HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-05-17 TranscriptionPage 1
ITEM 2. PROCLAMATIONS.
a) National Military Appreciation Month -May 2011
Hayek/ (reads proclamation)
Karr/ Here to accept the proclamation is former veteran and current Iowa City Hospice
volunteer Mel McMorris.
(Applause.)
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
formal meeting of May 17, 2011.
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ITEM 3. CONSENT CALENDAR
Hayek/ Okay, Item 3, uh, there's gonna be a slight change to this, uh, we need a, a motion to
consider adopting the consent calendar as presented or amended, and, uh, deleting item
3E1 for separate consideration.
Bailey/ So moved.
Champion/ Second.
Hayek/ That's one way of dealing with it. (Laughter.) Moved by Bailey, seconded by Champion.
Discussion? Roll call, please. Item passes 7-0.
Champion/ Are we gonna vote on 3e (1), or is that?
Hayek/ Yeah.
Champion/ Okay.
Hayek/ Yes. So we need a motion on that.
Champion/ Move to approve 3e (1).
Wright/ Second.
Champion/ Moved by Champion, seconded by Wright.
Hayek/ Discussion?
Karr/ May I, just to clarify, this item is, um, new application for the Arts Fest and the Jazz Fest.
We will be amending it, um, tonight to include, uh, the serving of beer for the Arts Fest in
June, and beer and native wines for the Jazz Fest in July.
Hayek/ Further discussion? Roll call, please. Item passes 7-0.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
formal meeting of May 17, 2011.
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ITEM 4. COMMUNITY COMMENT
Mary Gravitt/ My name is Mary Gravitt and I'm here to talk about the bus service for the
Towncrest bus. We're being taken off the half-hour service because school is closed for
two months. But Towncrest bus picks up more disabled people than any run in the whole,
entire city. And gas now is $4 a gallon. And people who ride the Towncrest expect it to
run on the half-hour. And it doesn't cost that much, because I read in the newspaper that
the man who owns this hotel down here, this Mr. Moen, is getting $250,000 of Block
Grant money. Now, Block Grant money comes on the back of the poor, the disabled, the
sick and whatever. So, why should he get $250,000 and we get an hour bus service, when
we're used to having ahalf--hour bus service. And we don't, as, as citizens we don't seem
to be able to get anything. Nobody seems to be representatives. Everybody's representing
the City, how good the City's gonna look, but we're citizens, and we're entitled to
something out the Block Grant money, even the crumbs. And I read in the newspaper
people can't even get tables anymore for events. Citizens should be able to get a table.
What is a table? And then furthermore, you can't (inaudible) in the Ped Mall. Now this is
supposed to be a Literature City, UNESCO City, International City? In Europe, that's
how they run their cities. They have musicians out there. So, in, in order to keep the
musicians out you put these meters in for people to put money in the meters so they don't
have to look in the face of poverty. And that's not fair. So, in all these people, if Moen
and, and the Broadway people can get $500,000 when they've already said they're going
to discriminate by not taking Section 8, I think we're entitled to our half-hour bus service.
Because it can't be costing $250,000 to let the bus run two more months on the half-hour
schedule, and like I said, that bus picks up more disabled people than any bus runs. It
picks up wheelchairs, which is very important. And the most important thing is gasoline
is $4 a gallon. You can't do anything about the price of gasoline, but you can do
something about the Towncrest running on its half-hour schedule.
Hayek/ Thank you, ma'am. Would anyone else like to address City Council?
Seeing no interest I will move on to Item 5, Planning and ---
Wilburn/ Mr. Mayor, I think there's someone who does---
Bailey/ There's somebody who may want to speak.
Hayek/ Oh, is there someone?
Sueppel/ Is this the time to address First Avenue?
Hayek/ Uh, yeah.
Karr/ Number 18.
Hayek/ Uh, that's on the agenda, so, sir, why don't you wait until that comes up on our agenda
later this evening.
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formal meeting of May 17, 2011.
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Karr/ Item 18.
Hayek/ It's Item 18, thanks. Anyone else like to address on issues or items that are not on
tonight's agenda?
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
formal meeting of May 17, 2011.
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ITEM 5. PLANNING AND ZONING MATTERS.
a) CONDITIONALLY REZONING APPROXIMATELY 23.22 ACRES
OF PROPERTY LOCATED AT 2949 ROCHESTER AVENUE
FROM LOW DENSITY SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL (RS-5)
ZONE TO PLANNED DEVELOPMENT OVERLAY-LOW
DENSITY SINGLE FAMILY (OPD-5) ZONE. (REZll-00001)
1) Public hearing
Hayek/ This is a public hearing. The public hearing is open. Any ex parte disclosures?
Mims/ No.
Hayek/ Jeff?
Davidson/ Good evening, Mr. Mayor, and members of the City Council. I'm Jeff Davidson, the
Planning and Community Development Director for Iowa City. The first item on your
Planning and Zoning items this evening is a request from Rochester Ridge LLC of Iowa
City, for a rezoning from RS-5 to OPD-5. Uh, this is for development of the Rochester
Ridge subdivision at 2949 Rochester Avenue. As, you can see from the location map here
the location of the subdivision. Just to orient you, here is the intersection of Scott
Boulevard and Rochester Avenue. Uh, Rochester Avenue provides the main arterial street
access to the subdivision. This is the property that you'll be looking at this evening. Um,
the, the, uh, size of the parcel is approximately 23 acres. It's currently undeveloped and
has been in agricultural use. The, the purpose for the rezoning from RS-5 to OPD-5,
because the density of the subdivision is not proposed to go beyond the five units per
acre, is to take the sensitive areas, uh, of the property into consideration. The, the
applicant has requested three specific variations that fall into the Sensitive Areas
Ordinance: that is to reduce the wetland buffer, uh, remove more than 505 of the trees,
which will be replaced according to the, uh, requirements of the Sensitive Areas
Ordinance, and to disturb greater than 35% of the critical slopes on the property. Um, and
so that's the, uh, purpose of the OPD, uh, zoning. The density will not exceed five units
per acre.
In terms of the Comprehensive Plan, the, uh, the Comprehensive Plan does identify this
land for single-family residential zoning. It also identifies it as a good potential location
for a three to five acre park. Uh, both of those things are being accomplished with the
subdivision, should you approve it this evening. The park will not be a public park, will
be a private, uh, open space that's under the homeowner's association of the subdivision.
Uh, in terms of compatibility with the neighborhood, uh, we feel it is compatible and you
can see from the location map it's very definitely an in-fill parcel. The area to the north is
undeveloped but otherwise it's completely surrounded by development so in terms of, uh,
contiguous development and the amount of money that has to be spent for infrastructure,
this is a very good deal for the City in terms of being in-fill development and something
that we would encourage. Uh, you can see all of the lots are single family, uh, subdivision
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
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lots of various sizes. Um, we mentioned the environmental features and you can see them
here, I think does probably the best job of showing, uh, the extent of wetlands and steep
slopes in this area, and the wetland issues, and I'll, and I'll go through them just very
briefly, basically involves a mitigation plan being approved by the Corp of Engineers -
that was a requirement of the zoning on this parcel, that basically the applicant has to
work it out with the Corp of Engineers. And that has been done. Um, this will be an area
of both open space -if I can get my arrow to come up here, there we goof both open
space, uh, and, uh, storm-water management. And because the Corp of Engineers will not
allow storm-water management and wetland mitigation to be mixed, uh, the wetland
mitigation will take place off-site, and the mitigation plan that has been approved
includes some, uh, wetland mitigation on the, uh, property owned by Mr. Paul directly to
the north, and then some of it will be, uh, actually out in Johnson County in the Iowa
River watershed, uh, and again, this is worked out between the applicant and the Corp of
Engineers, and we just have to see proof that it has been worked out, uh, which it has
been. Uh, there, there are also a great deal of trees that will be taken down, more than
50% of the trees will be taken down, these are, the majority of these trees are classified as
scrub-type trees. Uh, they will be replaced, uh, and they will all, we weren't sure if they
were all going to be able to be fit on the site, they will be, the applicant's been working
with the City Forrester and it will be possible to fit them all on site. There will be a
number -I think I've got, let's see, nope, yeah -- this shows along Rochester Avenue
there will be basically a, the trees that will be taken out for the development, uh, through
here will be replaced and you can see that there's been a number of, it actually shows up
better on this one, uh, some existing very nice oak trees - if I can again, there we go
these are, these are mature oaks, they're very nice and so you can see that the plan to
augment those have basically breaks, so that the oak trees aren't crowded by the new
trees. Uh, each lot will have, I'm told, five to six trees on it, uh, which is quite a bit more
than your typical subdivision lot would have so it will be a very, uh, well-landscaped
subdivision in that regard. And all the replacement trees will be able to fit on the
subdivision. Um, again in terms of the subdivision design then, uh, if I could go back to
the plat. Uh, you can see that there are some existing stub streets: Lower West Branch
Road here, Westminster Drive here, uh, which will be, uh, tied into. Uh, you, uh, Lake
Forest Drive here, it's been determined that because of the extent of the storm-water
management area here, this street will not extend through, uh, and so there will be a
hammerhead cul-de-sac installed here, uh, so that there's a turnaround area for this street.
