
students are gone, there are others of us that experience a
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F022895
#10 page 13
definite up cycle. We need somebody in Mr. Kelly's position,
funded by the city with I understand about $50,000 is what the
city's tax payers share is of his budget, working to enhance
the type of employers that we are trying to attract to Iowa
City. We need to get people who can afford to set up a
business here as an entrepreneur, higher local people that can
pay them enough that they can afford to live here. We don't
need another wire transfer system for the profits that leave
town for the corporations that he is working to attract. The
mayor said earlier in her State of the City Address that the
council is committed to the d.t. and the development of it and
you are showing that by developing the south side of the d.t.
area. I was on a committee that worked with the city council
people and some staff people about parking and transportation
and signage. Let's take the money that we are going to give to
Mr. Kelley's group and spend it on promoting something that we
already have that is not going up at the present time. It is
on the way down. There is empty space d.t. There are people
moving out because the rents are too high. Rent is only too
high when there is not enough business to help you pay the
rent. I would pay double the rent that I am paying today if I
could triple the business with traffic that would march down
my street. The folks aren't there any more. Businesses don't
like to say this but they are just not there and we need to do
something to help grow this d.t. area back to where it was ten
years ago. Ten years ago people knocked on my door to buy my
lease. They wanted to pay me money to get me out of my store
so they could pay rent to my landlord and open their business.
That hasn't happened d.t in Iowa City in 10-12 years and it is
not going to happen until we get those people back again and
we can do it with promotion, we can do it with perception of
what it is like to park and drive d.t., we can do it with
signage, we could actually have a customer walk out of the
parking lot at the Holiday Inn and stand there and see a map
of d.t. Iowa City in front of him that shows him that if he
walks through the hotel he is going to be right in the heart
of the city instead of walking down the college street alley
iooking for the mall or going the wrong way all together. We
need to get our act together to promote what we have to make
it better. Thanks.
Throg/ I guess I would like to say I support most of what Jim said.
I would like to reinforce it and encourage Jim to talk more
with us about how to accomplish the objectives that you have
pointed out. I guess I would also like to say that our effort
to direct funds to the Jazz Festival, the Arts Festival and
the Friday Night Concert Series are part of our effort to
Thisrepresents only areasonably eccuratetranscrlptioll ofth~lowo City coun~l meeting of February28,1995.
F022895
#10 page.14
promote the d.t.. As is our instructions to staff to improve
the parking system, to make the parking ramps more attractive,
more safe and so on and I think we are going to see some
results coming out of that relatively soon. So, I agree with
you and I think we are trying to do some things in that
direction.
Kubby/ I will pass on the list I received from you to other council
members.
Jay
LeaVesseur/ 828 Pepper Drive. I am kind of here-I am back'to
talk about the CVB funding and the proposed diversion of funds
to the arts festivals and I am kind of here with mixed hearts.
I happen to be the general manager of the Heartland 'Inn in
Coralville and quite frankly the downsizing of the hotel
business in Iowa City would probably do me good. But-I guess
I want to address a couple of specific issues regarding the
f~nding. First of all I know the concept has been brought up
this really isn't a budget cut because in real mean dollars
the total funding hasn't gone down. I think you may be making
a serious error in your equation in that assumes you have flat
tax revenue or an increased tax revenue coming in this year
and you simply-I don't think you are going to. At the end of
this month the Ironman will be back in operation and at the
end of November the Hampton Inn, you will have 200 rooms at
exit 242 in Coralville that you didn't have before and you are
going to have a 60 room net increase in lodging capacity in
Coralville with no corresponding increase in capacity in Iowa
City. More specifically your #1 and #2 Hotel Motel Tax
generator in Iowa City are the Holiday Inn and the Highlander
and they are convention and conference centers. The Hampton
Inn and the Ironman are targeted specifically at those two
markets. They go-we don't make our budget competing against
each other. I am an economy class hotel and my competition
isn't comfort Inn, Fairfield Inn or Hampton Inn. My
competition is the Holiday Inn and the Highlander because I
can offer a reasonably affordable product or reasonable
competitive product at a substantially discounted rate because
I don't have a lot of the overhead. There is also been the
issue brought up the fact that you can just reallocate your
funds. The funds are tight and we all know that. You have made
some very hard decisions the past couple of months
specifically regarding revenue and you are going to have to
make some more over the next couple of years and I know that
$10,000 compared to hundreds of millions doesn't seem like a
lot of money but when money is tight you don't lay off the
best salesperson you have. Back in the fall of 1992 when the
Thisrepresents only areason&bly accurate ttsnscriptlonof~olowaCl~ council meefiogofFebruary 28,1995.
F022895
#10
page 15
inn keepers were generally protesting the increase of the
motel tax from 5% to 7% there were a couple of statements made
that to justify the increase and one of them was I believe I
can attribute to City Manager Atkins but if I am wrong I
apologize was that in a time of the property tax freeze in the
State'of Iowa that it would be irresponsible of the city not
to pursue any potential avenue of funding and revenue increase
available to them and that was generally agreed to. The second
argument was made was the fact that the CVB-At the time the
innkeepers wanted you to increase the percentage of funding
that was going to the CVB fairly dramatically and we used the
argumentation that as a percentage of other communities that
CVB and Iowa City was grossly under funded as a percentage of
Hotel Motel Tax revenue and I believe that is still the case.
