City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. You can pick whichever seat you want.

You did it. Yeah, I did. I thought after the military that I want to go to Iowa State and then I toured like I was when I learned

I had to do that last one. Sorry, folks. I'll call the January 5th meeting of the call the January 5th meeting of the West Point 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 stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Got to have some fun on Councilwoman Renee Hardman's last council meeting. Okay, please sign in. Five members present.

Ryan, have there been any changes to the agenda? Uh, yep. There is one change. Removal of item 4F, a proposal for facility condition assessment. Staff would like additional time to review that before it comes back for council consideration. Okay. Can I get a approval of the agenda as amended? So moved. Second. Okay. It's been moved and seconded. Uh, please vote. Five. Yes.

Okay. Moving on to citizens forum. Uh I just want to start out by saying this this is the time for anybody to address the council on any item that is not either part of items six or seven, public hearings or new business. Um and also I know a lot of people might be here to make some comments uh regarding Councilwoman Renee Hardman. Uh for those that are here for that, we would invite you to do that at this time during citizens forum. There will be a resolution in honor of the councilwoman at the end of the of the meeting today. But if you are here um and would like to uh make some comments, this is your time to do that. So with that, I would uh entertain anybody that would like to come to the podium here. Give us your name and address for the record. We ask that you keep it civil and respectful and to 5 minutes or under. Is there anybody in the chamber for citizens forum? And then I will go online and we are going to start out with our president and CEO of the West De Mo Chamber of Commerce, Katherryn Harrington.

All right, Katherine, give us your name and address for the record. My name is uh Mary Katherine Harrington. Okay,

for the record, Kevin, I heard that laugh. He's like, really? It is officially uh Katherine Harrington, 3917 Cody Circle, West De Mo, Iowa 50. the best zip code in the in the on the planet. So, thank you everybody. Uh good evening, mayor, council colleagues, city staff, and members of our community. Look at this packed room tonight. Tonight is both a moment of pride and a moment of gratitude. I want to take a moment to honor someone who has not only shaped the city we love, but who is now shaping history for the entire state of Iowa. Renee Hardman, was it last week or this week? It's been blurry.

Last week,

made made history as the first black Iowa state senator. That is monumental. It's a huge achievement not just for West De Moines, not just for Iowa, but for every young person who will see themselves in your leadership and believe that they too belong in rooms where decisions are made. Because of this incredible new responsibility, Renee will be stepping away from her role as West De Moines City Council member at large. And while we will miss her deeply in this seat, we could not be more proud to watch her take her leadership, her integrity, and her heart for service to the ent entire state. Renee, you are a champion for everyone. You set the bar high. You never stoop low. You always take the high road. And in a time when that is rare, It is exactly what makes you so dang special and I'm so glad everybody else sees that in this community and more. Your impact on this city is deep and lasting. You have been a powerful voice and an advocate for initiatives that matter, including your leadership and commitment to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. day celebration which is happening exactly two weeks from today at the Mid-American Energy Reclex. You ensure that our city doesn't just talk about inclusion but we live it. You brought thoughtful principal leadership to the West De Moines Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors for many years and you continue to shape the future as its first secretary and now treasurer of the West De Moines Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

You are helping us build something that will serve this community for generations long after you and I are here. You have been a steady, passionate force behind the Athen Black and Brown Business Summit, lifting entrepreneurs, creating opportunity, and helping businesses thrive. This list could go on and on and on. And I know other folks want to congratulate you and honor you. On behalf of the West Mo Chamber of Commerce and the foundation, we thank you. Thank you for your tireless service. Thank you for your voice. Thank you for your courage. And thank you for leading with grace, always, conviction, and most heart. Renee, Iowa is so lucky to have you. And while your work now spans the entire state, please know this, West De Moine will always, always, always be your home. And I know where you live.

