This council session doesn't appear to have any controversial issues; most of the items are fairly routine administrative matters, along with a few plat approvals and an interesting site plan for a new-style one-bedroom house in the College Hill Business District (Item #33). Also, there is a sign approval for a new cannabidiol (CBD) store downtown (Item #32). The council is also being asked to approve an agreement with Viking Pump for after-hours use of their parking lot (item #18); I have a few questions about the maintenance agreement with Viking.
That all starts at 7pm; beforehand, we'll be meeting at 5:15 in Committee of the Whole to discuss proposed Cedar River recreation enhancement, a cultural programs update, and a visitors & tourism update. I think this Committee of the Whole will be of interest to many residents! Join us in person at City Hall, on Channel 15, or streaming on YouTube.
Call to Order by the Mayor
Roll Call
Approval of Minutes
1. Regular Meeting of August 5, 2019. Simply adds these minutes to the public record as an accurate reflection of what transpired at the meeting. No questions.
Administration of Oath to Public Safety Officers and Reserve Officers
Agenda Revisions
Special Order of Business
2. Public hearing on the proposed plans, specifications, form of contract & estimate of cost for the 2019 Peter Melendy Park Renovation Project.
a) Receive and file proof of publication of notice of hearing. (Notice published August 9, 2019)
b) Written communications filed with the City Clerk.
c) Oral comments.
3. Resolution approving and adopting the plans, specifications, form of contract & estimate of cost for the 2019 Peter Melendy Park Renovation Project. $264K in downtown TIF funds will be used to finish the "new" Peter Melendy Park, following the rebuild of the levee. The overall specs where presented in a previous council meeting. No questions.
4. Resolution correcting a scrivener's error and amending Resolution #21,590 relative to voluntary annexation of certain real estate. Fixes a clerical error, where a property owner was accidentally left off the list of residents agreeing to annexation. No questions.
5. Public hearing on applications for voluntary annexation of certain real estate to the City of Cedar Falls.
a) Receive and file proof of publication of notice of hearing. (Notice published July 19, 2019)
b) Written communications filed with the City Clerk.
c) Oral comments.
6. Resolution approving the voluntary annexation of property to the City of Cedar Falls which lies within two (2) miles of the corporate boundaries of the City of Hudson. This would bring a swath of properties south of Viking Road and east of Union Road into the city limits. The private property owners have agreed to annexation, while the trustees of the Cedar Falls Township expressed opposition (p.49). No questions about the annexation.
7. Public hearing on a proposed Agreement for Private Development and conveyance of certain city-owned real estate to Strickler Properties, L.C.
a) Receive and file proof of publication of notice of hearing. (Notice published August 9, 2019)
b) Written communications filed with the City Clerk.
c) Oral comments.
8. Resolution approving and authorizing execution of an Agreement for Private Development and a Minimum Assessment Agreement with Strickler Properties, L.C., and approving and authorizing execution of a Quit Claim Deed conveying title to certain real estate to Strickler Properties, L.C. This is a land giveaway in the West Viking Road Industrial Park. Only land will be provided -- no tax incentives. I believe this is appropriate to not offer additional incentives, as it is a company moving from one location to another within city limits.
Old Business
9. Pass Ordinance #2950, granting a partial property tax exemption to ACOH, LLC for construction of an industrial use manufacturing and office facility at 6601 Development Drive, upon its second consideration. This was presented and reviewed in our last council meeting. No questions.
10. Pass Ordinance #2952, granting a partial property tax exemption to FN Investors, LLC for construction of an industrial use lab and office facility at 3019 Venture Way, upon its second consideration. This was presented and reviewed in our last council meeting. No questions.
11. Pass Ordinance #2953, amending Ordinance No. 1923, 2122, 2461, 2696, 2785 and 2923, providing that general property taxes levied and collected each year on all property located within the amended Cedar Falls Unified Highway 58 Corridor Urban Renewal Area, by and for the benefit of the State of Iowa, City of Cedar Falls, County of Black Hawk, Cedar Falls Community School District, Hudson Community School District, Dike-New Hartford Community School District and other taxing districts, be paid to a special fund for payment of principal and interest on loans, monies advanced to and indebtedness, including bonds issued or to be issued, incurred by the City in connection with Amendment No. 5 to the Cedar Falls Unified Highway 58 Corridor Urban Renewal Area, upon its second consideration. This was presented and reviewed in our last council meeting. No questions.
New Business
Consent Calendar: (The following items will be acted upon by voice vote on a single motion without separate discussion, unless someone from the Council or public requests that a specific item be considered separately.)
12. Approve the recommendation of the Mayor relative to the appointment of Charles Blair-Broeker to the Library Board of Trustees, term ending 06/30/2022. We interviewed Mr. Blair-Broeker in our last Committee of the Whole. No questions.
