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2. Student Leadership Awards - Lemme Elementary
Teague: All right, so we have some students here .... from Lemme Elementary, and I'm
gonna come out here and invite you all up to the stage. All right! Well I'm so
happy for you all to be here today and these are students that have been seen as
outstanding, and we're excited for you to be here today. Um, I wanna start maybe
with, um, your names so that you can announce it to all the audience.
Sigafoose: Abigail Sigafoose.
Teague: Thank you!
Stadtlander: Katarina Stadtlander.
Elwer: Mark Elwer.
Teague: All right. So happy that all of you are here today with us. And so I'm gonna, I
know that you have some things that you warm say to us and so I'll probably start
with you, and this is Abigail.
Sigafoose: Hi, I'm Abigail Sigafoose and I attend Lemme Elementary. I think that a leader is
someone who is willing to help others and to get help from others as well. A
leader has to understand that they don't always have to know everything and they
need to be able to admit they can't do something and to ask for help. Some of my
classmates sometimes ask me for help and I'm always willing to assist. At school
I like participating in activities like safety patrol and student council. I always
enjoy lending a hand, especially when it comes to helping my teacher set up the
monthly science night activities. In addition I volunteer at my church, setting
things up for younger kids and sometimes playing music in the service. I'm very
honored to be receiving this award. Thank you so much! (applause)
Teague: Thank you, Abigail. I'm gonna step right in between, and then we're gonna hear
from you, Kat.
Stadtlander: Hi, my name is Ellen Katarina Stadtlander and I'm truly honored to be receiving
this award today. Why I think my peers nominated me is because not only do I do
things like safety patrol and student council, but I also love being someone who
others can come to whenever they need help. Leadership to me doesn't mean
being the most popular or the smartest. It means being kind, respectful, and
supportive to anyone and everyone. Thank you. (applause)
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Teague: All right! And we are to you, Mark.
Elwer: Hi, I'm Mark Elwer. The first thing I would like to say is that I am very thankful
to receive this award. I would like to thank my wonderful parents, my teachers,
and my Scout leaders and my peers for being awesome. I think I got this award
because I always do what my teachers ask and will provide help to those who
need it. I also try to be a good fiend to everyone. As my class was discussing
what a good leader does and looks like and acts like, I recognize a lot of points
from the Scout law. So being a leader to me is not just about being a good citizen,
but also about being a good Boy Scout. Thank you all for listening. (applause)
Teague: Great! Well I have to tell you, I .... I'm very impressed with all of your stories that
you shared with us today. Sounds like you all are very responsible and very
caring individuals that serve our community and others well. So thank you so
much for bein' with us today and bein' a part of this time when we recognize and
celebrate you. So I'm gonna give each of you a certificate and I'm gonna read it,
and .... um, it's the Student Leadership Award, and each one of'em .... each of these
will have your own individual names, but I'm gonna read it. (reads Student
Leadership Award) Thank you so much! (applause) That is yours (mumbled)
that is yours. Thank you much! (applause) These are always great times when
we can celebrate our youngsters in our community. Yes! All right!
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3.
Teague:
Fruehling:
Horton:
Teague:
Wobeter:
Proclamations
3.a. 19th Amendment Centennial Commemoration
(reads proclamation)
You've got Polly Horton and Gaylen and Tony Wobeter to accept.
Good evening, I'm Polly Horton. I'm on the State of Iowa League of Women
Voters board.
Awesome! And I'm gonna have you come up and, uh, accept this. Yep! (talking
in background)
And I'm Tony Wobeter, um, a member of the League of Women Voters.
Wobeter: I'm Gaylen Wobeter. I'm on the State board and a member of the local Johnson
County chapter, and I have this response. On behalf of the 19th Amendment
Centennial commemoration, 50/50 and 20/20, the Iowa Women's Foundation, and
the League of Women Voters of Johnson County, we thank you for passing this
proclamation. After 100 years of struggle, the ratification of the 19th Amendment
in 1920 was and is a monumental achievement, one that merits attention,
education, and promotion throughout Iowa and the nation. The gains hard won.
The status not done. The future is calling to help learn from the past. The City of
Iowa City has heard this call and answered. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you so much. (applause)
3.b. Religious Freedom Day
Teague: We have another proclamation. (reads proclamation)
Fruehling: Here to accept are Anne Bendixen and Kennisha Entsminger.
Teague: Great! I'm gonna have you all come up and receive this. (applause) I'll have you
come up and then I'll have you speak, if that's okay. Great! Thank you so much!
Thank you so much. Great, and then you can go and state your name and please
speak.
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Bendixen: I'm Anne Bendixen. The atheist and non -religious community of the Greater
Iowa City area appreciates the City and Mayor Teague issuing this proclamation,
as religious freedom doesn't belong to any one group. It belongs to everyone.
True religious freedom in this country should be celebrated as something that
protects our right to worship, but also our right to be free from religion. In recent
years some have tried to lead us to believe that religious freedom means that they
can use their deeply held beliefs to infringe on the civil rights of others. We are
hopeful that by having a group of atheists request this prop.... proclamation we
can show that this is not the kind of religious freedom we need today. We need
religious freedom to be about love, about inclusion, about understanding. By
agreeing to issue this proclamation, Mayor Teague, you are announcing to every
citizen of Iowa City that the government here respects the religious freedom of all
and that religious beliefs will not be allowed to be used as a weapon in our city.
We appreciate that. Thank you. (applause)
Entsminger: Hello. As a proud black woman that not only identifies as an atheist, but also as a
member of the LGBTQ community, I have seen the dangers that a weaponized
version of religious freedom poses, and I'm so happy to see the City of Iowa City
step up and say that that won't be tolerated. Being part of these marginalized
communities has shown me that the only way our country moves forward is with
understanding and acceptance. We can have our theological differences, and our
political differences, but we must never use those differences to harm one another.
Our country is better when everyone's religious freedom is respected. The City of
Iowa City will be better when every citizen, whether atheist, christian, Muslim,
Hindu, Wiccan, pagan, or of any other faith respective knows that they can live
freely without the fear of having their religious freedom threatened by the
weaponized religion of someone else. Thank you again, Mayor, and City of Iowa
City. (applause)
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4-9. Consent Calendar - Consider adoption of the Consent Calendar as presented
or amended
Teague: May I have a motion to approve Consent Calendars as amended?
Salih: Move.
Mims: Second.
Teague: Discussion? Roll call please.
Taylor: Excuse me, Mayor. I .... I just, I wanted to just comment on .... on one of the
correspondence .... issues. Is that okay? Um, just .... 9, um, f., on the deer
management. Uh, we're getting a lot of communication about that, and of course
we had some comment at our last meeting about it, and kind of turned into a he
said/she said sort of, um, comments. (unable to hear speaker in audience) (noise
on mic) ....okay. Just talking about, uh, our correspondence, 9.£, which had to do
with the deer management program and I'd said we'd received a lot of
correspondence about that, uh, last time and this time, and I wanted some
clarification as to when, um .... uh, White Buffalo will be doing the second round,
and if maybe prior to them doing the second round, we could have discussion, like
at a work session or something about what we've been hearing and what we
maybe should clarify with White Buffalo on our expectations. Would that be
possible or anybody else have any concerns about that? If not that's fine.
Mims: I .... I don't. I .... I think there's some people that are either misinformed or....
intentionally putting out some false information, urn .... about what (mumbled)
about what White Buffalo is doing.
Fruin: Council sets the work session agenda. If you wanna talk about it, staff can
present. Uh, White Buffalo will be back in town .... have an exact date, uh, at my
fingertips here, but I think it's the week of. ... either the 17th or 24th of February.
Late February they'll be back to .... uh, do the final round of sharpshooting.
Taylor: Okay.
Fruin: Um, again I'm happy to get you information individually or collectively as a
group, if you wanna dedicate work session time to that topic.
Taylor: We can just talk about it individually, perhaps, Geoff. Thanks!
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Teague: Okay. All right, we are gonna move on, um .... to the Community Comment.
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10. Community Comment (items not on the agenda) [UNTIL 8 PM]
Teague: And this is a time where people within the community can certainly come up to
the podium there, and we'll ask that you state your name, as well as sign in and in
the back, um, as I mentioned earlier, there are stickers that you can, uh, kinda
stick there, and we ask that people keep their comments to three to five minutes.
Ross: Hello! Uh, Mayor Teague and Council, and uh.....
Teague: Your name please!
Ross: Brandon Ross.
Teague: Thank you!
Ross: That's a tough question! (laughter) Um (laughs) in the, uh, spirit of, uh, the day,
uh, where we commemorate the 19th Amendment, I'd like to just remind people
we have a Council with five women and two men, which I think is pretty special.
It's never been done before in this town. That's the most women we've had on the
Council. I think that's cool! Uh, I also saw that, uh, that a woman who spoke
previously had a Hawkeye, uh, jersey on and, uh, go Hawks. Go Hawks! And,
uh, our Hawkeye women basketball team.....has won six in a row and is now
ranked, and every year that I can remember, Lisa Bluder, the coach of the
Hawkeyes, has had a great team! And, uh, you can't say that about, uh, our
football team. And wonder why Lisa Bluder, you know you have to think about,
why is Lisa Bluder, why is .... maybe she should get paid a little bit more? And
maybe the football coach a little less. Everybody could be happy. Equal pay for
women. I really believe in that. So basketball, football coaches, guys, you know,
come on! You know, Lisa Bluder is .... is a genius out there, compared to some of
those coaches. I played basketball in high school and college. I thought I had to
mention that. Uh, Martin Luther King Day this, uh, this week. I think, uh, it's
important to remember some things about Dr. King. Uh, he did say, uh, but
oftentimes the corporate media, uh, just puts it under the carpet, that, uh,
capitalism rewards, uh, the few, off the backs of the many. Uh, Dr. King was a
firm believer in this. Uh, he believed that capitalism, uh, was unjust and that the
working classes, the ones who are really working, and the poor and the
handicapped and the women, uh, and elderly are all at the mercy of a system that
does not work. He believed that. At the time it was civil rights, there was the
passing of LBPs, uh, medicare and medicaid. There were things that were
improving. There was a very progressive candidate, an FDR kind of candidate
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named Robert Kennedy who was also unfortunately, uh.... uh, tragically just like
Dr. King, also assassinated. So I'd just like to remember, uh, just those things, uh,
about Dr. King and who I believe is .... is a great American, and uh, listen to any
speeches of his, now we have access, uh, any speech of his is so worthwhile.
