City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

I'll call the March 2nd meeting of the West De Mo City Council to order and invite you all to stand and join us for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, please sign in.

Four members present. Okay, Ryan, have there been any changes to the agenda? No changes, your honor. I get a motion to approve the agenda as distributed. Motion to approve. There second move and seconded. Please vote

four. Yes. All right, we're going to move on to item two, citizens forum. This is a time for uh anybody to address the council on any item that is not either part of item six, public hearings, or item seven, new business. So, if you don't have an item on uh item six or issue on item six or seven, you'd like to address the council, this is your time. Please come to the podium here, give us your name and address for the record. We ask that you keep it civil and respectful into 5 minutes or under. And we will start with MJ. Hello MJ Hog 4132nd Street. Uh so federal grants are a great resource uh when you can get them but they do tend to come with strings attached as you guys know. Uh so as an example right we use federal grants for roads sometimes and if the federal administration wants to fund road diets but we want to do a widening that doesn't work super well and vice versa if we you know if they want to fund widenings but we think uh road diet is the best thing right we're at we're at odds. Uh so when you rely on that money, you end up in the position of having to choose between what you can get funded and what we value as a community and having to choose between money and values isn't really a position you ever want to be in, right? Uh which brings me to item 4R, the memorandum of agreement saying we'll use to determine eligibility for radar mitigation, homelessness prevention, and transit pass programs. Uh so and I guess my question is just like what's the plan here? Like if someone signs up for radon mitigation uh you and we run their info through SAVE and SAFE comes back and says no, does you know city of Stafford have to call them up and say hey sorry the feds say it's okay for you to get cancer so we can't help you. Nothing we can do. Um or because we're a kind and compassionate community, are we going to have a bucket of city money set aside so that if that happens, we can say, "Well, we can't use federal money, but we planned for this occasion. We've got some money set aside, so we can still help you. Let's

get moving forward." Uh but having run their data through SAFE, did that does that end up flagging them so that later they get a knock on a door from an ICE agent who's like, "Hey, seems like you might be an illegal H." And does that possibility, however remote, right, does that does that possibility result in people choosing not to apply for help they might otherwise be qualified for? And do we have a concern to had that had that off or do we have a plan to have that concern off at the past? Right? We're going to tell people, hey, if you're we're going to run your stuff through save, but if you're at all concerned about how that comes out, we will use this bucket of city money set aside and not run it through so you don't have to worry about it, which again requires we actually have money set aside. Um, right. So, there are potential harms here. Do we have a plan to mitigate it to mitigate them? And then kind of as a follow-up question here, uh, I would note that programs like, uh, the save one tend to expand in usage over time. Um, so what's our line as a city? Where's the line that we're going to draw that says past this point, the money is not worth the moral compromises? If history is any, if my understanding of history is any indication, uh, if you don't know where your line is before you get there, uh, then one day you find yourself looking back and thinking, "Oh [ __ ] my line should have been way back there." So there's my question.

Well, I appreciate the, uh, thought that went into that question. I I think my answer um I don't know what the council would think is that we'll cross that bridge when it comes. Uh we've been offering this programs through CDBG. We've got to abide by federal law when it comes to CDBG. Uh and if we start running into those kind of issues, then we'll take a look at that. But, you know, we we budget wisely. We budget lean. And uh I don't know that we have a pot of money laying around that we could dedicate necessarily to people that don't want to go through the federal process. Uh we would have to certainly take that from elsewhere to be able to use it for this purpose. So uh I don't know that I see that becoming a huge issue. Um certainly appreciate you bringing up that possibility, but I think the answer is we're going to enforce the federal law and we'll cross that bridge where it come when if it comes. So,

thank you, MJ. Appreciate it. Okay, anybody else for Citizens Forum? All right, come on up. Give us your name and address for the record.

My name is Sarah Cavan and my address is 3214th Street. Um, I've come up here and talked once before. I wasn't super prepared. Um, this time I have done a little bit of research beforehand, talked to a few people. I talked to a woman that leads a Strong Towns um group in De Moines. Um I've talked to a good friend of mine, Eric Wilson, and uh that knows a little bit about politics and how things work. Um and then another good friend, Greg Baker, um that knows a lot about how things are working. Um and I understand that you're not making a decision on the properties across the street from me on Fourth Street currently or anytime in the near future, but I feel like me knowing some of what you guys know is helpful. and you knowing some of what I know is also helpful. Um, and it's important to me because it's across the street from me. Um, so anyways, um, I think some of the good things you guys have done is trying to make a plan for what Valley Junction is going to look like, which is really helpful for the future, especially because now that I've learned that like the unique situation Junction is in with the way that our housing is, the way that the businesses are around us, we love living there because it's unique. Um, and I think that it's unique and good economically for our city, too. Um, and I really appreciate that you guys have put in pro uh like money for homeowners to help like we've used some of that money to help like do stuff in our homes. Um, and I really appreciate that. I appreciate all the businesses. We've been there for 14 years. Um, so we've seen like how many different businesses have come in and it's been really actually cool to see the change and I'm not afraid of change. Um, I'm actually happy to have it. It's just that we have to like really think about how that change is going to work. Um, so I understand that denser housing is really good financially and we are like really dense housing for West De Mo in our neighborhood, especially like our single family housing is pretty dense. I know that we have we already have some town homes, we already have some

apartments and like the specific valley junction neighborhood. Um, but it would be really helpful if we can like keep um some of the older and more historic homes just to like keep that neighborhood the way that it is. Um, the reason why I'm here is because one of my neighbors that's across the street, those three houses that are in question, moved yesterday. Nope, the day before yesterday. Saturday. Um, so one of those houses is now vacant. And um Ryan has communicated with the people that are in those homes that he is pushing forward. He will tow down those homes. This is going to happen no matter what. Um and so that's why I'm kind of here because that's what I've been told through her that Ryan because he has told them you need to be out in the spring sometime. And she said when? And he said I'm just telling you you have to get out. I'm going to tear down these homes. Um, the house that she moved out of is the 312 house. So, it's the one in the middle. Um, which actually I think that the f I don't know for sure, but the foundation is a cinder block foundation. Most of the foundations in Valley Junction are brick. So, hers has been rebuilt probably since the flood of 93. It needs a new roof. It needs new windows, but nothing else is like super urgent. Um, the one thing I do know is that he Ryan has done nothing to the house since he bought it in 2020. So, for 6 years, it's kind of sat the way that it is. There's carpet in the kitchen. There's carpet in the bathroom. It's It's not He has done uh there was a leak in one of the front areas because it needs a new roof. He put some tire on it and he patched it with like weird pieces. So, I think the whole time it's pretty clear that he's wanted to just tear down the home and not do anything else to it to keep it up. Whereas people like us that are living around these homes are like we've been working really hard for 14 years. We put tons of money into our house to like make it a nice place and make the make Valley Junction

a nice place to be. Um so anyways, what I am hopeful to understand is that um I think what you guys have said to us before is that you can't stop people from tearing houses down, but they have to have a permit to do that. And can't you say that they can't have a permit to do that? Um, yes. And because it's like we feel in our neighborhood, we feel like we are helpless to do something with investors coming in to just buy these properties cheap. And he bought them underneath. They never went for sale on the market. He went up to these people and said, "I'll buy your house now for cash." And bought them all in that way. Um, and the last property he got, he got after the man died because he didn't want to sell to him. So, it's like he's buying these houses for cheap out from under people. Anybody in our neighborhood is like nervous to sell, like put their house on the market. I know three of my personal neighbors that have sold without putting their houses on the market cuz we're nervous that investors are going to come take them and do whatever they want to with them. So, we feel like you guys are like our only option to say like, "No, you can't tear down these homes." And with this woman out of this home, I'm nervous that he's just going to come in and do that. And I'm like, don't you guys have the power to like help us out and say you can't tear them down?

I mean, and and your time is up. But to answer your question, uh, right now, um, no. I I don't think we have an ability to stop somebody that wants to tear down their home in Valley Junction or any other neighborhood. They come in and apply for a permit to to demo their home. I I I don't know that we have any reason on the books to say no. Now, what what we talked about a little bit when we had the discussion that night in November was um some some various things that we could potentially put in place to protect Valley Junction associated with these transition zones. Uh and one of the things that we discussed is, you know, first of all, with the design guidelines, should it be a uh a may or a shall? And I think everybody up here said it should be a shall that you have to follow the design guidelines period. Uh unless uh there is a vote of the council um to make an exception and that would take we felt a four-fifths vote of the council to do that. The other thing that we talked about that night was okay should we look at trying to stop people from demolishing their homes in Valley Junction, trying to preserve the history of Valley Junction. And I think at that point in time, and again, we got to have this conversation in the future uh in the future is maybe not helpful to you here, but um we talked about a four-fifth vote to allow for a permit for demolishing a home again to protect Valley Junction. I don't know how that would stand up legally, but that's what we looked at doing at that point in time. Um, these are all discussions that we need to have when we eventually talk about the transition zone again, which we have no intentions of talking about for several months just because staff has so much on their plates right now that they're working on other things. So, that may not be what you want to

hear tonight, you know, um, but we will take under advisement what you said and, you know, figured out if there was a way to, uh, meet sooner and figure out from our city attorney as to whether or not something we put in place like that that required a uh uh the council to approve the the demo permit, if that's something we could do legally. I'm not even sure. So, I don't know if anybody else wants Yeah. First of all, thank you for coming and thank you for the update. Um, I think uh the short version is uh whatever folks want to do with their properties down there, they're going to have to comply with what our existing laws are. And for me, although we haven't I don't believe we've yet codified the design guidelines, I'm going to hold folks to that. That's my intent because we adopted those to protect and preserve the look and the feel of the area.

So, uh, my understanding is that what is being proposed down there does not fit within the design guidelines. It is not permitted. It would it would require a change.

So, for me, that doesn't work. Um, and we'll see whatever everybody, you know, we'll see what the developer wants to do with it, but I intend to hold those design guidelines in place. And I think I think I don't want to speak for everybody, but I think we all feel pretty similar and we talked about the design guidelines, whether they're codified or not, we want staff to uphold those design guidelines. Now, that said, illegally, again, since they're not codified, I I don't know what kind of a legal leg we would have to stand on until they're codified, but I think that is the intent of the council. But getting back to what you're talking about right now, we're not prepared to have a conversation about the transition zones at this point in time. But you'd like us to take one piece of that and act now so that somebody can't demo their homes. I think that's something we'll have to have a conversation about to, you know, see if number one, is that legal to do? And number two, does the council want to act right now to do that to stop anybody even including other people, not just Mr. Mr. Weiderstein, but somebody else that may have intentions to do that. And does that include uh if we do it commercial property and residential all properties down there?

Yeah. So, I mean, that's a conversation we need to have.

Right now, there's nothing we can do. As Councilman McKenna said, he abides by the laws on the books. Uh gets a permit to demo the house, he can do that because we have nothing nothing stopping that. The same thing is true like when we went to help revitalize the business district in Valley Junction. None of us realized that at that point in time, number one, how successful our economic development programs would be and number two that somebody would actually tear a building down and number three that long before any of us were probably even born that uh when Valley Junction was developed, there were no design guidelines put in place. So therefore, somebody that tears down a historic building puts up a rusty building, you know, rusty metal on the side of the building, that's allowed. I mean, there were no design guidelines for Valley Junction until we took that time out,

prompted by the residents and put together the committee to have those discussions. Now we have design guidelines. We just have to codify them. So, so can I ask a question? Sure. When you talk about design guidelines, that's like that's like the way that it needs to look. Correct. Right. And then when you talk about transition zones, that's what can go in in that space, right? There were transition zones up and down fourth and sixth. The committee looked at that and took a whole number of them out. The ones that you see in place now are the ones that the committee agreed to keep in place. Yep. Um and what what is allowed in those transition zones? Um, I think we need to have a discussion about that with feedback and input from the residents like yourself. Yeah.

To decide what it is that the council wants to allow in those zones. And I think there are some of us here that maybe don't even want the zones at all in spite of the vote by the committee. So, but we have to have that larger discussion that's going to come at a later date, which may not be in time for what you're asking here, but but as it sits right now, from what I can tell, if he tears that down, he has to build a single family residence in that spot. Yes. Correct. Correct. Because it's zoned single family. Okay. Yep. Yep. And and the transition the the committee, historic West One Master Plan Committee, it was recommendations only. The council could act on all of it, some of it, or none of it.

And so at this point, transition zones don't even exist. The only place you can build a commercial building is in uh on Fifth Street from Railroad up to Vine. Anything else down there, it's single family. So, if he tears these houses down, it has to go back as a single family. Now, unfortunately, he can leave those lots vacant forever if he so chooses. Yeah. But no, he can't build the apartments or condos or row houses or whatever else you want to call them. Yeah. Um he can't build it at this point because it's zoned single family. They're three individual lots. Okay.

Well, we appreciate you coming. Appreciate your input. We'll take that under advisement. See if there's something we want to do before having a complete discussion about transition zones, which I don't know. That could be October, November. I don't know. I appreciate you listening. I know you're busy. I know you're busy. It's just important to us. But well, Eric and Greg are great people. Tell them I say hello. So, okay. Anybody else for Citizens Forum in the council chambers before I go online?