13. Receive and file the Committee of the Whole minutes of August 5, 2019 relative to the following items: Simply adds these minutes to the public record as an accurate reflection of what transpired at the meeting. No questions.
a) Library Board of Trustees Interview - Charles Blair-Broeker.
b) College Hill Parking Study.
c) Information Systems Update.
d) On-street parking of trailers.
e) Bills & Payroll.
14. Receive and file a communication from the Civil Service Commission relative to a certified list for the position of Planner I. Candidates are ranked per their testing scores for consideration. No questions.
15. Approve the application of Kwik Star, 4515 Coneflower Parkway, for a cigarette/tobacco/nicotine/vapor permit. Council is the approving authority for these permits. No questions.
16. Approve the following applications for beer permits and liquor licenses: Council is the approving authority for these permits. No questions.
a) Main Street Sweets, 307 Main Street, Class B native wine - renewal.
b) Amigo, 5809 University Avenue, Class C liquor & outdoor service - renewal.
c) Buffalo Wild Wings, 6406 University Avenue, Class C liquor & outdoor service - renewal.
d) The Pump Haus Pub & Grill, 311 Main Street, Class C liquor & outdoor service - renewal.
e) Whiskey Road Tavern & Grill, 402 Main Street, Class C liquor & outdoor service - renewal.
f) B & B West, 3105 Hudson Road, Class E liquor - renewal.
g) The Music Station, 1420 West 1st Street, Class E liquor - renewal.
h) Wal-Mart, 525 Brandilynn Boulevard, Class E liquor - renewal.
i) Kwik Star, 4515 Coneflower Parkway, Class C beer & Class B wine - new.
j) College Hill Partnership (Oktoberfest), Municipal Lot G, Special Class C liquor & outdoor service - 5-day permit.
Resolution Calendar: (The following items will be acted upon by roll call vote on a single motion without separate discussion, unless someone from the Council or public requests that a specific item be considered separately.)
17. Resolution approving and adopting revised job classifications for the positions of Community Services Coordinator and Housing Program Specialist in the Community Development Department. Routine changes to better reflect the work of these two positions for the housing voucher program. No questions.
18. Resolution approving and authorizing execution of a Parking Lot Lease Agreement with Viking Pump, Inc. relative to use of a parking lot located in the vicinity of East 4th Street and State Street for public parking. (Starting page 173) This will allow the public to use this convenient private lot anytime outside the 5am - 5:15pm weekday window for a period of 3 years, at no charge. I have one question about the current maintenance condition of the parking lot - what can we expect the city to be "on the hook" for, in terms of repairs in the next six months? I'll ask.
19. Resolution approving and authorizing execution of a Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Waterloo and Black Hawk County relative to the 2019-2020 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) funding for the Tri-County Drug Enforcement Task Force. Provides $12K in state grant funds for the city law enforcement payroll, specifically for gang and counter-drug efforts. No questions.
20. Resolution approving and authorizing execution of an Ash Tree Removal Services Informal Project Contract with Twin City Tree Service, LLC. Provides $65K in taxpayer funds to remove 17 ash trees. That comes out to $3823 per tree...a much higher cost than I would've guessed. I'm curious also about stump grinding; have we considered adding the cost of that labor in order to have the "whole tree" removed from the city right of way? That way it would be easier to plant new trees in the future.
21. Resolution approving and authorizing the expenditure of funds for the purchase of a day cab tractor. This will pay about $90K in taxpayer funds for a piece of machinery for the solid waste transfer station. I had to look it up -- a day tractor is a semi which doesn't have a sleeping compartment. No questions about the purchase.
22. Resolution approving and accepting five Owner's Temporary Grading Easements, in conjunction with the 12th Street South Ditch Grading Project. The city will be improving the ditch...no questions about the required easements to make this happen.
23. Resolution receiving and filing, and approving and accepting the bid of Feldman Concrete, in the amount of $155,170.41, for the 2019 Sidewalk Assessment Project, Zone 2. The lone bidder on this project came in 45% higher than the city's estimate of $100K. What would happen if we just didn't do sidewalk repair in 2019, and waited until 2020 to have additional bidders participate? I'll ask.
24. Resolution approving and authorizing execution of a Third Amendment to Maintenance and Repair Agreement and Permanent Easement with Panther Farms, LLC relative to a post-construction stormwater management plan for Prairie Winds 4th Addition. As I read it, this simply adds the 4th Addition to the existing stormwater management plan. No questions.
25. Resolution approving and authorizing execution of a Storm Water Maintenance and Repair Agreement with JC Enterprises, Inc. relative to a post-construction stormwater management plan for 110 Lincoln Street. This is for the upgraded property now housing the Cedar City Creamery across the river from downtown. No questions.