We will always be cheering you on with all of our hearts. And finally, on a slightly lighter note, let's address the elephant in the room. Everybody knows Renee and I have the record for the most selfies ever taken. It was even on one of your flyers. We've got to get one tonight. But I want to be really clear. I have no intention of letting that record fall of the most selfies. Renee, congratulations. We love you. We cannot wait to see all the incredible things you're going to do for our state and all of us. I want us all to applaud RENEE HARDMAN, PLEASE. I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART.

Thank you, Mary Katherine. All right. You Thank you so much. Finette, come on up. Give us your name and address for the record.

I am Fet Elliott. My address is 7139th Street in West De Mo. I am a two-time elected school board member. I want to thank everyone who voted for me this last time, but um I could not let this moment leave without telling you how much you mean to this community. Catherine has given insight into the different organizations and the way that you've helped the city, but you are more than that. You are a role model. It can be done. You roll up your sleeves. You speak from your heart. And that's what you have done. I thank you very much for all of God.

You're going to make me cry. For everything that you've done for the community. Thank you. Thank you. We normally don't allow clapping, but we're going to allow it tonight. No clapping, no booing, but we'll allow it. All right.

Uh Relle Long, 106 11 Street West Mo. Today, I'm just standing as a friend, as a citizen, and I just want to I'd be remiss. First of all, I I'm everything that Katherine said, I I did that. Everything Fenette said, I couldn't say it anymore. But I just have to stand and say thank you so much. so much for being an example for all of us. Um, I remember when you campaigned the first time, you have stayed true to your campaign promise of being a voice for all people and anybody knows your life is lived through your pictures. Your pictures are everywhere and it's proof that you go all over this city representing everyone and I know not only you but others have made to make some hard decisions and you sat in the seat and um I'm standing here for my mom. She would be so proud of you and the work that you have done and the way you have stood and you just keep knocking down the ceiling. You just keep kicking in the doors. You're doing things that for over a hundred years in the state of Iowa that people said was not possible. And so I'm so very proud of you. I'm proud that my kids and my grandkids are able to see you and you let them know. You are letting them know that anything, and I mean anything, is possible. Thank you for the service that you've given to the city. And I'm so excited to see how you going to shake up the capital. It's just going to be so fun to watch. Thank you, Renee. All right, Vicki, your name and address for the record. We got sister act going on here.

Look at that.

Good evening, Dr. Vicky Long Hill, 136 10th Street. And I can't say any more than what's already been said. Michelle took a lot of the words out of my mouth. That's family. We think the same. But I can say thank you so much for paving the way. Thank you for being that trailblazer. There's others that can come behind you with the fortitude and with the courage knowing that they can do it, too. And that's what you do. And I want to thank you so much for that. I can recall the day uh you when you first started uh campaigning and you came to my mother's home. Mother and I was sitting there and mom always had this way of just you know she looked straight ahead while you're talking or anything and uh asked questions and of course you said and you said you're the voice for the people and mom said that's it. She's gonna make it. That's it. And she was more than proud of you and all the things that you did to be the first Africanamean woman. Tom man was actually the first Africanamean and he served in the uh in the Senate from 1983 to 1991. But for you to come and you had the courage, the fortitude, and most of all, I understand you had the grit to do what you said you was going to do. And most of all, you were confident in knowing and that confidence just spread out all over and it could be seen. It was your light. And so I want to thank you for letting your light shine with

the city of De Moines. I always call her the gem. Her and Rene and Audrey are gems. But you let your light shine and you made a difference. And the courage you had to stand up in the midst of the change, you made a change. And although I am so very elated to see you move up into the Senate, I know you're going to do the same there. I I laid at night and I talked to friends saying, "What are we going to do? Renee is no longer on the city council." So, you will be missed. You will be missed. And I want to thank you for just being a part of the community. And I know the community is your whole family. I can go on. I won't. But you drove up. I'll end by saying you drove up on the curb parking lot with your night house robe on when my mother passed. You drove up on the curb. Where is it at? Where it is? We're here. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you. Okay, come on. Give us your name and address for the record.

Uh Riley Lester, 1201 Office Park Road. Um I want to start by apologizing. Uh I'm a little nervous. I've never done something like this before. No problem.