All right. Come on up. Give us your name and address for the record. You got five minutes or less. My name is Zach Alexander. Um, I came here about uh I believe it's old business. Uh, is that is now the right time or should I sit down? Yep. Nope. You're fine. Okay. Thank you, sir. Name and address. Give us your name. I I live at uh in Urbanddale at 123000 Horton Avenue. I'm here on behalf of Chad Studire who owns the business. Sure. Is that all right? Yes. Thank you, sir. Yep.

I work at the Valley West Corner Store. I've worked there for 5 years. U My grandmother is Julia Shire. Some of you may know her. She passed away this weekend. Uh, my uncle is Christopher Shers and I'm sure many of you knew Jim Studier. Chad has Jim's old office in the shape that was left the day Jim died up in there. They're not making another one of us. We are told in scripture to cast ourselves on the court on the authorities. And God has given you guys the authority in this situation. This is my job and my employment, but it's also more than that to me. It's a piece of our community. It's a piece of heritage and should this TIFF funding go through to allow that building that that will end that business and that part of our community. Um

there there's no TIF funding associated with the business that you're I'm sorry I may misunderstand. I believe we we understand the matter I'm addressing.

Yes, absolutely. Um, you have you have nine fine people down there that work down there and that's nine fine families and they're members of your community and and they do everything they can for the members of your community. I I don't know what your plans are, but I I ask that I'd be able to keep my job. It's a difficult economy. It's hard times and Chad has offered me so many opportunities. He's a gruff man at times, but he put a crankshaft in my truck free of charge when I needed it. And so scripture tells us that the Lord upholds the righteous. He doesn't let them slip, not to fret, but to to cast this matter on you. I suppose that's all I have to say. Okay. Well, I appreciate you being here. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Anybody else for Citizens Forum in the chambers before I go online? Okay. Anybody online for citizens forum? Please hit star six to unmute yourself and give us your name and address for the record. star 62 unmute yourself. Is there anybody online that would like to address the council for citizens forum? Going once, going twice. All right, citizens forum is closed. We're now moving on to item three, mayor council manager report, other entities update. And we're going to start out with item 3A, the swearing in of our new police chief, Craig Bellamy. So Craig, if you want to come up front, I usually have this in 100 font, but this is 12 points, so I have glasses on. All right, please raise your right hand and repeat after me.

I state your name. I, Craig Howill, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution that I will support the Constitution of the United States of the United States and the Constitution and the Constitution of the State of Iowa of the State of Iowa and that I will I will faithfully and impartially I will faithfully and impart to the best of my ability to the best of my ability discharge all duties discharge all duties of the office of the office of chief of chief for the West De Moines Police for the West De Moines Police in the city of West De Moines in the city of West De Mo. As now as now or here and after or here and after required by law required by law that I will

that I will in letter and spirit letter and spirit support and obey support and obey the rules and regulations rules and regulations governing the West De Mo Police Department governing the West De Mo Police Department. that I will not be influenced that I will not be influenced in the discharge of my duties in the discharge of my duties by fear of fear favor favor reward reward or personal prejudice or personal prejudice and I will always and I will always conduct myself conduct myself in such a manner in such a manner as to reflect credit as to reflect credit upon my fellow officers upon my fellow officers

Congratulations chief welcome to West Everybody who's in Congratulations. Take a picture. Still

about that part. It's my fault. This is the hardest part of all. This is the most nerve-wracking part of the whole thing. Thank you. First I want to say thank you to my wonderful wife here for being willing to take this adventure with me. Thank you to our leadership here in the city for having trust me this opportunity. I just want to say that I promise I will lead and serve with integrity. I will work to take care of officers.

I will now go to city manager Tom Haden before we go to the presentation by Bravo.

Yes, I'd like to follow up about Craig, a little bit more information, his wife Christy, Caris, daughter Cole. Thanks for coming. and um he bring he comes from Houston, Texas. He had 31 years in the Houston Police Department. He was a commander of many different divisions in the department, bringing a wealth of experience to our city. I mean, that's uh uh he's had tough competition as we went through the the finalists, but um Craig's bringing this and willingness to move and bringing his talents, so to speak, to West De Mo is very much appreciated. He also saw a very good department. he gets to move into with and serve with. And I think that was a big part of his decision also. So, the city's going to be uh we we had a great chief that just retired and we're going to continue the string and serve the city and work very hard. I want to thank Megan Tholyiz that um Argus, Lieutenant Argus for his help. So, I thank everybody for um helping out, working and bringing Craig up here. And so, uh we're we're hopeful the weather doesn't scare scare the st. I mean, Chris, you still got to come up, you know, got to come up. So, but thank you very much and we're looking forward to working with you and the department. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Chief. Appreciate it. And appreciate everybody being here to uh witness the chief getting sworn in. This is a big day and we really look forward to your leadership. So congratulations. Okay, we are going to move on uh to item 3B which is a presentation from Bravo and Sally Dixs is here the executive director of Bravo. Sally, the floor is yours. Thank you so much. Um am I talking and clicking? Okay, just on the slideshow. Yep. Is it? It should show up on

I just don't know what you all are saying. Gee, I thought everybody was here to see my presentation. That's a little bit of a let down, but that's fine. We're going to make it worth the time of the people who stay. It's going to be good. We thought they were here to see us, but apparently not. Well, we're all taking a little bit of a a humble pie here, mayor.

Uh, thank you all so much for the time and for the opportunity to present this evening. Uh, we always appreciate a few minutes of your time, especially on a busy evening. Especially want to call out appreciation for council member McKini who represents the city of West De Moines on the Bravo board. Uh we also do have a handful of cultural partners that represent organizations that are headquartered in the city of De Moine. I know I saw uh Julie Bertnett from the De Moines Children's Museum, Gail from the West De Moines Historical Society. I think we do have some other representatives from Tallgrass Theater, uh the De Moines Gamer Symphony, and a couple of other organizations represented here tonight. So, thank you all for being here as well. Um, this group has been around for a minute, so I'm not going to spend too much time on this slide with Bravo's history. Uh, just want to remind everyone that our model is fairly simple. We serve as the region's arts council. We have individual agreements with 16 cities and Pulk County. We leverage hotel motel tax funding to broadly support arts, culture, and heritage in our community. The funding that we get from those partners and the hotel motel taxes makes up approximately 95% of Bravo's annual revenue. We are intentionally built to rely on a single revenue stream without additional fundraising. That's our model. Both so we don't compete with the organizations we were formed to support and because that helps us keep administrative costs low. If we had to raise our own money, we would have to have additional staff in order to be able to do that. We are governed, as I said, by a board of directors that includes one representative from every community investing in Bravo. So, every local community has a voice at our table. This is important to note because Bravo has only ever existed as a regional entity. We are always working to balance our charge of to broadly serve the metro with the voice of each local municipality, and that's been integral to the success of our model. Even though our charge has always been

broad to serve a wide range of priorities, grant making has always been our primary tool for delivering on this promise and we meet a need for a transparent best practice regional investment of public funds that is efficient, accountable, and impactful. Uh some of you remember that prior to Bravo, every city was meeting one-on-one with every nonprofit organization. You then had to consider investments, do the processing, manage and evaluate every grant, and then you had to start over again the following year. Uh, this took a lot of time for city staff and resources and the council. And it also required every community to individually create your own criteria, strategy, and process for investing those funds. So, for example, instead of one presentation from me, you could have individual presentations from the 72 Bravo cultural partners that currently indicate they provide substantive impact to West De Moines residents. Uh through Bravo, we handle all of that review, the scoring, the funding. We use a transparent process that includes Bravo board members, community representatives, and our cultural partners. Uh, this process also relieves you as council leaders from having to make decisions about local investments in organizations that are led by your neighbors, your families, and your friends. General operating support for nonprofits account for the majority of Bravo's annual investments. And this year, we are investing in 83 organizations located in 14 of our 17 2080 communities. Many of these organizations are not wellknown outside of their city, but they do all meet different needs and provide critical pathways for creative engagement close to home. These vibrant local organizations are essential to a vibrant region and are a critical pathway for direct funding into our partner communities, but we do understand the priority to invest in the major regional entities. Although attendees are not primarily motivated by

where an organization is located, we know that you as our 2080 partners do consider that as part of the value proposition. And if Bravo only focuses our investment in the large regional organizations, it means we're only able to support organizations located in three of our 17 communities. Again, we do understand the investment in the regional organizations is the most likely to draw a broad audience. It is the most likely to be filling the hotel motel tax pipeline. That is why they already receive more than 70% of Bravo's total funding. We understand the driver and the role that they play. But our board continues to feel strongly that a balance between local and regional investment is serving our region with intention and impact. Again, Bravo serves as a regional entity. We're just we're not built to give you the data that you want about local impact. Um and a dollars in dollars out metric does not tell the full story of our uh value to your community. Uh, but I can tell you that more than 600,000 Metro residents crossed municipal boundaries last year to engage in the region's vibrant cultural offerings. And for every single one of our 280 partners, resident participation in Bravo funded organizations closely tracks with community size. Uh, I do understand that local data is your job. It's not my job, but it is your job. Uh, so I do want to let you know that we have made direct investments in seven nonprofit organizations in West De Moine totaling more than $100,000. West Mo also received public art grants totaling more than $125,000 last year. Passport to culture funds directly to the city in $2,500 and the West Community School District got a little more than $17,000 for youth access programming last year alone. West De Moine residents also benefit from Bravo investments made outside of the city of West De Moine. I can tell you that more than 88,000 West Wayne residents participated in paid programs last year. An additional 34,000 uh

access free programs across the metro and West residents are the second largest users of the assets that Bravo is funding. These numbers clearly show that our regional investment strategy is directly benefiting residents of West De Moines in important ways. Uh we know the legislature continues to discuss property tax reform and we do understand the fiscal pressure that puts on your city. Uh we deeply appreciate the need for fiscal accountability. As your conversations continue, just please remember that Bravo has virtually no ability to replace lost hotel motel tax revenue. And the organizations that Bravo supports are already generating the majority of their funding from other sources. So finding new money to backfill any lost investment from Bravo is unlikely. What that means is that a reduction in investment through Bravo will likely reduce the availability of those accessible, affordable programs and engagement opportunities. It will also increase competition for available funds and put increased pressure on your staff and council to allocate those dollars accountably and effectively. Um, we do take our role as your partner seriously. You are not just an ATM and we do not get to come here and take for granted the dollars that are made available to us. Uh we are doing our part to support policies that make continued investment possible. Um we don't have a lobbyist and we are not especially influential. But we did uh put together we did put together a one-page summary that hopefully was in your packets that uses some talking points about how we are supporting state and regional priorities and what the potential cuts would mean. We've distributed those to the Iowa League of Cities, the Technology Association, the Iowa Business Council, the Greater De Moines Partnership, the Iowa Department of Economic Development, and many, many others. Anyone who will take a copy gets a copy, and we continue to make calls with that information. A key talking point though is that the current

regional cultural ecosystem is generating approximately $31 million annually in local and state tax revenue through those stays in hotels and uh local and regional spending on cars, meals, etc. That is an exceptionally high return on investment for public dollars. And again, Bravo is an extremely efficient model. I do try to keep these presentations short. I know you have a lot of other things going on. Again, I just want to say thank you so much for your continued support. There are a number of ways you can um learn more about Bravo and get to know more information than what I shared this evening. Uh as I said, Council Member McKini is an outstanding representative on the Bravo board, knows a lot about what we're doing. So, if you have any questions, let him know as well, and I'm happy to answer any questions this evening. Thank you again to the cultural partners that took the time to be here tonight. We appreciate your partnership.

All right, we'll start out with Councilman McKenna.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor. And uh Sally, thank you for your kind words. Um you know, you make it obviously very easy um given all of the good work you do with the organization. And I just in particular, this last year was a challenging year for a lot of folks, not just at at Bravo, but in a lot of other 280 uh entities. Um, and so I think uh I just I want to give you credit for working collaboratively with the other um you know entities and and frankly with each of the cities and I know Tom you spent a lot of time and working and and reworking our 280 agreement and um I think you did a great job here Sally outlining why the efficiencies that Bravo brings to the table. my uh colleague uh Councilman Hudson to my right and Councilman Loads to my left serve on our um finance and administration committee and we have gone through processes here to help streamline that uh uh the funding that we give out from a city because of all of the work that goes into that and the vetting that goes into it, the verification of information, making sure you're giving to legitimate organizations and that when you do give them to the organizations that they use it wisely. If we had to replicate that to the 72 other organizations or however they may be, it'd take a lot of time. It'd take a lot of resources. Um, and we're looking to become more efficient. We just had our budget meeting this last uh Saturday for six, seven hours, whatever it was, and uh talked about becoming more efficient, more effective in in what we do. And that is exactly what Bravo brings to the table. Uh, I'm proud to serve on the board. I appreciate the work that you do and uh and thank you for coming here to share with this group all the good things that Bravo is doing and including the impact here in West De Mo.

Thanks M.