Now finally I would just like to bring up this. Uh, to the naked eye, this looks
little more than a can of sardines, which Council is in fact a can of sardines, and I
wanna bring up the can of sardines because I believe that, uh, on February 3rd, for
those of you who happen to be Democrats, are the caucuses and that the caucuses
should be filled, should be filled with people so that it's really tight in there, like
this can of sardines. Now some of you don't like fish. I'm okay with that, but
um, so I'm asking the Council .... uh, to do whatever you can to make that day
help, uh.... arms of the government to have freedom for people to be able to say
they wanna go to the caucus and .... and not have to work that day. Dr. King
would believe that we have to be all inclusive, but the working classes are
oftentimes the ones who aren't represented at the caucuses, so it tends to be a little
bit of a class situation. So I ask the Council, and also private businesses too out
there is you're listening, to allow any workers to be able to .... to have this time,
just like in the presidential election day. We should have that off. Uh, it's great
that Dr. King has a day, uh, and we do get that off, and I think if Dr. King were
here today that he would say.....caucus day, everybody should be free to vote.
Just as, you know, as much as possible. It shouldn't be so difficult and now we
know that with the voter suppressions that go on, we need to push back. So I ask
the Council to maybe, uh, be in contact or to make that an open statement that the
caucus day February 3rd is very important and people should get out there,
whether you're voting for X, Y, or Z, that's not the issue. Thank you so much, uh,
Iowa City City Council.
Teague: Thank you, Brandon. (unable to hear speaker in audience) Yes. We'll bring it up.
So if there's an item on the agenda, uh, there'll be a public comment section then.
I should have mentioned that. Would anyone else like to .... make a comment?
Seeing there are none, thank you all for bein' here today.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
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12. Repeal Rental Permit Moratorium - Ordinance repealing Ordinance No. 19-
4793, a temporary moratorium on new rental permits for single-family and
duplex units. (Second Consideration)
Mims: I move that the rule requiring that ordinances must be considered and voted on for
passage at two Council meetings prior to the meeting at which it is to be finally
passed be suspended, that the second consideration and vote be waived, and that
the ordinance be voted on for final passage at this time.
Taylor: Second.
Teague: All right, so we have a .... moved by Mims, seconded by .... Taylor for
the .... waiver of the second consideration for pass ... um.....yes (talking in
background) yeah....
Mims: I'll just explain, yeah, my rationale for this. This was .... this originally came
before Council, I think at our .... I believe at our first meeting in December, and
um, the initiation for deferral was actually from Council ourselves, in terms of
allowing more time to, uh, look at some options to deal with the mor ...the
permitting for, uh, rental permits. Um, I think during that time .... we have come
to the conclusion that staff has given us what they feel are, uh, all that they could
do, or all that we can do as Council in terms of regulations, etc. Um, not that we
don't still wanna stay on top of this and look at this, but our original premise when
we put the moratorium in place was that, um, I remember some Councils want....
some Council Members wanted it shorter. Staff actually wanted it longer, to make
sure they had enough time, but the agreement I believe really from the beginning
was that as soon as we had done what we felt we could do that we would lift the
moratorium. Um, and that has been done. It was deferred for a month .... on staff,
or excuse me, on Council action and so I think now we really owe it to people
who .... and there was at least a couple people who really had some significant
deadlines, um, and that's one of the reasons I wanna see us consolidate these last
two votes, um, tonight.
Salih: I guess sound good!
Teague: Would anyone from the public like to address this comment .... or this item?
Anyone from Council?
Weiner: No, uh, I agree, Councilor Mims, because among other things I believe part of the
reason was to allow new Council Members to address this issue, uh, we have, uh
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(mumbled) Council Member Bergus and I have now had a chance to look at it
carefully, as well.
Bergus: I just wanna say in general, I think collapsing readings, we need to be careful
when there's been an issue that has been controversial, which I would say this one
has been, but because there were the multiple deferrals at the front end, I'm
comfortable collapsing and passing now.
Teague: I would agree (both talking)
Mims: And I totally agree with you, Laura, and our history on the Council has been that
when there are controversial items we typically do not con, uh.... consolidate the
votes. I agree.
Thomas: Yeah I of course had been, um, one of the Council Members to be asking for
deferral and in asking for those deferrals I had mentioned that we could .... we
could do the collapse later in the process. So at this point it seems like the
appropriate thing to do.
Teague: Okay. We're gonna do roll call please.
Mims: Move final adoption at this time.
Teague: Mims, uh.....
Salih: Second.
Teague: ....(laughs) all right, moved by Mims, seconded by, uh, Salih. Uh, public
discussion? Council discussion?
Thomas: I just wanted to mention some of the correspondence. If you saw the, uh, surveys
that were filled out by the residents, um.....that was also something that was
initiated by Nancy Carlson. I think it's useful, uh, on these.....these issues which
do impact neighborhoods, uh, to have a, you know, in this case a little bit better
understanding of what the situation is on the ground for those residents, how
they're responding to the conditions, and how this .... you know, what .... what's
happened on Jefferson Street is affecting them, so.....
Salih: Uh huh.
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Thomas: Wanna thank Nancy for doing that.
Teague: Roll call please. Motion passes 7-0.
Fruehling: Mayor, could we get a motion to accept correspondence?
Teague: (several talking) ...about that.
Mims: So moved.
Salih: Second.
Teague: Moved by Mims, seconded by Salih. All in favor say aye. Any opposed? Motion
passes 7-0.
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13. Rochester Avenue Reconstruction - Resolution establishing the design
elements necessary to begin design and engineering documents for the
Rochester Avenue Reconstruction Project.
Mims: Move the resolution.
Weiner: Second.
Teague: Moved by Mims, seconded by Weiner. And we're gonna move to public
discussion.
Mims: Staff presentation I think first.
Reichart: I have a presentation.
Teague: All right. Staff, great!
Reichart: Mayor Teague, Council Members, my name's Jason Reichart. I'm with the City
Engineering Division. So tonight I'm gonna go over the, uh, Rochester Avenue
reconstruction project, try my best to summarize what we have done, urn .... to
date and where we stand now with the resolution adopting design elements and
moving into design. Give you a little bit of a background. Uh, Rochester Avenue
serves as an important east -west arterial street in Iowa City that sees
approximately 7,000 vehicles per day. The pavement has reached the end of its
useful life and requires frequent maintenance. Uh, just to give you a little more
information, the pavement management software that the City uses recommends
reconstruction of this corridor, giving it a city PCI of 24, which falls into the poor
rating. That rating is from zero to 100. So 24 is poor. Uh.... this project will
obviously include complete reconstruction of Rochester, from First Avenue to
Ralston Creek, and will also include improvements to the sidewalk, ADA curb
ramps, utilities, signage, and street trees. The project goals include, again, uh,
pavement replacement and utility improvements. Um, pedestrian accessibility
and safety improvements as detailed in the complete streets policy, and I'll be
going over the complete streets policy here in a bit. Um .... to incorporate, uh,
bike network improvements as identified in the bike master plan, and to construct
all elements within the existing right-of-way, and limit properties acquisition as
much as possible. Uh.... again, this is a brief synopsis of the complete streets
policy that I did just wanna run through this for ya. Um ... the complete streets is a
policy put in place to, uh, realize long-term cost savings and improve public
health and reduce fuel consumption by contributing to walkable neighborhoods.
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Implementation of this policy, uh, will be through providing, or will be through
(mumbled) be by providing the .... for the needs of all users and abilities, in all
planning, design, construction, reconstruction, and maintenance activities within
the right-of-way. There are exceptions to this policy, but all exceptions must be
documented by the City engineer, uh, and include supporting data. The complete
streets policy specifies the design of the City's street network; will create a safe,
accessible connected grid for all users of all ages and abilities; and will also
specifies that CIP projects, including.... or, sorry, all CIP projects will incorporate
complete streets facilities, including, uh, but not limited to sidewalk, ADA
compliant curb ramps and bus stops, and bike facilities. Uh, the success of this
plan as stated in the ... in the policy is measured in miles of bike lanes, linear feet
of pedestrian accommodations, and the number of projects in which street
(mumbled) excuse me, street trees are planted. As part of the public outreach, uh,
process, the design team developed a number of alternatives, all showing
sidewalk and bike lanes, um, along the corridor. This was done to encourage
discussion on the various design elements we are discussing tonight. Um, it's also
much easier to remove elements, uh, than it is to add them later on in the design
process. So we tried to be upfront and encourage that discussion, uh, early rather
than late. Um .... the design alternatives were presented to neighbors and local
stakeholders at three public meetings. Uh, these meetings focused on the first
residence adjacent to the sidewalk infill area. The second residence on Rochester,
directly impacted by a project construction, and third just general, uh, project
area. The project team collected comments on multiple items, including traffic
speeds, uh, construction phasing, pedestrian safety, and others, but tonight we'd
like to mainly focus on the three listed here — bicycle facilities, the center tum
lane, and sidewalk infill. The bicycle facilities identified in the bike master plan,
um, are .... and you probably can't see this cause it's really small .... and hard to
read. But (laughs) they are recommended that bike lanes to be incorporated with
new construction, reconstruction along this corridor. Minimal negative continents
were received regarding the addition of these bicycle facilities. However, there
was some discussion regarding need, um, for on -street bike facilities and possibly
constructing a wide sidewalk, uh, in place of that. However, due to the limited
right-of-way width, and if you remember back to the project goals, completing all
the design elements within the existing right-of-way, this was limit ... or this was
ruled out. Next is the center tum lane. Uh, as part of the preliminary design
process, a consultant completed or was asked to complete a traffic study to
evaluate the need for a center tum lane. Um, the results from the study show that
Rochester would continue to operate efficiently as a two-lane section; however,
neighbors stated that they, urn .... use that center turn lane to access their
driveways and expressed some concern about the increased risk of rear -end
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collisions and if the center .... if the center turn lane was removed. Um, as part of
the evaluation, we did look at, uh, other similar corridors. For example, First
Avenue, um, is a similar corridor with more traffic volume. Um, there's others,
such as Benton and Court Street, and based on that, uh, we concluded that, um,
there's no reason to believe that there'd be a significant increase in rear -end
collisions. Uh, I should also, um, state that, um, typically with a slower speed,
such as what's on Rochester — 25 miles an hour — you don't typically see the
frequency and severity of, uh, accidents. Um, I should also clarify that the portion
of Rochester from Rita Lyn Court to First Avenue would remain a three -lane
section. Um, just due to the, uh, school and turning movements into, uh, the
school, and at First Avenue. The final, uh, design element we'd like to talk about
tonight is the sidewalk. The majority of neighbors immediately adjacent to the
infill areas were objected to the addition of sidewalk for, uh, the following
reasons, again this is a synopsis, um, but these are kind of the main focus, uh,
what we feel kind of we can address. The lack of need for additional sidewalk,
difficulty accessing and maintaining the sidewalk, and the loss of mature trees.