Um, the, I won't go into great detail, uh, there is some information that was presented to
the Planning and Zoning Commission in terms of the development of the wetlands in this
area. This area originally did not have any wetlands, but the construction of the
subdivisions to the south and to the east basically drained water into the low-point of this
property, which created the wetland. It is, uh, under the jurisdiction of the Corp of
Engineers, so regardless of how it came to be, it is regulated, and, and has been dealt with
accordingly. Uh, you'll also see there's a stub street, uh, over here, Westminster Drive
will come up and stub. It will connect to a street, there, uh, Green Mountain Drive that
comes out here. Uh, we, we haven't lined it up directly across both because there's an old
farmstead here that, you know, may be retained as a residence, you never know for sure.
And also, this is kind of a straight shot over here and so, in order to try and slow vehicles
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down we put a little kink in it, but eventually as this property develops those will be, that
will be hooked up. Um, otherwise, let's see ...uh, there have been, there are some double
and triple frontage lots, uh, which we don't normally condone but have be, because of the
desire to stay out of the sensitive environmental features, have allowed them and they are
oversized in accordance to what we would typically require for double and triple frontage
lots. You will note the two cul-de-sacs, we do try and discourage cul-de-sacs; however,
we feel, again, because not wanting to tie streets in through the sensitive environmental
features, and have, for that reason, a limited number of lots on these cul-de-sacs. And
that, we feel, is an appropriate use of, uh, cul-de-sacs. Uh, there will be parkland fees, uh,
paid in lieu of, uh, providing public open space. I went through storm-water management.
So in, in summary we feel that this, uh, subdivision does a good job of dealing with the
environmental features. I will tell you it's been a long time coming, working with the
developer, getting it to this point. There's been a lot of good work put in by both the
developer and by City staff, uh, to get us to this point. The wetland issues have been dealt
with. We feel like it's a, uh, good infill project, uh, consistent with the remainder of the
neighborhood, and the Planning and Zoning Commission and City staff do recommend
approval.
Do you have any questions?
Bailey/ Um, yes. The access point on Rochester, I recognize that Rochester is an arterial, what's
going to be the traffic impact there? I mean .. .
Davidson/ Yeah, we did work with the subdivider -this is, as Regenia's pointed out, this is a
new access point on Rochester Avenue. Uh, there is only one, and we feel that for the
size of the subdivision, one is justified. We did discuss putting it over here where it
would line up with another driveway and, uh, determined that a better location in terms of
the, uh, horizontal visibility through here would be this point. So it does have good, good
visibility, good sight-distance, and we feel will be a safe access point for the subdivision.
Bailey/ What about the sight-lines - we have that fantastic new trail out there and you can, you
can pick up some speed going along there. What •about the sight-lines with the trees for
the trail?
Davidson/ Um, yeah, I, I don't know Regenia, what exactly the species are but, we always want
to make sure that there's a vision triangle, basically, at an intersection such that you can
see beyond anything that's planted there or else have it be over-story trees that you can
see underneath, so that's, that'll be dealt with at the site plan.
Bailey/ Yeah, I think that's something good to keep in mind, just with the trail, because, well,
because it's going to be a new curb cut, and.. .
Davidson/ Yeah, and I failed to mention that, as Regenia's pointed out, uh, this is the location of
our first, uh, sidewalk infill project, which was installed last year already. I live in east
Iowa City, and already quite a heavily used sidewalk there. Um, the subdivider, of
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formal meeting of May 17, 2011.
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course, was not required to put that in; that was put in ahead of the subdivision. Any
other questions?
Thank you.
Hayek/ Thank you, Jeff. Would anyone from the audience like to weigh in on this issue during
the public hearing? Okay.
Allen/ Hi, I'm Jesse Allen with Rochester Ridge Development. Um, Jeff did a great job
explaining, kind of in detail to you guys, kind of what our plan is out there and kind of
some issues that we've worked through with P&Z and staff in Iowa City, and the Army
Corp of Engineers. Um, basically, on the development side of things, my plan would be,
if it would be accepted for the new subdivision in Iowa City, we'd probably start um,
breaking ground mid, mid-summer, start pouring our streets by early fall, and we'd
probably start building some new homes on the east side of Iowa City, you know, early
winter to late fall. So, price range of the homes would be, um, $300,000 to $400,000 with
the lot, give or take $50,000 from there, depending on, you know, the clientele that this
neighborhood's gonna attract, but that's gonna, um, my plan as the developer and the
way I think things are gonna go, it's going to be a great neighborhood as he did, did, kind
of talk about the, uh, great open space. We'll have like three to five acres of untouched,
you know, mostly woods and trees that we're going to replace, which will be a very, you
know, in my opinion, an ideal situation for Iowa City, something that Iowa City doesn't
currently have right now, you know, a neighborhood with that, you know, a new
neighborhood with that, it's not a cornfield being leveled and you know, so this will truly
be, in my opinion, truly neat development. There is going to be a sidewalk that's going to
connect, he kind of did talk about, um, from Lake Forest Avenue, that's gonna kind of go
across the berm and it will come down to a cluster mailbox which will .. .
Davidson/ I think, yeah, there it shows---
Allen/ Thanks, Jeff.
Davidson/ I, I forgot to put that up but you can use this if you want to point it out. Right.
Allen/ Okay.
Davidson/ Right there.
Allen/ Yep. There's a sidewalk that's gonna connect. There's a cluster mailbox that will be for
the mail pickup of the, the people that live in that development, and it will kind of follow
along here. This will be a ridge that we'll build up to retain the, uh, the storm-water
retention area here, and it'll be a great access point for kids walking to school, you know
connection point from this neighborhood to this neighborhood, you know, to Lemme
school district kids walking to Regina or vice versa, it'll be kind of a nice connection
point, which, that was something that City Council kind of came up with and it was a
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great idea, so. You know, is there, just something I wanted to touch base on with you
guys. Is there any questions that you have for me?
Bailey/ You're going to phase in this development, right? How do you, how do you foresee the
phases going?
Allen/ Um, based on kind of, the people that have came to me and asked me about lots or homes
that we might be building out there, I would assume the first phase would be um,
probably stop at Lot 10 or 1 1, and we'd keep our new construction access off of
Rochester Avenue and then we would probably take it over to Amhurst Street and
connect that. And then we'd do our final phase down through Westminster Street here. So
we would kind of potentially stop the, the through traffic in the newer neighborhood, and
with the construction traffic so we'd kind of keep ourselves contained in this area.
There'll be a phase here or we'd do out this whole phase and come and connect that street
right away. So we can keep, kind of be contained with the noise and, you know, the
construction traffic and the trucks and, and then, depending on how well things go maybe
in two years we would connect this street. In the first phase I would like to move all the
dirt and get all the lots seeded so we'll do 90-95% of the dirt work on Phase 1, because
our sewer right now is down here, so we'd have to bring the sewer up to here to start.
And then the water, we have access points for water here and over here, so we'll be able
to access them from here, but we'll bring the sewer up and then, and you know, seed,
stabilize, do all our soil protection with our silt fence and stuff on the first phase so
everything's green and established, so.
Bailey/ Thanks.
Champion/ Sounds great.
Hayek/ Thank you. Any other questions? Thanks.
Allen/ Thanks.
Hayek/ Anyone else, uh, from the audience like to address us on this? Seeing none, I will close
the public hearing at this time.
Karr/ Motion to accept correspondence.
Hayek/ Oh. Motion to accept correspondence?
Wright/ So moved.
Mims/ Second.
Hayek/ Motioned by Wright. Second by Mims. Discussion? All those in favor say aye.
All/ Aye.
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Hayek/ Opposed say nay. Motion carries 7-0.
2) Consider an ordinance (First Consideration)
Bailey/ Move first consideration.
Dickens/ Second.
Hayek/ First consideration moved by Bailey, second by Dickens. Discussion? Roll call, please.
Motion passes 7-0.
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formal meeting of May 17, 2011.
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b) CONDITIONALLY REZONING APPROXIMATELY 10.39 ACRES
LOCATED AT 1725 NORTH DODGE STREET FROM RESEARCH
DEVELOPMENT PARK (RDP) TO NEIGHBORHOOD PUBLIC (P1).
(REZ11-00006)
1) Public Hearing
Hayek/ This is a public hearing that was continued from May 3rd. I will open it at this time.
Wilburn/ Mr. Mayor, I will not be participating in the public hearing, nor, uh, taking a vote. I
will be abstaining due to a conflict of interest. I work for the Iowa City Community
School District Administrative Offices, which would be, uh, impacted by this.
Hayek/ Okay. Thank you, Ross. Any ex parte disclosures? Jeffrey.
Davidson/ Item b on your agenda, your P&Z agenda this evening, Mr. Mayor, is, uh, a
application from North Dodge Partners LLC, and the Iowa City School District for a
rezoning from RDP to P1, and this is to reflect public ownership and proposed use of this
property, uh, by the school district. This is the former, uh, location of the Iowa City Press
Citizen. Uh, it's located on North Dodge Street. North Dodge Street here, intersection
with Scott Boulevard here. Uh, here's the property. Uh, it's a little over 10 acres and
currently zoned RDP, Research Development Park. Um, I think most of us are aware by
now that this is the new location of the, uh, Iowa City Community School District and,
uh, here you see an aerial and you can see the contour lines there. Well, you can sort of
see them. Uh, and uh, this is a, a location that when it was originally developed by the
Press Citizen in 1988, had a lot of attention paid to the, uh, environmental features and
the, you know, basically its status as an entryway into the city from the north. Uh, at the
time the Press Citizen came out here this was almost entirely a residential neighborhood.