Sally I just want to say you know years ago our um our library applied for uh funding for public art but because their main mission wasn't public art they did not uh they were not successful in in getting a grant. Uh, I asked you to take a look at that and and see if there's organizations like that that want to do public art or culture or whatever, but it isn't their main mission. And is there a way that these organizations that have very worthwhile projects they're bringing forward could potentially get funding? You took that to heart. You you reworked things and you came up with a program that uh organizations that don't have the main mission as arts and culture could potentially apply and get a grant. you have always been extremely nimble uh and and worked and reworked programs and been flexible uh to try to you know support arts and culture to the greatest extent that you possibly can. um you do support some of the top things that our residents uh go to, different uh shows at the civic center and all all kinds of different activities. And um really appreciate you taking this head-on, not shying away from the difficult conversation. You know, definitely we're we're taking a look at what's what's going on. and our budgets are being pinched in all uh areas and uh we've had to make some some cutbacks even with our own hotel motel allocations but we greatly value Bravo what you do not only for arts and culture but for economic development in this area. It really is significant economic development. I was just out uh last night at the civic center um watching the outsiders. Um, normally we go out to get dinner beforehand and um, I know a lot of other people do the same. Lots of great organizations that you guys support. Great things that you put on. So, thank you for being here and presenting to us and for all you do for arts and culture

and economic development. Any comments, questions for you know Saturday night, mayor, they got Jerry Seinfeld down there at the civic center, too. So,

Oh, hey, that's pretty awesome, too. Well, I have to and I have to give kudos to Councilman McKenna, too. I I think there was there was something uh that we brought up on uh quality of life that Councilman McKenna wasn't necessarily supportive of and I thought, you know what, I got to get this guy more involved in in quality of life things and so put him on Bravo. He's taken a leadership position. Uh and he's done a phenomenal job representing the city and our constituents. uh even including when it was his turn to get up there with you on stage and uh present at the Bravo Gayla and uh he he did us proud as you do uh every single day. So, thank you for serving on that, Matt. Really appreciate it. All right. Anything for Sally before we move on? Thank you, Sally. Thank you.

All right. Thanks so much for being here, Sally. Enjoy the rest of your night. And thank you to everyone that came to support Sally and Bravo as well. Appreciate you guys being here. All right. Uh, moving on to mayor council uh city manager report. Uh, and I will start uh to my left here with Councilman Lotes. Any report tonight?

So many things to talk about. Uh, no. I'll skip those. We've had a lot of, uh, subcommittee meetings and I've been filling in with council for Councilwoman Hardman since she moved on to the Senate. So, it's been a busy time. I think um, one of the things that's refreshing though that came from the development planning meeting this morning is we've got a lot of people trying to do development in this town. We have certain things that we've got to do. We cannot spend taxpayer money to the benefit of private citizens, but we do need to build infrastructure so people can do development. So, we have some very active discussions going on and Councilman McKenny's always more thoughtful about these things on development planning than I am. So, I'll let him report back. But, uh, lots of good activity going on and I'm just so proud of everything and I'm really happy Chief is here. Um, and all the support he got, you know. Um, it's funny is some of these officers, I don't even know who they are, but I pull up to a stoplight with my window down and they yell at me or nod in my truck and it's kind of fun and I'm getting to know more of them. I talked to one at the Dowling game the other night. So, I'm just so proud of our police force. They're awesome.

Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Travillian, any report?

Yeah, I just want to say that last uh Friday I attended uh police chief, now retired police chief Chris Scott's retirement party. Um it was a fantastic event. Um comments that were made there um just went on and on and on about how you know the wonderful things that he did for Westwind Police Department when he came here. Um he truly left some big shoes for Chief Bellamy to fill. And I think this last month uh with uh Chief Bellamy, working side by side with Chief Scott, getting to know various people uh around the metro area, the state, whatever that this police department is going to be working with is was a huge benefit. Um one thing that Chris Scott, you know, has told him is, you know, basically, you know, sit back, learn, and then make changes. That's what Chris did when he came here and I'm confident that that's what uh Craig Bellamy is going to do as the police chief. And it was just a wonderful event. You know, Tom was there as well as most of the department directors. And it was just it was it was fantastic. Uh I was proud to be on the uh interview panel with uh Chris Scott to get him hired and as well with Chief Bellamy. I I think it's it's going to be a great um addition to the department and I just look forward to his leadership and see what what comes in the future.

No doubt. Thank you, Councilman. Uh and I would say that uh Councilman Hudson and I uh attempted to uh to be at that event as well. It went till 4:00. I showed up at 3:30 and I got to greet uh Chief Scott walking out to his car with his family. So, at least I got to say goodbye, thank you, and congratulations. Uh, Councilman Hudson wasn't as lucky as I was, but we're really going to miss Chief Scott. He was an incredible hire, an unbelievable police chief who who maintained law and order. I think had uh really had the mor morale of the department extremely high, uh, had the respect of those that he served with uh, from the police department uh, and everybody else that he worked with in the city. uh you know he worked hard to maintain law and order but also did a phenomenal job of improving community relations which is what we've come to expect here. You know we want to we want to be firm. We want to enforce the law but we want to make sure that uh we get out to the community. Uh we get to know the the people that we're serving uh and get to to hear what they care about and what they're going through. And Chief Scott did a phenomenal job. We're really going to miss him. Um really excited uh with with Chief Bellamy. As city manager Haden said, uh he comes with an incredible resume, comes from a very large city where he's seen just about everything go on in law enforcement that could possibly go on. He brings a lot of talent uh to the city of West De Mo uh and is going to be a steady hand to lead the police department. I look forward to his leadership as well. All right, Councilman McKinnon.

Thank you, Mayor. And well said. Very well said. and uh Chief Scott did that at a point in time uh that it was difficult. There were a lot of push back on law enforcement and I think he and the entire department handled handled things very well in the city of West De Mo and I'm proud of the way he did it. Um, I uh didn't uh I was not involved in the hiring process with Chief Scott, but uh Councilman Travel, you guys did a great job and um and u and I'm sure will be the same with Chief uh Chief Bellamy. Um I have spent a little time with him but uh you know you can tell um demeanor, integrity, um the sorts of characteristics uh that you want to have leading an organization and I think um you know I think you guys did great. I look forward to supporting him supporting the entire police department and frankly all of our uh public safety officers in this community. We're fortunate all three branches are you know uh certified and um and and much more than that. So, I am excited to to work with him. Um, and and I did catch him just before just before you apparently showed up, mayor. Um, all right. So, just a couple items here. Uh, Councilman Lo did discuss a development planning and, you know, I think, uh, we had a very long a good probably hour discussion about whether or not this community will um, continue to go down the path of allowing EP True Parkway to extend where it currently ends. and all the way down to Ute Avenue or R22 or whether it will tie in and kind of navigate down to more towards Mill Civic Parkway. And the key question is, is there sufficient valuation? Is there sufficient development in the future that will support that cost of that bridge? The cost of bridge is anticipated to be $21 million. We had a very detailed discussion a month ago with the with the uh with the land

owners and and certain developers who said hey I think we can come back and show you that we can hit the valuation necessary. I said great let's come back in March. We had the meeting this morning and we I didn't see uh and there was not a presentation about how they can hit the valuation. Uh I think maybe uh they're going to go back and continue to refine their pencil or sharpen their pencil and come up with some numbers and it may come directly back to the council or it may come back to the subcommittee where I've asked that councilman loads be there because we've had two council subcommittees on this and we may have a third but obviously it's an important component because there are hundreds of acres out there and the question is how will water get out there and how will the streets get out there and if the streets don't come the water doesn't come and if the bridge doesn't come you know then there's another way to to align it. So, um, w two, I'm sure you'll be watching that closely, uh, Councilman Hudson,

possibility.

Um, I just and I wanted to highlight again, um, uh, this whole conversation on Valley Junction, I I don't know what it's going to take. I'd really, really like to get those design guidelines codified. And I know I have said it so many times, but I think this keeps coming up. And there should be no reason why we can't codify those design guidelines. We should we shouldn't have a question as to whether or not well hey is the law the law you know is the law going to be allowing us to you know impose these guidelines or not. I think we ought to just impose them. I think we ought to adopt them. And I think that it provides certainty to the residents and it provides certainty to the developers and it provides certainty to the community that the look and the feel of Valley Junction will remain. And if we want to have further conversations about transition zones in October or November or in 2030, you know, we can. But at this point in time, I mean, I think when I came on the council, I was the one that called Dish Kuzinski and I said, "Why are we allowing this rusty building to go up? We can't stop it, Matt. We can't stop it."

And so, I agree. We couldn't stop it. we didn't have the legal ability to do it, but let's learn from that and adopt it and and and impose those and we can have whatever conversations the the development community, the the historic valley junction uh community wants to have on transition zones. Maybe we do them, maybe we don't, but I think that's a conversation to have down the road. I think the conversation we need to have now is codifying what everybody agreed to on the design guidelines back in I think 2021. Um you know it's somewhat like our zoning ordinance. I had a problem with the comprehensive plan. We adopted it in 20 20 I think two and here we are three years later. We still don't have a zoning ordinance to go with it. And when we sat down with the site selectors a couple months ago, the number one thing the site selector said is we need to have certainty as what your zoning ordinances are. And guess what? We don't have them. And that bothers me. And uh and it bothers me that we haven't adopted the design guidelines. I think we need to adopt them. I think we need to have clarity for everyone up here for our new council member, whoever that may be, and for the rest of the community. And then everything else can go to the wayside in terms of the design guy or in terms of the transition zone. we can figure it out down the road. Um, sorry, I just it's been it's been bothering me and we've had it we've had this discussion for far too long. And then the last thing I'll say is uh Tom, I appreciate all the work that you and the team put into the budget workshop we had on Saturday. Um, for those that uh don't know, we had a budget workshop for about five, six, seven hours. It was a long time, but it was productive. And I also want to thank you and appreciate uh the IT team and the folks that make these uh presentations online possible for recording it and streaming it and making it available. I checked on the I checked on Sunday morning, 144 people had viewed it as of Sunday morning. So I you know I don't know where that's going

to go uh over the next days and weeks and months, but the fact that we were more transparent, more accessible, uh folks can go back and view it and see what was said I is a very good thing. I think our residents will appreciate it and I just want to thank you Tom and and and everybody else for making that happen. That's all I've got. Mayor,

thank you, Councilman. Yeah, I I don't I don't disagree with you on codifying the design guidelines. Um it's just a it's just a matter of, you know, it's it's a matter of what staff has on their plate and uh all the things they have to get to. And of course, we're down uh a person in uh community economic development. So, it's they're juggling and they're they're running as fast as they can to keep up and we got a lot of projects which is great because we're a successful city. So, but I I don't disagree. We could probably have that move that forward and bring the transition zones forward for discussion at a later date. So, maybe we prioritize that, get that um before us as soon as we can. I don't know what that means. I don't know if that's the next meeting. I don't know if that's two months, three months, but whatever makes sense with what staff's got on their plate. I'll work with Tom and we'll figure something out, we'll bring that forward and then whenever we have that discussion in the transition zones, we have that discussion.

Thank you. So, yep. Okay, Councilman Hudson.

Yeah, it looks like all of us were coming in hot to Chief Scott's retirement ceremony, but I mean, I got there at 3:59. I probably should have Well, I was teaching, so it was a whole thing. Uh, but congratulations, Chief Scott, and a special congratulations to Chief Bellamy. I'm very excited. Uh, I know the mayor and I were on his interview committee and it's awesome that so many excellent candidates wanted to join in as the new chief of West De Mo police and when uh when Craig was ultimately selected, I know it was certainly exciting because he brings a lot of wisdom and a lot of experience and I'm looking forward to uh his his work as he really begins in earnest as the chief of police of the city of West De Moines. Um, one thing. Oh, parks and wreck. Oh, yeah. Parks registration for summer program starts tomorrow, right, Mr. Penning? I know those registrations come out hot and I think like in one day we get like 10 million registrations or something like that. It's ridiculous because we offer so many awesome programs. And so if you want to get in on the program that you want to choose, make sure you're on make sure you're on the website because uh I know some of these programs are awesome and they go really really quickly. And finally, I look to the left of uh to your right of Mr. Mayor, there's this empty chair and I believe 3 weeks from now that chair will be filled and we will be swearing in a new person presumably because our next meeting is on March 23rd which

that even March 17th is the election. So we got 15 I know but for the city council meeting on March 23rd there'll be someone sitting in that chair and thus a friendly reminder that March 17th we didn't get uh enormous turnout for the first election. It was a little bit less than the presidential election by about 91%. However, I want to encourage everyone. I know it's spring break, but you can have an absentee vote if you're outside of uh the district or outside of West De Mo at the time. But Yep. Or you can vote early. So, or you can request to vote absentee like I said. But you got to get those requests in earlier rather than later. Absentee ballots absentee ballot request forms are due today. So, you can still vote early.

You can still vote early. It was due today. Okay. got to go down to the Pulk County Election Office or the Dallas County Election Office in Adele. I thought it was due one week from today. So, that's my mistake. I apologize. They were due today, but early voting. Uh the vote is for March 17th. That is 2 weeks from tomorrow. So, please anywhere in West De Mo, Ward One, W two, or W three, you can vote. I emphasize one of those, but everyone should vote. Um yeah, we need a we need a person to sit right next to Mr. Mayor and Mr. Kevin. So, was weird. So, that concludes my

report highlighting that we we want to have great participation. We want to have our residents turn out. Um, we'll do our best to remind everybody of an election. Um, you got to participate. Uh, Dallas County has uh unfortunately changed their voting locations again. Um yeah, remind everybody that

is it's a different uh different I guess one of the three is is a different location, but um I would assume that the candidates that are running are going to let people know that. I think we will try to put that on our website so that you know they're doing the same thing where you can vote at any one of the three polling locations in Dallas County. Uh no matter where you live, but the three polling locations are different than the three polling locations at the last time. So, we like to make it a challenge obviously for people. I don't know why. Um, okay. Moving on. Uh, City Manager Haden, any other remarks at all?