I am coming at this from a little bit of a different light and I am very proud uh that you are our senator now. Um uh so good afternoon city council. I've come today to alert y'all about the dangers of AI supercomputers and I do ask that all of you halt all AI projects and find other creative alternative ways to move forward that don't involve AI uh which is actively hurting the environment and communities in West De Moines. I do want to start by making a distinction between run-of-the-mill data centers and AI hypers scale computers. The goal of AI to computers is simply to produce as much computing power as efficiently as possible. Basically, they jam as much as they can into as small uh uh space as they can to provide the most efficient thing that's dense and powerful. Traditional data center racks consume about 7 kilowatts uh of power while AI supercomputers consume about 132 kW. In 2023, AI supercomputers consumed about 12% of the state's total energy and this number continues to grow as more plans for data centers keep arising. through my calculations with publicly accessible data um in 2026 as of today that percentage is closer to 20% of the state's total energy usage. To produce this type of power you need to burn fossil fuels and you need to cool it down. The burning of fossil fuels has been proven and directly correlates to the sixth mass extinction event that we are currently living in. We have to cease production on things like this. Furthermore, to cool these data centers, we must use water. It's the most efficient thing for them. While Iowa is already in a water emergency due to nitrates and forever chemicals from industrial farming, these data centers

take up land that should be prairie or should be natural wetland and use it to cool down their computers. All in the process, they are draining and polluting our aquafers. Microsoft last year was the city's largest water consumer. Not to mention that all of these computers go out of date every 5 years and the hardware must be completely replaced. Many of these materials needed to make these parts are diminishing and are being extorted from other countries through US imperialism. All this production to produce more supercomputers burns more fossil fuels every 5 years. And I haven't even begun to talk about the actual harmful effects of the AI application itself. To start, people are currently using AI to undress pictures of young girls online. And AI is currently being used to produce porn with minors attached to it. AI has made us question the legitimacy of everything that we see and hear. AI is being used to accuse and disprove people of crimes. We have a pedophilic president who is currently using AI in defense of heinous crimes, saying, "It wasn't me, it was AI." Uh, as as this continues to scale up, this continues to get out of our scope of control. AI is in the hands of people in power that we don't know, and they can do anything they want with it. and it is killing the creative and artistic human spirit. We have a chance to stop this before it gets too big. But it takes all of us to coordinate a plan on how to move forward. This is not a sustainable thing. AI is not a sustainable thing and we can't let it continue to grow. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay, next person here. Sir, would you like to address the council? Yeah. Um, okay. Give us your name and address for the record, please. Yeah. Uh, my name is Cole. Uh, 1201 Office Park Road, and I am here to address concerns I have about Flock. Uh, I want to ask you guys, I'm sorry. Could you tell me 1201 Office Park Road? Is there an apartment number then? Yeah. Okay. What's the apartment number? We need the full address. I'm sorry. Six. Six. Okay. What was the last name? Because I think you just gave your first name. Oh. Uh, Cole Stanford. Okay. Cole. Yeah. Sorry. I'm also nervous as well. No, not a problem. Not a problem.

Uh, out of curiosity, how many of you have heard of Flock or Flock Safety? The license plate readers? We We all We have them in our community.

Okay. So, that's what I want to talk about. So, I'm going to read off um a email I sent to the uh Bo County Chief Deputy of Concerns about Flock uh as they pertain to constitutional rights violations and cyber security risks. Flock is an automatic license plate reader that if you opt into national sharing of information, not only do you get access uh to the data in your network that you lease, you also get access to all all other flock networks. Uh it violates the fourth amendment through carpenter, the United States. The flock safety website uh says it doesn't violate the fourth amendment because they don't track people. LPRs do not track people. Uh LPR cameras capture still images of vehicles and license plate at a moment of time in one single location. They're not following a person around their daily business as a GPS tracker would or providing information on the whole of a person's movements. Uh this is clever cleverly worded uh to distract you and the reasoning is ridiculous because the license plate reveals your home address and personal information. Uh not to mention you don't need a warrant to use Flock. Uh, so that's warrantless surveillance. If you go to defockme dot uh deflock me or excuse me, deflock.mme uh you'll come across examples where flock alprs have been used to track people. Uh you know uh these examples are misuse. one of which was a Cedric police officer in Kansas who was stalking his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend for about five months and you know even going as far as to confront the um you he would follow them around in his SPD police car and even going as far as to confront the couple during an intimate action telling the couple to go back home. Uh Flock has reasons you need