Uh, and so there were a lot of concerns by the neighbors, and certainly the entryway
standards and environmental concerns were the specific things that we tried to address at
the time. So there was a great deal of thought put into the development of this property,
and I think the significant thing for you to understand is that the use that will be created
by the school district we feel will be almost exactly the same as the use by the Press
Citizen in terms of a mix of office and some back office and storage and, and
maintenance type of activities. The Press Citizen at one time actually had a production
facility out here as well. Um, the intent by the school district is to, pretty much, uh, deal
with the site as it has been. Uh, significant, uh item here will be there is currently a
construction limits line that was part of the conditional zoning agreement with the Press
Citizen. It's right there. And the school district has agreed basically to abide by the, uh,
conditions of that conditional zoning agreement when it was the, uh, Iowa City Press
Citizen. Um, the P1 zone is the, remember there's, the P1 zone, which is for local, uh,
local entities of government, the P2 zone is for state and federal. In the P1 zone, there are
some development standards such as height, uh, height of the building, setbacks,
landscaping and screening, and all of these, uh, are being adhered to by the school district
in terms of the standards that we have. Because none of the conditions are changing from
the conditional zoning agreement, there is, uh, we feel it is consistent with the
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Comprehensive Plan, however, the Comprehensive Plan does not show this as publicly
zoned property. So at some point, we'll probably wait until we have some other things to
do, uh, in terms of amending the Comprehensive Plan, but at that time we will change
this designation to public as well. Uh, we do feel that because the buffers to the property,
I think most of you are aware, this is a very significant buffer, you cannot actually see the
building, uh, from Highway 1. Uh, that will remain intact; all of the plantings will remain
intact, so we do feel like there is good compatibility with the adjacent, uh, neighborhood.
Because of the construction limits line here, then these, these sort of sandy-looking areas
are steep slopes on the property. And again, those won't be, uh, those will be, those will
remain in their existing condition. The single access point here, uh, to state Highway 1,
which was reconstructed with our reconstruction project a few years ago, has very good
sight-distance, uh, it does not have a high crash rate or anything like that associated with
it, and that will remain the sole access point for the subdivision. Uh, the staff
recommendation and the recommendation, uh, from the Planning and Zoning
Commission is approval. Uh, any questions?
Bailey/ Just curious, tax implications? This is going off the tax rolls, we have a, I mean, it's not, I
mean, probably talked about with Planning, but.
Davidson/ Yes. This property will come off the tax rolls. Uh, and it does generate a little over
$100,000 a year in property taxes currently. I think in the long view the, you know, we
don't know for certain, the former school district property, uh, Sabin School, has been
purchased by the University of Iowa, and they are in the process of working out some
things with the new Clapp Recital Hall project. Kind of a series of dominoes here, but I
think the ultimate goal is to return the Sabin property to a property tax generating
condition that will probably be, be because of the intensity of use in the downtown area,
the Riverfront Crossings area, we would anticipate that at least could potentially have
higher tax generation than what's being displaced here. But we'll have to wait a little
while to find out for sure. But that's kind of the broad view of the property tax
implications.
Bailey/ Okay, thanks.
Davidson/ Any other questions?
Mims/ Yes. In the discussion, um, was there any discussion between you and the school district
in terms of the parking?
Champion/ I was going to ask the same question.
Mims/ I'm assuming, I mean they looked at that and with the restrictions on any additional
development that they feel that that is adequate. I'm looking at, you know, if they're
going to have their school board meetings there and have a lot of people that want to
come to meetings, there is no other place to park within reasonable walking distance if
that parking lot is full.
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Davidson/ Yeah, what they, we, we asked them the question, Susan, of whether or not they
intended to expand the parking and they said that for the time being they do not intend to
expand the parking. If and when they do determine that they need more parking, their
intention is to work within the conditional zoning agreement that the Press Citizen had,
and not go into the environmentally sensitive areas. If they have to, they would have to
come back to us and amend the plan.
Mims/ Okay. Thanks.
Davidson/ Anything else? Thank you.
Hayek/ Thanks, Jeff. Now, anyone else from the audience on this item before I close the public
hearing. Okay, P11 close it at this time.
Champion/ Move first consideration.
Mims/ Second.
Hayek/ Moved by Champion, seconded by Mims. Discussion? Roll call, please. Item passes 6-0,
uh, Mayor pro tem Wilburn abstaining.
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c) CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE APPROVING AN AMENDED
PLANNED DEVELOPMENT OVERLAY (OPD-5) PLAN FOR
VILLAGE GREEN PART XX, LOT 50 (WELLINGTON
CONDOMINIUMS), IOWA CITY, IOWA (REZ11-00007) (SECOND
CONSIDERATION)
Hayek/ 5-C is consider an ordinance approving amended Planned Development Overlay, OPD-5
plan, for Village Green Part 20, Lot 50. This is Wellington Condominiums, Iowa City.
Second consideration and expedited action has been requested.
Wilburn/ I move that the rule requiring that ordinances must be considered and voted on for
passage at two Council meetings prior to the meeting in which it is to be finally passed be
suspended; that the second consideration and vote be waived, and that the ordinance be
voted on for final passage at this time.
Champion/ Second.
Hayek/ Motion from Wilburn, seconded by Bailey. Discussion? Any ex parte? Any further
discussion? Roll call, please.
Wilburn/ I move, uh, final adoption of the ordinance at this time.
Wright/ Second.
Hayek/ Pass and adopt moved by Wilburn, seconded by Wright. Discussion? Roll call, please.
Motion passes 7-0.
Karr/ Motion to accept correspondence.
Wilburn/ So moved.
Bailey/ Second.
Hayek/ Motion form Wilburn, seconded by Bailey. Discussion? All those in favor say aye.
All/ Aye.
Hayek/ Opposed say nay. Motion carries 7-0.
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d) CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE CONDITIONALLY REZONING
APPROXIMATELY 12.72-ACRES OF LAND LOCATED AT
MORMON TREK BOULEVARD AND DANE ROAD FROM
COUNTY AGRICULTURAL (A) TO INTENSIVE COMMERCIAL
(C11). (REZ11-00004) (PASS AND ADOPT) (DEFERRED FROM
5/3)
Mims/ Move adoption.
Bailey/ Second.
Hayek/ Moved by Mims, second by Bailey. Uh, discussion? And I know we've got some folks
who'd like to address us additionally, any ex parte?
Mims/ No.
Dane/ Hi, I'm George Dane. I live at 1 Oaknoll Court, Iowa City, 52246. [reads statement] Now,
do you have some questions?
Hayek/ Are there any questions form the Council?
Dane/ I'm not sure, how much I've explained to you, what goes with the park when, when we
give it to you. You know the house, and all the shrubs and all the other stuff. Okay. And
you may not know, the house is unique in the sense, all the heat is in the floors. So if you
take the house off, you have a flat slab, you can put another house on it, you can put
picnic tables on it, do whatever you want to, or you can throw it, throw it away. Okay,
well, uh, just let me make some of this up here. As my family and I have spoken with
you, I finally realized our situation is different from the usual speaker that comes in
requesting some zoning. Most of those requesting a specific zoning have an economic
interest; they have a property they expect to sell. We have no economic interest in how or
what the zoning is for the ILJ property, because we're not selling anything. We're
committed to donating the 16 acres. All along our concern has been to pass onto future
generations that which we have experienced and enjoyed for the last, uh, 60-plus years.
We want the City to receive that gift unsullied from the activities that CI-1 permits. So,
like I say, if you need a test, would you build your house next to a CI-1 zoning? Thank
you for letting us speak tonight. I appreciate that.
Hayek/ Thank you, sir. Would anyone else from the audience like to address us during the
discussion here? Okay. Seeing no such interest, why don't we take it back to Council for
discussion.
Champion/ Well, as I said before, I don't think I'm going to change anybody's mind, but I agree
with Mr. Dane. This is a beautiful piece of property and I do think that this new zoning is
going to affect the park that eventually will be there, so I'm not going to vote for this
zoning change.
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Wright/ And I agree with you Connie, it's a, I think the commercial intensity is just too intense
for this to be compatible next to this parcel of land, and it's not anything we're going to
see immediately but it's one of the, a decision I think we're going to come home to roost
later on, and, I'd like to see us avoid this, but I suspect no one's minds have been
changed.
Hayek/ I, um, I think it's a somewhat close call, but I've stated my, my opinions in prior
readings. On balance I, I think it's appropriate and so I'm, I'm gonna stick with the vote
I've had for the first two readings. I very much appreciate the additional input and the
compelling arguments. Any further discussion?
Wilburn/ I agree with your comments about, um, balance and then just kind of area, current area
surrounding it looks, um, I think, in general with our Planning and Zoning process, when
we get down to, um, you know the, uh, actual layout of some of the surrounding area,
staff has been successful about working at buffering and screening where, wherever we
can. But I think you also have to kind of take a look at the broader context of what's
already around the area, so I'll continue to support this too.
Hayek/ Further discussion? Roll call, please The item passes 5-2, Council members Champion
and Wright in the negative.