When discussing the project in general, uh, neighbors expressed concern about
high traffic speeds and unsafe pedestrian crossing conditions. Uh, some
neighbors believe improved pedestrian crossings should be implemented in place
of sidewalk infill. However, these elements may help, but are not consistent with
complete streets. Uh, based on the characteristics of the corridor, um, Rochester
and the project being located less than a mile from downtown serving as that
connection to the University, with Regina and businesses at the First Avenue
intersection, um, the, uh, staff believes that additional sidewalk is warranted in
this area. The item of, uh.... difficult accessing and maintaining the sidewalk, uh,
neighbors were concerned about accessing a new sidewalk, if it were to be
constructed at street level, because the grade separation between the street and
their backyards. Um .... an option that the, uh, design team is looking at is an
elevated sidewalk, similar to what's on First Avenue. Uh, the First Avenue grade
separation project has a retaining wall with a sidewalk on top and a handrail along
there. Urn...... this is a picture of it, however, in this instance there would not be a
retaining wall behind the sidewalk. We'd simply grade to match what's there.
Um, the wall height for this option would be six to eight feet at the tallest point.
The other concern was maintaining the sidewalk. Um, however, there's similar
areas of double -fronted properties around the city. Uh, for instance First Avenue,
Sycamore Street, and some others where the residents are respan ... responsible for
maintaining both the sidewalk in their frontage and at the rear. Um, there are a
few exceptions to this. Uh, for example, Dubuque Street, Bella Vista, uh, near the
Park Road intersection. There's a severe, uh, grade separation, and those residents
are not responsible for clearing their walks. Final concern that I'll be talking
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about tonight is the loss of mature trees. Um, neighbors expressed, uh.... a lot of
concern about the removal of excessive.... or excessive tree removal. Um, and I'm
just gonna preface this too that, uh, currently, cause we're not into design, um, this
is very preliminary. We're working with the tree inventory and would need more
information about the trees on private property; however, um, it is assumed at this
point that there will be, uh, potentially some impact to trees on private property,
but again they're only assumed at this point and we'll need to get into design to
identify all those in greater detail. Urn ... City staff has consulted, uh, since the
meetings with the Iowa DNR and the City Forestry Division, uh, to identify and
evaluate potential impacts to trees. The inventory identified 35 trees in the right-
of-way that would be potentially impacted by sidewalk infill, comprising of 13
different species and sizes ranging from three inches to 30 -plus inches in
diameter. Of these 35 trees, ub, 30 were determined to be voluntary, invasive, or
have structural issues, um, or low quality trees, and five were identified as
desirable. Uh, there are five European large trees, uh, between 7th Avenue and
Rochester Court. Uh, they are a unique species, with only 14 in the tree
inventory. These trees range in size, these large trees range in size from 18 inches
to 30 inches in diameter, and are good to fair quality. So .... going back to the
complete streets policy and the exceptions, um, does this qualify as an
environmental exception. Urn .... when considering the tree quality and species,
staff feels the benefits of constructing a sidewalk, um, outweigh the impacts of the
tree clearing. Uh, Forestry staff also recommends, uh, completing at least a on-
to -one replacement with native species. Urn .... and use this opportunity to plant
street trees, which is also a measure of success in the complete streets policy.
Finally, uh, our recommendation, City staff is recommending Council proceed
with the following design elements — sidewalk on both sides of the street, on -
street bicycle facilities, a three -lane section from First Avenue to Rita Lyn Court,
and a two-lane section from Rita Lyn Court to Ralston Creek. That concludes my
presentation. Any questions?
Thomas: What were the (clears throat) on .... could you turn back to this section? Uh, what
are the dimensions that are proposed for the, uh, on the .... well they look a little
bit different, um .... the sidewalk widths and the parkway between the curb and the
sidewalk, what.... what are the widths that you're proposing for that?
Reichart: So, uh, currently we show a five foot sidewalk, or six foot sidewalk. Um, the
sidewalk on the south side will depend on the alternative we select, whether it's a
sidewalk at street level or a side .... an elevated sidewalk, um, and also the
parkway width on the south side would be determined at that point as well. Uh,
we have some flexibility in where we can position that, depending on what option
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Page 16
we choose. The north side, we have a little bit more flexibility and again I think
the intent, um .... of meeting the complete streets policy would be to plant, uh,
street trees. So we would shoot for, uh, six foot width parkway on the north side.
Uh, that seems to give those trees a little more chance of success, uh, cause they
have a little more room to grow.
Thomas: Thanks.
Mims: Of those 35 trees that you said varied from three inches to 30 inches, do you have
any .... can you give us any numbers, like are 30 of'em 30 inches or....
Reichart: (mumbled) excuse me, 14 of those trees are less than six inches in diameter, with
three of them being candidates for replanting; 12 are between six and 12 inches in
diameter. So 26 of the 35 are less than a foot in diameter. There are two trees
between 12 and 18 inches, two trees between 18 and 24, three trees between 24
and 30, and two trees between .... or that are larger than 30 inches in diameter. I
will say that, um .... of the two trees that are larger than 30 inches in diameter, one
is a maple that has very poor structure and has been identified as needing to be
removed, regardless of if we move forward with this project or not. I guess...
Salih: You said .... you propose that you gonna do like some kind of elevate .... you
elevate the sidewalk, the same thing like in First Avenue? (both talking)
...picture?
Reichart: Yep.
Salih: And is this also (mumbled) going to be like same thing by the residence, if you
have it like this?
Reichart: That would, yeah, that would be the intent. Um .... the concern of the grade
separation would be removed if we have an elevated sidewalk. This elevated
sidewalk would then be at or close to the same grade of their backyards.
Thomas: So could you clarify that again, the sidewalk would .... the construction would be
paid for by the City, but the maintenance of the sidewalk, in terms of snow
removal .... (several talking)
Reichart: Yeah, on the homeowners.
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Thomas: Do you have any idea what the cost of the, uh, retaining walls and ... the work that
would go into this?
Reichart: Yeah. (turned away from mic) Do we have a number? We have a rough number.
Culver: My name is Troy Culver. I work for Snyder & Associates. We're the consultant
working for the City. We've done some very preliminary looks at the cost. Um,
the scenario with the elevated sidewalk on top is the most expensive option, as
you might imagine. Um, we're looking at somewhere probably on top of
$300,000 for the retaining wall and sidewalks to be included.
Thomas: And the guardrail, is that ... does that include the guardrail as well?
Culver: Yeah, the handrail that would be on top, yes.
Thomas: So it would have to be a guardrail over a certain height, correct?
Culver: Well, urn ..... maybe wordsmithing. Guardrail we would use for a roadway
protection. This would be a.....for pedestrian, so handrail.
Thomas: But .... (several talking) fall height issue that at a certain point is triggered, that
requires a more robust.... guardrail (several talking)
Reichart: Yeah, it would be....it would be similar to what's shown (both talking)
Culver: Right, something like that.
Bergus: And just to clarify, the elevated sidewalk design, the primary benefit of that, or
the reason for looking at that design, is to match the grade of the sidewalk with
the backyards for.... primarily convenience or.....
Reichart: Yep, yep, for access and maintenance, to try to alleviate that issue.
Salih: For the area that needed the sidewalk, before that was a sidewalk (mumbled) like
this sidewalk will connect?
Reichart: Yes.
Salih: Okay, like people will walk, but there is no sidewalk here. They go to the street,
and again they come to the sidewalk.
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Reichart:
Salih:
Reichart:
Salih:
Reichart:
Salih:
So currently (several talking) let me go (several talking) so yeah, so.... (both
talking)
That the current one, right?
Sorry, yeah, so in this exhibit. I know it's a little hard to see, but the yellow and
green line ... is the sidewalk infill area.
Uh huh.
So the yellow line indicates the areas where there's grade separation. So,
uh.... this picture.
I see.
Reichart: So the .... the yard elevations are higher than the street elevations. This is where
we would propose to, uh, install the, um, the elevated sidewalk, um, or a retaining
wall, um, and then the other.... green area is at -grade. So that would just be
sidewalk, no retaining wall.
Salih: Yeah, and it will be continue sidewalk for (both talking)
Reichart: ...exactly.
Thomas: So the .... the residential concern is more .... west of Ashwood? Is that correct?
Reichart: Yeah, between 7th and Ashwood is the .... is the main area of concern. (both
talking)
Bergus: You mentioned....
Reichart: ...difficult to design for because of the grade separation.
Bergus: You mentioned the goal of having this all within the existing right-of-way. Are
we meeting that with the proposed designs?
Reichart: Uh huh.
Bergus: Okay.
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Reichart: There would be obviously some temporary construction easements that would be
involved with this, but yes, the .... all the permanent improvements would be
within the existing right-of-way.
Bergus: So the City already has that right-of-way access on this southern side where the
sidewalk does not exist.
Reichart: Yep.
Bergus: Okay.
Mims: In terms of ongoing maintenance, am I correct that the .... the property owners
only liability is the snow removal, and obviously pavement repair like all property
owners have, but if there's any problems with retaining walls or anything like that
in the future, is that City responsibility?
Reichart: That would be the City. And the.... actually I don't know how we would do the...
the structural sidewalk on the retaining wall. I don't know if that would be ... cause
the only real example that I can think of in the city is First Avenue, and obviously
we haven't had any issues with that yet, as it's a new project. So that could be a...
a point of discussion.
Teague: Any other questions? All right. Thank you.
Reichart: Thank you.
Teague: And I know that we have some residents that wanted to address this as well. I
r
understand that there's five and there's a presentation that they wanted to do and,
um .... we ask that public comment is no more ... no longer than five minutes per
person, and I think you all are well aware of that, and if there's anyone else that
would like to address this topic, you'll also be, uh, you're also welcomed as well.
(talking in background) And I'll ask you to state your name, and then there's also,
um, a place there where you write it. Oh, you brought (laughs) the sticker!
Great!
Jones: Mayor Teague and Members of the City Council, my name is Nancy Jones. Um,
several of us who are residents of Rochester Court are here this evening to urge
you not to approve a sidewalk on the south side of Rochester as part of the
Rochester Avenue reconstruction project. Before beginning our remarks, we'd
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Page 20
like to thank staff and the City Clerk's office for giving us an opportunity to put
five comment periods together to allow a more coherent neighborhood response.
We'd also like to thank Jason Reichart and others in the City's Engineer office.
