There is a light summer agenda for the city council meeting this week. A more interesting meeting may be at the county level (Ames citizens are also citizens of Story County). I recieved a:
This is a development plan for the land bounded by Highway 30 and the first road north of the old Lincoln Highway in Story County (see map, Ames is located on the far left). The final draft of plan looks interesting. I have not completely read it all yet. I will try to attend the public meeting on Monday.
The Ames City Council regular meeting starts at 7:00. Tuesday's agenda includes:
- Item 10 -- Approval of Revised ASSET Policies & Procedures. This item is on the consent agenda. I included this here simply because I found the qualification and requirements a nonprofit needs to meet to receive city funds interesting (rigorous).
- Item 29 -- Motion referring text amendments for landscaping standards and required parking to Planning & Zoning Commission. Currently the city requires one parking space per 150 sqft of store space. This proposal would reduce the requirement to one parking space per 300 sq ft of store space (using some of the recovered area for enhanced landscaping). This sounds like a good idea. Parking lots are rarely full. By lowering the requirements we can reduce sprawl and still get retail services. I will be asking a few questions:
- Will all the save parking area be dedicated to landscaping or will some be used to reduce the land space needed for retail?
- What zoning areas will this apply to (Highway Oriented Commercial, Regional Commercial, Convenience Commercial, etc.)?
Those are the highlights for now. More next week.
Jim Popken
City Council At Large
Disclaimer: My intent of this communication is to give you a heads up on items coming to the city council. I may state some of my impressions and leanings here. I will, however, try to avoid staking out a position on issues before the council meeting occurs. I feel that I should avoid committing to any positions until I have heard and considered all the public input at the council meeting before a vote.
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