Yes. One thing, uh, Matt brought up on the various zoning. We've we talked to talked to Lynn on a number of occasions and we had this discussion also Saturday uh, about this publicly. So, her goal is for July 1st, she's bringing forward in sections. So, the first section will be residential. So, that's going to be we won't have that wrapped up by July 1st. And then I'll get together with Ryan and uh you know, we had that in their court. We're going to have to see whose court it's going to be in because I agree that we have to uh get a like you said, we got to get a goal and a time to say when we get this wrapped up for the cotification of of that. So, um the whole So, we we're going to move forward on that. We'll bring forward what that'll be and how we'll get there.

Here's the loop I hate to throw for people. We talk about design guidelines. I'm not sure that those design guidelines apply anywhere other than the business district. I think that's right. Right. So, you know, for people that are coming up here, Sarah, talking about the homes and keeping them historic, we absolutely want to do that, but the design guidelines that have been developed go to the business district. So, but we will look to get those in place and codify them. But we could come up with design guidelines for the residential as well because again what that committee did was recommendations only. So we could expand on that if we chose to. Sure. Okay. Um with that um we will move on to

Mr. Mayor I did just look it up so uh to be clear for the vote centers for Dallas County uh St. Francis uh of a CC Catholic Church that's on Ashworth. Woodland Hills Community Church, that's formerly Fox Creek Center. That's the one west of uh the formal circle Cemetery out on Mil Civic. And finally, Westwood Baptist, that's a church on South 60th Street, uh just to the east, right around the Aldi and the Unity Point Health Clinic over there. That's where the Westwood Baptist Church is, just south of the Aldi. So, those are the three Dallas County voting centers. And any resident of West De Mo who lives in Dallas County can vote in any of those three locations. So it is not the reclex, it is not the Methodist church way out west on um on Ashworth, it is not Maple Grove, it is not Brookview, it is not a beautiful Savior Savior Lutheran Church where I voted for this first time election that happened on February uh 17th. So those are the three vote centers. So check out the website.

Yes, thank you so much. Okay, moving on to item four, consent agenda. Um, before I ask if there's any items that any council person would like to have pulled and voted on separately, we do have two proclamations here. We've got one for National Social Work Month, uh, and we've got one um, for women's history month. Are there any people here for either one of those proclamations? Social work. Okay. How many people are here for the social work proclamation? One, two, six, three, four, five. Okay, we will pull that one and we will read it and have you come up and take a picture with us. What about for the other proclamation? Women's uh history month. Anybody here for that?

No. Okay, we will not pull that one. Um, all right. Are there any other items that any council person would like to have pulled and voted on separately? 4 E. Say 4 E. E is in Edward. Okay. 4 E. We will pull um special event lane closures. Okay. I was wondering about that. And then we will also pull uh 4 V1. Any other items? Otherwise, I would take a motion to approve the remainder. So moved. Seconded.

It's been moved and seconded. Please vote for yes. Okay. Item 4E is a motion to approve special event lane closures, miscellaneous events, historic Valley Junction Foundation, Councilman Travillian.

Yeah. Um, in reading through this list, I don't and unfortunately Steve Freevert from the Valley Junction Foundation or anyone from that group is here, but um, I noticed that on this list Cinco de Mayo is not listed and I'm wondering why. So, if we approve this list and it's just been, you know, um, omitted by error, which case

I could respond to that. Um, because I had communication with the Valley Junction Foundation. Um, they shared that the Cinco deio event is going to happen as the first music in the junction on May 7th. The event committee was unable to secure enough sponsorships to cover the costs as a standalone event. So that's why it's omitted from the list. It's good you're check it's it's good you're checking on that though Kevin. I mean it's good catch. Okay. Um because I've had some conversations with with a few people that are associated with this. So um if we have that may change just so you know that may change. Yeah. Let me find that. I'm I'm I'm helping with that to make sure that that stays its own event. So Okay.

All right. You want to move that then? Uh yeah, I will move the list if So again though, if everything comes to fruition, they they can revise this and add it next meeting or whatever, right? Yep. Yeah, it' be a separate item. Yep. Just we can approve it separately on its own. All right, I'll uh motion to approve this. Is there a second? Second. All right. Any further discussion? Hearing none, please vote for yes. Okay. Item 4 V1. It's a a proclamation celebrating uh National Social Work Month for the month of March. Can I get a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Second.

Second. Moved and second and I will read.

Whereas social workers positively impact the lives of millions of Americans daily in hospitals, schools, child welfare agencies, community centers, and within the federal, state, and local governments nationwide. And whereas for more than a century, social workers have worked to improve human well-being, advocate for justice, and support everyone's basic needs. And whereas social workers select this profession out of a deep commitment to help uplift, defend, and transform the lives of people, their families, and communities. And whereas the 2026 theme, social workers uplift, defend, transform, shines a light on the resolute spirit of social workers who transform lives while bringing hope, healing, and justice to the communities they serve, especially in times of profound change and challenges. And whereas social workers follow a code of ethics that calls on them to stand for equality in every community, uphold human dignity, and fight injustice. And whereas social workers assist those navigating trauma, grief, and systemic biases, and help people recover from natural natural disasters, public health crisises, and other issues while transforming their lives in encouraging ways. And whereas social workers confront oppression and racism, advocate for human rights, and advancing fair policies for all persons by obliterating barriers that prevent individuals and families from thriving. And whereas social workers care for those who have mental health issues are recovering from substance abuse disorders and support the well-being of children. And whereas the profession continues to grow with more than 810,000 social workers in the United States who transform lives by shaping a more just and compassionate society through leadership, education, advocacy, and direct practice. Now therefore, in recognition of the critical contributions of social work workers across our nation, I Russ Trimble, mayor of the city of West De Mo, Iowa, do hereby proclaim the month of March 2026 as National Social Work Month and call

upon everyone to join the National Association of Social Workers Iowa chapter in celebrating and supporting the vital work of social workers who uplift, defend, and positively transform our communities each and every day. Okay. Is there any discussion? I think council

I think social work often goes uh without being thanked and so as we as I was reading through uh reading through this in the packet this weekend um it just made me have a just a really great appreciation for um an area of work that often goes unsung and I'm certainly proud to support this and I think we all are. So, thank you all for being here and we're really really grateful for all the work to make society better. Thank you. Very well said. I I couldn't agree more. Thank you for all that you guys do. Really appreciate it. Okay, with that, please vote for yes.

Thank you guys for taking a copy. You guys were patient while we got this. Come in a little bit more because I think we're everybody.

Ready? Thank you so much. Okay, moving on to item five, old business. Uh, item 5A, Davis Estates, west of Southeast 35th Street and south of Veterans Parkway, amend the zoning map to establish multif family residential zoning, Hubble Realy Company. We've got an ordinance for approval the third reading and adoption uh of the assignment of zoning. Uh there are no outstanding issues and no changes from the previous reading which was approved 3 to one at the February 2nd meeting with Councilman Trailion voting no. Does somebody want to move consideration of the third reading?

Motion to consider the third reading. Second. Okay. It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Okay. Hearing none. Please vote. Three yes, one no. An ordinance amending the official zoning map of the city of West Iowa 2024 by amending title 9 zoning chapter 4 zoning districts and maps. Motion to approve the third reading and adopt in final form. Okay. Second. Okay. Please vote. Three yes, one no.

Okay. Item 5B, University Avenue corridor, northeast corner of Valley West Drive and Westtown Parkway. Establish University Avenue corridor planned unit development ordinance to govern development redevelopment. This is city initiated. We've got an ordinance for approval of the second reading, waiver the third reading and adoption in final form. Uh there are no outstanding issues and no changes from the previous reading which was adopted unanimously by the council at our last meeting. Motion to consider second reading. Okay, it's been moved. Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Okay. Hearing none. Please vote

for yes. ordinance amending the official zoning map in the city code of city west Iowa 2024 by amending title 9 zoning chapter 9 plan unit development district pertaining to PUD district regulations and guidelines motion to approve second reading second okay please vote four yes motion to wave the third reading and adopt in final form second please vote

four yes okay item 5C Mills Landing specific plan ordinance southeast corner of South 60th Street and Mill Civic Parkway, Mills Landing Spacific Plan ordinance to adjust minimum required lot sizes when the PUD parcels and update traffic counts Plaza Street Partners LLC. Uh we've got an ordinance amendment for approval of the second reading waiver the third reading adoption of final form. There are no outstanding issues and no changes from the previous reading which was adopted by the council unanimously at our last meeting. Motion to say second reading. Okay, there second. It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Okay. Hearing no discussion, please vote

four. Yes. Nor amendment city code of city westman 2024 and the mills landing specific plan ordinance pertaining to PUB district regulations and guidelines. Motion to approve the second reading. Second. Okay. Please vote. Four. Yes. Motion to wave the third reading and adopt in final four. Second. Okay. Please vote. for yes. Okay. Item 5D, Valley West urban renewal area tiff district city initiated. We've got an ordinance for approval of the second reading. Waiver the third reading, adoption of final form. There are no outstanding issues and no changes from the previous reading which was adopted unanimously by the council at our last meeting. Somebody want to move consideration?

Second reading. Okay, it's moved. Is there second? Second. It's moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Okay, please vote. Four. Yes. No one's providing the general property taxes leving collected each year on all taxable property located within the Valley West urban renewal area in the city of West De Mo 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 the Valley West urban renewal area. Motion approved. Second reading. Second. Okay. Please vote for yes. Motion to wave third reading. adopt and final form. Second, please vote.

Mayor, I'll just uh maybe I can uh offer something here. You know, the goal of this is to create economic development opportunity for the entire region. And um you know, ideally what'll happen in this area is we will have more activity, more uh businesses, more jobs, more traffic um for the businesses that are there in the now as well as the businesses that are there in the future. And um you know, we as a community, as a council, cannot pick winners and losers, but we want to create an environment where opportunity exists. And I think this is a step in that direction. Um it's certainly not intended to negatively impact anyone. It's intended to positively impact the entire area. An area that's recently been designated as slum and blight, an area that has struggled for years. And now we have an opportunity to turn things around. We saw a great advancement with uh with West Bank and the significant investment they've got there and and that is just the beginning I think of a revitalization of this entire area and this is a step in the right direction.

Thank you. Very well said. I I agree. Um we hope that this is going to uh float all boats that we're going to have economic success up and down this uh this entire corridor. Um and we're going to revitalize the area and breathe new life into it. And I think that uh people have been waiting this for quite a long waiting for this for quite a long time. Uh and they're still waiting to see what exactly is going to uh happen on the Valley West Mall site. And I think it's going to be something that's very exciting uh that our residents are going to be able to get behind. And I know that there are people that live in this area that have been asking and they asked when I was door knocking, what is going on with this area? What are you guys going to do? You know, it's getting run down. We're getting concerned. Uh we we live near this. we hope you're going to do something. And I kept telling them, we're we're looking right now. We're actively uh uh negotiating and and trying to uh clear some of the obstacles that have been put in our way to be able to redevelop the mall site. And um we're very hopeful that we're going to be able to uh uh move forward with something very soon. So, thank you for your comments. Really appreciate it. Okay. Uh with that, um

four. Yes. Okay. Sorry about that. All right. Where are we on that one? Do we still have another I think we're good. Is that everything? Okay. Moving on. Item 5e. Uh, no parking zones. Maple Street, EP Troop Parkway to 125 ft north of EP True Parkway on the south side. Prospect Avenue, Fourth Street to 55 ft east of 4th Street on the south side. Locust Street, Meadow Lane to 70 ft west of Meadow Lane on the south side. Uh we have got uh an ordinance for approval of the second reading waiver of the third reading and adoption of final forum. Again no outstanding issues and no changes from the previous reading which was adopted unanimously by the council at our last meeting. Motion to consider second reading.

Second. Okay, it's been moved and second and I should say this is an ordinance amen amendment too. Okay, any discussion hearing? None. Please vote for yes. Nor amend the city code of the city of western one Iowa 2024 by amending provisions pertaining to the traffic code relating to official traffic controls. Motion to approve second reading. Second. All right. Please vote. Four. Yes. Motion to wave the third reading and adopt in final form. Second. All right. Please vote for yes.

Okay. Item six, public hearings. Item 6A, uh this the South Branch Business Park beauty amendment. We're being asked to withdraw um the amendment from consideration. Move uh second withdrawal. Motion to withdraw. Yeah, motion withdraw. Okay. The motion withdraw. It's been moved and seconded. Uh please vote. Four. Yes. Okay. And item 6B, the Dowling Catholic High School Planned Unit development amendment. We are being asked to defer to the March 23rd meeting to give proper time for notice and feedback uh for the residents that live in that area. Motion to defer. Second. Second.

Okay. It's moved and seconded. Please vote. Four. Yes. Okay. Item 6 C. This is a time and a place for a public hearing to consider Falcon Heights south of Veterans Parkway and west of Southeast 35th Street. Amend the zoning map to establish single family residential zoning initiated by Eaglebrook LLC. Ryan, would you please read the date the notice is published? February 16th, 2026 in the De Mo Register. Have we received any written comments of this hearing? The plan zoning commission by a vote of six yess with one absent adopted a resolution recommending approval of the reszoning request.