And one of the arguments made was well, then they would
benefit directly from the increased revenue because 25% of a
bigger piece of pie is a bigger slice of pie for them. While
we may be reallocating funds, their 25% in terms of real
dollars and what you could do in terms of long term budgeting
is being cut. Especially if I think you incorporate the very
real chance that your tax revenue from Hotel Motel in Iowa
City is going to go down. Until you get your suite property
across from tile Holiday Inn, you are dealing with a shorter
deck than everybody else and considering the fact that you
need to staff the CVB with the ability to bring in conventions
and conferences, not just leisure traffic or not just drive by
traffic, you have to work to get to the Holiday Inn d.t. They
need to be able to bring in conventions and conferences
separate for the University. The University is going to bring
some events. I live very nicely off a lot of business that the
University brings in. Also the University doesn't contribute
Hotel Motel tax revenue. With the CVB you are getting a sales
person who is going out and not only making you at least
affordable return. Their budget was under $250,000 and $1
million in revenue cam back in between the two communities
this year..You are also dealing with somebody who specifically
is giving your money back. If you give them $10,000 and they
invest it, they can bring in about at a minimum $280,000 in
economic activity and still have the $10,000 you originally
gave them returned right back into city coffers. And
unfortunately the festivals don't have that capacity. If you
fell compelled to fund the festivals through Hotel Motel Tax,
I would suggest that you not take it away from the branch teat
is generating the revenue but take it from the other 75% that
isn't bringing the money ba6k in and don't cut their budgets
this year by $10,000 and free up the CVB to do the job that
they want. The other point that I would like to bring up is
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F022895
#10
page. 16
the fact that we can do a lot of things to varying degrees of
effectiveness. yes, the CVB isn't going to go under if you
take away the $10,000. The Arts Festival, the Jazz Festival,
the Friday Night Concert Series are still going to bring in
economic activity to the community. But when it comes to a
concept of maximizing revenues, your best bet is to give the
money back to the CVB and Wendy has given you lots of
statistics that are very valid and actually are very
conservative in terms of the reinvestment capacity that you
get of the money coming back from the Hotel Motel.Tax. I just
think we are shooting ourselves in the foot here when we
reallocate that money and we take it away. The issue of
whether or not the festival should be funded I thfnk is a
completely separate one if the city should responsible for
funding them. I think everybody agrees that they add to the
definite quality of life and they do make it more marketable.
As an innkeeper and a member of the CVB board of directors,
quite frankly my goal may be more specific than the mission
statement of the CVB. I think the economic activity phrase is
a little vague. I think specifically that the goal of the CVB
and I know that there are people on the board the vehemently
disagree with me. But I think that the vision is to generate
as much Hotel Motel Tax revenue as possible to decrease the
tax load on the tax payers of Iowa City and Coralville. As a
final plea, I would strongly encourage the council to look at
some long term planning like Wendy has asked for. A five year
commitment would be wonderful so that everybody knows where we
are at. Right now, as a board member, I am really quite
anxious about the fact that next year a lot of other groups
may give you just as persuasive appeal. I think it is a same
that we don't have the Criterium this year. But I don't know
if the $2,500 should come out of the CVB's money next year and
there is a lot of other very valid groups out there as well.
The other thing I think is the long term approach will help
because you have a pretty unique agency here. We are dealing
with two cities and they are trying to please people on all
sides of the perspective. And even though you may be friendly
and sometimes not so friendly competitors, Coralville and Iowa
City are competing and you are competing for tax dollars yet
the CVB and the board of directors is responsible to both
cities. We have to answer to both of them. The message we get
fr.om Coralville is very distinct for the message we get from
Iowa City. The message from Coralville is that the goal of CVB
is to generate as much'Hotel Motel Tax revenue as possible to
decrease the tax load and increase as much money to the
general fund as possible. And that is some of our decisions
have been made and unfortunately we find ourselves kind of in
Thisrepresents only areasonably accurate tmnscrlptlen ofthelowa City council meeting of February 28,1995.
F022895
#10 page 17
this pickle. So, you have a great sales person who are doing
a good job. They can prove it. When money is tight you don't
lay off your sales people. You don't eat your seed corn ahd
you know, to a certain extent we are having a corn fest this
year because we are taking acre of some of that and.I would
encourage you to-if you have to allocate the money because I
think they are valid organizations there. There are valid
festivals, they do increase the quality of life. I ~ould say
take the money out of the other 75% and don't cut their funds
this year.
Pigott/ Thanks for coming down.
Sue
Dulek/ I am currently the president of the board of directors
in the Neighborhood Centers of Johnson County. I'm here along
with other members of the board, staff, and residents to
support the council's decision regarding accepting federal
funding for community policing. We've been here before talking
about community policing and we'll be here again. We feel very
strongly about it. On behalf of the board, I wrote a letter at
the end of January to council asking them, urging them to
leverage the federal money. I was ecstatic when I picked up
the Press-Citizen about a week after that, I think about the
seventh or eighth of February, to realize that council did
accept that money. The community policing is certainly
essential. The board, we have monthly meetings. Part of our
monthly board meetings includes reports from the residents.
Inevitably we get stories especially on the Broadway Street
area of activity, not all of which is legal. We feel strongly
about community policing and last year we have a limited
budget as a non-profi~ agency. We took $10,000 of our limited
funds to hire an officer. We essentially paid for an officer
to walk the beat out there. That's how strongly we feel about
this. And I think that the city's has the responsibility. It's
not the neighborhood center's responsibility to hire an
officer. We do it because we feel that we should. But I think
it's the community of Iowa City's responsibility to hire that
officer. And I think by the council taking the vote agreeing
to leverage those federal dollars, it affirms that belief that
it is a community responsibility. And the vote to do that
really enhances the quality of life. There's a couple three
residents who are here who will tell you that directly. And
the mayor in her opening remarks, and I applauded those, that
she said, we will seek strategies to protect the quality of
life our residents enjoy. And clearly bringing community
policing to the Broadway Street's neighborhood, will enhance
the quality of life. It's a great decision. The board applauds
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 28, 1995.
F022895
#10
page 18
you. I applaud you, and appreciate your time.
Pigott/ Thank you for seeing it through, Sue.
Sarai Lenoch/ I am a resident of Cedarwood Apartments on Broadway
Street. I moved there almost a year ago and the first night
that I was to stay in my brand new apartment I refused to. I
saw activity going on outside of. my window that I did not
agree with. I therefore took my newborn to my aunt's house and
s%ayed there. I return during the day time but leave at night.