Karr/ Motion to accept correspondence?
Wilburn/ So moved.
Bailey/ Second
Hayek/ Moved by Wilburn, second by Bailey. Discussion? All those in favor say aye.
All/ Aye.
Hayek/ Opposed say nay. Motion carries 7-0.
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ITEM 12. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING DISTRIBUTION OF THE
"PROGRAM FOR IMPROVING NEIGHBORHOODS" (PIN) GRANT FUNDS.
Hayek/ Item 12, uh, consider a resolution approving distribution of the Program for Improving
Neighborhoods, or PIN Grant funds.
Bailey/ Approve adoption of the resolution.
Wilburn/ Second.
Hayek/ Moved by Bailey, seconded by Wilburn. Um, discussion? Is there any presentation on
this? Yeah.
Karr/ Is there, Marcia, is there a presentation on this?
Bollinger/ There is.
Ehrhardt/ Hello, my name is Pam Ehrhardt. Um, I'm a longtime resident of the Longfellow
neighborhood, and on behalf of the Neighborhood Council, I'd like to thank you for the
opportunity to speak to you today, and to present our grants. The Neighborhood Council
is made up of representatives from different neighborhoods and meet on a regular basis to
discuss common issues and ideas. We appreciate the continued funding of the PIN grants,
especially in these hard economic times. As the projects often times serve low and
moderate income households and include intensive amount of volunteer efforts to
orchestrate the projects. This is the 16th year of the PIN grants. The City Council has
appropriated $14, 850 for this year's Neighborhood Improvement Projects. The PIN grant
process involves neighborhoods coming up with, um, ideas and then submitting the
grants uh, on a standard form, and then grants are reviewed by the Neighborhood
Council. And then we have afollow-up meeting where we clarify questions and issues
and then rank the grants according to specific criteria. Uh, this year we had more than the
$14,850 allocated funds in requests. Uh, but some of the neighborhoods agreed to cut
their request or eliminate a grant request to ensure funding for everyone. PIN grants, uh,
foster this kind of atmosphere of cooperation and sharing. Uh, we are excited to present a
wide variety of grants for the fiscal year of 2012, which the neighborhoods have worked
hard to prepare.
The first grant request, um, is from Longfellow Neighborhood, of which I will speak
about. Uh, the Longfellow Neighborhood is requesting $1,220 for, uh, City-made
compost to be, uh, delivered to the, uh, to a public site in the neighborhood for anyone in
the neighborhood to pick up and use in their yards. A few years ago we applied for a
similar grant and was awarded, um, and this was bringing compost to the neighborhood
for residents use. So it's a very popular project and residents have asked repeatedly to
have it done, uh, the same project repeated. Um, now the City is making very nice
compost, but unfortunately last year many of the Iowa City residents who wanted
compost were unable to get it. Um, there's a high demand for this compost both from
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private citizens and from commercial landscape companies. Some residents don't have
access to trucks or trailers to haul the compost to their home. This grant will pay both for
the compost and for hauling the compost to a central public site in the Longfellow
neighborhood. We have volunteers with trucks who have offered to bring the compost,
uh, from the site, uh, to elderly or disabled in the neighborhood to be delivered. Um,
gardens are a very important feature in the Longfellow neighborhood, as evidenced by
our very popular garden walk, um, annual garden walk. The neighbors, the gardens are
often in the front yards and, um, in, in the parking and so this compost will further
enhance these gardens, and they will be in the public view. I would be glad to take
questions or comments from you, uh, after the rest of the neighborhoods have presented
their grants. Thank you.
Hayek/ Thanks, Ms. Ehrhardt.
Roberts/ Good evening, Mayor Hayek, City Council members, I'm Cindy Roberts from the
Grant Wood Neighborhood Association. I'm here to outline, uh, four of the five Grant
Wood Neighborhood Association requests. I'll keep my comments fairly brief, and if you
have any questions as you have for any of the grant requests, we can certainly answer
those when all presentations have been done.
As, as most of you are probably aware of, the Grant Wood Neighborhood Association
currently, approximately 56% of our neighborhood is either low to moderate income. Our
Grant Wood neighborhood school, currently approximately 60% is minority population,
and approximately 65% live at or beneath the poverty level. Um, we're Census Tract 18.
I wanted to bring that point out so you are aware that the support that we try and provide
our neighborhood, we are trying to reach out to a variety of individuals, and our
neighborhood residents as well as our neighborhood school. The first one is the Grant
Wood PTO Family Dinners. This was a new item for us this past year and we want to
continue this collaborative effort. We found when we could not continue our harvest
party due to, in part because it does require a great deal of volunteer help, we wanted to
make more of a connection with our neighborhood school. And one of the support areas
that they needed was family dinners that they could provide on a monthly basis, from
September through May to help encourage participation in their PTO meetings. And so
we provided that financial support, which provides a simple meal on a monthly basis and
also provides childcare to help encourage parents, particularly parents with young
children who may not be of school-age yet, to encourage their participation in the Grant
Wood Elementary School. That was a very successful program this last year, very
appreciated by Kate Callahan, the principal at Grant Wood Elementary, as well as Ann
Birnbaum, who is the outgoing president of the PTO.
Uh, the next item is something that we have done routinely over the years, are the
workshops and events that we do host. Primarily this is at the Grant Wood Elementary
gymnasium, and sometimes outdoor event. This would be, we have had some standard
things that we repeat each year: the Pet Care Fair, the Grant Wood Family Fun and Safety
Day, which we, um, had very recently. We had a, a neighborhood, or excuse me, a
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neighbor resident want to have a knit class, or learn-to-knit class, and so we helped
support that, uh financially, as well as a place for that to occur; gardening and house-care
workshops that we provide, uh, for people to come in to learn certain, um, tasks that they
can do not only to help the exterior but also the interior of their home. So we are asking
for $750, which provides supplies for those workshops as well as, um, speaker costs. The
Grant Wood Neighborhood, this is probably our, just one of our favorite neighborhood
events because it's just been one of those ongoing, uh, continuity things that we really
wanted to happen in our neighborhood, and that's our Friday Night Skate Nights, roller
skating nights. And the, this is our largest grant fund request, this is for staffing, Parks &
Rec staffing, for our Friday night events. This is every Friday night for two hours, twelve
months of the year, except for when it lands on a holiday time, that we have three Parks
& Rec staff members: two that supervise the activity in the gymnasium and one that helps
the, the intake as far as parents and, and kids coming into the gymnasium. And so our
request for $3,432 is for the Parks &Rec staffing, and, um, this really has been one of our
most successful ongoing events. Usually, the Friday night events bring in at least 100
individuals, on daily, or on that weekly basis, and it's, um, usually young families in that
first hour which we call our slow skate and then it's the fast skate and that brings in the
older, well, not necessarily older, but it, you know, those who are maybe a little bit more
adept at skating. It's been a wonderful event for our, um, for our neighborhood. But it
also brings in others, we've noticed that there are, we have a, quite a variety that show up
for Skate Night on Friday night. To go along with Skate Night, we have found for our
younger, uh, children, the popularity with the younger kids, we've had, lacking skates,
we just run out of skates for the younger size. So, our next grant request is we want to
purchase five more pairs of roller skates in the smaller sizes and that's what the $900 is
for. These skates are used indoor only; they are not checked out, so to speak, and that's
actually one of the reasons we have staffing there, is just to monitor the checking in and
out of the skates as well as just the activity within the gym. Um, I do want to extend my
sincere appreciation for the City Council's support of the PIN grant program. I cannot tell
you, really, I can't tell you what a different that makes in our neighborhood. And, uh, the
number of times that I will have a resident come up to me and say, "Cindy, I don't quite
understand how the Neighborhood Association can do this, how can, how can you afford
to do this?" And I remind them, and we publicize this in our newsletter, these funds come
from the City of Iowa City and it's supported by the City Council. So, I want you to
know that we are giving you credit for that, and we appreciate that. Thank you.
Hayek/ Thanks, Cindy.
Trimble/ Hi, I'm Alicia Trimble. I'm the Community Garden Coordinator for the Grant Wood
Neighborhood Association. Our last request for the Grant Wood Neighborhood
Association is the Fair meadows Community Garden expansion. We're asking for $881
to expand the garden which we started last year with the support of the city of Iowa City,
and Eco-Iowa City. Uh, the money would enlarge the garden, and also create paths
through the garden, fencing in individual areas of the garden so people can look in the
garden and see the plants close up, see how they're growing and see what they are
growing. Um, the funding would also go to, besides buying that extra fencing to buy
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additional staking for more plants, the hauling of compost and mulch, as well as creating
paths of recycled material to give the garden a more landscaped and more appealing look.
Um, the garden is next to Grant Wood Elementary School, so it's viewed by children
walking to and from school as well as children playing in Fair meadows Community
Park. Um, and I will also be, uh, working with FasTrac, particularly elementary school
children in the program to, uh, expand the garden, as well as maintain the garden. Um,
I've formed a partnership with Henry Harper to do so. And, um,. The produce that is
produced in this garden, like last year, will be given to the FasTrac program and our plan
is to distribute it through the Fast Snack van, so that when people come up and buy
snacks, you know, they may also walk away with a few tomatoes, um, hoping to get that
produce out into the community. I really appreciate your support. The garden was a huge
success last year, and, um, we really hope we can continue it and expand it this year.