Okay. Anybody in the audience would like to address the council on item 6C, please come to the podium. Give us your name and address for the record. Anybody online, hit star six to unmute yourself and do the same. Is there anybody either in the council chambers or online that would like to address the council on item 6 C. Okay. Hearing and seeing no one, I'll declare the public hearing closed. And we've got an ordinance for approval of the first reading for assignment of zoning and there are no outstanding issues. Motion to approve. Okay. It's been moved or second. It's moved and seconded. Is there any discussion in the dis?

Okay. Please vote. Four. Yes. Or announcement. Official zoning map of the city western one Iowa 2024 by amending title 9 zoning chapter 4 zoning districts and maps. Somebody want to move I guess approval this of the first reading. Yeah. Motion to approve. Sorry. Second. Okay. It's moved and seconded. Please vote. It was still it's okay. Four. Yes. Okay. Moving on to item 6D. This is a time and a place for a public hearing to consider amendment city code title 9 zoning modify regulations related to temporary use permits initiated by the city of West De Mo. Ryan, would you please read the date the notice is published? February 13th, 2026 in the de mo register.

And if we received any written comments of this hearing, the plan zoning commission by a vote of six yes with one absent adopt a resolution recommending approval of the ordinance amendment. Okay. Anybody in the audience like to address the council on this item, please come to the podium, give us your name and address for the record. Anybody online, hit star six to unmute yourself and do the same. Is there anybody either online or in the council chambers who would like to address the council on this item? Okay. Hearing and seeing no one, I'll declare the public hearing closed. We've got an ordinance amendment for approval of the first reading and there are no outstanding issues. Uh this was also approved unanimously by the development and planning city council subcommittee. Motion to consider the first reading. Second. Okay, it's moved and second. Is there any discussion?

Okay, please vote. for yes or amending the city code of the city of West Mona 2024 title 9 zoning chapter 16 temporary use per permits pertaining to provisions of shy for certain temporary uses motion to approve the first reading second. Okay, please vote for yes. Okay, item 6E. This is a time and a place for a public hearing to consider 2026 PCC patching program phase 2 initiated by the city of West De Moines. Ryan would please read the date the notice is published. February 13th, 2026 in the De Mo register and have received any written comments of this hearing? None, your honor.

Okay. Anybody in the audience like to address the council on this item? Please come to the podium, give us your name and address for the record. If you're online, hit star six to unmute yourself and do the same. Is there anybody in the chambers or online that would like to address council on item 6E? Okay. Once again, hearing and seeing no one, I'll declare the public hearing closed. And we've got two resolutions and emotions we can take at the same time. And there are no outstanding issues. Motion to approve. Okay. Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Okay. Please vote.

Four. Yes. Okay. Item 6F. This is a time and a place for a public hearing to consider 2025 paving markings program initiative by the city of West De Mo. Ryan, would you please read the date the notice is published? February 13th, 2026 in the De Mo Register. And have we received any written comments at this hearing? None, your honor. Okay. Anybody in the audience who would like to address the council on item 6F, please come to the podium, give us your name and address for the record. If you're online, hit star six to unmute yourself, and do the same. Is there anybody in the chambers or online that would like to address the council on this item? Okay. Hearing and seeing no one, I will again declare the public hearing closed. And we've once again got two resolutions and emotions we can take at the same time and there are no outstanding issues. Motion to approve. Okay, it's been moved. Is there a second? Second.

It's moved and second. Is there any discussion?

Yeah, Brian. Uh I believe this does include the uh sheros for the bike lanes. Correct. All right. I'm going to go on record again that I think that's something that we need to think about striking from this. I believe it's like $80,000 or somewhere in that neighborhood. And given the fact that budgets are going to be getting they're already tight, they're going to be getting tighter. And the fact that you can drive on ride a bike on any city street already without these sherrows. I think that and we put up we do the sheros and we also put up signs. So I guess if somebody can't read a street sign, if they need to know that that's the the bike route or whatever, then shame on them. But I think we need to seriously next year consider not doing these sheros because it's it's just crazy money that is not needed. Well, if I I don't disagree with you, Councilman. This is, if you remember when we were discussing this to begin with, it was going to be bike lanes on streets, which was a million dollars a lane mile. And this was the compromise to that, which is to do the sheros to let drivers and and bicyclists know this was a shared road and to beware. Um, so I think this was probably the best alternative to the bike lanes on the streets, but I don't disagree with you. Uh maybe this is something that we can um Ryan bring to the parks and wreck advisory board for consideration and the bicycle advisory commission as well. You know to councilman Travillian's point uh I think the sheros are something that was a national deal that was adopted that our bicycle um community really wanted. We did this in lie of again the bike lanes in the streets which people didn't want to support at that time. Um, but I I do wonder, I mean, if we just put the

signs, will that suffice or do we have to continue to do these sheros? So, I'd just like to make a comment. Yeah. Many years ago, for eight years straight, I rode my bicycle in West De Mo, downtown De Moines, and I'll tell you, these things make a difference to people who bicycle commute. It's only 80 grand. And I think it's a huge quality of life thing. Sure. Like I think it goes along with having bike trails and whatnot and it's just a it's just a I I hear you. I I'm very aware being on finance the tightening budgets and all that. And I appreciate Councilman Travillian and yourself the mayor watching out for the taxpayer dollars, but I would say 80 grand for this kind of thing is well spent. So

I I understand. I hear you. You've you've ridden the bike. You've had experience with it. But this is why I say we got to bring this. We have these boards and commissions for a reason. They do a lot of heavy lifting and due diligence and you know do the ins and outs of these issues. So Ryan, if we could bring this before the bicycle advisory commission and before parks and wreck, see what their thoughts are about the sheros. Is there a better way to go? Is there a way to to continue to convey that these are shared roads but not have these uh markings on the street? Can we save some taxpayer money? If not, and this is the best way to go, then let's bring this back and just let us know that. So,

I'm not I'm not opposed to taking it to the bicycle advisory board or parks and wreck, but keep in mind the advisory only. They are not a a governing body that says this is what has to be done. I think we as the stewards of the taxpayer dollars and I understand what you're saying, Doug, that you know it's important to the bike community, but again, bicycles are allowed on any city street. They have been for, I think, ever. So, I don't know how this really adds and tells somebody, "Oh, I can ride a bike on this street." So, I just I appreciate I just I think I think it's a horrible waste of money. Well, I appreciate your persp perspective and I appreciate the cyclist. It's for the driver.

Yeah. I appreciate Councilman understand that, but drivers also know that bikes can be on the streets. All right. We're going to bring it to the bicycle advisory commission and the parks and wreck and we'll bring it back here and we'll we'll listen to what their uh what their advice is and we'll go from there. But this is the bid. No, no, I know. We're we're talking about for the future. We're going to vote on this tonight and then we'll bring it to those groups uh to have them deliberate and figure out if there's a better way to go. So, all right. So, we've got we've got a motion and a second, right? I believe so. Yes. All right, please vote. I'll agree this time.

Four. Yes.

Oh, Lord. All right. Uh, item seven, new business. Item 7A, Quickstar, 3501 Westtown Parkway. Approve a preliminary plat to create one lot for commercial development and approve a site plan to allow construction of an approximately 9100 foot convenience store with eight fuel pumps. Herd Valley West LLC. Uh we've got a resolution for approval of the preliminary plat and site plan and there are no outstanding issues but there are five conditions of approval. I don't know why staff does this to me. Related to execution of easements, dedication of street lots, execution of storm water management, facility maintenance, covenant and permanent easement agreements, vacation and reestablishment of private easements, and the applica or the applicant addressing any remaining staff comments regarding the preliminary platin site plan review. You got that down, right? All right. All right. With that, can I get a motion to approve the resolution?

Move approval of the resolution.

Okay. It's been moved and seconded. Is there anybody in the audience or online that would like to address the council item 7A? Okay. Is there any discussion on the dis? All right. Councilman. Sure. Had a had a few thoughts about this. Um, we will start with um we'll start with a conversation that I had with uh Chad Stoutmire who owns the gas station right across the street. I've actually had several conversations with Chad and um I understand there was a personal commitment and I understand that. So I understand that's why he might not be here tonight. And also there was a gentleman who shared some words about this earlier. But nonetheless, I did want to share my thoughts because uh in our conversations together, Chad and I uh we just discussed a couple of uh specific things that I just wanted to address. In our conversations, I wanted to uh make it clear to everybody that this particular development is not receiving any funding. There's no funding from the city. There's no tiff dollars. There's no incentive dollars. There's no hotel motel lost funding, general fund. there's no incentives for this project. I think that is really really important to be clear. Uh I know we had discussed the traffic and in the traffic study that you can see in the packet. Uh I want to appreciate the work that engineering and traffic engineering and and Brian Heath and his team have done to kind of evaluate what this might do. There has been 40% less traffic and thanks for finding those statistics. side asked a few weeks ago compared to the year 2000 in the Valley West heyday traffic certainly has gone down and apparently it's gone down uh upwards of 40% compared to the year 2000 26 years ago that is a really really big drop off and that makes sense based on what has

happened since the less trafficked Valley Mall west mall has been a reality for us now what council member McKenna said earlier I want to address that too because we We all want, it sucks, but we all want that intersection to be a lot busier because what that means is that Valley West Mall, whatever its future may hold, it's going to be a hopping place. I know the mayor uh speaks excitedly about the game changer. Well, that will be the future of Valley West Mall. And I am also excited. I I can't go a week or two without hearing someone saying, "What's going on with Valley West Mall? What's going on with Valley West Mall?" And I know that whatever comes down the pike, I'm sure it will be exciting, but it it is a wait and sometimes the best things comes for those who wait. But it is going to be a little bit before there is something going on there that is more exciting than it is right now. Not to be down on any business that is in Valley West Mall. Not to be down on that at all, but it's certainly less traffic than it was. So, in our conversations, Chad and I, I know he was concerned that maybe the city was providing funding, was providing help, uh, was providing any sort of tiff dollars, and that's just simply not the case. I want to make that very, very clear. Um, when it comes to the traffic, I know there was concern there. And while an additional business there will provide more traffic, there's no doubt about that, it will still be way less traffic than the traffic loss than the year 2000. Now, upon some sort of Valley West Mall development eventually going in there, yes, traffic will go up, but hopefully that will be a rising tide that lifts all boats. So, I want to just address those particular things. I also did want to address that uh a lot of the sidewalks in the area are in deteriorated condition, and I know that's mentioned. And then there's going to be a 10-ft uh trail. I guess if it's 10 ft wide, it

would be trailike, I suppose. And I know that the applicant has agreed to do that. Right now, that area uh has a really really skinny sidewalk, I believe, right? And a 10-ft wide will be really really helpful for pedestrian traffic for whatever future may hold. Uh this does not call for another 10-ft sidewalk to the south of Westtown. I know Chad and I discussed that and he was concerned that there might be a need for a new 10-ft sidewalk, which really wouldn't make sense because that would just be a sidewalk to nowhere. It would be a sidewalk to the on-ramp that just go straight on to 235 West at that point. So, there would be no call for that whatsoever. uh because at that point if you're coming down from say Hy or Target and you go to the corner where this applicant's uh development will be you would cross over the intersection and then cross over to the east side of the street and then you would be able to walk across that bridge portion where there's uh actual pedestrians. So uh this is a long winded way of saying that I know there have been a lot of concerns about that and I know there have been a lot of concerns about what's going to go here but here is the fundamental truth. Uh there are no incentives for this business. And um I think what council member McKenna said earlier is absolutely correct. If an applicant meets all of the codes and all of the requirements to go to an existing commercial zoning, then uh I think it's it's probably a troubling thing if we go to a place where if you followed all the rules, and in fact, I'm looking at the rules right now. It appears that the applicant is going above and beyond. I know that there are neighbors and I know some of the neighbors are here in the office in the audience today and there was concerns about the streetscape. There was concerns about what it might look like. There's concerns about retaining wall water control and whatnot. There's concerns about the

lights and whether or not the lights if there's a future residential place there. Um I know the applicant has decreased the intensity of canopy lights. So, I know that the applicant from what we see here is doing all they can. And Brian, would it be safe to say that in the future I'm not asking you to call, you can just do a nod. If traffic does get to be really, really problematic, we might have to do some things in the future uh to address that. Whether that be another ride in ride out, would that be something that might be addressed in the future? But right now, not right now because the traffic is so much lower. So, while I do understand things that I've heard about, I understand these concerns. At the same point, if we have an applicant that is uh fulfilling all the requirements for a commercially zoned district, I don't know if we can be in a place to deny an applicant for very very specific reasons that there's another business. And I know that there was a gentleman in the audience earlier and I know he has since left, but I'm very very sensitive to the comments that he made. But at the same time, I don't think the city has a reason to deny this particular applicant at this moment. And so I just wanted to say that and that's just kind of where I'm at and I wanted to share my thoughts.

All right. Thank you for those thoughts, Councilman. Appreciate it. Uh any other discussion on this before we vote?