While we have differing views, the Engineering staff has been helpful and
courteous in their interactions with us. We were not surprised to see that City
engineers recommended a sidewalk on the south side of Rochester. In their
neighborhood meetings, the engineers were very clear that their job is to
implement policy, not to make policy or to make exceptions to policy. Their job
was to put forth a recommendation that was consistent with the complete streets
policy. We understand that Iowa City has a complete streets policy for a reason.
All things being equal, street design should be equitable and consistent and
support broader City goals, such as being bike friendly and pedestrian friendly.
But all situations are not equal. And not all situations warrant similar treatment.
That's why we have a city council after all. To exercise judgment and to make
sure that we implement solutions that make logical and fiscal sense. In the short
time we have, we hope to convince all of you that the proposed sidewalk on the
south side of Rochester makes no sense by any City yardstick. Sidewalks serve
people and businesses. In residential areas they connect driveways and streets.
Iowa City has about 262 miles of center -lined roads and 35 streets which are
classified as arterials. Most of the arterials have sidewalks on both sides because
it makes sense to put them there given the terrain or pedestrian traffic. Now, let's
look at why there isn't a tra.... a sidewalk on the south side of Rochester. For
orientation, this slide shows the area we'll be talking about this evening, this long
block of Rochester. All the property along the south side of this stretch consists of
backyards that are connected to homes on Rochester Court. Now Rochester Court
comes off Rochester at this point, then swings down and runs parallel to
Rochester Avenue here. Okay? All the properties we're talking about have
Rochester Court addresses. All their driveways come off Rochester Court. You
see those along here. None are off of Rochester Avenue. 7th Avenue is here,
leading north to a residential neighborhood and Hickory Hill Park, and south to
the City High area. Ashwood Drive is over here, with Regina some distance to
the east. Also note all the trees along this stretch, including five historic
Tamarack larches at one of the Rochester Court addresses. Later we'll show a
slide from the 1930s with the same larches pictured. The distance between
Rochester Court and Ashwood is 283 yards, almost three football fields. For
arterials through residential areas it is one of the longest stretches in Iowa City
without any driveways or any intersecting streets. There is a very steep bank
along the road on the south, uh, on this side, more than 10 feet high in places. So
a sidewalk would require retaining wall along almost the whole distance, and
because of the steep bank, affected residents would have no access to a sidewalk
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Page 21
from their properties. The affected residents would never use the sidewalk, in
other words. Let's see what a retaining wall would look like. For a street level
sidewalk, the only comparable height wall is a short 50 foot section on Dodge
Street, south of Iowa Avenue. I drive by this wall when I go to work and I
remember any number of times over the years when it was covered with graffiti.
The only example of a longer wall is a new one on Dubuque Street, north of
Brown Street, which is about 45 yards long. For a Rochester sidewalk imagine a
wall six times as long and twice as high going through a residential area with little
foot traffic. The only example in Iowa City of a raised sidewalk, which is one of
the options, is the 140 yard stretch on First Avenue for the railroad underpass.
Imagine a raised sidewalk twice as long and also imagine, as we will discuss in a
later section, the cost and effort required for homeowners to do snow removal on
such a sidewalk when they have no access to the sidewalk from their properties.
The retaining walls in these three slides make sense because of the high
pedestrian volumes in their areas and because the sidewalks are accessible for
maintenance. Neither factor pertains to the proposed sidewalk and retaining wall
along Rochester. In the rest of our neighborhood presentation, we will focus on
three main points. One, safety; two, sidewalk maintenance and snow removal;
and three, backyard privacy and tree loss, followed by a brief concluding
statement. Now Michael Hovland will discuss the issue of safety.
Hovland: My name is Michael Hovland (clears throat) I live on 1808 Rochester Court.
Aside from the goal of following the City's complete streets plan, pedestrian
safety was presented by the engineers as the primary reason for installing a
sidewalk on the south side of Rochester. Of course safety is important, but if
safety is a major concern for the project, then it's important to discuss who
actually would be safer with the new sidewalk. Let's start by looking at who
actually crosses the street now. The biggest people need to cross Rochester or any
other arterial in town is getting to City bus stops. The Rochester bus route alone
has 16 bus stops at uncontrolled intersections. That is ones without stop signs or
traffic signals. According to Iowa City Transit officials, the Rochester bus route
averaged 264 daily riders in the last fiscal year. If you live south of Rochester and
wanna take the bus into town, you have to cross Rochester to get to west bound
buses. If you live north of Rochester, you have to cross the street when you go
home, on east bound buses. A new sidewalk does nothing to make it safer for bus
riders to cross the street. Who else needs to cross Rochester? Students going to
and from school. Any students living in the areas north of Rochester have to cross
Rochester most likely at 7th to get to City High. Any students living south of
Rochester have to cross Rochester to get to Regina. Currently there is a crossing
guard mornings and afternoons at the Ashwood intersection which is the primary
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crossing point for Regina students. A new sidewalk does nothing to make it safer
for the many students who have to cross Rochester. Who else needs to cross
Rochester? 7th Avenue is the primary pedestrian entrance to Hickory Hill Park.
And there's a lot of foot traffic, especially people with dogs, crossing Rochester
from areas to the south. A new sidewalk does nothing to make it safer for the
many dog walkers who have to cross Rochester to get to Hickory Hill Park.
What do all of these groups of pedestrians have in common? None of their road
crossings require a sidewalk! They're simply crossing the street, and a new
sidewalk on the south side of Rochester does nothing to promote the safety of the
bus riders, the students, the dog walkers, or almost any other group. There's one
very small group of pedestrians, probably fewer than a couple dozen a day that
the City engineers classify as 'pass-through' walkers. Let's look at this small
group, because there's no sidewalk on the south side of Rochester, across from
Regina, pass-throughs heading west would always start on the north side, which
does have a sidewalk. Those heading east can cross Rochester anywhere from the
beginning point of Rochester to 7th Avenue. If the small number of pass-throughs
know they're going to a destination on the north side of Rochester, why would
they start on the south side? And if they do need to cross, they can walk across
the street like all the dozens of other people who have to cross Rochester at
unprotected intersections every day. I cross Rochester every day to and from
work. And I also cross it most days in the summer on, when I head off on my
bike, and we can see the existing sidewalk from our kitchen windows. There's
simply very few pass-throughs, aside from a few joggers, dog walkers, and an
occasional pedestrian. So what is the primary safety issue? Um....it....it has to
do with things that can be addressed relatively simply in cost, uh, effectively. Uh,
the big problem we have is, you know, uh, speed going west bound down the hill.
People don't go 25 miles an hour. They go 40 miles an hour. This is an example
of a solar -powered speed monitor on 7th Avenue south of Glendale, which would
help with that. It doesn't eliminate it. Um, the other sys... situation, um, University
across from the Pentacrest recently installed solar powered motion detector,
flashing lights on the Pentacrest, um, when students start to walk across the
streets, it starts flashing the lights. There's a similar one on Park Road at Ferson,
where there is a pedec .... pedestrian -activated, urn .... crossing flasher at that ... at
that point. All of these inexpensive .... $300,000 for a sidewalk! These things are
real solutions to actual problems that we have in our neighborhood. Next I'd like
to introduce Deb Scott -Miller, who will discuss the issue of sidewalk maintenance
in the summer and winter.
Scott -Miller: Good evening. I'm Deb Scott -Miller. We live at 1820 Rochester Court. If a
sidewalk is installed, how would we homeowners maintain our grass boulevards
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Page 23
in the summer and sidewalks in the winter? Uh, the option of an elevated
sidewalk was not shared with residents so I will address the lower sidewalk for us.
Because of the steep bank along the affected area, the only access to our sections
of the boulevard or sidewalk would either be from Rochester Court intersection or
from Ashwood. Here's how far that is in yards for each of our residence. For
Keith and I, we live at 1820 Rochester Court, and we would have to walk our land
mower 281 yards or almost three football fields in length, just to get to our section
of the sidewalk. Our neighbor, our homeowner at 1816 Rochester Court has over
331 yards. Is there any other neighborhood in town where the homeowners have
to walk that far to maintain the boulevards of their sidewalks? The situation for
clearing snow in the winter is almost impossible. If you have a normal sidewalk
on a street facing house, you can easily access your sidewalk from your driveway.
But because none of us have driveways on the south side of Rochester, there
would be no way to get a snow blower on to the sidewalk, except from the two
ends. Think of the logistics of making that happen. Every section of the sidewalk
would have to be cleared in sequential order, starting with the two ends. Because
the City requires that the sidewalk snow be cleared within 24 hours of a snow fall
of one inch or more, the only practical way to remove the snow would be to hire a
company to do it. We have gotten an estimate from All Seasons Snow Removal
in Iowa City who stated that they would charge $365 to remove the snow from the
proposed length of the sidewalk, and if it needed ice treatment, even more than
that. For the 11 affected homeowners, each of us would be paying $33 every time
it snowed, or if snow or ice drifted back onto the sidewalk. It's not unreasonable
to think that in a normal winter we would have at least some sort of ice or snow
event every week that would require snow removal. That would be well over
$100 per homeowner per month, and that's on top of what many of the retired
homeowners on our block pay on fixed incomes just to clear their driveways and
front sidewalks. So they would be paying to clear a sidewalk that they never use.
And then where are we gonna put the snow? Because there's a high retaining wall
attached to the sidewalk, we'd have to throw the snow back into the street, which
would become hazard. We don't have a homeowners association, so if not every
household wanted to participate in snow removal, what would happen? Keith and
I are able-bodied and if we put on our snow boots and walked 280 yards to our
section of the sidewalk to hand shovel it and not pay our fee, it would then fall on
our probably more elderly and folks with fixed incomes in order to pay for that
snow removal, and that .... and with that they could be paying up to $200 a month,
on top of what they pay for their front sidewalks. We feel there's an equity issue
here. Are there any other neighborhoods in Iowa City where the (mumbled)
homeowners are mandated to hire a snow removal company? Or are there any
other neighborhoods in Iowa City with this kind of effort and expense to clear a
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Page 24
sidewalk and one that they will never use. Another question we have is what
about our home resale values? What kind of homeowner effect and expense
makes sense to support a tiny number of pass-through pedestrians who can cross
the street to an existing sidewalk on the other side. Now I'd like to introduce
Wakiza Gamez, who will discuss backyard privacy and loss of trees.
Gamez: Thank you. My name is Wakiza and I live in 1703 Rochester Court. Um, so I'll
be talking about, again, backyard privacy and the loss of the trees in this area.
