Planning & Zoning Commission - Regular Meeting

Monday, July 28, 2025
Transcript
Video
Agenda

About this meeting

Government Body
Planning & Zoning Commission
Meeting Type
Planning & Zoning Commission
Location
Norwalk, IA
Meeting Date
July 28, 2025

Transcript

67 sections (from 243 segments)

0:080

I just wonder

0:280

she had inspiration.

0:35 – 1:000

A little bit of a cool summer. Hey, good evening. Andrew Stiger's here.

1:18 – 1:290

Okay, that's from me. VA we had board of adjustment at noon.

1:24 – 2:150

This is our second public meeting today. Some How are you?

2:19 – 2:440

Ready to stay home. Yeah.

3:01 – 3:230

Chicago. [Music] I was getting married in September, so we're all engaged in that

3:28 – 3:590

Chicago suit for a tuxedo which took 15 That's do it there. Go to the Guinness bar. Yeah. Yeah. Omaha made a one. I'm not sure. I don't know if they did. It's nor but fit or real and it wasn't anything.

4:08 – 4:520

I will now call to order the planning and zoning commission meeting on July 28th, 2025. The time is 5:45 p.m. Hillary, would you call the role, please? Thompson, here. Stiger here. Samuelson here. Forced here. Eaton Henders Reaganator here. Um, item number three is the approval of tonight's agenda. Any changes uh to this evening's agenda? Hearing nothing, I would entertain a motion and a second to approve tonight's agenda. Some motion.

4:50 – 5:290

Samuel second. All in favor say I. I. Item number four is the approval of the June 9th, 2025 minutes. Any changes or add additions to those minutes? Hearing nothing, I would entertain a motion and a second to approve the June 9th, 2025 minutes. Motion. Stagger. Second. All in favor say I. I.

5:27 – 6:240

I'd like to welcome the folks that have joined us here in person tonight as well as those on the Zoom. Would any members of the public who are here in person tonight like to make a comment on an item that is not on tonight's agenda? And anyone on Zoom? Same question. Hearing nothing, we'll move on to our first substantive item. a public hearing and recommendation on a reszoning request from Diligent Development to change 14.867 acres north of Blooming Heights from AR Agricultural Reserve to R160 Single Family Residential. We'll open the public hearing at 5:47 p.m. Elliot, would you brief us on this item, please?

6:22 – 7:160

Yep. So, this is a resoning proposal north of the third plat of Blooming Heights. Plat 4 recently went through city council, which um just because of the the phasing timing is located south of of where we're at. Um so, this would be or we've we've kind of drafted it out as uh plat five um consecutive number-wise, but not uh not as far as the boundaries go. So, um, north side of Redbud Street as it curves north near Green Leaf Circle. Um, it's located within our future land use designation of lowdensity residential. So, the request is for R1 single family. That's what the future land use plan says it can be. Um, so recommendation from staffs for approval. Happy to take any questions.

7:16 – 8:000

Would the applicant or the applicant's representative like to make a comment on item number six? Brad Cooper with Cooper Crawford and Associates. Eric Ornamp with Diligence also here for any questions. Uh we don't have an approved concept through the city yet, so we haven't got anything to show you, but we're looking at uh 19 to 20 single family lots that range from 80 to 90 foot in width. Would any members of the public like to comment on item number six? What was that question? Would any members of the public like to comment on item six?

8:00 – 8:450

Y. Um, so you'll just need to come up to the microphone and then we'll just need your name and your address, please. Name, Den Roberts. address 2343 Green Leaf Circle. Um questions if there's been any habitat studies down there. There's a bunch of wildlife. Um any assessments on future, you know, land value or property value as my house sits right on the back with an unobstructed view and the plans would look like it would add residential housing right behind thus reducing home value. Elliot, I don't want to speak out of turn, but I don't know that we have any of those specifics before the commission.