Thank you.
Hayek/ Thanks, Alicia.
Thomas/ Good evening, my name is John Thomas, and I'm a resident in the Northside and a
member of the Northside Neighbors' Association. And, uh, our proposal to tonight is for
a contribution to our perennial order planting, which we're planning to do as part of the
renovation of the North Market Square, uh, which will be done later this summer and
early fall. Uh, the proposal is, uh, PIN grant proposal is for $4,200. That will be
supplemented by $5,000 from Project Green, and also $1,000 from the Northside
Neighbors' Association. Um, the, the project itself consists of about a 250-300 foot long
perennial border along one of the proposed pathways in the park. It would be in the
southwest quadrant, if you're familiar with the, the four quadrant concept of the North
Market Square. It, that's the, the quadrant that will be the most park-like of the four
quadrants. The other three are more recreational in orientation so the concept is that the
perennial border would make the most sense in the park setting of the southwest
quadrant. Um, the work would be done by volunteers. Part of the concept there is that in
order to build community you have to have reasons to get together as a community. And
so we'll be doing the planting as, as a neighborhood and also caring for the plants, uh,
once they've been installed. So, um, again, if you have any questions, be happy to answer
them. Thank you.
Hayek/ Thanks, John.
Keehner/ Good evening. My name is Mark Keehner. I live on 222 Douglas Court in Iowa City. I
am here on behalf of the Miller Orchard Garden, Community Garden, and we seek to
provide a beautiful space for individuals from the neighborhood and First Mennonite
Church come together to grow a garden and to grow a community. The Miller, Miller
Orchard Community Garden accomplishes this by transforming the lot at 815 Orchard
Street into an inviting garden space, collaborating with other organizations to help
beautify the garden site, providing education to help individuals to, um, learn and garden
organically, and hosting events that celebrate food and community. We started the
community garden last year. And from last year to this year our garden has grown in
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community involvement. And we give thanks to the First Mennonite Church and their
church youth group for their volunteer work that initiated, that initially broke the ground.
And, they continue to cultivate the operation. We give thanks to Sarah Kanouse and her
University of Iowa Art and Ecology students for their work in creating a sunflower fence,
and a composting unit. We look forward to working with Sarah Kanouse and her future
students on future, future service-learning projects. And, we would like to give thanks to
the city of Iowa City for financial support to use for fencing, garden maintenance,
equipment, hoses, um, watering cans, and mulch for pathways. Um, thank you very
much.
Hayek/ Thanks, Mark.
Knudson/ Hi, I'm Mary Knudson, I'm from the Miller Orchard, um neighborhood, and I'm here
on behalf of asking, um, for the party extensions for party in the park for $1,000 for five
different parks, um, neighborhoods. They are Goosetown, Miller Orchard, Grant Wood,
Morningside/Glendale and Melrose. These parties are proposed to be in September,
starting, they are five Thursdays in September, so every Thursday another park, party will
be in the park, and these parties are for neighborhoods to get together. And in these
particular parks there in neighborhoods where the associations are very active. The
purpose is to bring the neighborhood together in a festive manner with music and games
and food for families and individuals. Um, it's also, provides a time for neighborhoods to,
maybe to have a potluck beforehand, or a meeting afterwards or perhaps watching a
movie. This is a great way to unite the neighborhood. Um, and these particular
neighborhoods, they will, they're, do well with advertising, uh, to get people to come to
these parties, as other activities they have in their neighborhood. They have newsletters
for example, and they could also put up signs. So, I'm requesting then on behalf of all
these five, um, neighborhoods for party extensions there. So, thank you very much.
Hayek/ Thank you.
Knudson/ And then, you're going to hear a little bit more from me. I'm going to wrap this up. I
want to thank you for listening to our presentation often requests for$14,850. These
grants help neighborhoods meet goals that will improve our neighborhoods. These goals
being that they help build up our structures and strengthen our identity. We couldn't do
these projects without your help. And I request that you approve the resolution
authorizing these PIN grant applications. Thank you very much.
Hayek/ Thank you. Council discussion?
Champion/ I love PIN grants. I'd love to ask Cindy a question though. Where'd she go? Yes. Uh,
the roller skates, you said you were going to buy, uh, younger kids roller skates?
Roberts/ Younger kids' sizes. We routinely run out of those. There are more younger kids than,
um, I think some of the sizing, we anticipated, uh, perhaps more teenagers, and we do get
a lot of teenagers at the night, but we didn't quite anticipate how many younger kids, and
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we did not have as many of those smaller sizes, and we just run out of those, usually most
every Friday night.
Champion/ And you said you were going to buy five pairs?
Roberts/ Five pairs.
Champion/ And that's $900?
Bailey/ Of multiple sizes, right?
Roberts/ Yes. Of multiple sizes, I'm sorry, I didn't make that clear. (Laughter.) That would
sound a little odd, wouldn't it?
Champion/ I wouldn't put them on people's feet! (Laughter.)
Roberts/ Yes, five pairs of, I think it's like ---
Champion/ Thank you. I knew that, I just forgot it.
Roberts/ ---of four, is it four different sizes, Marcia? Yes, I didn't make that clear.
Champion/ Thank you, that's fine. That's okay.
Roberts/ I'm glad you asked that question.
Champion/ Because I'm sure I'd get some phone calls about it tomorrow.
Bailey/ That's true.
Roberts/ Anything else?
Bailey/ I just have a question for you Cindy. I know that you've done the workshops before.
How has the attendance been at those?
Roberts/ It's been, it kind of depends on the workshop, for example, if it's a gardening one, or
something where there's an activity that perhaps would be home related, those are very,
um, I would say very well attended. If it's a smaller one, and sometimes we have
workshops that are designed for a smaller group, like the learn-to-knit group, you really
want that to be a smaller group just for helping individuals learn a new task. And events
will, like, oh, like the Family Skate, not Skate Night, but the, um Family Fun and Safety
Day, very well attended. In part because that's at a time of year where people are outside.
The Pet Care Fair, very well attended. So, what we're trying to do with some of the
workshop money is in part we are trying to plan something things that maybe would
bring a smaller group together that maybe that group would continue. So for example,
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maybe that learn to-knit-group, they have continued meeting just on their own. Which is
a really nice, kind of continuing aspect of trying to build a community with, maybe
individuals that ordinarily, they didn't know each other, or they wouldn't ordinarily come
together. So we're trying to find a balance between those that would draw a larger
crowd, but those that maybe would draw something a little bit smaller that would create a
little bit more of a community connection with that.
Bailey/ Thanks.
Roberts/ Anything else?
Hayek/ Council discussion?
Wright/ Actually, I've got a couple of questions. One of them is for John from Northside. I'm
just curious, is the Park & Recs, uh, going to be helping maintain the flower beds at all
over time, or is that supposed to be primarily neighborhood activity.
Thomas/ It would be a neighborhood activity.
Wright/ Okay, so, nothing, no support from Park & Rec for the flower beds?
Thomas/ Well, not in the, maybe mulch or, providing mulch or, but that's sort of the idea is---
Wright/ Make it a neighborhood activity.
Thomas/ If you look, at least, in my observations of the city's parks, it's typically lawn and trees.
Wright/ Yeah.
Thomas/ And, so the idea is to try to raise the level of the landscape, and to do that requires the
volunteer help.
Wright/ Yeah, and make it an opportunity for the neighborhood to get together.
Thomas/ Yeah, it's an opportunity for the neighborhood to get together.
Hayek/ Thank you. Any other questions from Council of the presenters?
Wilburn/ I just want to echo Connie's comments. Council's been very supportive of the program
over the years, but we just want to thank you all for your coordinating/organizing
activities. Uh, natural organizers anyway, but this small amount of targeted funding form
the City helps you expand the impact and create creative connections in the community,
so this little bit of money goes a long way, and we really appreciate your time, energy,
and efforts.
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Hayek/ Well put, Ross. Thank you.
Wilburn/ Yep.
Wright/ As one who has sat around the PIN grant table many times in the past, I know how much
horse-trading can go on, and (laughter) I appreciate the process a great deal.
Hayek/ Discussion.
Wright/ I do have a concern with the Longfellow grant in that these are all pretty worthy, uh,
community building opportunities, and that's the one that I see as a little thin on
community building and neighborhood connections. I mean, it certainly, getting compost
is, is a nice thing to do but this almost seems like something that could be done within the
neighborhood itself without having a professional hauler come. If there are people who
are willing to bring their pickup trucks and pick up compost and take a truckload back for
example. It's the only one where I really don't see a lot of neighbor, neighborhood
connection going on, or, it's, or something that's going to do a little bit of good for the
greater good of the community, to put it in sort of a high platitude.
Bailey/ It is the one that is on private property rather than community property as well. I noted
that. So I share your concern.
Wright/ Yeah, I know in the past they did get some compost as all, it was part of a garden fair,
which had an educational component and sort of, a, a community gathering type of an
idea.
Champion/ I think the nice thing about it, I do agree with you, it is on private property, but I also
like the idea that there are a lot of elderly in the Longfellow neighborhood, uh, that will
be able to get this compost, but they wouldn't have any way of getting it otherwise. Lot
of people don't have a pickup truck or the ability to even get it when it gets to the
neighborhood itself, so I do agree with you that this is on private property and that makes
it my least favorite, but I, I still will support it.