Uh I am sensitive to the concerns that uh Mr. Stomire brought up for sure. and um had a conversation with him as well. Uh and I'm understand what the gentleman who was here was was worried about. Um as you said, I think he covered it very well. We're we're not having a traffic issue. We're not providing any tiff incentives and there really is no reason for us to to deny this business coming in. Not only is there no reason to deny us, you know, deny this business coming in, but this is going to be a phenomenal business. And uh you know I I oftentimes go out in the community and I ask residents, you know, what do we not have here that you'd like to see here? And I will tell you right now, I have had a number of people say Quickstar, they've got great chicken. So uh this has been a request. People are excited about this. Um I think that uh the rising tide does lift all boats. I think that Mr. Starttomire is going to have continue to have a very successful business there and people are going to take their vehicles in there because they trust them to do um great work uh and repairing their cars. Uh I think his business has been there and successful ever since I've been here and I've been here a long time and I think it's going to continue to be successful and I think this is going to be a great addition um to this site and to this area. And again, West Bank Quickstar, we're starting to see activity in this area. I know there's uh developers that have bought um off of Westtown Parkway a little bit further down uh to the west. Uh and Valley West Mall discussions are moving forward. So, this is an exciting time and this is a great project.

And Mr. Mayor, it should be said that this was approved by the planning and zoning commission on a vote of 6 to zero. I know you said that a little bit earlier. Um it's it's not unprecedented for us to necessarily override that particular decision, but it if it has been done in the past, it is for exceptional circumstances and uh and the circumstances of a business wanting to fulfill a current zoning that they fulfill. I don't I just don't believe that rises those circumstances. Sure. Despite my sensitivity as as you mentioned earlier too. Absolutely. All right. Is there any other discussion before we vote? All right. Hearing none, please vote.

Four. Yes. Okay. Item 7B, we've got a resolution to approve the contract with ASME Local 3861. Uh, does somebody want to move approval of the resolution? Motion approval. Okay. It's been moved and seconded. Is there anybody in the audience or online that would like to address the council on item 7B? Okay. Is there any discussion in the dis? Okay. Hearing none, please vote

for yes. Okay. Item eight, receive, file, and or refer. We've got nothing to receive, file, or refer. Item nine, other matters. Are there any other matters that any council person would like to bring up at this time for the good of the order? Okay, hearing none, we are going to adjourn and in five minutes we're going to start in on our workshop uh with Dave Lions and the 2040 plan. We are journed. Okay, 7:10 we're going to get started.

All right, open all your chips. Get all your little munchies. I'm going to get cracking cuz I'm I'm going to breeze through my stuff real fast and then we'll get Dave going. by 7:30. All right, we're going to come back together. We're going to start the workshop out. Laura, who's done so much work on this, is going to start us out and pass it to Dave.

Yes, I am. Okay. Good evening, Mayor and Council. So, for this workshop, we want to bring you up to speed on where we're at with the 2040 action plan, why we started this effort, and what we are asking from you tonight. So, I will start with a brief background on how we got here. Then I'll walk us through the planning process we used with you and our staff team. And after that, I'll turn it over to Dave Lions to go deeper into the plan content and the policy questions where we need your decision. All right. So, as you recall, this work really began back in 2015 when the city engaged Rebecca Ryan and Next Generation Consulting to help us take a long range look at West De Moines's future. That effort produced the West Point 2036 plan which you see summarized here. At that time, our top leaders came together to identify six strategies that reflect our shared commitment to West De Moines's future. Working together as one leadership team on community priorities. Keeping West De Moine financially strong and solvent. Treating quality of life as our north star. establishing West De Moines as a leader in sustainability, doubling down on technology, and developing, retaining, and attracting a world-class workforce. These themes have guided many of the decisions and investments you and prior councils have made over the last decade. In many ways, 2036 gave us the long-term compass. 2040 is about updating that compass for the realities we are facing now. By 2024, many of the major objectives from the 2036 plan had either been completed or were well underway. At the same time, several things changed. We

have a new mayor and council with your own priorities and perspectives. The external environment has shifted significantly from economic conditions and development pressures to technology, workforce, and infrastructure challenges. Given that context, the city manager's office felt it was important to be proactive rather than reactive. So, we initiated an update and that's how West Mo 2040 process began with Next Generation Consulting. This isn't starting from scratch. It builds on what worked in 2036 and recalibrates it for where you want to take the community next. Let me briefly remind you how the 2040 plan was completed. The 2040 process had four main phases. We worked with you and the management team to explore key future trends that will affect West De Moines. Things like demographic shifts, technology, housing, and infrastructure. We use those trends to imagine different scenarios and possibilities and to test how resilient West De Moines is under different conditions. From there, we translated those conversations into concrete strategic themes, goals, and initial priorities. We then completed the development and approval of the West Demo 2040 plan in July of 2025. Since then, our focus has shifted from planning to doing. Over the last several months, we've been working internally on the 2040 action plan, translating that highlevel vision into concrete steps, responsibilities, and timelines. Once we kicked off the action plan work with our department directors, we asked them to focus on three things. How the 2040 goals translate to their specific service areas. the concrete actions, pilots, and policy tools they need to move those priorities forward,

how their work programs and budgets may need to change over the next few years to support those priorities. What you'll see next is how that work has taken shape, and where we're looking for your feedback and policy direction so we can move from ideas to implementation. With the West De Moine 2036 plan, we engaged Dave Lions to help generate momentum and support early implementation. We've asked him to play a similar role with West Deo 20 240. With that, I'll turn it over to Dave to walk through the 2040 framework and the proposed priorities.

Thank you, Laura. Mayor and Council, it's good to see you this evening. Um, I know you think how how could it be 10 years ago when we had one of these last conversations, but it's been. Um, as Laura noted, my role is similar to 2036. I'm supposed to help align things for its implementation and kick uh key elements of the 2040 off uh early and get some momentum um with council direction. Um, tonight I'd like to do that kind of in two pieces. Uh the first piece is to uh give you an overview of how we're preparing to kickstart this internally. And so we will in fact talk about the conversations with the uh lead staff on barriers and how to overcome those barriers. Once we remove the barriers, what are their top priorities? And I will go through how those lay out. Um, I'm going to ask you to hold your questions until I finish those four slides because they kind of merge and then we'll go into the second part, which is I've picked three or four of the top policy questions that are flowing out. And what you need to know is that this staff is acutely attuned to what you're thinking, what you're feeling, what you're saying, etc. So, it's really important for me to try to draw out safe areas, areas of conversation, areas of concerns. And so, that's what I'll try to do. And as you know, this is a journey. Um, this stuff doesn't happen overnight, but it it does happen. All right. So, the first thing we did, uh, we reviewed the 2040 plan and then we sat down with staff after they had done their work and we started looking at barriers. That's one of the things people sometimes forget is okay so what barriers are there to overcome? I want you to know there were three categories of barriers that staff

brought forward and partners brought forward. The first one was time. People really felt like they had a Hobson's choice. Either they can do all the work they're doing today or they can shift and prepare to do the work of the future. And so their concerns were h how do I manage this? The second was money. And again, the city manager's office has been pretty specific. Do not expect West De Mo to be able to continue to fund or be the lead funding entity on every project or every need, which means every dollar has to be accounted for a bit differently. and it's going to be harder to bring dollars in from the outside and harder to use internal dollars because of all of the commitments. On the third one was authority. Quite often when we would talk about issues and I would be drawing something out, I'd have a staff person say, "Well, we'd have to think about what council thinks or I'm not sure council's ready for that." those types of issues. They did not feel comfortable that a number of things in the 2040 plan would be safe for them to experiment with and push forward early without council input. So, we talked about those, but we also then came back and we talked about how do we remove the barriers. So, I just want to cover that really quickly. Go ahead. Um, for example, we talked about the fact that we're not going to have a lot of more bodies to work with in the future. So, we basically all decided that we'd have to talk in terms of force multipliers. We're not going to have less work to do. We're not going to have more bodies to do it. So, we have to come up with strategies and incorporate incorporate them into activities and budgets which are force multipliers for existing staff. on the time issue. The two that were coming to the top, there's a lot of

them, but two that really came to the top, technology and the use of AI and process streamlining. And in fact, I'm pretty sure you're probably already seeing the budget activities and the other activities occurring within the departments that are really starting to show that there's some AI leadership in the uh staff and that the ability to automate without losing to human touch is actually putting De Moines really well ahead of other cities right now. It they've got their act together. They're doing a lot more online and effectively than some of the other cities are doing around the state. So I think they've made some good choices. You'll see a lot of process streamlining u that's being occurred as well. So that's how the major response to the time concern is on the money. Um you'll see conversations here as I go forward on public private partnerships. I think the recognition is is that West De Moines will not be able to be the only or the first or the largest investor in everything that needs to be done and so there will be a lot of discussion about how to activate partnerships to bring funding in for key priorities in 2040. Additionally, internal expertise uh there are a lot of opportunities for either adoption of new revenue uh grants loans etc. if we can identify those and that'll be one of the things that staff tries to do. The other one is identification of cost reductions on authority. Um they're going to be looking for flexibility from you and license to try some new things. Um that's going to be important in 2040 because there are some pretty big swings in that that are going to require some pilot projects, some new activity. So, you're likely to hear from the staff that they're going to need a little bit

of flexibility, some pilots, some authorities early on if they're going to get some momentum behind 2040. Again, this isn't part of the 2040 plan, but this is how the staff is gerting underneath to get ready for the 2040 plan. Go ahead. So on thriving city of homes as you know you had five key elements within uh thriving city of homes. Um and you understand both its opportunity and its challenge. Um, I want to share with you the consensus on this issue that came up through staff and that was there is a strong a huge business case and a community case to be made for preserving uh West De Moines supply of attainable housing. Um, it used to be that you could just expect people to drive however long they needed to drive to come to a good job and then they would leave. That's not how the workforce is choosing where they are in the future. They're selecting communities first and they're selecting uh jobs second. Um tastes and finances have changed. Also, a community's long-term sustainability uh if you look at some of the new econ economics um their financial sustainability improves with denser housing. Um it is also uh of the fact that most of the tax credits, most of the reductions in revenues uh that would be attached to property in the future will likely incur more in large expensive single family homes than it would be in other types of housing opportunities. So, one of the things they're bringing up is that there are business, there are community, and there are resident

reasons to really embrace a more diverse set of housing and to actually work to put in place planning guidelines um that allow that experimentation, that allow that development, etc. And I'll talk about Valley West or Valley Junction uh a little later in one of the questions. uh just wanted you to know that that was a business reality that was coming up. So you will see your staff trying to develop uh and approach zoning, approach land use, approach your approvals on different types of housing and housing opportunities with more flexibility. Next um bold laboratory for economic innovation. Again, there were five items you're familiar with that came out of your planning, the previous planning, etc. The consensus prioritization of the staff. Uh again, these these are my uh takeaways from those conversations is that developing distinct districts, targeted identity, geography, future vision, or other community or neighborhood, maybe cultural um um connections is an opportunity for West De Moines. Um, and they believe, uh, as I think you do, that using the university corridor in the Valley West development as a demonstration of pre-approved flexible zoning, use guidelines and collaborative amenities and public private partnership is the way to go. And I think you'll see that their enthusiasm for um, identification and communities within the community uh, is pretty strong. Next, talented powers tomorrow. Again, that's one of the and you had five key elements in and you're familiar with those having gone through the West De Mo 2040 uh plan. The

consensus prioritization is is that obviously workforce is going to be critical. Um generally the belief is the city should primarily focus its efforts where it's already core competent and that is identifying engaging underskilled residents and helping them become employer ready. Um it should also collaborate with high wage industry and employers to support their recruitment efforts uh building a skilled pipeline. So one of the items there I think that's coming through is can't be everything to everyone. focus point would be on underskilled and creating employability and then listening closely to existing industry and existing employers to figure out how to help uh form their pipelines. Um model city for innovation and resilience. Well, I think you're already kind of that um with everything you've done in the past. Uh but again the consensus prioritization is is that the city should capitalize on existing infrastructure uh to facilitate improvements to city priorities. And a couple that came to the top um policing uh public safety can be highly supported through critical infrastructure uh and reduce its uh increase its engagement, reduce its costs. Um policies like uh retaining asset capacity by maintaining control uh are things that are are pretty important uh to accomplishing the objectives and obviously any new investment needs to be able to show that it's resource efficient. Um ones that aren't resource sufficient eventually become uh wards of the city. Um, and I know that sometimes it's a this is sounds a little amorphous, but I'll get into one of the questions in a little bit on private streets, uh, private rightways. Um, those are the types of issues where when the city allows

exceptions, um, those holes create a lot more damage within your infrastructure than one would think. And if you're going to use infrastructure in the future, having complex and comprehensive infrastructure works best. So those are the four high levels and then I've got four facilitated conversations, one in each of those areas to try to tease things out a bit more. But I'm going to stop and see if anybody wants to back up on any of those slides or if we want to just go into the policy facilitation. What are your thoughts?

I had a couple thoughts, Dave. Thanks for being here. Uh first thing as you've kind of taken the larger view of the city of West De Moines when it comes to funding. So my first impression is that we've done a pretty good job of public private partnership. My feeling is that we're the best in the state. Is that actually not true?