When I found out that there was a foot patrol there I was
totally ecstatic. The police officer was so kind to everyone
who lived there. He talked to the children, handed out his cop
cards, everybody thought that was kind of neat. I cannot
express my gratitude towards the foot patrol enough. If it was
not for them out patrolling the beats, I do not think that I
would be living there right now. About two and a half months
ago there were three shots fired outside of my apartment
building, scared the living day lights out of me. I never
heard gun shots before in my life. After the police came I
thought why is the foot patrol only during the summer. What is
wrong with the winter. A lot of activity goes on during the
winter time also. Living on the ground floor I see a lot of
activity going on. I can see whatever goes on in this complex
because I am in the very back of it. Although I do not agree
with most of it, I do keep my month quiet for fear of what
will happen to either me or my son and I do not want either
one of us to be a victim of a grazing bullet that was not
suppose to be there. So I plead with the council to assure me
and the residents of this complex that the foot patrol will go
on and not be shut off for a year and then go back on again.
I also feel that it should be year long and that it should not
be just during the summer time. That is not when everything
happens. It happens all year round. Thank you.
Liz Hudson/ And I have also addressed the board many times or the
council, sorry, many times about the Broadway Street about
community policing. I have done it as a Broadway Street
resident in public housing and as a board member and now I
also support it as a resident out of public housing and also
staff member of Neighborhood Centers. I would like to comment
at this time that I feel that it would be damaging to ever
stop the community policing in our neighborhood. Especially to
stop and start and stop and start. I remember when it very
first started what a change it had made and then stopped. How
damaging it was and then to start again and how wonderful it
was and you know, just to see it top again would be damaging
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F022895
#10 page 19
and We would see the results. I also had watched,. some pe6ple
watch day time soap operas. I watch evening cups and the real
stories of the highway patrolman and I also watched another
program in regards to agencies and organizations starting
programs just like Iowa City in regards to doing community
policing and I noticed that the one way that a lot of these
programs were recognized was because they were constant and
they didn't work overnight, it took a lot of community help as
well as city help, you know, in recognition and everyone needs
to work together and the police officers as far as I know,
most of them, live in Iowa City. They are part of our
community as well besides employees. And we all need to work
together and one of the things that Neighborhood Centers' of
Johnson County also has done is provided a place for families
in the neighborhood to come together as a neighborhood council
and it keeps growing and whether it is a place for people to
speak about their concerns with the crime or concerns of what
we need to help our neighborhood and I think one of the most
important things is to consider that you know, in this area is
a large clump of low income housing. In my opinion, we need
the help of the city, the city put the clump there and now we
need the help to survive in this clump. And so, I would like
to also thank for the consideration of the additional
officers. I am hoping that the community policing will also
continue.
Pigott/ Could I just ask, for just a second, you have no plans to
stop the community policing in that area right now, do you? I
just have heard a couple of people worry that it would stop
and start again and I just wanted you to-
Kubby/ If we got the officers from the grant they are slated to be
community policing and how we talked about it was each three
officers would be targeted to one neighborhood so that there
would be one full time equivalent at all times in community
policing.
Arkins/ R. J.-
Pigott/ I just heard a couple people worry that they would stop it
in that area.
Atkins/ You may want to come to the microphone, R. J.
Winklehake/ The emphasis that they are talking about was funded
through a grant and we had something like $10,000 and with the
neighborhood people that were there decided when they wanted
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F022895
#10 page 20
the neighborhood police to be there to actual walk the patrol.
Without that kind of funding where I qan put people on
overtime, I have to rely on the people that I have on the
street to be able to get down there. Sometimes I can't do that
because of the other calls that they are handling. They are
simply not down there. The times that we are talking about
that they are referring to was on overtime. We had people sign
up to go down there and walk whatever the hours were. That was
for the most part all on overtime where I had to pay that. It
is not people that I had on the street where I can assign
them. We try to assign them through there. They still have to
answer the other calls. They are not able to be down there all
of the time. And I think-
Pigott/ I see. Thanks.
Kim
Yaman/ I am a resident of the Pheasant Ridge neighborhood on
the west side of Iowa City which is Iowa City's largest
subsidized housing development. Now I am going to place myself
geographically and date myself historically and let you know
that from 1979 to 1982 I worked for the Human. Services
Department of the Public Housin~ Authority of St. Paul,
Minnesota and during that time we were fortunate to benefit
from the allocation of federal funding to implement a
community policing program in our largest housing developments
and I am not going to argue that Iowa City's needs in terms of
numbers of police responses to these communities is as great
as large metropolitan like St. Paul. But, as we found and the
Public Housing Authority, the situation that was being
resolved by the implementation of community poiicing was not
just a decrease in the number of responses that were being
made by the police to crime and it wasn't simply a decrease in
crime but it provided an opportunity to address situations and
issues that resulted in crime and was a very- clearly
preventiv~ measure and also enhanced community ownership of
the area. You could walk around at any time of the night and
day and no that you were safe and know that somebody knew
where were the spots in .your neighborhood that things could
occur and that people could meet and where maybe women weren't
safe or your children weren't safe to be after dark. We saw
the development of Crime Watch programs among the residents,
increased participation in community council'meetings, and it
also very important thing that we have neglected to mention so
far is that this provided role models for youth who previously
saw the police only in reaction to crisis, crime and violence.
So we saw a decrease in crime, a decrease in situations that
resblted in crime. We saw an increase in neighborliness and
Thisrepresents only areasonably accurate transcription ofthelowe City council meeting of Februa~ 28,1995.
F022895
#10 page 21
people watching out for each other and getting to know each
other without that fear that something could happen between
them and we also saw youths who participated in programs, like
they would walk beats with the police officers or just to
greet them daily on their rounds and some youths who actually
participated in internships and went on to the police academy
later. I also saw after the installation of a new presidential
administration in the 1981 this program be dismantled and how
destructive and detrimental this was, not just to these small
communities of housing developments but to the entire
community at large. And so I would really like to enjoin the
council to not only to ~11ocate community police officers to
the neighborhood of the Broadway Street area but to other
areas as well and be always conscious of the preventive
measures and the long term affects that something like this
program can offer our larqer community. Thanks.