Hayek/ Kind of with you on this, uh, Mike and Regenia, I, I, it is a good project except that it
benefits private property and ,and except for the argument that you can see someone's
garden from the sidewalk or street it is a, it is, it is not like a sidewalk assistance program
where everybody walks over the sidewalk. Uh, so I, that's the only one I've got some
discomfort with.
Mims/ I guess my question regarding that is ,and if anybody can answer is, who benefits from
this and as we look at these others, you know benefitting either disabled or low-income or
elderly, I mean, is this necessarily targeted to those people, or is it just anybody in the
neighborhood who has money is helping, I mean, wants, wants to do it. Do we really see
a targeting to the benefit of this project?
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Bailey/ And then, can I just add on to that, the other, um, projects seem to also have even though
I'm a little bit skeptical of ongoing care of the perennial garden, but it does have a
community intent, a community building intent.
Hayek/ Yeah.
Bailey/ And that is certainly there in that as well, and, I, this is a little thin on that as well, and so
if somebody can speak to that, that would, might help, or .. .
Hayek/ Sure. Yeah, yeah let's address it, we've .. .
Schabilion/ Okay, my name's Jeff Schabilion and I live at 431 Rundell, in, uh, Longfellow
neighborhood, and for the past half a dozen years or so I've been kind of in charge of the
annual Garden Walk. And so perhaps one aspect that wasn't made clear is that one of the
main celebrations of the neighborhood is not so much watching movies or going skating
or so forth, but the annual Garden Walk, and that's publicized in the, uh, newsletter, and
is looked forward to by very many people. And so in preparation for that, people work on
their gardens. And this year, for example, the Longfellow School's garden will be on the
walk and hope to be utilizing that compost, as a well as many other people that are on the
garden tour. If you go down any street in the neighborhood., not just Summit Street, but
Sheridan, Dearborn, uh, Clark, Rundell Street, you'll see gardens. I mean we're
becoming the garden district and part of the reason is because of the intense interest
neighborhood-wide interest in gardening. And, at the annual meetings there has been
numerous requests, "Say, remember when we got that load of compost last time? Boy if
we had access ..." That compost this year would be put on the edge of the nature walk
area and one of the neighbors in the Longfellow Manor has volunteered that if the pile is
too big and it comes over, it can come over on their land. So it is a, a neighborhood
project, would benefit the neighborhood. And the garden tour is a public garden tour and
it's advertised every year, and it invites, not only all of the neighbors in the Longfellow
neighborhood to get together and tour the gardens, but everybody in the city. It's free,
unlike many of the other activities we have, it's a free one, and, uh, everyone's invited.
Hayek/Um, Eleanor or Marcia, I see from the memo that in 2002, we clarified the use of PIN
funds on private property. Did that, off- hand do you recall that that clarification from
2002, what it was? Because apparently we looked at this nine years ago.
Bollinger/ You know, I wish I,
Hayek/ ... don't want to put you on the spot ...
Bollinger/ I'm gonna take a stab at it ... but, I know I put it in the memo, but, I believe it had to
do with, if it was going to be on private property it had to preferably benefit low-
moderate income or elderly, um, or disabled individuals. But that's you know, I
apologize, I can clarify that later if you.
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Wright/ Did that have to do with, um, playground equipment? This .. .
Bollinger/ Um, the Neighborhood Council
Wright/ ... different one?
Bollinger/, um, made a decision on that no longer, um, PIN funds would no longer fund
playground equipment on the school, the school district playgrounds.
Wright/ The playground equipment for (can't hear) private school property.
Bollinger/ But that had nothing to do with the private property---
Wright/ ---for the, um, trailer court up .. .
Bollinger/ That is true too. Yeah.
Wright/ Yeah, that's what I'm thinking of.
Bollinger/ Yeah, at the, um, Forest view.
Wright/ Yes.
Bollinger/ But they didn't pursue their application, so no funds were, were allocated. Um, the
only thing I'd, I would like to add, the, the ranking criteria that we refer to, or that I refer
to in the memo, um, is something that I'm not sure you're privy to but, um, it takes into a
number of considerations the amount of neighborhood, um, input that was regarding the
project, the activity level over the past year, um, the need for the project, uh, being able to
carry it out, the amount of neighborhood investment in making the project happen, and
uh, whether or not it could happen with or without PIN grant fund. Uh, and that, and that
it would continue to benefit the neighborhood as a whole. Another component of the, the
twelve is that it would benefit low-mod, elderly, youth or other disadvantaged groups. So,
they're, they're all hold the same amount of value in terms of how they're evaluated by
the Neighborhood Council. Um, so it hasn't been a requirement necessarily that all
projects have to benefit those groups. It's a fine line.
Hayek/ Yeah.
Bollinger/ I don't question that. And as Jeff says, the benefit is to the neighborhood to improve,
um, encourage the interest in gardening and, and make that all happen.
Hayek/ Okay. Thanks, Marcia. Alright, let's make some decisions here. We've been on this issue
for over half an hour. Unless there is a motion to, uh, modify the recommended amounts,
we do have a motion that's been seconded and it's on the floor.
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Wright/ Um, do we want to leave the Longfellow intact?
Champion/ I do.
Wilburn/ I was going to recommend we leave it intact and then at a future work session revisit
the criteria for the, uh, PIN grant to clarify that a bit, if further revisitation of that issue,
uh, or even if there's equal weighting maybe, uh, we could meet with the neighborhood
association or asub-committee of the Council do that to discuss that further, to, that's
what I was going to recommend to, you know, since it, since it wasn't, um, as they
submitted their applications, since that emphasis wasn't necessarily there, or a concern by
the Council, maybe we approve this and then go ahead, um, revisit it with the, uh, the
group and through Marcia. That, that's my suggestion.
Wright/ You know, that's probably not a bad suggestion. I, I, the private property angle, there's
a, I don't know, this one is missing some of the key criteria in my mind for a PIN grant,
and I,I...
Bailey/ Even as Marcia named them.
Wright/ Yeah, I, I think I'd like to move to, um, amend the resolution to, um, not fund the
Longfellow grant.
Hayek/ Okay.
Bailey/ I' 11 second that.
Hayek/ Moved by Wright, seconded by Bailey.
Bailey/ And, it's not because I don't enjoy the gardens in Longfellow neighborhood, which I do,
but I, I just see some difficulty with the - - -
Wright/ I think this is an issue that definitely needs to be revisited.
Bailey/ I agree. I agree.
Hayek/ Any further discussion on the motion to remove that item from the recommended list?
All those in favor of the motion say aye.
Several/ Aye.
Hayek/ Let's do a show of hands. All opposed? Say nay.
Karr/ For the record, since the record won't show hands. (Laughter.)
Hayek/ The record doesn't show hands?
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Karr/ It would appear 4-3.
Hayek/ Okay, in favor of the motion would be Mims, Wright, Hayek and Bailey, and opposed
would be Champion, Wilburn and Dickens. So.
Bollinger/ Can I make one suggestion? Uh, there was a grant application that was not funded. I
don't know if you noticed that. There was a sound system application for the roller
skating at Grant Wood, and that was not funded because they needed the entire amount
and would not be able to make it happen, there were not any matching funds, and the
Recreation Department didn't have that. Um, would another option be for the
Neighborhood Council to come back with a revised, um, resolution, kind of reevaluating
everything and maybe, guessing seeing different dollar amounts? I know you're working
that sound system in.
Bailey/ Or we could leave it, have the discussion, and then hear from the Neighborhood Council.
Wright/ I'm sorry?
Bailey/ Well, we could discuss. Well, never mind.
Dilkes/ Are you talking about a deferral? Marcia are you talking about deferral?
Bollinger/ I don't know what the official term for that is. Just deferral, yeah.
Mims/ Just defer all of it?
Bailey/ Yeah, and let the Neighborhood Council take it up.
Bollinger/ Yeah, we wouldn't go through the whole thing again if that's okay---
(Several talking at once.)
Champion/ They need more than the Longfellow grant for the music, or for the funds.
Bollinger/ We do, but then it could be that there's flexibility in some of the other grants, sort of
massage all that so, we could still get the sound system.
(Several talking at once.)
Bailey/ I would be comfortable hearing back from the Neighborhood Council.
Champion/ Yeah, me too. That would be alright.
Wilburn/ --this one back.
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Karr/ Okay, so are you deferring the whole thing, or are you proceeding with funding all but
Longfellow?
Hayek/ The whole kit and caboodle gets deferred.
Karr/ Okay, so we need to motion to defer until June 7tn
Bailey/ Move to defer until June 7sn
Mims/ Second.
Hayek/ Motion to defer Item 12 to June 7tn by Bailey, seconded by Mims. Discussion? All those
in favor say aye. Opposed say nay. Motion carries 7-0.
Wright/ Sorry to give you more work to do.
Hayek/ Okay, I'm getting a, is it the signal to take a quick break? We'll take a five minute break
and come back to this meeting. Thank you.
[Break]
Hayek/ Start the meeting back up again. We're at Item---
Karr/ Could we have a motion to accept correspondence on 12, please?
Wright/ So moved.
Mims/ Second.
Hayek/ Moved by Wright, seconded by Mims. Discussion? All those in favor say aye.