Uh, there are 12,676 stand-alone or single-family homes in Iowa City. People
who live in these homes don't live in their front yards. They live in their
backyards. Throughout Iowa City neighborhoods the overwhelming norm is that
front yards border roadways and backyards ... uh, they either meet other backyards,
as you can see in the circle (mumbled) there. Um, or they abut alleys. In either
case, backyards are protected from street noise. This allows backyards to be the
private space that homeowners have for eating and recreation. We did an
inventory of all Iowa City neighborhoods and there are only a small number of
residences with front and rear of the homes are bounded by streets, especially
arterial streets. Uh, and our area is one of these. At present most of our
backyards have trees, hedges, and fences which protect us from the noise of a
busy street. If you take all the noise barriers away we have nowhere peaceful and
aesthetically pleasing to go on our properties to spend time outside. Um, and
getting to the other, the issue of the trees, uh, I know that was brought up earlier.
We estimate that at least 30 mature trees, including some unusual and historic
trees would need to be destroyed to provide room for a sidewalk and retaining
wall along this portion of Rochester Avenue. The root systems of other adjacent
trees would be seriously compromised in the process and might not survive long.
Uh, here's a .... see, a visual tour of Rochester from 7th to Ashwood. So you can
see, uh, what we would lose. That's kinda.... uh, yeah, that's starting at Rochester
Court. Um, so this is the house where I live, around, uh, and then the house next
door to it. There're the five large, rare, and historic Tamarack or European larches
that were discussed earlier, uh, between 7th Avenue and Rochester Court, that
survived the 2006 tornado that went through the Rochester, 7th Avenue
intersection. Um .... here are the same trees, uh, it's blurry, but uh, that's a shot
from the 1930s. A 1930s aerial shot when the area was mostly farmland. You
can ... you can't really see, but there were eight of those trees at the time, so five of
them have survived. Um, if the trees were that big in the 1930s, they may be 100 -
year old plus trees, we're not sure at this point, which could make them protected,
and we're looking into this possibility. Um .... let's see so the rest of the slides,
okay, this is 1718 Rochester Court. Just sort of progressing through. This is
1804, uh, 1808, uh, and this is where there's, uh, a large American elm, a large
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Page 25
black walnut, uh, hedge, and dozens of daylilies on the bank there. Uh, 1810
Rochester Court. 1812....1816.....1820.....1900 Rochester Court, uh, there's
1912 Rochester Court, uh, you can see one of the biggest sort of trees that we
have on the block where the bank begins to flatten out. That would obviously be
taken out by a sidewalk there. And then ... the last one is 1918 Rochester Court.
So all the trees and plantings you've seen in the last 12 slides are within the city
right-of-way and would all be removed for a sidewalk. Um, to me, uh, and
hopefully to most of you, it doesn't make any sense to destroy all the trees in a
300 -yard stretch, um, just out of proportion to the need and the scope of what the
City is trying to accomplish here. Um, this would also go against the City's policy
of having a more diversi.... diversified urban tree canopy. Iowa City currently has
2,000 ash trees that will need to be cut down in the next few years. The
University of Iowa campus has another 500 ash trees that will need to be cut
down, um, and if you drive east on Market Street, 13 ash trees have been recently
removed. So that's almost every tree on both sides of the street between Johnson
and Gilbert. All of these tree removals will transform Iowa City for a couple of
generations, and not in a good way. No one wants to take down the 2,500 ash
trees, but in this case we have no choice. Why would we choose to cut down 30
healthy mature trees to make room for a sidewalk that almost no one needs,
wants, or would use? With global warming and climate change, why would we
choose to cut down any of the trees if we don't have to? Um, and now Mila
Grady will make the, I guess the last concluding remarks here. Thank you.
Grady: Hi, I'm Mila Grady and I'm speaking on behalf of my mother who lives at 1804
Rochester Court. Her name's Mary Wasick. She's 91. Um, she was gonna come
tonight but the weather was, um, a little bit too difficult for her, especially because
she uses a walker. Um .... so if we've been successful in these 25 minutes, we will
con ... have convinced you that a sidewalk on the south side of Rochester is a
solution in search of a problem. We hope that you can look beyond the letter of
the law in the complete streets policy and in your capacity as City leaders, apply
judgment and common sense to this decision. There is no safety issue here. The
overwhelming majority of pedestrians who need to cross Rochester every day are
the bus riders and students and dog walkers who are crossing because they need to
get to the other side, not because they are passing through the neighborhood.
They will continue to cross the street, whether there is a new sidewalk or not.
However, we can make these daily crossings safer with the few inexpensive safety
tools already described. People often use the iconic scales of justice as a visual
representation of how we make difficult decisions between competing viewpoints.
Figuratively we put evidence on each side of the scale. And the preponderance of
evidence tips to one side or the other. With respect to the Rochester sidewalk
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Page 26
decision, imagine you are placing pro and con considerations on the scales of
justice. On one side put the destruction of almost all of the mature trees between
7th Avenue and Ashwood. Then, put in the cost of excavation, landscaping, and
construction. To build a 300 -yard long sidewalk and high concrete retaining wall
that will be a magnet for graffiti. Then add the cost to the City of reimbursing the
affected homeowners for trees that need to be destroyed. Then add the loss of
privacy and increased noise for affected residents. Many of whom will lose their
total privacy protection — trees, shrubs, and fences. Then add the extraordinary
cost and effort that would be required by the homeowners, many retired and on
fixed incomes, to maintain the grass buffer strips in the summer and do snow
removal in the winter for a sidewalk they will never use. Then in the other dish
put a pinch of convenience for the very small number of pass-through pedestrians
who don't really need a sidewalk when they can simply walk across the street like
all the other pedestrians who cross the street every day. The scales are pretty
lopsided. You could balance them simply by saying complete streets policy or
not, it makes no fiscal or common sense to put a sidewalk on the south side of
Rochester. Thankfully Iowa City is trying hard to be a green city and a carbon
neutral city. Trees sequester carbon and help us work toward carbon neutrality.
Building a sidewalk here and removing so many beautiful trees in the process
moves us further away from that goal. Is that what the City wants, especially with
all the ash trees that have already come down and all the many ash trees that need
to come down? Finally, Rochester Avenue is a gateway road from the east. What
values does Iowa City want to project to visitors and residents who enter the city
at this point? A quarter mile of concrete retaining wall that looks like this ... or
this .... or the alternative, a stretch of greenway with canopy trees, flowers, and
shrubs like this and this. That is the choice, and you can decide to make an
exception to the complete streets policy, if you believe, as we do, that this stretch
of Rochester is beautiful and merits protection. Thank you, Mayor Teague and
Members of the Council, for listening to our concerns and weighing them
carefully. At the very least, we hope that you will ask the Engineering staff to
calculate the cost of everything that would be required to put a sidewalk on the
south side. Then you can decide if it's worth the human and environmental costs
to do so, in exchange for so little benefit. Thank you so much for listening.
Teague: Thank you. Yes, please step up and .... yep!
Anderson: Hi, my name is Denise Anderson. I live at 200 Windsor Drive on the north side of
Rochester. I ... I just wanna say that I don't believe that the people who speed
through that section live there. They come off the interstate and then they drive
faster speeds, right up until First Avenue, and they don't wanna slow down, and...
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Page 27
if there's a safety issue, I would say that that would be it, and maybe we can slow
people down. Write tickets, get revenue, instead of spend that kind of money for
a wall. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you.
Rolnick: My name is Peter Rolnick and I live on the south side of Rochester, between
Ashwood and Rita Lyn. And, urn .... I appreciate the hard work that the City has
done and that Snyder Associates has done, and I've been to two of the
presentations and listened to them and listened to my neighbors, and first I wanna
say that I strongly support everything my neighbors on Rochester Court just said.
Um, so I .... I don't need to go into more detail about that. I've sent you each an
email in more detail of what I'm saying, except Coon.... Councilwoman Mims,
you didn't get one because your email on the web page bounced (laughs) so might
wanna (both talking)
Mims: ...check it, thanks!
Rolnick: Urn .... uh, so I .... so one of the things I had wanted to talk about was what they
talked about, but they did a great job, so I support them strongly Um, and I am
one of the people who often wants to walk from where I live to downtown. So I
am one of those walk-through people. And crossing the street is fine with me,
except I wanna say an exception here. The issue.... crossing the street is really
difficult at certain times of day. It's very dangerous. I cross the street all the time
to talk to my neighbor across the street, which I think is something you would
want to encourage. Um, but ... it's pretty dicey, because people speed and the speed
limit is not enforced. Uh.... also where I live and many people have this issue, we
have driveways that you can't turn around in. So you have to either back into
your driveway or back out of your driveway. You can't do it any other way. And
with three lanes, I can .... back, you know, stand there waiting to back into my
driveway and people can easily go around me, you know, while I'm waiting to get
a chance to turn in. If there are only two lanes, they'll have to wait behind me
until .... well, I don't know what's gonna happen, because if they pull right up
behind me, then I can't back in, and if the other side is fu ... full, you know, having
that third lane is really critical to being able to back into or back out of. So I think
you should keep that middle lane, even if it means making the sidewalks a little
smaller or the green, uh, parkway a little smaller. Of course I ... I want you to
make the parkway and the sidewalks ADA corn.... compatible, you know,
whatever the rule is, but maybe there's a minimum that you could do that would
allow you to keep that middle lane. Uh, I am very happy to see a sidewalk on the
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south side, between Ashwood and, ub, Rita Lyn, because I .... I use that all the
time, and I've been craving a sidewalk ever since we moved in there. So I'm
happy to see that and great! But .... uh, the problem with the sidewalk along where
the Rochester Court people live, I think can be easily addressed, as they
suggested, and also that this would help the safety issue tremendously if you put
in a push button walk signal at Ashwood and Rochester, and at 7th and Rochester.
That would make it so anyone who wants to walk from downtown to First
Avenue, or First Avenue to downtown, they can start on either side. If they wanna
switch sides when they get to that place, they can push button, cross safely,
and .... no one has to maintain that extra sidewalk. I don't know how the cost of
putting in those push button walk signals compares to the cost of building that
gigantic retaining wall, but I'm .... well, I don't know how .... how those compare,
but something you might want to look at. Um .... so those are my comments, and
in general I urge you to be flexible here. I strongly support the complete streets
policy in spirit. I think trying to force it to the letter here is a mistake that will...
that is not wor...worth it. So .... thank you.
Teague: Thank you, Peter.
Roehrle: Hello.
Teague: Hello.