Nov/ Is there anyone else here who would like to speak about the
budget?
Kubby/ Almost a 300% increase in comments.
Pigott/ That is great.
Karr/ Could I have a motion to accept correspondence?
Pigott/ So moved to accept correspondence.
Baker/ Is that the last speaker?
Nov/ That is the way I understand it.
Kerr/ I am sorry, was there a second.
Throg/ Yes, I am sorry I did. I didn't speak loudly enough, sorry.
Nov/ All right. Any discussion. All in favor say aye (ayes).
Baker/ (Can't hear). Pleased that we had this kind of response
(can't hear) Understandably concerned about some things. Most
of them wanted some increases in our budget. Let me tell you
who I am disappointed who is not here is that the council gets
criticized either indirectly or implicitly by individuals and
or organization that think that they have a better way to
allo6ate our money. That have proposals that they think h~ve
merit. If they are not down here in front of us proposing
those tyings and asking us to respond to them directly face to
Thlsrepresentsol~lyafeasonablyaccuratetranscription ofthelowaCltycouncil meeting of Febma~ 28,1995.
F022895
#10 page 22
face. There may be ways that we can adjust the budget and
maybe there are criticisms that could be had but I wish those
people who profess to have those criticisms had been down here
tonight to express them and taken the time and energy that
these people took to be here tonight. So, there is still a
chance that they could show up but I encourage that if you
have suggestions on how we can save money-
Throg/ You wouldn't be referring to an editorial that appeared in
on~ of the local newspaper, would you?
Baker/ Not a word. But that is only one expression of that sort of
sentiment I would like us (can't hear).
Nov/
Is there anyone in the audience that came to talk about a
p.h.? on another matter? No, all right. The council is going
to take a break.
[BREAK]
Don, all right, we have one more budget comment.
Kubby/ I just wanted to let council know I assume we are voting on
this in a week. Right. I will give you a week's notice that I
am going to request that the HACAP and the Free Med Clinic
items get taken out as a separate issue because I want %o
abstain on those two things. One of those, the Free Med, I am
on the board as an individual in the community and have been
such since '86° The other one, HACAp, I am a representative of
council on the board and I haven't really heard back from the
attorney whether I need to or not but because I deal with
budgets and I am there as the council but once I am there I am
a board member and have board responsibilities of the whole
agency. So I will be asking to take those out of the budget
for a separate.
Baker/ Karen, I understand the Free Medical Clinic connection. On
the HACAP agency, as a council appointee you are also not just
a representative of the council'to HACAP but you are part of
the administration.
Kubby/ I am part of the board like any other board member. the
reason I got there was because I was appointed by council but
I don't only serve my fbnction when it is an issue that has to
deal with the City of Iowa City. I am there for all issues,
budget, issues that happen in Linn County, etc.
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F022895
#10 page 23
Baker/ But that is inherent in3whoever the council appoints to that
position?
Kubby/ Yes. And I believe the same is true for some other boards
and Linda, at this point disagrees with me but I am worrying
about things I am on and going to-
Nov/ Linda will tell us whose board is going to create a conflict
and who has to abstain. We will count on you to let us know.
Woito/ Th~ Free Medical Clinic is really the only clear out one and
Karen and I have discussed that.
Kubby/ I would rather be conservative about that.
Woito/ Tha~ is up to you.
Thlsrepresent~ o~lyamasoJtablyaccurmetr&qscrlption ofthelowa CiW council me~ingofFebru~y28,'1995,
F022895
Agenda
Iowa City City Council
Regular Council Meeting
February 28, 1995
Page 7
ITEi'VI NO, 11 -
PUBLIC HEARING ON THE ISSUANCE OF $8,260,000 GENERAL OBLIGA-
TION BONDS TO FINANCE THE COSTS OF THE CONSTRUCTION, RECON-
STRUCTION AND REPAIRING OF STREET' IMPROVEMENTS; THE CON-
STRUCTION, RECONSTRUCTION, EXTENSION, IMPROVEMENT AND
EQUIPPING OF A SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT AND SANITARY AND
STORM SEWERS; THE RECONSTRUCTION AND IMPROVEMENT OF
WATERWAYS, AND REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY, USEFUL FOR THE
PROTECTION OR RECLAMATION OF PROPERTY SITUATED WITHIN THE
CORPORATE LIMITS FROM FLOODS OR HIGH WATERS AND THE RECON-
STRUCTION, IMPROVEMENT AND REPAIR OF THE WATERWORKS.
Comment: This public hearing is being held to receive public comment for or
against the issuance of bonds. Wastewater projects total $2,000,000 and
tentative!y include two lift stations and sanitary relief sewers. Water projects
total $4,900,000 and tentatively include reimbursement for land acquisition
and engineering fees. Other projects total 91,360,000 for street, storm
sewer and bond issuance costs.
Action:
ITEM NO. 12 -
ITEM NO, 13 ~
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION INSTITUTING PROCEEDINGS TO TAKE AD. DI-
__ l'10NAL ACTION FOR THE AUTHORIZATION AND ISSUANCE OF $8,260,0-
O0 GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS TO PAY COSTS OF THE CONSTRUC-
TION, RECONSTRUCTION AND REPAIRING OF STREET IMPROVEMENTS;
THE CONSTRUCTION, RECONSTRUCTION, EXTENSION, IMPROVEMENT
AND EQUIPPING OF A SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT AND SANITARY AND
STORM SEWERS; THE RECONSTRUCTION AND IMPROVEMENT OF
WATERWAYS, AND REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY, USEFUL FOR THE
PROTECTION OR RECLAMATION OF PROPERTY SITUATED WITHIN THE
CORPORATE LIMITS FROM FLOODS OR HIGH WATERS AND THE RECON-
STRUCTION, IMPROVEMENT AND REPAIR OF THE WATERWORKS.