All/ Aye.
Hayek/ Opposed say nay. Motion carries 7-0.
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ITEM 16. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AWARDING CONTRACT AND AUTHORIZING
THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST A CONTRACT
FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE IOWA RIVER TRAIL -NAPOLEON TO
TRUEBLOOD PROJECT.
Hayek/ Item 16 is revised. Consider a resolution awarding contract and authorizing the Mayor to
sign and the City Clerk to attest the contract for the construction of the Iowa River Trail
from Napoleon to Trueblood Park project. Just for the public's notification, uh,
engineer's estimate on this was $280,000. Uh, Metro Pavers was the recommended
awardee and they came in at $182,000, and some change.
Wright/ This is a connector trail.
Hayek/ Right.
Mims/ Move the resolution.
Wilburn/ Seconded.
Hayek/ Moved by Mims, seconded by Wilburn. Further discussion? Roll call, please. Item passes
7-0.
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ITEM 18. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE ACQUISITION OF
PROPERTY INTERESTS NECESSARY FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE FIRST
AVENUE GRADE SEPARATION AND DRAINAGE PROJECT.
Bailey/ Move adoption of the resolution.
Mims/ Second.
Hayek/ Moved Bailey, seconded by Mims. Discussion? I think there are some members of the
audience who'd like to address us. In keeping with our practice though we ask that you
limit your comments to five minutes.
Sueppel/ That made be hard to do.
Hayek/ That's why we apply the rule to everyone. It's, it's never easy.
Sueppel/ I'm Bud Sueppel. I've lived here all my life in Iowa City. I've ran a business for forty
years. One of the, I was one of the first ones in the Old Capitol Center, which it went
down. And we had to move last Monday, because we just can't make it. It's been ruined
with all these rules and regulations. Nobody comes downtown anymore. I did that on
Monday. On Tuesday, I got a letter, we're gonna have a meeting about the railroad. And I
want to thank each one of you on the Council, on the staff, because I support that railroad
a hundred percent. I been there 14 years, and it's not good. It's the way you do it. Now,
when I bought my building on First Avenue, I was warned the water is a swamp there. I
was told that. And I said, I'll go along with that. Well, every time we get an inch to two
inches of rain, the water comes up out of the ground. Doesn't come from the sky. It's the
water content that is so high there. I learned last week that they want to go eight feet
down in front of my building. That's eight feet down, and what are you gonna do about
flood? That's gonna be the street. That is gonna be the street. Eight feet down. And I'm
going to be sticking eight feet up in the air. No cars. No traffic. No nothing. And I was
warned through the architect and a few City employees that I'd get hurt the worst. I
mean, they come out and told me. Now, Terry, I'd like to ask you a question. Can I do
that?
Hayek/ Well, sir, we don't generally engage in a back and forth. We're, we're here to hear your
concerns.
Sueppel/ Well, then I'll ask all of you. How would you like to have a business, and our business
is done by our show windows -- I would not go in that spot unless we got the front and
had all three show windows. And come and tell you, you're not gonna be able to have
those. You're gonna be eight feet up. Now, Carol and myself, Carol's my wife, my kids,
and my grandkids all work there. We're retired, but I'm working harder than I ever have
for no pay at all. And now this kind of stuff is going on. There isn't such a thing as
helping the small businesses in Iowa City. And I'd like to have a definition of a small
business. Because every small business I hear, there's 200 employees at it. Did you ever
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think about the small business where there's five or six that work there? Have you ever
done anything for a small business? And the other thing is now we got our train. Most the
trouble with the train is switch. You let them put in double tracks, switch all day long.
When I moved there, there was two trains. Now, there's eight to ten a day because
they're switching. They just built a large, large track switch out at Homestead. It's going
to take a lot of that off. Now, what is wrong with just bringing the train up over above.
And I don't like that, it shakes us to death the way it is, and now we're going to have a
double-track up there. And I'm sure it's all because you want the passenger train to come
through here. Now, you know, it doesn't take anyone hard to figure out why they want
that done. But you're going to hurt so many businesses, every business in my little area
there, we're going to be hurt. Two years. This is going to take two years, we're going to
have one way and then the way to get in our store. The city denied us from making two
driveways next to each other, no, you have to put one. Now we got one, and we're going
to have single traffic. Do we ever think about talking to the business people about
something like this? Nothing was said to any of us. Not, nothing. And then you got your
railroad. Sometimes, it's 20 minutes. I've called the police department several times and
complained about it. I'd like to have you check the records. See if that train has ever been
arrested for being a, for holding up traffic for over ten minutes. I take it ten minutes is the
law. I mean, there's just nothing done for us. But I'll tell you, doesn't take you long to get
excited when you're gonna come in there and just move every one of our business are
gonna be gone, and then that encloses a dentist, a, chiropractor, all of them. You know,
they're worried to death. And what do we have to stand on? Now, the railroad is not
giving you one penny. Eleven million dollars. You're building a castle for them. You're
building a castle for them. They're just laughing all the way to the bank. They're getting
a double-track put in there and you're building it all up for them. And I, I'm not happy,
I've been nervous, I'm sick. Forty years I put in business in this town. And this is the way
you get treated. First, I get run out the Old Capitol Center; now it's down there and it
doesn't look very good for me. And I really, and even at last night's work session,
someone didn't even want to hear from us. They're in a hurry to get this project on the
road. You don't want to hear from the small people. Thank you much.
Hayek/ Thank you, sir. Would anyone else in the audience like to address us on this issue during
discussion?
Gravitt/ I spoke before. My name's Mary Gravitt. When I hear about anything being dug up at a
time like this when we're in global warming. There's a story on the news today about the
rain and how long the farming season in because the rain, the water patterns have
changed. That's why I can sympathize with him; the water's rising up from the ground.
You have to take into some consideration that you have the small businesses, you're
always complaining, oh, the small businesses are being driven out by the big box stores.
Small businesses have to exist just like large businesses. But it's no time to be digging up
the ground, making anything deeper, because when I, we've lived through so many
floods with the 100 year flood and the 500 year flood within 15 years of each other, or
might have been closer than that. And if the railroad is not giving a penny, they don't
care. So just leave it like it is. People can take a little bit more time to get to work or
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wherever they say they're going. But, I don't see any sense in this. They sent a, a notice
about this and I didn't even understand the notice about what was going on until someone
explained it to me, and then they talked about digging up the street, going over with the
train bridge. To me, it doesn't make much sense. But then again, I'm not an engineer. But
I still say, you should look more into this instead of rushing into this. With these, global
changing weather patterns, rain increasing, be careful, because I don't know if we can
handle another flood.
Hayek/ Thank you, ma'am.
Hamdorf/ Uh, my name is Gary Hamdorf, I'm a property owner on the First Avenue/Mall Drive,
uh, intersection. There's a car wash there which is ours. And, you know, I find it, I, I
really do have sympathy for Bud because when this project is, it's not two years, it's a
lifetime, because when the project's done, if you understand, have any of you -first of
all, may I ask you a question? Has any of you been out there and physically stood on the
tracks seeing how this is going to happen? You have? Okay. So you know from Bradford
Drive, they're going to start dripping it down and they're going to go, I think it's about
15 feet from the point of where the tracks are now. Fifteen feet lower than that. The
elevated tracks will be ten feet above that point. So what's going to happen is the traffic
from the north will never see Sueppel Flowers. Because they're going to go down before
they see the building which sets on, just on the south side of the tracks. And when they
come up, they'll be past Mall Drive, or pretty much around Mall Drive, and of course,
they're beyond the building. So, I mean he's really going to get whammed for a long time
in that building and where he's at on that location. Uh, as well as other people. I'm not
quite as bad because I'm down the line, but it's going to hurt me as this project goes on
through construction. But, the point I was going to make was, I don't know if anybody's
thought about this or not, you know, I've suggested taking the t4rain down, make it a
subway. That's the only way that I can see that would be safety free, that absolutely
nothing could interfere with safety. I understand that we don't have enough distance. Is
that correct? Rick? We don't have enough distance to drop that train down that low, as
far as the grade goes?
Fosse/ I need to get to the .. .
Hamdorf/ Oh, I'm sorry.. .
Fosse/ Yeah, well, we looked at both options, taking the road above the railroad and taking the
road below it. The railroad requires more vertical clearance than a roadway does, so that
means that that separation needs to be even greater. Um, so that, that railroad would be
way down in the ground. And if we do it for a, an extended period under the ground, a
subway as you suggest, that'd be a very expensive project, to enclose it underground
there. So, does that help, Gary?
Hamdorf/ Yes, yes it does. I guess my point is on the safety aspect that's the only guarantee.
You've got a junior high sitting there, regardless of what you do - if you had a train
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accident on an elevated train, I can't even imagine who's in that intersection. That
building that Bud's in, if there was traffic there, it would be just horrendous. But if you
did have it underground, if that would even be possible, even with more funding
necessary or whatever, it really takes it out of play and you can pretty much keep it even
keel what it is while you're digging that out, but that, that's an ideal situation. But,
anyway back to one of my other points is that you just passed Item 13, 7-0, which I find
is a little bit ironic from the standpoint that if, if we, the people in that building and
around that area, we can use that economic council, we could really use a TIF, we could
use some kind of property tax abatement. I don't know if it's ever been done before on a
construction project, but you know, we can control our inventories, we can control our
employee situations as far as costs go, but we can't control property taxes. They roll in
regardless of whether you get one customer, you get 10,000 customers. So, just as a
suggestion, that would be one thing. If we have to go through the way we are, that that
might be available to us through the bill that you just approved on, on Item 13.