26. Resolution approving and authorizing execution of a Storm Water Maintenance and Repair Agreement with Zuidberg NA, LLC relative to a post-construction stormwater management plan for 2700 Capital Way. This is for the new Zuidberg building in West Viking Road Industrial Park that Council recently approved. No questions.
27. Resolution approving and authorizing execution of a Contract for Completion of Improvements with Panther Farms, LLC relative to the final plat of Prairie Winds 4th Addition. As I understand this contract (p.255), it commits the developer to complete the roads and other infrastructure for this subdivision, so that sales can begin of the lots in that area. No questions.
28. Resolution approving and accepting the contract and bond of Minturn, Inc. for the 2019 Bridge Maintenance Project. (Page 273) - Commits $186.7K in taxpayer funds to this repair project. No questions.
29. Resolution approving and authorizing execution of Supplemental Agreement No. 4A to the Professional Service Agreement with Clapsaddle Garber Associates, Inc. for construction observation and testing services relative to Prairie Winds 4th Addition. Allows CGA to serve as a monitoring service for the project. I might be missing something here, but since CGA is also providing the engineering services for the project, wouldn't CGA be monitoring itself? Is that a conflict of interest? I'll ask...perhaps I'm misunderstanding the purpose of observation and testing.
30. Resolution approving and authorizing execution of Supplemental Agreement No. 6A to the Professional Service Agreement with Clapsaddle Garber Associates, Inc. for construction observation and testing services relative to Sands Addition. This may be the same issue as #29 above, if CGA is also the engineering firm designing / building out the Sands Addition.
31. Resolution approving the closure of the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program (a/k/a Section 8) Waiting List, as recommended by the Housing Commission. The city doesn't currently have the staff needed to accept new applications until January 31, as the City Council directed. The recommendation is to close the list. I'll want to know more about the resources available to service the list & assist low-income renters. Could this be temporarily outsourced to another agency, like INRCOG, as we do with CDBG grants? I'll ask.
32. Resolution approving a Central Business District Overlay Zoning District site plan for facade improvements at 100 East 2nd Street. This is signage for a "Your CBD Store" in the newest River Place building on 2nd Street. I didn't really know what CBD was (Is it marijuana? Is it hemp?) so a bit of Google searching was in order. Here's a Register article describing the current predicament with CBD. Since this store is planning to open on August 28th, what will the city's posture be on the sale of CBD products? I haven't been part of any council discussions on the matter. I'll ask.
33. Resolution approving a College Hill Neighborhood Overlay Zoning District site plan for construction of a single-unit residential dwelling at 1809 College Street. Since this is a site plan, I'll avoid commenting on the merits of the project here, due to ex parte requirements. No questions about the project.
34. Resolution approving the preliminary plat of Pheasant Hollow Seventh Addition. This will allow the developer to begin planning the construction of infrastructure for this subdivision just west of Apollo Street in northwestern Cedar Falls. No questions.
35. Resolution approving the final plat of Prairie Winds 4th Addition. This will allow Panther Farms to begin the construction of the infrastructure in the subdivision just east of the new Aldrich Elementary.
36. Resolution approving and authorizing execution of a Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) Programming Agreement with Black Hawk County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) relative to the Main Street Reconstruction Project. This allows the city to move forward with grant proposal to cover $1.5M of an expected $7.5M reconstruction of Main Street from 6th to Seerley. The design phase has not yet started (in 2018 the Council decided to postpone it to 2021). No questions about the grantmaking request.
37. Resolution approving and authorizing execution of an Assignment and Assumption Agreement relative to an Agreement for Private Development and conveyance of development property by Buckeye Corrugated, Inc. to Broadstone BCI Iowa, LLC. The city agreed to give Buckeye Corrugated land for building a new facility. Now, the company Broadstone wishes to purchase the property from Buckeye, and to lease it to Buckeye for their use. My only question about this is if there's some provision to require Buckeye to be the leasee, since the intent was to provide the benefit to Buckeye Corrugated alone. I'll ask.
Allow Bills and Payroll
38. Allow Bills and Payroll of August 19, 2019. No questions.
City Council Referrals No referrals.
City Council Updates No updates.
Executive Session
39. Executive Session to discuss Legal Matters per Iowa Code Section 21.5(1)(c) to discuss strategy with counsel in matters that are presently in litigation or where litigation is imminent where its disclosure would be likely to prejudice or disadvantage the position of the governmental body in that litigation, following Public Forum.
Public Forum. (Speakers will have one opportunity to speak for up to 5 minutes on topics germane to City business.)
Adjournment
| Council Packet Link | |
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| Meeting Date | 08/19/19 |