Comment: This resolution allow~ the City to be reimbursed for the costs of
these projects and approves proceeding with the bond issue. The actual sale
of the bonds is tentatively scheduled for March 28, 1995.
PUBLIC HEARING ON '[HE ISSUANCE OF ~240,000 GENERAL OBLIGATION
BONDS TO FINANCE THE COSTS OF THE CONSTRUCTION AND EQUIPPING
OF SOCCER RECREATION FIELDS.
C6mment: This public hearing is being held to receive public comment for or
against the issuance of the bonds.
Action:
#12 page
ITEM NO. 12 -
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION INSTITUTING PROCEEDINGS TO
TAKE ADDITIONAL ACTION FOR THE AUTHORIZATION AND
ISSUANCE OF $8,260,000 GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS TO
~AY COSTB OF THE CONSTRUCTIOn, RECONSTRUCTION AND
REPAIRING OF STREET IMPROVEMENTS; THE CONSTRUCTION,
RECONSTRUCTION, EXTENSION, IMPROVEMENT AND
EQUIPPINS OF A SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT AND SANITARY
AND STORM SEWERS; THE RECONSTRUCTION AND
IMPROVEMENT OF WATERWAYS~ AND REAL ~ PERSONAL
PROPERTY, USEFUL FOR THE PROTECTION OR RECLAMATION
OF PROPERTY SITUATED WITHIN THE CORPORATE LIMITS
FROM FLOODS OR HIGH WATERS AND THE RECONSTRUCTION,
IMPROVEMENT AND REPAIR OF THE WATERWORKS.
Nov/ Moved by Pigott, seconded by Baker. Is there any discussion?
Kubby/ Don, why aren't we doing sewer projects with sewer bonds? Do
we get a better deal on general obligation bonds?
Yucuis/ Yes we do. By selling General Obligation bonds we get a
better rate and we don't have to set aside moneys for a
reserve for the debt service. The sewer fund does repay the
debt on that but it is specifically from the user fees.
Nov/ And this applies to the water funds also?
Yucuis/ Correct.
Kubby/ Thank you.
Nov/ Any other discussion? Roll call- (yes). Okay.
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F022895
~/13 page 1
Nov/ Now, is there any council discussion.
Throg/ I guess it is worth noting that in the past few months we
have heard a few people objecting to the fact that the city is
choosing to spend any money at all on the soccer fields given
the fact that the referendum some time ago the public at large
voted against a much larger expenditure of funds for the
soccer field and various other things down there. So, I am
just noting that people have said that in the past and yet
there is no comments being made in the p.h.
Kubby/ Although for me this is not just about soccer fields. It is
also a neighborhood issue where a lot of the sites where we
have current soccer fields are neighborhood parks. Others are
city wide parks but there are a few neighborhood parks that
have soccer fields in them. So what happens during soccer
season is the whole community converges on this neighborhood
and creates a lot of traffic congestion, safety concerns:
extra noise and litter in the neighborhood. Not that soccer
players litter but you just got people there and activity and
that is just a natural response to a lot of humans coming
together in one place. And so what this does is help relieve
that pressure on the neighborhood parks and the quality of
life in the neighborhood parks to these soccer fields. So, for
me, it is a double duty expenditure.
Thisrepresents only areason~b~ accuratetrenscdptlon oftholowa City council meettngofFebruary28,1995.
F022895
Agenda
Iowa City City Council
Regular Council Meeting
February 28, 1995
Page 8
ITEM NO. 14 -
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION INSTITUTING PROCEEDINGS TO TAKE ADDI-
TIONAL ACTION FOR THE AUTHORIZATION AND ISSUANCE OF $240,000
GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS TO PAY COSTS OF THE CONSTRUCTION
AND EQUIPPING OF SOCCER RECREATION FIELDS.
Comment: This resolution allows the City to be reimbursed for the costs of
these projects and approves proceeding with the bond issue. The actual sale
of the bonds is tentatively scheduled for March 28, 1995.
ITEM NO. 15 - ANNOUNCEBqENT OF VACANCIES.
a, Previously Announced Vacancies,
(1)
Board of Library Trustees - One vacancy for an unexpired term
ending July 1, 1999. (Anne Hargraves resigned.) (3 males and 5
females presently on Board.)
(2)
Board of Appeals - One vacancy for a mechanical professional for
an unexpired term ending December 31, 1998. (Dave W. Christine
resigned.) (4 males and 2 females currently on Board.)
(3)
Housing Commission - Three vacancies for three-year terms ending
May 1, 1998. (Terms of Roger Reilly, Benjamin Moore, and Jack
McMahon end.) (2 males and 2 females presently on Commission.)
(4)
Planning and Zoning Commission -Two vacancies for five year
terms ending May 1, 2000. (Terms of Kenneth Cooper and Ann
Bovbjerg end.) (3 males and 2 females presently on Commission.)
These appointments will be made at the March 7, 1995, meeting of the
City Council.
b. Current Vacancies.
(1)
Committee on Community Needs - One vacancy to fill an unex-
pired term ending November 1, 1995. (Maryann Dennis resigned.)
This appointment .will be made a'~ the April,1 I, 1995, meeting of
the City Council. ~.4~ ~,,~(,~ ~j ~, F,,~,~i~ ~
ITEM NO. 16 - CITY COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS.
Consider an appointment to the Animal Control Advisory Board for a
three-year term ending April 5, 1998. (Janice Becker's term ends.)(2
males and 2 females presently on Board.)
Action;
#16a page 1
NO. 15 - CITY COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS°
Consider an appointment to the Animal Control Advisory
Board for a three-year term ending April 5, 1998.
(Janice Becker's term ends.) (2 males and 2 females
presently on Board.)
CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 95-36 SIDE 1
Nov/ On the Animal Control Advisory Board and we have no
applicants°
Kubby/ We have two openings. So, if anybody out there is interested
you would probably get it because no one has applied.
Nov/ We have two openings? I thought it was one. It says one three
year term ending April 5, 1998. So, if anybody is listening
who would like to be on that. Please, send in an application.
We will meet again next week. All right-
Thisrepresents onlyereasonablyaccuratatranscHptlon ofthelowa Clty coun~lmeefing ~ Febru~/28,1995.
F022895
Agenda
Iowa City City Council
Regular Council Meeting
February 28, ~Lgg5
Page 8A
ITEM NO. 166. - CITY COUNCIL IMFOR)IATION.
REPORT ON ITE)(S FROM THE CITY MANAGER AND CITY ATTORNEY.
¢.~ City Manager.
City Attorney.
#16b page 1
ITEM NO. 16b - CITY COUNCIL INFOR~TION
Nov/ City Council Information. Larry, do you want to start?
Baker/ It is almost time for the top ten list. I have two quick
things.
Pigott/ You have your own top ten list? Okay.
Baker/ These are just status questions. 0he is and I was going to
raise this during the budget discussion but- When are we going
to talk about sales tax again?
Atkins/ Did we as a council- It is not that it is a difficult
question. I was just trying to think about where we left it.
Baker/ I just want to know if there is-
Atkins/ Sales tax was discussed in conjunction with the water
project. I think if there is any time it is likely to occur on
the 29th because you wanted just some general information
about it. On my list of agenda items for the future, I have
not scheduled a specific discussion unless you want one.
Nov/
We discussed it momentarily with the Johnson County
Supervisors and they didn't seem interested and we discussed
it this much with Coralville and they didn't seem interested.
Baker/ I just want to know if there was a sense that the council
itself had lost interest in it?
Atkins/ I have done no substantive work on the thing. Again, it was
tied to the water project. I am assuming you are-
Baker/ The 29th, maybe we can just sort of-
Atkins/ I have an open forum planned that evening for pretty much
anything you want.
Pigott/ Yeah, maybe that is the place to talk about it.
Arkins/ Okay.
Baker/ Second thing is I suppose I knew this all along but when Jim
Clayton said d.t. plaza is not cleaned up Saturday and Sunday
mornings is that literally true?
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F022895
#16b page 2
Atkins/ I am not sure of that. I know that we have them scheduled
Monday through Friday. In the summer time I know that we have
part time employees. It may be a seasonal thing. I'll find
out.
Throg/ That would be worth finding out and if we can do something
about that.
Pigott/ We also talked about maintaining the flower beds and also
I know of one group that would be interested in doing some
maintenance.
Atkins/ Remember about 3-4 years ago the businesses were to adopt
a bed. That lasted one year.
Pigott/ Yeah, I know. But I thought there was some interest the
last time we brought this up in doing that and I didn't know
what-
Throg/ I think in part Bruno is referring to EA which we know,
since we are members of the board of directors, know would
like to adopt a bed. So, if there is some procedures that EA
should go through. Mark Smith, president of EA, should be-
Atkins/ Great. I will talk to Mark. We will make arrangements.
Throg/ You know, we had talked about the city council adopting a
bed.
Pigott/ Yeah, we did. We talked about ourselves.
Throg/ That would be a kick.
Kubby/ King size, queen size.
Pigott/ Larry is a gardener. Larry knows how to do this.
Atkins/ I will get back to you.
Baker/ But we are getting clarification about what the clean up-
Atkin$/ I will get the clean up scheduled for you, definitely.
Pigott/ I have one thing. Speaking of EA, I mentioned earlier a
couple weeks ago that EA has a yearly award, Environmentalist
of the Year. And I think it is a really good way to express
out appreciation for someone who has worked in the community
Thisrepresents only areasoneblyaccuratetrnnscrlption ofthelowa CIW council meeting of February 28,1995.
F022895
#16b page 3
in a quiet way to the benefit of our environment and what I
didn't have the last time I talked about it was the date and
time. The EA will present their Environmentalist of the Year
Award Wednesday, April 5, 6:00 PM at a potluck supper at First
Christian Church which is right next to Bruegger's Bagels
right down town. And so I encourage everyone to come on out
and see who that person is and applaud their good work and
each of us can be environmentalists in our own ways as well
during the next year.
Throg/ I would like to bring up two points. One serious and the
other not so serious. I'll will do the second first. I really
enjoyed taking part in the Chambers Walk of the Stars Saturday
as I think everyone else did. Steve, you were my successor if
I remember rightly on Saturday. but more importantly I really
enjoyed shooting hoops with my friend Joe Bolcum, Patrick
Moreland and Bill. of the Press Citizen and teaching
them how to drain three pointers and make sharp cuts to the
basket.
Kubby/ I watched. That was great.
Atkins/ That is not what I heard.
Pigott/ So Jim, is this by way of a proposal for a city county
basketball game.
Throg/ I think it is about time.
Pigott/ I think there should be a grudge match and men-women teams
included° We have some small forwards.
Kubby/ That is how we should decide fringe area agreement.
Throg! Karen and I had already decided that she would be our post
person.
Pigott/ Larry Baker has got a mean outside shot.
Baker/ I am one on one with Charlie Duffy.
Pigott/ Any day.
Throg/ So maybe we should send them a letter inviting them to-
The other point is a bit more serious and it has to do with
the death penalty which is currently being considered by the
Senate in the State of Iowa and I guess what I would like to
1'hisrepresents only area3onobly accurate transcription ofthelowa City council meeting of Februa~ 28, 1995.
F022895
#16b page 4
do is.read a letter that three individual members of the city
council are directing to our local senators and I would like
to encourage members of the audience who are so inclined to
write letters similar to this or do whatever they see as
appropriate. In any event, the letter is brief and it says
(reads letter). And it is signed byKaren Kubby, Bruno Pigott,
and myself. So, I want to emphasize that it is signed by the
three of us. It is not an action of the city council as a
whole.