8:43 – 9:240

Not anything not anything on any wildlife studies or anything like that. That's not a a thing that typically is done with a reszoning request. Um as far as value is concerned um residential next to residential in real terms doesn't affect property value on the investment market. Um value in that case would be a a perceived change from a property owner which is legitimate. Um we have to operate in real terms when considering proposals like this. Sure. What does real terms mean? So if if you're talking about a loss in value, yep,

9:22 – 9:570

like there's no there isn't really an example of single family development next to single family development changing the assessed value of your house. So my assessed value is more on that side than the houses on the other street up with houses behind it. So it would appear that it you when I was when I sold or bought it, that land was more than the one right above because it didn't have anything behind it. Sure. And I can't speak to the assessor's method for that. Well, I'm getting taxed on it. The higher land value.

9:56 – 10:400

Sure. And that's a conversation to have with Warren County, not not the city of Norwok. But, um, you know, they have the right to develop land and that's, you know, the thing that we're considering tonight is a reasonzoning to allow that to happen. What's the further steps in this? Then so um we would recommend make a recommendation to the city council. The city council will then take up that agenda item. You would also have an opportunity to talk to city council. Um and then they make the final decision about the reszoning. Okay. We get notices. Um I don't know if they would be will be considered at the August 7th meeting. Okay.

10:37 – 11:170

Which is at 6 o'clock in this room. Was that included on the notice they got before Elliot or I believe so. Yeah. Okay. So, but will they get a separate notice of city council? No, but I can verify if that was a letter and if not they can send notices out again. There's not a time frame really that a letter needs to go out um just before meeting. Okay. And just to kind of, you know, reiterate your concerns, it's not just the reduction in property value, but more a reduction in the sighteline. Yeah. Of the view that you will have.

11:15 – 11:590

The view primarily um there's a lot of wildlife back there. See it every day then. And I would like it to be known that everything that I've done, all the value, the land purchased is significantly more than the land across the street because of what it doesn't back up to. So I mean in any other assessed value if it's a thing like a golf course that is assessed differently than if you were backing up to another house. A golf course can also be developed at a future date if the people who going through the proper panels is I I agree. Just be aware of that. Yes. I'm just saying like when I bought it, there was no plat that was agricultural. Understood that's part of the plan, but throwing it like that area

11:56 – 12:250

I don't I mean I'm not a developer, but 20 houses seems like a lot back there if you're just trying to cram them in. I don't know. I could be way off, but the proposed 80 to 90 foot wide lots would be uh larger than the Green Leaf Circle lots. So they'd be larger than the executive lots as they said today. I believe so. Are they 70s?

12:20 – 13:010

I think they were a mix of 75 to 80 in plat three. These will be all mineral paint probably, but we have a big row of 90s on the the east side of the road as it goes down right about I know that north side was zone R170. I guess I don't recall the initial pling of it. But yes, there should be equivalent style homes. It's not I want to characterize it as cramming homes in there at the size that they proposed. Any other comments you had for? Nope. That'll be it. Great. Thank you so much for participating.

13:03 – 13:470

Do the members of the commission have any questions before we close the public hearing? Is it atypical to think about um I know look at environmental things but wildlife if you are because it's like it is a wooded area to consider the impacts on the environment and taking the habitat of natural things there we don't have ordinances in effect requiring that not a question more comment deer turkey feeasants etc all back in that chunk wooded area that are in there consistently.

13:50 – 14:260

And I don't know if I can request one done. I don't know if that's a reasonable request, but we don't have the authority to entertain a request like that. And I'm not aware of any DNR rules that would prevent development for just regular native wildlife. are requirements to study and do mitigation if there's uh endangered wildlife there, you know, and those are parts of their development process that they'll go through. That's not done by the city, but uh yeah,

14:24 – 14:460

and that is likely something that Diligent would have done when they purchased the land um if that was something they needed to do, if it was a requirement. Um, any other questions from the commission before we close the public hearing?