Roehrle: Um, my name's Eric Roehrle. I live at 1718 Rochester Avenue. I'm on the north
side, so basically not directly affected by the sidewalk running up the south side,
except, uh, I do have to look at the south side. Um, and the idea of a .... eight foot
retaining wall doesn't seem as attractive as .... a green space. Um, there's no
access to the property and from looking at the volume of people, with the
pedestrians going north and south, uh, it's very small number of people that are
walking up and down ... uh, Rochester. Uh, the students have to get to Regina, and
crossing at 7th or up at Ashwood, where there's a crossing guard during school
times, seems to be perfectly adequate. My one concern would be that kids, you
know, jaywalk, sometimes don't use the crosswalks, and people don't do 25 miles
an hour down that hill. So that to me if there's a sidewalk on the ... on the south
side, people are gonna create a safety issue with the possibility of people
jaywalkin' or you know runnin' across the street, uh, with ... with the traffic.
Whereas it's a pretty clear intersection at 7th. Uh.... and the .... the three lanes
does help people getting in and out of the driveways. Um, so it would seem to me
that by not putting the sidewalk on the south side, uh.... you could rearrange
things. The bike lanes are definitely a thing that's needed, but that by not having
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to have that extra space, you know, you could.... shuffle everything around and
possibly, uh, arrange things, you know, to get it to accommodate everything, and I
just don't think the, uh, expense (mumbled) what you all said was, you know,
terrific, but they... about the, um, people tryin' to clear the sidewalk, um, it's
definitely a job that has to be done and it's not easy and if you can't get to the
sidewalk, it's even worse. So, yeah, that's, uh, that's my comment, um, about the
expense and the, uh, trouble of having a sidewalk on that side of the street, on the
south side. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you! And, Kellie, I see you're writin' down names, but I do wanna remind
people to definitely sign in and state your name.
Soglin: Good evening, I'm Becky Soglin. I live on Rita Lyn Court for the past 10 years
with my husband. Um, and we appreciated that we got to meet with, um, the City
staff and Snyder Associates on the 16th and learn about the project. And I'm here
just, uh, primarily to address the section from, uh, Ashwood to Rita Lyn Court, the
one that you saw the section in green which it sounds like there's not a lot of
disagreement about. Um, and we would hope you would put a sidewalk there.
Uh, we understand or recognize our neighbors' concerns about that other, the
other segment further down. I think they've raised a lot of important points, but if
you could keep that sidewalk from Rita Lyn Court to Ashwood, that allows us....
that's the fastest way to get downtown if you are already on that south side, or
even if you cross from north to south. The fastest way to get downtown is down
Ashwood to Glendale, cause if you're staying on Rochester all the way, you're
adding quite.... you're adding actually a few blocks, and that's the way most of us
go. I have .... I sometimes end up walking and at night I don't warm cross over
again, to, you know, I would have to cross to the north side, walk by the woods.
Um, I actually, just anecdotally can say I know somebody who, uh, with their
children does not like walking past those ... on the sidewalk at night by the woods,
um, they would like to be able to walk on the south side. Um, so ... cause
otherwise then you have to cross again. So we would appreciate there, and I
realize this is about the main facilities of the .... the lane, the sidewalk, um, but
you've heard a bit about the speed and having lived there as long as I have, I
would suggest that if the speed can be reduced from Mt. Vernon to First Avenue
from 35 to 25, that that I think would go a long way to getting those vehicles to
slow down because you can be going 35 around that curve. Some of you are
familiar with it. There's a curve on Rochester. You're supposed to be going 25
there. So you're always... already having to slow down for that, especially when
you're inbound. So why not just make that 25, I think again it would go a long
way to keeping that .... that, uh, area safe. So thank you for your time!
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Teague: Thank you, Becky.
Wu: Hello there, uh, Austin Wu, UISG City Liaison. Uh,I would just like to speak
briefly in favor of, uh, in support of the proposed bike lanes on Rochester. Um,
I've biked on Rochester a few rimes. Even though I don't live in the area, um, I
dog sit somewhat frequently there. So often going to and from gigs or houses
I'll ... I'll go on there. Um, and I would like to second other residents concerns
about speed. Um, it can be a little daunting going, um, having cars whizzing past.
Right now the center turn lane is kinda nice for cars to go past, and um .... passing
bicyclists (mumbled) see very easily, um, maybe a less experienced cyclists or a
child might be more apprehensive about getting on, um, in the current position.
So having that dedicated infrastructure and an integrated network is really crucial
for getting people out of their cars and onto their bicycles, uh, so I'd just like to
support that segment of the project. Thanks!
Teague: Thank you. Anyone else would like to address this topic?
Sueppel: I'm Paul Sueppel. I live at 2103 Rochester. So I'm in the .... green section, I
believe, right? So the green section on the map. So we know we're getting a
sidewalk in our portion of the .... of Rochester, and it makes sense. Um, all the
people on Rochester Court really doesn't make sense. If you watch the walking
pedestrians going by there, they are not going to be going down the hill. There's
no reason for them to be doing that and ... and these guys, it's really putting them
out. Um ... those of us up in our section, we're all (clears throat, turns away from
mic) as Peter said, Peter, very happy (laughs) uh, very happy to be getting a
sidewalk in our area. Um, it's good, it'll go down to Ashwood, and makes sense
for people to turn there to head to City High, the people coming from that
neighborhood, coming up to Regina, and they do have, um, the proper crossing
guards in those two places for the kids to cross over. Um, they're stating that
there's not enough traffic for a third turning lane. I think that probably means that
there's not enough traffic for them to, uh, have problems crossing the street. So
that's just my two cents.
Teague: Thank you. All right. (mumbled) .....wanna have some Council discussion, and
so .... thoughts here?
Mims: Well I will just say, I mean in general when staff has come forward with designs
and particularly with our policy of complete streets I've been, you know, fully
supportive of that. I think we've heard, at least I feel, um .... I've heard some really
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compelling arguments, um, from the neighbors in terms of why in that section
between 7th and Ashwood, it .... we don't necessarily need (mumbled) like I said, I
typically come in pretty supportive of following our .... our complete streets
policy. And I appreciate your compliments to staff, that they are doing their job.
They're implementing policy that as Council we have voted on and so it's not...
it's not their position to make those changes. Um, I ... I guess for me the things that
concern me most, and I'll be interested to hear what fellow Council Members
have to say, is ... is one, how long of a block that is. And what that means in terms
of access to that sidewalk for property owners, residents, um, either for the snow
removal, um, or from.... depending on whether it's an elevated sidewalk or not,
um, or also potentially having to get around there with a mower, if it's a low
sidewalk and you've got grass between the sidewalk and the street. Um, I realize
we do have a few other areas, and staff showed that, where we have those kinds of
situations in town. Um .... but they're few, and I think in many of those cases, um,
one, they're flat, which makes that easier. When I look at this ... I personally don't
like the .... the retaining walls. I don't .... I don't think in general there's a beautiful
retaining wall and (laughs) and certainly not compared to the picture that's up on
screen right now. I know you can't see it as well, but the daylilies, um, and so
when we talk about that that is .... is an entry into the community. We have a lot of
people that get off the interstate out on the east side and come in through. I'm
concerned about the trees that would be removed, even though a lot of them, you
know, maybe be voluntary We've got some that need to come out anyways, um,
you know that's.... that's quite a few trees that I realize, you know, 14 of 'em. are
under six inches, but you start getting six inches and above in some of those really
big ones. If they don't have to come out .... and there's not a huge benefit for them
to come out, it's hard for me to support that. So I'm interested to hear what other
people say, but I'll have to say I'm ... I'm really leaning towards, um, supporting
what the individuals that live on Rochester Court are saying and not putting in
that sidewalk between 7th and Ashwood. So....
Salih: When I hear the presentation by the staff, I was really moved by it and I think like
it makes sense to connect sidewalk over there and sidewalk over here with a
sidewalk, but really after I hear the residents and like see all those beautiful
picture with all this greens and everything, and also I wasn't really picturing it like
where it is ... the house is really high and how you have to do this. It doesn't come
like click on my mind until you guys (unable to understand) the presentation,
which is makes sense to me. Uh, and I .... I, it's really completely making sense to
me not to put any sidewalk there and uh, also all the solution, retaining wall, look
ugly as .... Mims said. You know, this beautiful flowers can never been compared
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to the like this retaining wall. I will be support the residents not to put sidewalk
there.
Thomas: Yeah I (clears throat) this is a .... we've had, and they were shown, some of these
conditions were shown in other parts of the city where retaining walls have gone
in. So I too feel we .... I certainly, in ideal circumstances sidewalks on both sides
make perfect sense. Um, but I think we do need to allow ourselves some latitude
when conditions on the ground suggest a different direction, and sometimes that
can just be achieved simply by allowing a certain amount of latitude in the
minimum dimensions for the sidewalk and for the setback parkway area, um, but
in this case it does seem that all things considered that that section between 7th
and Ashwood, uh, and I learned a new term tonight — the pass-through circulation.
(laughs) That was something I hadn't heard before. Um, it .... it, if this were in a
more urban condition I would say yes, maybe having sidewalks on both sides are
required, but in this location it just doesn't seem to be necessary. Um, it sort of
speaks to the issue that can develop when you have a .... a, you know, property that
the back side fronts on a major arterial. That's kind of an unusual condition, and
here I think it was driven by the topography, basically, and uh.... it has become
kind of a charming landscaped edge, uh, which I think is something that adds
character to that part of Iowa City. So I'm, you know, feeling, um, gosh, as .... as
you tried to explain in your presentation, the cost benefit on this seems to favor,
uh, keeping things the way they are on, um, on that stretch. I ... I .... I do think the
larger issue here for me with regard to safety is the crossing issue, and it will be
improved, uh, with the bike lanes, uh, and the removal of the center turn lane,
because you'd have less traffic lane, you'd have just the two travel lanes and not
three. Uh, and the .... the bike lanes would set traffic away from, you know,
the .... the curb, which I think has a benefit. I .... the .... the suggestions that the
residents made of having a kind of a pedestrian activated crossing I think is worth
exploring. Urn .... I do tend to think on an arterial, um, the one .... and yet there's
the one on Park Road. When a car is going over a certain speed, it can be .... it's
less likely to slow down when such a thing is activated. Um, I .... I certainly think
this is a good candidate for trying that, um, but I would also suggest, uh, there are
progressive approaches we could take if we found that that approach did not
work, uh, there are other .... other ways of, sort of improving the safety through
what is I believe called a'hawk beacon.' It's a pedestrian oriented signal which
actually requires the vehicles to stop. So ... this to me seems like a potential
opportunity on Rochester, because as was noted, you also have the topography
speeding up vehicles that are west bound. Urn .... but in any event, I think it's
crossing the street that's more the issue because you do have Regina, City High,
Hickory Hill Park, many destinations along that corridor where people will be
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crossing. So, uh, I think again just min .... let's minimize the impact of the project,
make it cost effective, and then address pedestrian safety, uh, with a crossing.