Kubby/ Jim said it all.
Thisrepresents only ereesoneblyaccuretetrenscrlptlon of theiowa City council mee~ng of February 28,1995,
F022895
Agenda
Iowa City City Council
Regular Council Meeting
February 28, 1995
Page 9
ITEiVl NO. 17 - CONSIDER A RESOLUTION CHANGING THE NAME OF RUSSELL STREET
LOCATED IN HOLLYWOOD MANOR, PART 5, TO RUSSELL DRIVE.
ITEM NO, 18 -
Comment: The street has been identified as Russell Drive on city street
signs, maps, telephone books, and the City Directory, Also, the same street
located in Hollywood Addition, Part Two, and South Pointe Addition is platted
as Russell Drive, The residents/property owners affected have been notified
by letter of the pending street name change.
Action:
CONSIDER A RESOLUTION NAMING DEPOSITORIES.
ITEIVi NO, 19 -
Comment: This resolution updates the depository list for the name change
of depository Mid-America Savings Bank to Homeland Savings Bank, FSB
We are requesting a change in the investment limits on several of the
depositories. We are recommending that First National Bank, Iowa State
Bank and Hills Bank & Trust increase their investment limits to $12 million,
$12 million and 815 million, respectively, and Hawkeye State Bank, Norwest
Bank and the University of Iowa Community Credit Union to increase their
investment limits to 81.5 million, 820 million and 85 million, respectively.
Action:
CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE
SECTIONS 2,068B (MAYOR), 2,08C AND 2.08E (APPOINTMENTS), 3,01A
(NOMINATIONS), 6,01 (LIMITATIONS ON THE AMOUNT OF CAMPAIGN
CONTRIBUTIONS) AND 7.04D (PROCEDURE APTER FILING), AS RECOM-
IV]ENDED BY THE CHARTER REVIEW COMM. (FIRST CONSIDERATION)
IOWA CITY CHARTER,
ITEM NO. 20 -
Comment: A nine member Charter Review Commission was appointed by the
City Council May 17, 1994. After review of the Charter, recommendations
were made to the City Council on non-substantive changes to the Charter.
A public hearing was held February 14, 1995, and no one appeared. The
Commission and staff recommend adoption of this ordinance.
Action:
AD,JOURNMENT.
D
#18 page 1
ITEM NO. 18 - CONSIDER A RESOLUTION NAMING DEPOSITORIES.
Nov/ Moved by Kubby, seconded by Throg. Is there any discussion?
Pigott/ Yeah, I just wondered if Steve, you or Don want to explain
this seeming puzzle to people out in the audience who weren't
here yesterday to hear why we are doing this, what is the
purpose, why do we do these things?
Yucuis/ Within our investment policy we have to designate the
maximum amount of money that we want to invest in any one
institution. It is just a spreading the risk. What this does
is a formal resolution in that we have to abide by throughout
the year where we don't exceed that amount of maximum in any
one institution. We contacted all of the banks and savings and
loans and credit unions in the area to see if they wanted to
increase their maximums and most of them did.
Throg/ so, instead of investing all of our funds in one local bank
which would create obvious potential for conflicts of
interests and whatever else, we are diversifying to all of the
banks-?
Yucuis/ Correct.
Kubby/ We were doing that before but it is increasing- The only
concern that I have is the bank that we are having the biggest
increase with is not local bank. This doesn't mean that we are
going to invest that much in any one bank but there are limits
but I guess my preference would be put the bigger amount in
the local banks to help support. That the money that the bank
makes available to the community people, we can help supply
that.
Baker/ I thought our purpose was to get the most return?
Arkins/ Safety, liquidity and yield is the three things.
Kubby/ In my statement I am not necessarily saying make less money
to live out that goal. But when there are choices and things
are equal, I would rather invest-
Nov/ I am sure that is what we would do.
Kubby/ I personally would want, if it were within a certain range,
would prefer to invest this public's money locally. I don't
know what that range would be but I would mind not making as
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F022895
#18 page 2
much as we could to invest locally.
Nov/ Roll call- (yes).
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F022895
#19 page 1
ITEM
CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDIN~ THE IOWA CITY
CHARTERr SECTIONS 2.068B (M~YOR), 2.08C AND 2.08E
(APPOINTMENTS) t 3.01A (NOMINATIONS), 6.01 (LIMITA-
TIONS ON THEAMOUNT OF CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS) AND
7.04D (PROCEDURE AFTER FILING), AS RECO~4ENDED BY
THE CHARTER REVIEW COMMo (FIRST CONSIDERATION)
Nov/ Moved by Kubby, seconded by Pigott.
Baker/ Question. We have a letter here from Jeff McCullough. Are we
going to address or talk about the issue or situation about
the option of either __. our requirements or adopting or
following through on the ~-~ction of establishing penalties?
Is that going to be discussed?
Kubby/ Well, if we vote for this ordinance it has the differing
campaign laws than the state law in it, right?
Karr/ This is silent on it. That is another issue and we
recommended that we come back to you with a separate
ordinance. This ordinance contains only the recommendations of
the Commission. The Commission on that matter simply alerted
you to the fact and asked council to pursue it.
Kubby/ We had already directed staff to draft ordinance about
enforcement.
Karr/ Right. This ordinance does not contain that yet.
Nov/ I am surprised that it said no one appeared because a couple
of the Commission members did appear at the p.h.
Karr/ I think we excluded council and Commission from citizenry at
that time when we say no one appeared other than those two.
Throg/ I guess I wanted to ask a question and I don't know how hard
I want to push it particularly tonight. But anyhow. One of the
issues-I think the most controversial issue that the
Commission addressed was whether or not three members of the
council should be elected by their districts and my
recollection is that it was either a 6/3 or 5/4 vote on the
council in favor of keeping things the way they are. So, I
guess the question I want to ask and yet I don't want to
deliberate it a lot tonight. The question I want to ask is
whether any of you see any merit in us deliberating to some
extent whether we think that the Charter should be changed to
have district wide elections? That is the question.