14:49 – 15:110

Hearing nothing. We'll close the public at 5:55 p.m. And just a reminder to the public and the commission, it's, you know, we're just deliberating as a commission now. There's no further public comment allowed at this point. Um, what deliberation do we have, Commissioner?

15:09 – 15:530

I've got a This is Andrew. I've got a question. Um, is the will this uh continue red bud on north with a dead end how it's built today for future growth to the north or will this be a culde-sac and or loop? The the current concept we're playing with that we've been sharing with the city staff is uh to extend Red Bud uh to the north and then as we get close to the creek, Middle Creek creek, we would have a hammerhead that would then divert the road towards the east that would ultimately come out on 50th in the future. Okay.

15:55 – 16:400

I forget the exact alignment, Brad, but it's similar to that. something along this line. The Hixons that live off of 50th are the co-owner of this property and they really don't want any a lot of development around them. But this particular area um it's not very easy for them to even see because of all the trees between this and uh and their site, their house. And there isn't any there's never a a wildlife study required. Um, there's one city in the metro that I'm aware of, Johnston, that does require a tree count. So, there is a little bit of exchange of trees post development. They're the only city I know of that does that.

16:40 – 18:390

Yeah, this is Andrew again. So, I watched plat 3 get developed because I live in Blooming Heights, and there was a lot of wildlife in Plat 3 that is no longer there now, obviously, with all the houses. So, like with every new plot that's gone into Blooming Heights, it has impacted tree count uh in a negative way and obviously moved wildlife outside of Blooming Heights um with every plot additional plot that's happened. So, I' I've watched it. I've seen it happen and and so I I think it's something that we yes we should think about but also we have to I think as a commission think about what's best and one of the things that Elliot you and Luke have talked to us a lot about is you know um our our taxes are pretty high in Norwok and and you know how do we do that? We do how do we help that? We help that by having more people share in that tax burden. Um, and I know that primarily comes through medium and high density housing, which, you know, it's good that these are single family, uh, and you're not requesting a medium or high density housing development here. I think um, that will that would definitely impact um, uh, land value, I think. So, but adding, from what I've seen, adding single family, uh, would would just continue to help grow our community in the right direction that we wanted to go. Yeah, I guess my position on it is that given the comprehensive plans intention that it eventually becomes R1, I I can't think of a legitimate reason as a commission that we wouldn't approve the resoning request. Are there plans for that Timberview

18:36 – 18:520

drive to continue north to connect into this at all? Like is it what you what you sketched out essentially something very similar for that? Yeah.

18:51 – 19:260

Yep. And I think that I'd agree there's nothing that prevents us from recommending approval from this. And it's always the most difficult challenge that we have when we come to this is that when land adjacent to an existing property owner, whether that be a corn field or in this instance uh a pasture or a prairie ground that is converted uh into residential is always the most difficult. But again, I don't see anything that we can say that no, this should not be developed crowd.

19:23 – 20:200

And I guess I should add a caveat to my comment in addition to what you just said, AJ, is I would encourage you all to participate in the city council meeting pro in that process because the city council can um consider a lot more than we can. Um, so you know, I appreciate you participating today and I would encourage you to continue to, you know, make your voices heard in that process. Any other deliberation from the commission? Hearing nothing, I would entertain a motion to approve the resoning request from Diligent Development to change the 14.867 867 acres north of Blooming Heights from AR agricultural reserve to R160 single family residential.

20:16 – 20:520

Sand motion. Thompson seconds. Hillary, would you call the role please? Forest I. Thompson. Hi. Stiger. Hi. Samson. Hi. Reganator. Hi. Thanks everyone. Thank you. Item number seven is a request from HRC Norwalk LLC for approval of the final plat of Holland Point Plat 3. Elliot, would you brief us on this item, please?