Um you are one of the best in public private partnerships. Uh but your public public private partnerships um if you look at development agreements um can be very specific and narrow. Well, example, um, you're just beginning now, I think, and I'm sure that the development director Ryan could, uh, correct me, but, uh, including cultural amenities and including recreational opportunities and including concepts with attainable housing within your development agreements as far as a broader public private partnership. Additionally on funding, uh, one of the things that you've seen is in the past is West De Moines has almost always been first in, largest in, you know, leading. Um, and some of those times you might want to basically say, you know, guess what? We will have matching funds or we will seek out grants and loans to support or we will increase the request from the private sector to step up on key issues. So, and and again, I'll just repeat uh like my impression is that we've been done doing a pretty good job of that already, but are you saying there's more capacity to build that out even farther when it comes to grants, when it comes to funding, when it comes to matching, when it comes to all those things?

I think so. Okay. Very cool. Well, that I and staff think that. All right. Uh and then the other thing was when it came to maybe encouraging experimentation and maybe allowing more flexibility. I mean, isn't that the kind of purpose of the comp plan? The comp plan allows for flexible housing andor multiuse low, multi-use medium, etc. So my question is, aren't we already kind of doing this or can we flex it out even more?

I think there's a conversation occurring as to where people feel comfortable implementing that activity uh within the comp plan and whether or not there can be I'll give you an example. There's still questions in relationship to to Valley Junction as to whether, you know, should there be a transitional plan? Should the should the May I mean Valley uh junction? Yeah. Should there be uh should guidelines be shells or should transitional authority be there or is there some other type of zoning that larger zoning that should come in? staff would like direction because right now that takes a lot of time and it takes a lot of money uh for everything to have to go through processes individually.

Explain to me how it is time consuming and cost development in the city of Valley Junction. I mean at this point the business district is is already defined. Fifth street from railroad divine the 400 and 500 block of fifth street has already been I think 30 years or more has been historic valley junction business district. So how does that impede anything? And Ross apparently been talking to him about transition zones because again and I I I guess if you want the residents to come unglued because this is being broadcast on YouTube and it's going to be out there forever. So now we're talking transition zones again and nobody knew about it because all this was was the 2040 plan. So I can't even believe you put this crap in here.

I'm not sure. I'm not I'm not sure. How is it expensive? time consuming and costly for developers in the city. The way Valley Junction is right now, you got a business district and you got residential. Transition zones is going to extend into their residential. Our residents have already expressed their concern about taking single family housing away, which is the the most affordable single family housing that West De Mo has. And now you're you're putting that into this crap. I'm I'm gonna make a suggestion here. First of all, let's be polite and have manners and etiquette. I'm sorry, Kevin. I got to call you out on it. I I I never do. I'm gonna do it this time.

Let's be polite to Dave who's here to help us. Uh and let's Dave, let's skip over the transition zones. We don't we don't need any more stuff in Valley Junction. Let's just

There's a perfect not meant to be negative. If you go through the process, creating geographically distinct innovation zones would allow the city to experiment. All right, innovation zones, enterprise zones, activities where you're incenting people to come in and try something new together. If you go through the existing opportunity, you note that I said valley junction development remains timeconuming and a costly process for developer cities because everything is one by one. Now, what I'm just saying there is could the creation of an innovation district, a transitional zone, or changing your present guidelines to as requirements improve outcomes? I I wouldn't have put this here if I hadn't heard the if id heard the conversation earlier cuz I think you've already decided that one

because we we we haven't decided. We've said we're not going to have that discussion for a while because staff's got a lot of other things on their plate and can't get to it. Tonight we talked about codifying the design guidelines and getting back to conversation on transition zones. People are very touchy on this, but we can still be polite about it. Um, so and I hear exactly what you're saying. You're right. It's one by one and it's it's, you know, considering each one and and having people come in and, you know, isn't that how all of the development happens in West De Mo? We just did a one by one with Quickart, 35th or Valley West

and and Westtown. It's a one by one. I think it's a little bit more difficult of a process down in Valley Junction. I think there's a lot of people that are very plugged in, a lot of feedback that we that we receive. It takes a lot longer. There's a lot more discussion. There's, you know, it it isn't as easy there and and maybe it shouldn't be

disagree, but and and Councilman, all I'm trying to do here is to note you have two activities that are under discussion pretty frequently in the community. one is the university corridor which would be a new one so to speak of a distinct geographic area and one that's already a distinct geographic area that exists. So I was just pointing out that is there an opportunity to do something a little different than was presently being done and I laid out the options. So and and we appreciate that we will have that discussion whenever we are able to. So, boy did I walk.

You'd walked into it. You know, we should have we should have warned you. We should have learning. Well, thank thank you, Dave. Let's keep going. Let's keep going.

Let's do the next one then because they because they all kind of come together. Um, multiple priorities within the West De Mo 2040 plan can be advanced by innovation and flexibility and development agreements. I think you already have a lot of uh innovation uh coming through that. Um the question is whether the council's open to using development agreements to obtain or retain control of sufficient physical assets to asssure that 2040 priorities can be accomplished. Now that's that's a pretty wide range of issues but it also comes in the fact that you know t land is limited, time is limited, money is limited. Um, you know, is the council open to including attainable housing creation or set aides where possible within new development agreements or considering development incentives for partnerships that are more focused on uh cultural and recreational development collaboration. So an example there uh as you've probably seen in other communities they wrestle with the issue when somebody wants to create affordable uh create a new development or infield development. Um there's a lot of conversation you know should there be a requirement that some land be retained for the community to accomplish the h housing gaps? um should the developer be requested or incented uh to include attainable housing within their development etc. So that's kind of a hard issue but at the same time um 2040 has a lot of very uh visionary issues in it that's going to require levels of collaboration. Um the fact that um uh village uh village orientation, community

orientation, local recreation, walkable uh livable um um activities all occurring in a small space near where people live is really kind of uh experimenting across the country. So the question is is is that something that you want to retain space to do or require it of those who are using space within the community?

Dave, can you give me an example of what that would look like specifically? So you're mean meaning like if there's a development, we're setting aside certain pieces of parals within that development for recreational spaces for more affordable housing or more attainable housing. Can you give me an example of what that might look like exactly? uh somebody would like to uh develop a project and they u are presenting you with a series of plans and you would say I'd like to see since we are under represented in attainable housing for people making workforce like workforce housing we'd like you to have x% of the units which de mo does this yes or

10% has to be dedicated to affordable units the other issue is is that there is um often I I want you to put an amenity in um and that amenity needs to become a public amenity. So, uh walkways, bike trails, um as things get more dense, there will be private property, but there will also be public uses of that private property. the city will either retain space or it will retain control in order to achieve its larger objectives.

Okay. So that that doesn't seem monumental in my view as in hey you're going to build say an apartment complex in the city of West De Mo uh 10% have to be affordable or attainable kind of like de mo does. I'm just using that as example and you have to set aside some green space. That doesn't seem remarkable. So, when I see this, I thought maybe you were mentioning uh not an apartment complex, but maybe a town home complex or maybe even a commercial development. So, I guess, well, what does that look like? Cuz building an apartment with 10% and then some green space, that's unremarkable. What would be more remarkable is a commercial space. And I was wondering what that would look like. This is harder than you think, too. But

Oh, I didn't say it was easy. I just said the concept of building an apartment building with some extra green space is unremarkable. uh what I would say as an example would be a commercial space where in return for providing sewer, water, um wastewater etc. Um thus spaces that that is used for uh become public spaces whether those would be wetlands or whether those would be parks or whether those would be prominads etc. Um, and it is very touchy because, you know, these are private lands purchased by private developers who are already basically saying, you know, guess what? It's hard enough to make it work and pencil out for what I have planned, let alone what you have planned. But the question then comes down to how do you collaborate? You know, what values can you bring to the developer and in return have something that looks like 2040 in the future, which is vibrant, active communities that are culturally, recreationally supported where young families want to move to.

Sure. And so would you envision this in Sorry, Matt. No, you're fine. Would you envision this in new areas that's Greenfield or green space in the in the city or you mentioned the university corridor and kind of looking forward to 2040? I don't know what's going to happen with office space. It doesn't appear to be going in the direction of needing more. So would this be redevelopment of like university corridor and would that in would that involve repurposing buildings or tearing down completely? I mean what's the vision in terms of 2040 with kind of what regard with regard to what you just said?

I think it's just a broader conversation. are there opportunities in relationship to all the developments? So, I don't think it has to be one or the other. Um, what I would say is infill development, there's usually more involved with the city and so there might be a larger opportunity for leverage. Uh, but again, the concept is is can we begin approaching development agreements, land sales, even annexation in a way that basically thinks about these public private collaborations in the future? Sure. Thank you, David. Hey, Dave. I'm I'm uh you keep talking about uh what was it here in in response to one of Councilman Hudson's questions about density.

Yeah. Help me better appreciate what you're talking about because to be honest, when I hear density, um I think of let's look at De Moines. I wouldn't call them very fiscally sound. They got a tax rates about a third higher than us. When I think of density, I look at Chicago, problems everywhere. Look at New York, a mess, right? Everybody's leaving New York. You look at uh Denver.

Actually, I said cities, I typed it into Gemini. What are the cities that are struggling? Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Phoenix, all cities that are highly dense. And then I said, what about cities that are like uh, you know, not struggling? I look at uh Provo, Utah, St. George, Utah, Fagetville, Arkansas, Raleigh, North Carolina, less dense in my mind. So, tell me where my disconnect is. Because when I think of density, I'm thinking of cities that are really, you know, struggling. And then when I look at some of these other ones, yeah, sure, Provo, Utah may have more density than West De Mo, but you know what I'm saying. Yeah. I I should use the word diversification, okay,

more than the goal. Okay. So right now many cities that are um have been in the past Yeah. um very happy being either a bedroom community or being a community with large single family home tracks.

Um that's always kind of paid for itself when you talk about financial sustainability of a community. um that may not be the case in the future. And also from the business case perspective, the workforce of the future that you're trying to attract in the process aren't always looking for that as the lead or that as the opportunity. So I should say diversification versus that's the only thing you should be doing. Okay. We talk about uh or at least I I like to talk about payer mix and what you're talking about is diversity of the payer mix then. Okay. All right. Very very good. Dave, when you talk Go ahead, Kevin.

When you talk about attainable housing creation, are you talking apartments or are you talking single family? Yes. So, I take that as both. Well, I I would prefer uh one of the things that again I'm I'm presenting on behalf of staff. They understand that owner occupied is a gold standard. Yep. So, they also understand that not everyone can be owner occupied and you need to create a community that creates a pipeline, an opportunity to own a home and to move up, etc. So I think the focus is on owner occupied where possible,

but it's also in relationship to what are the amenities that come with rental housing um that allow you to have a a a foot in the game as they say when people are doing what they do today. They'll go they'll go into chat GPT and they'll say this is the kind of job I want and this is the kind of community I want and this is how much I want to pay etc. Where should I be looking? We want to come up on every one of those, I think, is what staff is saying.

But if we look at uh changing some policies and zoning that allows for smaller lots and smaller houses and uh getting rid of a garage that has to be with every new house or anything like that because obvious reason that Habitat doesn't build garages because they're expensive. Okay. I think we need to look at maybe changing that and allowing that to happen for the attainable housing and stuff because again I I just think it's horrible that you know when most of the time people talk about affordable housing they're talking apartments. It's I think it's just ridiculous that we expect our you know

I'll give you an example the the city working with developers um very often a house can be built and sold as an affordable home without it having to be limited. So there's space for a garage if the homeowner wants to put a garage in later. It's a three-bedroom home upstairs and the basement is unfinished if the homeowner wants to complete it in the future. Um there are layers of activity you can do to bring costs down. For example, on infill housing, a number of communities, I I believe you may be part of the conversation with De Moine that do um uh historic land trusts or community land trusts where the price of the land can be out from under it so that it makes it more affordable, etc. Uh I think what the the team is saying is is that we would like to create an opportunity for um attainable housing that is a match to the people who want to work and live in West De Moines. So and again if you want to live work in West De Mo you'd love to be able to be owner occupied but not everybody can.

Okay. Yeah. I think we have to have a good mix. I mean, I I think if you talk to the council, single family owner occupied is probably our first choice, right?

Not necessarily, Russ. I would say I I' I've spoken at length about duplex town homes just being because that becomes the attainable. And if we truly want to offer attainable housing, the more rooftops we have, that includes town homes, and we can be more efficient in usage of land, uh, this will allow people to move through. This is the missing middle. And in my opinion, I think we have different definitions of the missing middle. But I come from the historical side point where so many people have been denied the right to build equity in their own home, in their own owner occupied home for a lot of different structural reasons. And there's only so many things we can do as a city. But if we offer more opportunities and using creative decision-m and creative solutions, which are incredibly limited at just the mere city level, I am very cool with having town homes. I like single family, too. I think single family is great, but attainable. Uh but at the same time, I don't want uh it to be simply someone having to pay rent. And and we are the lowest in the metro. I've said it again and again and again. We are the lowest in the metro in owner occupied housing and that denies our residents the opportunity to build equity and that is so crucial crucial that has been uh that's been my point for a long time. So I'm sorry to interrupt, Mr. Mayor.