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Kubby/ Yeah, I am interested in talking about that issue some more
because as someone who worked in municipal and for municipal
elections before running my individual campaigns for council
and doing voter education, this hybrid system we have is very
confusing and I think some of the advantages of the hybrid
system that our city is not big enough to actually have
representation districts is changing. That we are growing big
enough that maybe we are at a point that we could have four at
large and three- I don't know how I really come down on it but
I would like us to discuss the issue. I don't feel I have the
facilities tonight. Active listening takes a lot of energy.
And I would vote for this first consideration and hope we
could have some more discussion before a third vote.
Baker/ Even if we passed all of this we could still do something.
Throg/ Apparently.
Baker/ Jim, as long as we want to focus on that issue. An issue
that, again, I am confused about (can't hear). It could be
improved but I am not sure how. But I would be glad to talk
about it.
Pigott/ I would love to talk about it, too.
Nov/ I am the only one who doesn't love to talk about it. It is
really because it is kind of late.
Pigott/ Not tonight I don't want to talk about it but I would like
to in the future and maybe it is a process of more that just
the consideration of this but over the next year or so.
Throg/ I guess what I would think is if we do want and apparently
we do want to at least discuss whether to have district wide
elections. If we do that we should make sure the public knows
about it so there is an opportunity to comment on that
particular point.
Woito/ Yes I agree. And
upcoming elections.
about,
also you should do it before the next
I mean, if that is what you are thinking
Baker/ Of all the issues that the CRC looked at, that is the only
one that I am not totally comfortable with the way result is.
Throg/ That is the only reason I am drawing attention to it because
it was a close vote on the CRC.
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Pigott/ I am not convinced that we need to settle it before we pass
this.
Woito/ No, no you don't.
Pigott/ That we need to do it before this next election either. But
I think that in the long term I think maybe it is wise to
think about it and to do something about it. I don't know it
is going to be solved.
Baker/ So, the advantage of getting it resolved whether you are
going to offer changes or not to get it for this election is-
have a special election.
Karr/ Can you clarify for me is the issue when you say district
election, is it the primary process, the election process or
district representation.
Throg/ The election process.
Kubby/ It could be any or all of those.
Karr/ That is why-
Pigott/ And that is the problem.
Nov/ And some day we will talk about it. Obviously you have four
people here who want to go into detail and discuss this issue
and it is worth discussing. So-
Baker/ Which is not to say I want to change it but I am quite
willing to talk about it.
Woito/ Information goes out to the candidates in-When do you send
this stuff out.
Karr/ (can't hear).
Woito/ All I say is if you are going to try and do it before this
next batch that you do it-
Kubby/ Well, if it has to go on a ballot, I am not interested in
paying for a special election. I prefer it on the ballot-
Woito/ No, I am talking about information to the candidates. This
will not go on the ballot unless someone challenged what you
did. You have the authority to amend it yourselves.
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Karr/ So if you were going to amend it prior to the distribution of
the election material, it could impact the representation or
the election process in November. If however you are inclined
to submit it to the voters as a ballot question, that would
not impact the representation but it would certainly impact
the ballot question at the November election.
Baker/ That would be my inclination.
Kubby/ But we could chose to put it on the ballot?
Woito/ Yes.
Baker/ If we agree on the changes.
Nov/ This issue was on the ballot a few years ago.
Pigott/ How many years ago was that, Naomi.
Woito/ Four?
Nov/ No, probably more than that. Maybe-
Karr/ Probably the last Charter.
Nov/ Probably the last Charter Review.
Woito/ I think that is what John McD. or one of them said.
Throg/ I guess I would like to make the following suggestion and
that we consider the ordinance that is before us. That we vote
on it. But that we also, I guess in our next meeting or
perhaps the one after that, put on the agenda the question
whether to change the election process for districts.
Baker/ I don't know if we have to do it that soon.
Arkins/ Work session item.
Kubby/ Yes and I say after March to start talking about the new
issue because we are doing something on the development things
as an extra meeting in March. My little brain is getting
tired.
Nov/ Good point.
Kubby/ We have been meeting a lot.
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Baker/ Karen just reminded me about the last item under council
agenda about that March 20th meeting on economic development.
Don't decide but think about a different date.
Arkins/ We will bring it back to you.
Kubby/ The juggling of the calendars.
Nov/ Roll call- (yes).
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F022895
City of Iowa City.
MEMORANDUM
DATE: February 24, 1995
TO: City Council
FROM: City Manager
RE: Work Session Agenda and Meeting Schedule
F~bruary 27, 1995
6:30 P.M.
7:00 P.M.
7:00 P.M.
7:30 P.M.
7:45 P.M.
8:00 P.M.
8:25 P.M,
Monday
City Conference Board Meeting - Council Chambers
City Council Work Session - Council Chambers
Review zoning matters
Waterfront/Hy Vee Storm Sewer
Sidewalk Cafes
Council agenda, Council time, Council committee reports
Consider appointment to the Animal Control Advlsory Board
February 28, 1995 Tuesday
7:30 P,M. Regular City Council Meeting - Council Chambers
March 6, 1995
6:30 P.M. - City Council Work Session - Council Chambers
Monday
March 7, 1995 Tuesday
7:30 P.M. - Special Cit½ Council Meeting - Council Chambers
March 13, 1995
CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION CANCELLED
Monday
March 14, 1995
REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING CANCELLED
Tuesday
March 20, 1995 Monday
6:30 P.M. City Council Work Session- Council Chambers
PENDING LIST
Appointments to the Board of Library Trustees, Board of Appeals, Housing
Commission, and Planning and Zoning Commission - March 7, 1995
Appointment to the Committee on Community Needs - April 11, 1995