20:48 – 22:090

Yep, absolutely. Um, so this is a plat on the east side of the Holland Point development. Um, if the numbers are getting a little bit confusing because we've had one, two, and four. Um, we did our best to project when they were going to be coming out chronologically. they're not falling in line that way. Um it's not as confusing as it sounds. It's just nomomenclature. Um so at any rate, uh this plat represents a continuation of a couple street stubs that are existing right now just south of Waller Avenue. Uh they will be connecting to each other uh between Myron Street and Hurst Street with a small culde-sac in the middle. Um, as you can see in the aerial image here, the uh trail that spans the width of the development will be continued to the east and then also dive south um continuing as a rear yard path similar to everything in phase one. So, um these are all intended to be single family dwellings is my understanding. Um that's pretty much everything that I've got. And then we have Caleb online from Hubble and also the project engineer Emily Harding with CDA if there are any questions for them. Otherwise, I'm happy to answer what I can.

22:07 – 22:360

Would the applicant or the applicant's representative like to make a comment on item number seven? Yeah, this is Caleb Smith with Hubble Realy Company. Um Elliot's done a great job kind of explaining this plat. I think uh we are wrapping up construction out there. there. I think we're down to just getting some trail work done. Uh, which they are hopefully going to be able to get done here if it stops raining. Um, but other than that, everything's coming together pretty well. Um, just happy to answer any questions you may have. Thanks, Caleb.

22:38 – 23:140

Any public comment on this item? Any questions from the commission or comments? Hey Megan, I had one question just I can't see it now, but you talked about in the narrative about going down and connecting to Colonial or is another step toward that? Yeah. So eventually, Yep. This that's the road right there. Okay.

23:12 – 23:330

Yep. So Myron Street is going to eventually um go far enough south to to hit that connection. George, correct? The uh the plan, I believe, uh if I'm remembering right, is for Lond Street over to the west from Hurst uh to intersect at Colonial with a roundabout.

23:360

The idea being to keep truck traffic out of the neighborhood.

23:46 – 24:270

Thank you. If there's nothing further from the commission, I would entertain a motion to approve the final plat of pollen point plat 3. Force the motion. Second. Hillary, would you call the role, please? Thompson. Hi. Stiger. Hi. Samson. Hi. Forest. Hi. Reganator. I. Thanks everyone. Item number eight is a request from Sunset Estates Norwok LLC for approval of the final plat of Sunset Estates Plat 5. Elliot, would you brief us on this one, please?

24:25 – 24:510

Sure. So, this is an appropriately numbered plat in terms of consecutivity um just north of Plat 4 on Sunset Estates. So, this one straddles Orchard Hills Drive um with an additional I forget the quantity. 20 Oh, I'm sorry. 33ish. Dang it. Sorry, that's really hard to read. 33.

24:49 – 26:100

Uh 33. I knew it was what was going to get there eventually. Tossing out numbers. So, 33 single family lots. Um continuation of Shady Lane Drive. The idea being that eventually that's going to connect to Shady Lane to the east. I know some sometimes it gives folks the willies to to contemplate, you know, streets that get separated off from from where they're going to continue in the future. Um when Mccclure was doing the concepting for this, they determined that that street alignment if the freeze property sells someday ultimately would line up with where Shady Lane is. Um so just trying to aim for some continuity there. Um otherwise the parkland dedication to this has already been taken care of. The one thing um actually no that's that's pretty much it. Um I've got nothing else to to add on this phase. Um I do believe the project engineer for this I was mentioning earlier that uh Jake Becker is no longer with Mccclure. He he's moved on to something else. And so uh Michael Gaunt is here representing Mccclure though he's not been closely tied to this. Um but we wish Jake the best. we always had a good relationship with him. So, I'll do my best to answer any questions. Um, that's all I have.

26:08 – 26:450

Would the applicant or the applicant's representative like to speak on item number eight? I'll just uh pop on real quick to introduce myself. Yeah, Michael Gaunt with Mccclure Engineering. Um, we uh Mccclure has been working on quite a few of these Sunset Estate plats over the last few years. Uh, I am here uh primarily to see if there's any questions that I might need to take back to our client, but uh I think Elliot has pretty well covered it. Great. Thanks, Michael. Any questions or deliberation from the commission?