I think everybody agrees with you there. Owner occupied is what we'd like to see. But we we got to have a good mix of housing. There's no doubt about it. And missing middle and duplex and triplex. I think some of the things we've talked about in in zoning coming forward are going to help with that where we've got neighborhoods where the single family, the duplex, the triplex, those things all exist in the same in the same area. You know, we we recently had a couple people contacted me. Not a lot of people saw it, but you know, we we we got some some bad press about being uh the the city where uh you know, people were looking most at at at leaving and it was totally flawed information, bad data. I from a website that you really can't trust. But what I took for to heart from that was that they are where they're getting their information is they've got people with IP addresses inside this city that are looking for single family homes in Ankeny and Walke. Why? Because we don't have the affordable housing. They would love to stay but they know they can't afford a home here. We've got to stop that. We have got to provide opportunities for home ownership for young people and families uh to be able to live and work in the community in which they were raised. And this is going to come with a diversity of housing options for people. But it's it's going to take bold action by the council uh to get that done working in partnership with the housing developers. And it it's not going to be easy.

But that's the perfect example is what is you know these are hard questions. What is council open to? When somebody shows up and said, I want to build a 100 unit apartment building, do you ask how are you going to support owner occupied housing in West De Mo? Is that is that is that a conversation you're willing to have? We don't have it now. Yeah,

one thing we need to think about and I you know I I don't disagree with you Greg in the fact that you know a a townhouse or duplex triplex whatever you want to call it is that you know it's owner occupied but at the same time they don't own it all. they own what's inside of that and then there's common ownership of the exterior um you know the roof things like that and maybe the ground underneath it. So that's what we need to look at is is it possible to do um a dupe a you know a a townhouse town home

you know two unit townhouse that that the the center of that is on the property line and you own everything from that property line to the whatever your backyard and stuff including the backyard and then you own the roof the because right now typically like I said you know, somebody else owns there's a, you know, homeowners association and all that does is add to the cost that somebody's going to have to pay because but you got to have a diversity of housing options too because let's say that we do this and we got the duplex and we got the town homes. I think we have a lot of town homes now which is which are great

but at some point in time it's game over for the person, right? like, okay, they're in the apartment. They can afford that. They're probably spending more than 30% of their income living in that apartment, but they love it here. They love hitting balls at Top Golf and going to Dave and Busters, shopping at Jordan Creek Town Center. They think the city is phenomenal, right? And then they they want to own their home. They go to a town home. Okay, still good. They're still here. Then they go to get a single family home

and that's when they move. And you're seeing it a bit on both sides, too. As people as their children age out and as people want a smaller home, um there are communities that will build to the smaller home. And you don't have a a lot of that. Um again, I'm I'm limited in time. So I go ahead. No, no, I said sorry for interrupting. Continue by

So So I want to touch on two other policy issues. I mean, these are all where again the staff is very attuned to what they hear from council. So, I'm I'm getting council to talk. Um, one of the things that we've talked about is multiple priorities can be advanced by will be advanced only by leveraging your existing infrastructure etc. Um, two things pop up. Um, one is there are many places who are leveraging uh technology and you have an asset that is in the ground that connects everywhere um that many piece places that are trying to do real-time policing uh can't afford. And are you open to those types of infrastructure being used as base plans for accomplishing other 2040 priorities? Um other question is is are you open to deterring or disincenting the fragmentation of your infrastructure? Um, a lot of places don't think about it, but every time you allow for a private street, that street now is can't be part of your universal infrastructure approach. So, um, I know developers like it. I know sometimes it's a way for costs. Many communities um, haven't done it in the past because eventually, you know, things come back to them and they have to take care of it anyway. Um but more and more they're looking to the future saying look I need to have a I need to have a comprehensive approach. I need to be able to scale my answers in the future. Um and that's hard questions about whether or not you disincent or you deter any fragmentation of your

infrastructure whether that is um land water etc. So that's a hard question. And then the last one I'll cover real quickly here relates to u the workforce area issue. Um again um providing authority for staff to consider and implement um some unique arrangements or investments with the private sector uh to accelerate the 2040 priorities. You know for example um would you be open to launching a comprehensive plan for workforce development with and led by West De Moines's leading uh employers? Um, again, a lot of a lot of the concern is is we can't guess what people are going to need. We know we have to support workforce. We have to be all about workforce. We really can't guess what they're going to need or it isn't economically efficient to guess. Can we partner with them? Um, and then obviously um can we create engagement around sustainability uh and the kinds of communities that work force is going to want to come to. Um, so again that that would be a question of whether or not you want to establish a footprint within workforce development that is either internal to the city or external to your leading employers. So those are four just four general questions that that have come up through the staff. Um, and I think we're trying to get a feeling for what you are interested and not interested in in these types of policy discussions. Obviously, diversification of housing with a focal point on owner occupied. Uh, seems like there's a a yes to the staff to continue to push hard on that. Um, other ones, Doug,

just a question on this one, Dave. um why the emphasis on water in the second bullet point.

Um we went through our discussions and realized that uh physical assets within a community um including water were going to become much more expensive for the city to um to control and provide in the future. And so the goal was is can we incent or develop um incentives so that this asset which will become more and more expensive in the future becomes less and less of an issue for West De Moines. I think one of the comments, you know, that not negative, but uh you know, you've got five people in the DOS, but you've got 70,000 people in the community, and they'll properly incentive do more to conserve water than you probably can from a a mandatory basis. So are are you interested in creating uh sustainability issues as a practice and policy um in both the the land owners and the uh commercial activities?

So you're you're talking in this when you're talking um conserving water, right? Talking talking across the board for example. Yes. On conserving water then do away with irrigation systems there. There. There. There you go. That's the easiest way to do it. They use more water than the data centers that people talk about. So, you're actually right. Yeah, I know I'm right. Thank you very much. And if staff were to come, hey, we just talked in the

I mean, I just get rid of water. So, that's where you can do it. There are small ones you can do. Um, for example, with technology now, you can identify which houses have a leak. You can identify, contact them about the leak and you can create a a sliding scale support system for, you know, fixing the leak. Western One Waterworks already does that. Great. They they've been doing that for years before I retired seven years ago. They they can monitor off of the the water meter what your usage is. And if you're using, I'm just going to throw it out there, you know,

30,000 gallons and now all of a sudden you're using 150,000 gallons, they're going to call you and say, "Hey, Kevin, um, we noticed your bill or your usage has gone up. What's going on?" And then you find out that you've got a toilet leaking or whatever else. So that's already gee, I wish there was somebody at the DS that knew something about water.

Here's here's the here's a challenge and not just what you're saying. You know, customers are paying for the irrigation, Kevin, at higher rates. the if you've been watching the Raccoon River, it's over 10 milligrams a liter almost all winter. So what we are faced with as the citizens of West De Mo and the metro area, we are going to pay talk about double taxation. We subsidize agriculture. They pollute the water and do you hear anything from agriculture saying we'll help pay for the treatment of the water? Absolutely crickets. So the cost of and what he's doing is because the cost of the product our water is going to because they have to meet below 10 all the time is going to go significantly increase to build the capacity. Yeah. And irrigation's a high cost that's got to be changed and I think people have got to change their way their landscape and do a lot of things. But it's all coming on our residents. So who's representing our residents? Is it the waterworks? I don't hear anything from them,

right? They're not going out to say what we're going to go out. Of course, in this state, it's like the third rail. You can't you can't challenge that, right? Now, the other couple things we they'll talk about our wages in this state are not doing well, right?

They're not doing well. So, when you say we got to afford housing and do things, they got to have to have decent jobs. Our economy in this state is not doing well. It's one of the worst of the country. So, we we and now we have legislation that's going to limit to what we have. So Matt, when you say about annexation, we got to spread out. This kind of legislation does not bode well for annexation because we have to have police, fire, make care, all these things done on a very limited ability to do so. So I mean, you can't grow yourself out of it when people limit your growth, right? I'm just saying those are realistic things we're dealing with.

The bottom line is we need to do what we always do. We need to be common sense, down to earth, and put in place solutions that make sense. And it to the extent that we can conserve water, our resources, be better stewards of the environment, put in place the bioales and and different things that filter uh the water before it gets into the the creeks and the rivers and and help with the nitrate levels ourselves. We need to be doing that. Um, you know, is the state doing enough? I think people uh can have that have that uh debate back and forth. I know that they do have a number of programs that the farmers are participating in. It's a cost share deal where they're doing cover crops and and terracing and we've got Iowa State working on it. DNR is working on it. The Department of A is working on it. We got a water quality grant for um um our uh legacy woods project. So, they are doing it. Is it enough? Uh obviously not in our area.

80% of the nitrates are from agriculture, right? So not in our area it's not enough and but we need to do what we can. I agree. We'll adapt to whatever it is, but this is what we have to adapt to. But we got but we got to come up with things that are that make sense that that are, you know, reasonable in the way of cost that can make a huge bang for the buck when we actually put these things in place to be more sustainable. If it's costing people an an arm and a leg and they're going bankrupt to be sustainable, well, that's a problem, too, you know. But whatever we can do to be sustainable, we should be doing that personally and as a city, and it's got to make sense. I mean, I I'm all about it.

So, so Dave, just a couple quick comments. I know we're kind of wrapping up soon, but like private streets, Brian, when was the last time we allowed a private street? I hate private streets. I hate When was the last time we approved one? It's been a while, right? So I mean Glenn Oaks never denied one park over there but it's been a while right they they come in they I mean

it's very rare so that's fine. Uh can you go back to said something like advanced technology and storm water or something like that. This was right before I think you went back several slides. It was uh no the one right before this. It said advance res resiliency efforts in water energy and waste. What does that look like?

Um, we talked about water. Um, example there would be um as you begin to have um economic development activities. Um, our water sensitive issues. You know, I hate to say it from a development standpoint in the past. you know, you you shoot at everything that flies, you claim everything that falls in in development. So, the question would be, do you have a strategy for the future of saying, okay, we're interested in you if you don't do X or we're more interested in you if you do Y. And that type of issue becomes like you see right now the debate out there. You were very early to data centers. Um there is a huge conversation around the country right now about wait a minute do I want a data center. Well that's not the right conversation and that doesn't how isn't how we become a model city. You basically say this is what we want. We want a data center and we want a data center that works with us that reduces its water and we want a data center with us that understands how to use renewable energy and resources from the community. So I think what we're trying to say in in this is can we take some early actions to test whether or not we can become a truly sustainable and resilient community by doing some things that we haven't done before which would be incentives and disincentives.

True. Or uh funding programs uh or uh other types of activities that might get people to do things a little differently. Okay. And I can't speak for the rest of the council members and the mayor on this, but when it comes to unique approaches, yes, go forth. Like a lot of these seem kind of like the mayor said, common sense. So, should we look at advanced uh resiliency efforts? Yes. And energy and waste? Yes. Should we stop building private streets? Yes. Should we talk about education of our of our residents about water management? Yes. Now, there are some big ones like should we ban irrigation? That's an enormous one. So, and I have No thoughts on that right now, but the mayor's correct.

Do that. Say goodbye to the golf course this year. Say goodbye to Glenn Oaks. Say goodbye to De Mo Golf and Country or But we uh allowed for for solar panels a few years ago. I put some on my house. Like we didn't have a conversation about that until what 10 years ago or something like that. So yes, it seems like a lot of these things should we leverage our conduit system to do cooler things to whether it be whatever you had on that list. Yes. Like a lot of these Dave, I'll be blunt. a lot of these like yes go forth like explore creative solutions that would be great that's my opinion

I don't feel any differently now than I did when we went through this entire exercise the couple different times that we did I I feel like we've got the right answers I feel like we've got the right stuff in front of us that we need to be focusing on but you know as we as we grow and as things continue to go on they're not going to get easier they're going to get harder I mean we've got topographical challenges with development uh we've got Now, you know, potential um you know, constraint on our on our revenues and ability to grow. Um you know, we've got water quality issues that we need and and I think I brag about all the great e all the great environmental stuff that we've done as a city. We need to keep doing those things. Uh but it is awfully hard to get ahead of this water quality issue with the nitrate level at the uh the rate that they're at. Um

I also brag about our our grants that we've gotten. I was just talking at the budget workshop about uh Eric Dah has gotten so many grants and that's just in the parks and wreck that doesn't uh include what what Brian and his team has done engineering for traffic stuff that we've gotten grants for public private partnerships. I asked if we were the best in the state. We're up there. So should we do that more? Yes. Should we get more grants? Yes. So I think a lot of these uh seem like like great things to work into. So if staff if you feel constrained don't maybe that's kind of my thought on it. I would like that about Valley Junction that truly is one of the most sustainable

those grid streets that is one of the best way to design a community. Absolutely. And it's but it's very hard to get people to do that now because people want culde-sacs and I live on one, you know, but but the grid street system that's a sustainable good system of a community. It sounds it sounds like you're in great spot. I need to end on time or Tom will get mad at me. Um what I would say what I would say though is um from everything I can tell you probably want to do a post- legislative session review as well. um just because there's just a lot of lot of different thoughts about where things are going to come out that may impact how you commit to staff about changes as well.

Yeah. But I think we're on target from where we were before. I think we're going to have to be bold in in some of the solutions that we uh pursue here for housing and uh you know sustainability and all these other things and it may take us out of our comfort zone. Question is how far out of our comfort zone are we willing to go? That's what's what it's going to be at the end of the day. All right. Any last words, Laura? Tom, thank you. Getta, anybody in the back of the room? All right. All right. We're ajourned. Thank you so much, Dave, for walking us through. Thank you. Tough crowd. Tough crowd. Oh, no.