Teague: I had a question for staff, relating to the .... do we have to widen the road, at all,
or .... I know there will be some repair.
Reichart: Yeah, the current, uh, plan we show, and again this would depend on the on -street
bike facilities that we choose, but it'd be 11 foot lanes, a wide bike lane, um, six
feet. So we would, um, widen the street three feet.
Teague: And that ... and that'll be (both talking) Okay. Because I know that we're goin'
down to two lanes somewhere, but ... I guess specifically between 7th and
Ashwood, would that .... that would be widened as well?
Reichart: That's, yeah, that's the one .... even though we're going to two lanes would be
wider, because of the bike lanes.
Mims: So what's that gonna do ... if we're increasing curb to curb by three feet....
Reichart: There's still potential impacts to the trees along the corridor.
Thomas: Could we not explore, and I know we've talked about this before, where we would
have a bike lane adjacent to a travel lane, correct?
Reichart: And that's .... and that's what we're looking at. So ... either way, because it's a
transit corridor with buses, our recommendation would be 11 foot lanes, or a 10
foot lane with a buffer.
Thomas: Right. I ... I would .... which we .... we'd require widening the street to get the buffer
in there?
Reichart: Yep.
Thomas: Okay.
Reichart: So either way....
Thomas: Well I would .... I would.... personally prefer having the narrower lane with the
buffer as the.... allowing for the bus (both talking)
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Reichart: And that would be part of the negotiations with the bike group too, see what their
preference would be.
Mims: So is that additional width gonna come on the north side, the south side of the
street or .... since we're not actually in the design phase, do you know yet?
Reichart: I don't (several talking in background) It, yeah, right now it would be
symmetrical. I think there would be the potential to .... to look at alignment, but I
mean .... given the limited right-of-way width, we'd be pretty limited.
Mims: Okay.
Reichart: Especially if we're looking at planting additional street trees and stuff too. So...
Mims: So if we don't go with the sidewalk in that stretch, between 7th and Ashwood, on
the south side .... we're gonna have fairly limited impact then on those properties?
On those banks and trees that are already there?
Reichart: Yep. With the pavement widening and then there will be some utility, water main
work in that area as well. But .... it'd be, yeah, with no sidewalk it's obviously a
much, uh, less of an impact than if we were to construct a sidewalk with a
retaining wall.
Mims: Okay.
Teague: I had one more question. Re .... related to the elevations, so, urn .... from people's
backyard, will it be level to their backyards?
Reichart: Yeah, it would be at or close to the same level. The elevated sidewalk would be at
or close to the same level as their backyards.
Teague: Okay.
Reichart: And that's why we proposed that option as an alternative, to address that access
and maintenance issue.
Teague: Okay. Thank you!
Reichart: Yep.
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Teague: All right. So, yeah, I guess for me, um, I wanted to know like, you know, if we
were widening the streets because of some of the things that you all definitely, uh,
mentioned. Um, I .... you know, I think, uh, the Councilors have said it best as far
as like between 7th and Ashwood. It doesn't, uh, at this point, um, seem like that's
the route that we should go, that we kind of leave it, uh, without a sidewalk there.
I do think that there needs to be some more exploration by the staff to still try to
achieve some of the bike, you know, um, the master bike plan and all that other
stuff, um .... but just wanted to give my thoughts on this. Um, I ... I do think we
need to do, uh, somethin' different, especially within the 7th and Ashwood. Itis
important to have, um, bike lanes, you know, definitely. So even within that
section that right now it sounds like people are not .... well (both talking)
Mims: No, we're .... I think we're saying keep the bike lanes. All we're saying is don't put
in the sidewalk on the south side between 7th and Ashwood (both talking)
Teague: Yes. Yes, so (both talking)
Salih: ....and the speed is the same?
Mims: I think speed and safety are issues that the staff needs to continue to look at.
Teague: Yeah, that I would agree.
Weiner: And I think that speed and safety, once this road has been torn up and put back
together, there will ... and basically more traffic for .... for quite .... for quite some
time and that's an ideal opportunity to put in, uh, new safety measures or start
really enforcing.... the speed limit.
Taylor: Janice raises a good point about the .... the construction and obviously part of this
is the Rochester Avenue reconstruction, which there's no doubt from what we've
seen or heard, uh, that it's in need of major repairs, uh, and obviously maybe the
redesign, as far as the width and the lanes and the bike lanes, but I think what, uh,
hit home with me was the picture you shared with the scales of justice, uh, and
balancing that out, and .... and I think, uh, and talking about making an exception
to the policy, uh, and granted we made, uh, Laura talks about policy all the time,
and uh, and transparency, and obviously we make a complete streets policy for a
reason, because we feel the streets in our city are important and we have hundreds
of miles, couple a hundred miles of streets in the city, but we do at times make
exceptions. There was a street on ... uh, an area in the west side where they were
doing the sewer improvements and ... and the residents, uh, did not want a
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sidewalk. They'd never had a sidewalk there, uh, and .... and we agreed that, uh,
just do it on the one side and not the other side, so....it....it can be done,
especially for something which it's been pointed out seems to be a ... of little
benefit, except for those few, as .... as John pointed out, the 'pass-through,' uh,
circulation that we hadn't heard before. That .... that's the only benefit? You know,
you really have to weigh things out, and also the cost, you know, we talked about
there was a phenomenal cost but we don't know then, somebody mentioned as far
as the landscaping and the expiration. There's all those additional costs too.
We're talking quite a bit of money then to ... to add that sidewalk and I just don't
see the benefit.
Bergus: Well as the last Councilor to speak, maybe I'll just.... Pauline gave me a great in to
be the naysayer maybe, or to be the devil's advocate, but I'm just so pleased that
the residents are engaging in this process and with City staff and coming out with
such an articulate and helpful presentation. I just wanna say, you know, what
we're .... what we're not hearing tonight for the folks who, um ... may wish to walk
on the south side of Rochester, and we're talking a lot about the pedestrian, um,
small scale of pedestrian, um, access, which really is forced by the fact that there's
no sidewalk there. So I think we just have to make this decision with the
understanding that we don't know what the pedestrian volumes would be if there
was a sidewalk and we shouldn't presume that there wouldn't be significantly
increased pedestrian traffic if there .... if there was a sidewalk there. I also think,
you know, we heard from the widening of the street and what I read in ... in our
staff report was that the DNR, I believe, gave an opinion that because of the
reconstruction, the fact that we're ripping out the street, reinstalling some, uh,
underground, uh, utilities, as well as undergrounding some utilities that there will
be impacts on the trees, regardless. So I don't want us to make this decision
thinking that we're going to save all the trees because the .... the improvements that
must be done regardless of the sidewalk issue are probably going to impact some
of these trees, and going to impact some of these .... these yards and the nice
landscaping. So I just want to make sure that we're being open and .... and
transparent about that. Um, it does sound like we need some traffic calming
regardless of what happens with the sidewalk on that side. I agree with what
Janice said, that this should be a good opportunity to kind of reset people's
thinking about driving through that corridor, but this .... this is kind of our one-shot
in, you know, 20 or 30 years, um, so I don't make this decision, or take this
decision, lightly. I think connectivity for pedestrian access is incredibly important
and when we talk about the, um, the goal of our... climate action plan and
balancing the .... the needs and the desires of every person who may wish to pass
through that corridor against the few property owners, I mean that's.... that's a
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difficult balance for me, and I think in my own mind it's maybe a little bit, it's not
quite as weighted as the presentation was tonight. I .... I am, however, um, very
pleased that people are in favor of that sidewalk, uh, on the flat grade portion, and
I would encourage us and staff to consider wayfinding, um, if we're going .... if
we're making this decision on the assumption that pedestrians would be then
passing through, um, down Ashwood to get downtown, rather than walking on
Rochester, that we maybe have some indication of that being a .... a pedestrian
corridor so that people can see and know and learn that that is the way to walk if
they're currently, urn .... not, you know, maybe they don't understand that that is
the best .... best way to get downtown.
Teague: Great! All right. I think in a second we'll do a roll call here, and I ... I did wanna
just echo what, um, Councilor Mims talked about, um, in relationship to the
comments that the residents made, uh, about the staff. Um, I do appreciate hearin'
the positive words about the interactions of the staff, where they were
professional, they were definitely, um, helpful in helping you to understand
exactly the, you know, what their marchin' orders were as far as like the .... the
things that they have to do as staff, um, so I really appreciate those words and just
wanted to acknowledge our staff and the work that they do. All right, we're gonna
do a roll call please. (several talking)
Dilkes: Why don't we have a motion to amend, uh, to eliminate the sidewalk between
Rochester Court and Ashwood (both talking)
Mims: So moved.
Thomas: Second.
Salih: Second.
Teague: Moved by Mims, seconded by Thomas. Um, all in favor say aye. Any opposed?
Motion passes 7-0. (unable to hear speaker in audience) Okay, sure. So the
motion was to approve the resolu.... to approve the resolution, minus the sidewalk
between 7th and Ashwood.
Dilkes: Actually what we did was amend the resolution, and so now we're going to do a
roll call on the resolution as amended.
Teague: Okay. All right. So roll call as the, uh.....as the resolution is amended. Do we
have a motion for that? (several talking) Oh, we already go the motion from the
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beginning! All right. Great! All right, roll call please. All right, motion passes
7-0.
Mims: I'd just like to say thank you to the neighbors.... for putting in the time and effort
that you did, uh, that's really helpful for us, very much so. So thank you.
Salih: Well done presentation! (several responding)
Thomas: Eyes on the ground, case by case, you know!
Teague: We do have correspondence, uh, I wanted to have a motion to accept
correspondence.
Salih: Move.
Mims: Second.
Teague: Moved by Salih, seconded by Mims. All in favor say aye. Any opposed? Motion
passes 7-0.
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14. Council Appointments - Applicants MUST reside in Iowa City and be 18
years of age unless specific qualifications are stated
14.a. Parks and Recreation Commission Parks and Recreation Commission -
One vacancy to fill an unexpired term. Upon appointment - December 31,
2020. (Suzanne Bentler resigned)
Teague: We only have the one today. So .... as far as new .... so....
Mims: Of the three, I thought Alex ... Hachtman (both talking)
Taylor: (mumbled)
Mims: Yeah, um, kinda showed the most engagement with our Parks and Rec, and
maybe the most knowledge of, so I would support Alex.
Taylor: I was going to say same thing, Susan. I just .... I was impressed with his
application. It .... a lot of thought into what he can bring to the commission with
his experience, and he spent a lot of time, uh, attending meetings and reading past
minutes and he really seems to have an understanding of what the direction of the
commission really is. So I ... I would, uh, approve of Alex Hachtman.