26:47 – 26:580

Ella, you mentioned that the park is already covered or the call green space because parks rare. Parks are rare here. Where's the park at?

26:55 – 27:380

It is just to the southeast. Uh kind of this notch that's uh cut out here is one of the parcel lines on it. I can pull it up on the assessor if that's a little easier to see. So it's this parcel here. Sorry. Hold up the flat shape. So, a future phase is going to have a little bit more street frontage uh in the northeastern corner of the plat. That's just the way that they designed it from the from the outset. Okay. Thanks.

27:430

Any other questions or deliberation from the commission?

27:48 – 28:360

One more question. I know once we finally connect Orchard Hills up into the the housing development to the north, a lot of those those folks are going to use Orchard Hills to get to their houses. Um, have we accounted for that extra uh car automobile traffic that's going to come north on Orchard Hills up into uh High Road and those housing developments up there? I mean, a traffic study hasn't been done, but that's going to definitely relieve pressure on high road. So, um, the more ways in and out of a place that you can get kind of the better. And I think the assessment from our city engineer at least is that that's not raising any concerns from a volume perspective.

28:33 – 29:010

There actually was a traffic way back when the prelim like six or seven. I stand corrected. I guess there was um yeah anticipated to have volume kind of like you said secondary outlet from uh the legacy development at south down to uh north a and certainly with the elementary school there now um that'll that'll certainly change traffic patterns.

29:01 – 29:440

Okay. No, I just wondered because it feels like um as we as we continue these plats one at a time, it it's pretty easy to be laser focused on a single plat, but looking at big picture um you know, your mains traffic is G14 and then Beardsley and that's a big gap between those two. So, if if High Road now continues on to the west and finally uh taps back into G14, um you know, there's it's not it's not designed to be a through road at all like G14 or Beardsley are. And so, um, you know, it it will definitely alleviate things for sure, but, um,

29:42 – 30:360

yeah, it would it would I I maybe maybe 10, 15, 20 years ago when High Street was was, you know, in its infant stage and really just barely on Highway 28, maybe it didn't really play a factor. But, uh, that would have been nice if that was a had larger, um, easements that we could have expanded that wider that that could be more of a a through street east west as as our city continues to grow and fill in all these corn fields. Sorry, that was a total rabbit trail from what we're trying to talk about. But I'm good to hear that we're we're creating more ways for those folks in, you know, on those developments on High Road and and north of there to to get in and out of their communities.

30:39 – 31:140

Any other questions or comments from the commission? Hearing nothing, I would entertain a motion to approve the final plat of Sunset Estates Plat 5. Stagger motion. Sorry, I'll take second. You Thompson, you can have motion. Hillary, would you call the role, please? Thompson, I stagger. Hi. Samson, I Forst. Hi, Reganator. Hi.

31:12 – 31:310

Thanks, everyone. Item number nine is a request from Sherman Hill Real Estates Partnership LLC for approval of the site plan of Demos. Elliot, would you brief us on this item, please?

31:27 – 33:260

Yes. And if anybody was curious about um the the updated plans, I did uh put an updated version of this into the PDF um today. basically just we had Jason clean up some technical details and there was a an edit we were waiting for on the architectural elevations. So, um that stuff's taken care of which is excellent. Um yeah, so this is the development lot located uh southeast corner of Turnberry Road and Sunset Drive. Um this was originally split in two back when we had a um car wash proposal on the table. that ended up not happening. They never filed the final plat. Um, so that one's Nolan Boyd. Therefore, it's one piece of land. And so now the plan is for Boss to develop the site here. This is the general layout. 13,000 square foot building um with the parking lot kind of oriented. It's a odd kind of shoe or slipper shaped lot. Um parking lot in the ankle and the toe. Um so one of the things that the uh the PUD allowed for here was kind of a reduced um reduced setbacks on a couple sides. One thing that was also required was uh doing some landscaping between the parking and the road on the turnberry side. So we had um Jason have a look at that and make sure that was make sure that was taken care of. Otherwise, one of the benefits of being in this location is that it's part of regional detention. of detention is handled offsite which allows them to maximize the use of the space and um that kind of summarizes everything from the from the top down. Um the elevations here the the main change that that we had to make was just um cut down the fiber cement paneling on one side. Um it