The other suggestion that I, I might have if it's gonna stay the way it is and we're going
to elevate those tracks, if the consideration would take the lanes of traffic that we know
right now, because South East is going to be shut down for access to the west -that's
where all the busses go, that's where the teachers park, that's where the parents drop kids
off, parents pick kids up: that's going to be closed, as we know it right now. Is there any
way to start a, an access road that's at least three lanes off to the east between South East
parking lot and what we know as First Avenue, going across the tracks and bend it back
in again before, you know, right by Goodwill there, then you could have access to the
road, they could do what they needed to the road and maybe they could get the road done
in less time. Time is the other enemy that we have, as a business, as a community, as a
safety, the whole thing. Maybe if we could bend that around, and, and certainly would
slow the traffic down. Keep it open and then get the road done. And then put the bridge
up over it, so I thank you for your time. We need help. We really need some help. Uh, so
anything you can do, we much appreciate.
Hayek/ Thanks, Mr. Hamdor£ Anyone else from the public on this item before the Council
discusses it? Okay. Council?
Bailey/ Well, I want to say, first of all, you all know how passionately I feel about this project. I
think we've worked on this project since I got on Council, and, um, it's a community
project. We've heard concerns from businesses, we've heard concerns from school,
we've heard concerns from community members, about the delay over there. And it's not
just delay, I mean, it's delay, we did a, an air pollution impact study it's, it's all of those
things combined. So, I'm glad to see us moving ahead. You've got a Council up here of
small business people. I mean, I, you look at it, I mean, many of us are small business
owners so we understand your stand, and I think many of us have already begun to think
about and talk about what we can do to lessen the impact to the businesses along there
and how we're going to proceed with this project. And I think we're very committed to
that. We have a lot of trust in our staff, that the engineering will, um, address some of the
problems, and that we as a Council can work to address some of these problems as, um, it
will be a long construction season. But as a community, I think this is a problem we've
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been eager to solve for a long time and we have to come together to solve the problem
and see what we can do to benefit all of us. And so, I'm excited to see this project move
ahead. I know we'll have other items on agendas about the project, but I just wanted to
lay the groundwork for this because I think we're going to proceed cautiously and
carefully with community input, as we have in the eight years that we've been working
on this project. Probably even before that.
Dickens/ What is, Rick, if you could talk to what is the cost difference between going under and
over and why if there is water problems there, has that been looked into?
Fosse/ Yeah, first of all, on the cost, uh, I think somebody mentioned $11 million earlier. It's a
$7.1 million project, uh, so just to clarify that. I do not have a cost estimate to take the
railroad underneath the road, that, we, we took it far enough to know that the, uh, the
most efficient option is the, the configuration that we're proposing today. Uh, the other
question, with regard to drainage is something that we're going to need to address during
the design, in that anytime you have a sump condition like that you're going to need to
get the water out of there. And the design that we're working on now will, will carry out
the majority of it by gravity flow, but there'll be times when we need to pump out of
there as well.
Hayek/ Let me pick up on that because I think it's important for us to have perspective as to
where we are in this process. The agenda item before us tonight is simply the front end of
this process and commences the right-of--way and other property related acquisition
processes. We don't have the design in place, the staff is going to circle back to Council
and, uh, at the appropriate junctures as this unfolds, and as we discussed last night in our
work session there will be opportunities for input from the community and in particular
from the affected businesses in that area, so am I correct about that, is my first question?
Fosse/ Yes, yes it is. And this, this is a project, and we had quite a bit of momentum on prior to
the flood. We had a neighborhood meeting and a lot of positive feedback and excitement
on the project at that point. Uh, now that we're rebooting the project after, after flood
recovery, uh, some of these things are, are new to us, so then, that's things that we'll need
to account for in the design, some of these concerns, as best we can.
Hayek/ Okay, so, so this is not a, tonight is not cone-shot opportunity to weigh in on this issue.
There will be opportunity going forward.
Fosse/ Yes.
Hayek/ Thank you.
Mims/ And I think it's important as we talked at the work session last night, and we've asked
staff to put this on a work session agenda. I mean, for you, Regenia, this has been an
eight-year project that's finally starting for, like Terry and I we've been sitting here for
less than a year and a half so this is pretty new to us and we need to get up to speed on
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what has been done and what the plans are and really where, where are we in the process.
And I think, uh, as we talked last night, when that is scheduled we want to make sure that
the concerned parties, particularly the business owners and landowners along First
Avenue are made aware of that work session. Again, not that it's a time for them to give
input, but that it's a time for them to come and hear exactly what the Council is hearing,
and certainly they will have time and opportunities for other input, um, as we go forward.
I'm very concerned about the impact on our business owners on that street, and, um,
certainly, and I hope, I think everybody else up here is and we will do everything we can
as a Council in working with staff within reason to do the best we can to accommodate,
uh, the business owners on First Avenue and in that area.
Wilburn/ I think one of the challenges has been just because it is amulti-million dollar project,
and the amount of time that we've attempted to try and pursue federal funds and other
types of funding has kind of stretched this process out and so, you know, trying to
recapture that energy and input, and, etc., that went in on the front end, as you pointed out
Matt, you know there was a long delay in, in some of that and then now we're really kind
of kickOstrating the process again. And certainly with, uh, many community projects
we've tried to pay attention to all constituencies. Now, some people feel that they've
been listened to and heard and, uh, in the past by the City and others don't. But, um, my
experience in particular with this Council has been, um, trying to attend to and balance,
juggle multiple community needs. Um, the other thing I think too, is that not only has our
community had, uh, projects out on North dodge where businesses have been disrupted,
our, our staff has experience trying to work with, but, you know, uh,. North Liberty,
Coralville, they've done these type of major projects and even the small things like
working with signage to try to make sure that people know that these businesses, despite
the construction, are still open for business. And, uh, even working with radio stations
KCJJ, advertising, making sure that folks still know they're open. And those are the type
of things that Council is interested and willing to do. I'm glad to hear that the folks are
supportive of doing something there which is probably reflective of what had happened
before but there, there's no, this is not a project that we thought of, uh, two weeks ago.
Uh, again, it's capturing that history, uh, updating things, making sure that we're able to
take care of things as they exist now to move forward. I know, uh, at South East Junior
High, in fact I know they still have the diagram of the, uh, from the community meeting
and the input over the years has been, "When's this going to happen? When's this going
to happen?" and so it's been out of people's mind for some time and so it's this, uh, as
you pointed out, this is about property acquisition which is a long process and so there's a
lot of steps that need to happen along the way, and opportunities for input and
conversation just as you'd pointed out, Susan.
Dickens/ Just for clarification, whether we go over or under, we're still going to have to get this
done. For clarification, the right of way and all that.
Fosse/ Yes.
Dickens/ So it wouldn't effect it either way.
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Fosse/ Right, we, we would have different acquisitions. And the, the really hard part of this
project is doing it while we have traffic on First Avenue and traffic on the railroad. That's
part of what makes the duration as long as it is.
Bailey/ Let me just clarify though. The first stage of the acquisition process is to have the plats
prepared that show what property is necessary, what temporary construction easements,
what right-of--way, etc. So, that, those acquisition plats cannot be prepared until there's a
design that is arrived at.
Fosse/ Thank you.
Hayek/ Thanks, Rick.
Fosse/ Mm-hm.
Hayek/ I think, this is a good reminder that although much of this work and many of these
discussions have been held over the years, time has elapsed, we're kick-starting this,
we're jump-starting this, as you put it Rick, and, uh, this is a good reminder that the
Council and staff need to proceed carefully and with the interest not only of the
community but of the effected businesses in mind.
Further discussion? Roll call, please. Uh, item passes 6-I, Dickens in the negative.
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ITEM 22. CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION.
Hayek/ Uh, Terry, I' 11 start with you.
Dickens/ Nothing.
Bailey/ Nothing.
Wilburn/ Just looking forward to the, uh, Old Pioneer to New Pioneer, uh, bike ride tomorrow
night, starting at 5:30, 5:15? 5:15 at Chauncey Swann across the street, see you folks out
there.
Wright/ And it is Bike to Work Week, and yesterday was the race from the Coralville Public
Library to the Iowa City Public Library, which we had, uh, various local officials riding
a bicycle the entire trip, riding to the library, and taking a bus to the Iowa City Public
Library and driving their cars, uh, no surprise the time difference came in at about three
minutes from the first arrival of the car to the last arrival, yours truly, who had taken the
bus and put his bike on the front. So the lesson is, this is a very bike-able community -
it's very easy to get around and get around quickly and efficiently, uh, and also, if you
choose to do it, be sure you do it safely.
Champion/ Thank you. Do it safely. Use bike your lights, please at night.
Mims/ And obey the signs, and those traffic signals. I'll just follow up kind of related to the
biking that everybody is talking about, but also just for walkers and joggers, um, the new
bike, or new trail maps are available at the libraries, uh, Council offices, and around the
County, so I'd encourage people, if they're walkers, joggers, bikers to pick up the new
trail maps.
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