Thomas: I would as well.
Teague: Okay, I'm seein' some noddin' of some heads so .... um.....all right. So ... a motion
to appoint.... Alex Hachtman. (talking in background)
Salih: Move.
Teague: Moved by Salih.
Taylor: Second.
Teague: Seconded by Taylor. All in favor say aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 7-0.
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17. Community Comment
Teague: And we're gonna call up, I don't know if it's going to be you, Austin, or Charlotte!
Wu: Hello again, uh, Austin Wu, UISG City Liaison. Uh, the reason I wasn't here
earlier was actually have a class this semester from 5:00 to 6:20 P.M. So I'll
actually be gone for all of them. Um, but anyway, uh, first I'd like to say
congratulations to the new faces up front, so Janice Weiner, Laura Bergus,
congratulations. Nice to see you guys up there. As well as, uh, congratulations to
Mayor Bruce Teague and Mayor Pro Tem Mazahir Salih. Um, I'll also say
welcome back all students to the new semester. Uh, started off today. Um, and
there's a few upcoming University events of note already. Um, Anita Hill will be
speaking at the Iowa Memorial Union on Thursday the 23rd at 7:00 P.M.,
presented by the University Lecture Committee. Uh, Spectrum UI will be hosting
the 15th annual UI Drag Ball at the IMU main lounge from 10:00 P.M. to 12:00
A.M. on Saturday the 25th, and Hawk the Vote, the Public Policy Center, Political
Science Department, and UISG will be hosting a'mock caucus' on Friday the 31st
from 7:00 to 10:00 P.M., also at the IMU main lounge, and (mumbled) snacks and
prizes will be available. That's all I have. Thanks!
Teague: Great.
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18. City Council Information
Teague: So we'll start with, uh, Councilor Taylor!
Taylor: Well it was unfortunate that some events over the past week or so were .... were
canceled or postponed, uh, due to the weather. Uh, but there still were a lot of
MLK events, and I applaud the folks who were, uh, hardy enough to walk from
Eastdale Plaza (clears throat) to Mercer Park. I have to be honest, I drove, and
then it wasn't really that cold. I could have walked, but it was a great event. Very
well attended there at Mercer Park. Uh, congrats to all the organizers for that.
Uh, and then, um ... course the, uh, event at Bethel AME Church apparently was
well attended also and a good event. And, um, Austin touched on the Anita Hill.
There's several ... I would encourage people to look at the calendar. It wasn't just
yes .... Monday events. There's, uh, many events going on throughout the rest of
this week and into February for ...to honor, uh, Martin Luther King. Uh, there, uh,
somebody touched on, uh, Laura touched on, uh, the reception for Mark Nolte,
that was to have been last week, uh, but the weather, impending weather, uh, it
was starting to get pretty icy by the time it was supposed to happen. So, uh, I as
well as several other people really didn't attend that, but I, uh, offer my
congratulations to Mark and wish him well. It seems to be a time for people to
leave, because, uh.... um, I see Simon out there. He'll be leaving us soon and
going on to better things, which means that, uh.... uh, the person he's replacing
there, uh, Maryanne, uh, Dennis, at the Housing, uh, Fellowship, uh... uh, we're
going to miss her a lot, uh, but good luck to ... to Simon in his new position there.
Uh, this Thursday, uh, oh, speaking of Simon. He's also our ADA compliance
person and this Thursday I've been invited to join a group of individuals that are
going to plan, uh, the ADA celebration this year, because this is, it doesn't seem
that long, the 30th anniversary of. ... of the ADA, the actual ADA, uh, and so
they're planning a big event. It'll either be late summer or possibly this fall. We'll
be talking about that at the meeting, uh, this Thursday. So look forward to more
information on that. That' 11 .... that'll be fun. Uh, I wanna remind people about,
um ... uh, the street parking and with the snow emergencies, uh, please be aware of
that, uh, you don't wanna be towed, so just be cautious with that with any snow
emergencies, which are .... I'm not looking forward to the rest of the week,
possibility of that, and also on that note, thank our street crews for the hard work
they've been doing over the last week or so with our .... with our storms, and also
on the note of winter, uh, encourage people to look up into the trees cause the
eagles are back and it's really the one nice, fun thing about winter is .... is seeing
the eagles. It's really a beautiful site. Not while you're driving (laughs) when
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you're stopped at a light or something, but .... but notice the eagles, cause there's a
lot of'em this year.
Weiner: I would like to echo what Pauline said about the MLK events. The, I did actually
walk and it was .... it was as I believe the Mayor and Mazahir (mumbled) and uh,
it was chilly, but perfectly, uh, it was ... it was walkable. Thanks in fact to the
police liaison who, uh, with others led us with a vehicle on the streets, as opposed
to having to walk on a couple of sidewalks, that for some odd reason had not been
cleared, but the events at Mercer Park were really wonderful, to see probably 100
people making literacy packets for kids, people of all ages. Making those packets
was really wonderful, as .... as well as many of the (mumbled) as well, uh,
wonderful service. I also attended on the 16th the .... the South District voter
engagement and registration event, uh, which was really, uh, entailed enormous
number of hours of organization by JCIC, a number of the religious communities
in town, combined with various civic organizations, that really did a terrific job in
putting in .... putting this event on. Uh, I really appreciated the fact they ...they had
translations of materials into five languages and interpreters there for all
who ... who needed it, so a tremendous initiative and I hope it won't be the last
time.
Bergus: Just echo, uh, what the other Councilors have said about the Martin Luther King
Jr. Day celebration on Monday, and uh, just thank the Mayor for being someone
who sings, cause I will say that that was a fantastic aspect of the event was ... was
all the singing. So I'm all for that. Um, and was gonna echo what Janice said
about the voter engagement event. That was just tremendous and really, um,
exciting to see people, um, being empowered and registering and having, uh,
again the people who were having their assistance with having their voting right
restored. Um, this Saturday I'll be attending the Iowa City Area Chinese
Association New Year celebration, um, at the Coralville Performing Arts Center,
and .... those are all my updates!
Thomas: Well I (clears throat) just mention that this coming Tuesday, a week from today,
uh, on the 28th from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M. at the Iowa City Public Library will be the
transit study of the route changes. So those who are interested in that, uh, this
would be the time to attend, and hopefully the weather, although it sounds like it's
gonna (laughs) it's not gonna be cooperating, but boy at least from my perspective
anyway really does put a damper on what I would like to do because it's just, you
know, discouraging out there. So I'm happy to hear that some of you were
(laughs) nevertheless, uh, persistent.
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Mims: Yeah, the MLK event at Mercer was great. Just to see so many people there and
such diverse ages and so many different people performing and celebrating, so
that was a great event. Um, and yeah, I just ... I'm glad you mentioned that transit
study meeting, um, on the 28th. I'll be out of town, but hope that people get there
and, um, hear what, you know, what's going on and give any input at this point.
So it's just encourage people be really safe out there. There are still a lot of icy
spots, um .... both on the streets, I discovered today. No accident (laughs) coming
down Washington Street, to Gilbert. It was a little icy! (laughs) Urn ... and
sidewalks too, even though people are tryin' to do the best they can, just .... just be
extra careful, and especially, you know, as you're driving, be cautious with people
on the sidewalks who are trying to cross streets, so....
Salih: Okay! I think I become better on like really highlighting, or remembering what I
was doing a week before (laughs) and I was writing it down. Okay, same thing
like on the 16th (mumbled) I don't wanna just repeat it, but I was there too. It was
very nice day and especially transportation was great, and also I guess tomorrow
we have the City Manager roundtable meeting, and we gonna be attending on the
23rd, the Mayor and I are going to D.C. to attend the Mayor Conference. And on
the 30th, uh, Iowa City Federation of Labor they had their chili supper.
Everybody (mumbled) invited. Okay, the (mumbled) also the first ... of, uh,
February, Black History Month. Bruce and I, we gonna have the Meet Mayor,
Mayor Pro Tem 'meet and greet.' And it will be at the, uh, Multicul... Multi-
generational Center, which is owned by Bruce, and this is public. Anyone can
come. Yeah, from 3:00 to 5:00, please (mumbled) (laughs) Um .... on the, of
course we have the caucus on the third. Please, don't forget that, that very
important thing. And .... that's all I have I guess. Yeah.
Teague: Great! And lots of the events have already been covered. I just wanted to make
one, um, mention one thing about MLK since, uh, yesterday was the celebration
um, MLK Day. One thing he said was darkness cannot drive out darkness, only
light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that. And so, um,
just think about what are we doing, um, for others is one of the key things that I've
been sayin' to people. We have the opportunity to do whatever we need to do to
make our world and our community a better place, and so, um, the events of Dr.
King Day, um, was amazin' in our community,and it's been goin' on for a week
and it continues, and um .... Maz did mention that we're gonna be goin' to
Washington, D.C., for the Mayor's Empowerment, um, Mayor's Innovation
Project, and we're happy because we have a meetin' with Senator Grassley, and so
that'll be takin' place on a Friday. So, um, we'll have some, uh, opportunity to
meet him and maybe there'll be a few things, um, that our city would like to
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regular formal meeting of January 21, 2020.
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definitely just, um, mention, very lightly, but .... um, I wanna go to staff to see if
you all have any updates and things to share.
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regular formal meeting of January 21, 2020.
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19. Report on Items from City Staff
a. City Manager
Fruin: Uh, two quick things. Uh, I had made a mistake, uh, in my summer meeting
schedule memo that we discussed earlier. So if you can just scratch, you know,
scratch those dates. Um, I will get back to you in your next packet with a new
suggestion. I think it'll look much the same, probably two meetings in June, one
in July, but the ... the weeks'll be off a little bit. So I apologize for that. And then,
uh, I also wanted to, uh, acknowledge Simon's last meeting, although of course
you're welcome to come any Tuesday night, Simon (laughter) uh.... Simon and I
started, uh, at the same.... roughly at the same time, eight plus years ago. I really
don't know City Hall without Simon in it, and I'm kinda terrified I think what City
Hall's gonna be like without Simon, uh, right now, cause he's .... he's just been
such a great, um, partner in the .... in the City Manager's office. Uh, so while we
wish you the best, we're certainly going to miss you.
Monroe: I don't know what City Hall is like without Simon either (laughs) wish you the
best and, uh, we'll miss you.
Salih: We miss you too!
Teague: All right, Eleanor?
b. City Attorney
Dilkes: Well I do know what, uh, City Hall is like without Simon, and it's much better
with Simon (laughter)
Teague: Well we will certainly miss you Simon. I'm impressed with your knowledge, like
it just rolls off your tongue (laughs)
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
regular formal meeting of January 21, 2020.