33:25 – 34:080

was just a little bit higher than than it was supposed to be, but otherwise largely remain the same. So, I'm happy to answer any questions I can. We also have Jason Leon with Snder and Associates with us tonight. Jason, comment on behalf of the applicant. Yeah, good evening. Jason Leon with Snyder. Elliot did a good job there. Um, we do we will say that we agree to address city staff comments if if they haven't already. We haven't given Elliot quite the time to look at it, but yeah, we'll address the architectural elevations to meet city code requirements. Happy to answer any questions. Any questions? Deliberation from the commission.

34:08 – 34:200

Will it have like an urgent care as well as just like a specialty type of thing that might have different hours outside of normal business?

34:15 – 34:560

I believe it's just specialty for demos. I will mention one unique thing about this building is due to the grade elevation difference between the city state bank on the south and turn road is that building will kind of sit into the hillside there. So kind of the the grade elevation will be up above with the finish building of the hill. Very unique. Any other questions or deliberation from the commission?

35:00 – 35:450

Hearing nothing. I would entertain a motion to approve the site plan of ZOS. Motion a second. Yes, sir. Would you call the role please? Thompson. Hi. Stiger. Hi. Samuelson. Hi. Forest. Hi. Hi. Thanks everyone. George update for us. Oh, before we do my update, I had a quick question on that last. So, sorry. No, you're fine. I was hesitating for a little bit. I was reading that. Right. The bike trail or sidewalk is on the east side of the property away from Highway 28. There is a

35:43 – 36:240

button private drive next to the Domino's. Yeah, George, if you're talking about Yeah, it's just a private street. Oh, okay. I was looking at it wrong. I I thought it was a bike trail. Where's Where's the sidewalk and bike trail go? So sidewalk will just just be on the north side of the site and then it's not visible in the satellite imagery here but should be sidewalk along the Gotcha. North side of I was just reading that's what that was my question. Yep. So thank you. Um anything from the city? Um

36:21 – 36:540

we haven't met for a while. So we just realized that. Oh, actually it's been relatively quiet until this came along, but I think I'll pass that on to here. You're excited about it. You're excited about Bies? I've never been to a BIES. I'm learning more and more about it. So, but I really have nothing to say. It's a good transition into what Holly probably has to share with us tonight. I'll I'll give you the floor.

36:52 – 38:510

Thanks, Megan. um you should have a packet in front of you. One is the economic development just our monthly report that goes to council that all the departments um submit to council once a month. So that just has a lot of um business and development updates, some media and marketing initiatives, some of the state and national economic changes and updates. Um there's a bunch of QR codes in there for different things because there's so much more information. So if you're really bored and you want to see it all, you can always scan those codes. Um, one of them is to our new Norwok Central website, which is pretty cool. If you guys get a chance to check that out, we've really tried to get everything in there and just make it a comprehensive and and clean site so people can find their way around Norlock Central and all the different businesses and activities um in there. And then um Buckyy's flyer that's attached to the front of your little uh packet there what George was talking about. If you guys haven't seen that in the news or on social media yet, it's just a kind of mo movement that's been picking up a lot of speed. Uh the mayor really wanted us to reach out and just do something to grab Buckyy's attention because they've been expanding north. They started out in Texas and they're in the south. I don't know if anybody else has been there, but um when people go there, they become obsessed. kind of like Quickstar on steroids. Um so we created a petition and um a Facebook page and Instagram page and right away Simon Conway show connected back and wanted an interview. So the mayor and Chris went and did that and then pretty much all of the other news stations within a day hopped on the bandwagon. So if you haven't signed the petition yet, please do so. Um there's information there and online. and it's all over the place, but please sign it because we will um actually meet with them if they'll accept a meeting with us. You know, the governor's kind of on board with this movement, too. And we have a professional proposal prepared for them. So, if that works, we'll do the same effort for like an Aldi's and

38:50 – 40:480

you know, the next couple of things that we go after. So, kind of fun. Um, a few weeks ago I did go with the governor to Minneapolis to meet with Michael Foods headquarters and um, you know, they're just such a great amazing big company. They're international. They've spent over $150 million here just in Norwok. I did not know this until recently, but they added an extra million dollars to um, build their regional technology training center here in Norwok um, at their current facility. So, people from all over the country now fly in to do their tech training, which is a pretty neat thing. helps our hotels just um they're continuing to expand and grow and they did mention that they have no problem getting good employees here in Norwok which is um good to hear because you know Iowa doesn't have a huge population we have low unemployment so that's not always the easiest thing to fill a lot of uh jobs but they do great at that so that was good to hear so our project west the large data center technology project that we've been working on for about a year and a half it's still full steam ahead things are going really really well with them the only real delay has been this annexation appeal that's held things up for several months. Um, we're still waiting on the judge's final decision. We we feel positive about it. Um, but there's still some things pending out there that could continue that appeal process. So, we're looking at some legal alternative options for our development group so that we don't lose this, you know, half a billion dollar project over that. We hope not. Um, but we will start the development agreement process at the end of August with the city council and it'll go through the whole urban renewal area amendment and creating a tip district and all that. So, that's coming in the next couple council meetings. Um, so new businesses recently opened, which most of you are fully aware of. It's just fun to mention them because they're doing such a good job. But, um, either recently opened or will be opening here in the next several months. Mullets, Penh High Golf, Never Board Games, Vivid Life Spa, Flamingo Lounge, Goodwill,

40:46 – 42:450

Pizza Ranch, True by Hilton, Neutra Smoothie and Cafe, Sports Nutrition Affiliates, DMs Orthopedic Centers, um HD Sports, Ocean Athletics, Hotworks, Infinity Credit Union, Hyper Energy Bar, Excite Nutrition, Domino's Pizza, Fairway, Frank's Restaurant and Sports Bar, and Culver's. Um if you guys have not been inside Mullet Flamingo Lounge or Pinh High yet, you've got to go. They're such cool places. I mean, their arena or um game rooms, just the decor, their menus are really cool. It's just super unique for our area to have these. So, um try to get out and support them whenever you can. With foreign relations, uh the Kosovo Iowa delegation trip was held in June and I went and so did council member Livingston. It was a great trip, super busy. Um, we met with the prime minister, the mayor of our sister city, which is Roo. We met with several large businesses that are looking to expand into Iowa. Actually, Jackie um Livingston went down to Austin to tour a giant facility. One of their companies is called Mistu. They have a great big manufacturing plant in Kosovo and one in Austin, Texas. So, we're working with them to try to get them into Iowa. Um, so she was just there and toured that in Texas. And then we also have a really cool police exchange program that's going on with Kosovo right now. Our Norwok U police department's involved. They're sending officers in September with a bunch of other police departments in Iowa to create this exchange program. So our um two different police departments. Um Kosovo has a national police academy and so they are working with our kind of metro police departments on this program. So it's pretty neat. Um, and then lastly, I would just say the other thing that the mayor is really wanting everybody's support and help with is this all-star community choice award that Norwok is in the running for. It's through the Iowa League Week of

42:42 – 43:170

Cities. And I think I emailed everybody about it, but if you didn't see that, it's on our city's Facebook page. And all you have to do to vote for us to win this is just like the the image of the Norwok project, and it's for Norwok Central project. It's just a really kind of big award that gets a lot of attention and notoriety for the communities that are are in that um the finalists. So, please do that. And then if you guys have any questions about anything, just reach out anytime. Is the entrance monument where where is that going to go?

43:16 – 44:010

Yeah, so that should be going up any minute now. They um have pretty much everything done for the fabrication and the engineering and all of that, but where it's at Yeah, LA I guess has a map up there. So, it's it's in our city right away that we purchased from the DOT a couple of years back. So, it's really close to that um five exit. You see it right away when you're um coming off of five and heading south on 28. Know, Elliot, if you're able to kind of like guess you got your cursor on it, right? Yep. It's right in that area. No, it's further north. Further north. Is it up on the hillside kind of? My bad. I think they mowed it like, didn't they? Keep going. Keep going. But on this side, that's around you. I feel like there are stakes there and it was mowed somewhat recently. They're getting really close.

44:01 – 44:430

Yeah. So, that should be done. So, since the new wall is going up, that and the entrance all coming together this year, which is going to look really nice. People are coming into Norwok. Will that be done by fall? The sign should be the wall might take a little bit longer, maybe winter. Um the fence improvement project that's going on. Yep. That a wall project. Any That's the wall project. Okay. Yeah. It just what's going in looks really nice. Yeah. So, I'm excited to see that. You know, with all these new people coming into Norwok, you know, that's the first thing they see and it's just it was time.

44:440

Thank you, Holly. Luke, any update for us tonight?

44:49 – 45:400

Holly, a lot of the fun stuff. Um you know, some of the stuff you guys don't see, uh, that we deal with, uh, you approve a lot of projects, but we do a lot of management on the back end of making sure that things are done correctly and keeping people accountable and especially this year with all the rain, we've had lots of complaints, lots of issues, lots of things to to to work on. So, just, you know, particularly Elliot, uh, spends a lot of time working with those folks. So, just, you know, we compile all this stuff that you guys get to vote on and seeing all that new stuff, but uh we spent a lot of time this year uh on the back end making sure that people do stuff the best they can. So, we appreciate Elliot's time on that. I know I spend a decent amount of time on it as well, and it's not the fun part of the job, but it's got to get done. So,

45:40 – 47:330

Elliot, any update for us? I think I was out of town last time we met. I was actually in Providence for a conference for Congress for New Urbanism and um the Strong Towns National Gathering, which uh I've sent I've sent you guys articles from Strong Towns before. That's a a um urban interest publication that I follow pretty closely. They do um they have like local groups around the country, over 200 of them. And I'm actually one of the local conversation leaders here at De Mo. We're uh starting up our uh group relaunch. It kind of went dormant during COVID and it's had a little trouble getting regoing, but u we're starting a relaunch on Thursday. So, that's exciting to do. And just get with other people who are interested in that sort of thing. Responsible fiscal management, smart growth, those sorts of things. umsmart in air quotes. Um but yeah, so that's that's um good. That was a rewarding thing to do. I was able to get certification credits for that. So that's like a thing I have to do to maintain my AICP planner certification, which is good. Um I don't really have any I didn't prepare anything to share about it. Um but it's it's good. The next one's real close. It's going to be in Northwest Arkansas. So, if anyone's real geeky about planning things, but want to go to a conference that's not full of platitudes and where they don't pull punches, where they actually talk real, um, Northwest Arkansas is hosting it next year. They, um, that's a region that is pretty big in the incremental development and smallcale um, you know, smallcale developer sphere rather than the institutional developer sphere, which is what we see a lot of here in this community. Um, so that's kind of exciting. I got no other update.

47:30 – 48:080

And to confirm, our ne next meeting is going to be August 11th at 5:45, which is not a change. We're keeping it how it was. And uh, if there's nothing else, I'll entertain a motion and a second to adjourn. Motion with a second. All in favor say I. I. We are adjourned at 6:28 p.m. Thanks everyone. Thanks Carson. Yep. Have a good night. Or maybe even Yeah. Oh, that's true. through this kind of life.

This transcript was automatically generated from the official public meeting video and is presented unedited. It reflects remarks made on the public record by elected officials, staff, and public commenters. Transcript accuracy may vary; view the original recording for reference.