to log like you type in a reason every time you want to search someone up. Uh but uh this police officer, he lied. It's more honestly just is more of a uh type a word and it's like okay, you know, you could type in let me in, I guess. But he typed in suspicious missing child, drug investigation, drugs, narcotics investigation, suspicious activity, and all other ones. He ran his ex's tag 164 times and a no new boyfriend's tag 64 times in a fivemonth window. That amounts to like 1.3 times a day over a 5mon period. Um, and so you have proof of flocks tracking ability to the point where a cedric police officer was able to stalk the couple for 5 months. So you may not have the precision of pinging a cell phone but from what we can gather you can track just fine using flock. Also carpetary v uh v United States prohibits warless tracking uh both actively and retroactively. Flock is uh retro retroactive locations tracking uh when the vehicle comes across flock alpr also uh flock says that they instituted a strong data ownership policy. What this boils down to is customers own their own data. But that's misleading because if you opt into uh national data sharing, not only do you get to access your network, but also every other network that opts in. Uh we've seen issues of if you go to Deflock Me, you'll find a Texas police officer stalking a woman out of state into the state above because she got an abortion. Uh so we have that um and ICE has also accessed uh these

ALPRs. Uh let's see there was a town in Evston, Illinois. They violated local codes by when ICE used the um ALPRS in Evston, Illinois. So, but even if you opt out, according to the ACLU, Flock's default agreement with police departments gives the company the right to share data with federal and local agencies for investigative purposes, even if a local department chooses to restrict data to its own officers. And uh also as a result of the you know, in a contract with Flock.

All right, if you could wrap it up. I'm sorry. I got to be fair with everyone. Give everybody five minutes. So, appreciate you being here. Last one final thought you have for us. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry for taking so long. No, no, you're fine. It I I went on yesterday to the internet went on showdown.io and I was able to find at least 13 cameras without encrypted. You know, I could access these cameras and they weren't encrypted. They were all across the US and any criminal can do so at any point in time. These cameras are not safe.

People have hacked them in under 30 seconds and uh flock can do whatever they want with your data. You know, if they want to sell it to insurance company for a violation, sir, you got to wrap up. I'm sorry. You got to wrap it up. I'm sorry. Tried to give me a final thought, but didn't realize it was going to be a minute. Okay. My name is Bo Gilbert, 1201 Office Park Road, apartment 6. Okay. You guys car together. carpool. Yes, we're living together. I mean, the economy's the economy is hard and I get it. I'm Uber driving and working two other jobs and I still can't save any money. So, yeah, I'm living with a lot of people.

Um, uh, it doesn't really matter, but I'm a veteran and for some reason people care more, it seems, when I mention that. So, I just I'm not going to give a such a dynamic and scientific review as my two gentlemen back there, but I will tell you that we all know that it should be common knowledge, especially if anybody up here, that Iowa has some of the worst water quality in the United States and it's got the highest rise raising cancer rate in the world. Not just the United States, the world. Our water is a direct correlation to this. And we know this. Even if you look it up on Google, they can't even like just look up Iowa's water quality. Just type in those three words under Google search. It'll tell you everything, some of the things that you need to know. It won't tell you about the pesticides, but it will tell you about De Moines's largest nitrate removal facility in in the world. It will tell you about how it still can't remove all the nitrates. We are drinking cow crap water. We are showering in cow crap water. That's what the nitrates are coming from. Cow crap. I currently can't drink the water here. I have to go drive to my friend's house in Ames because they have the the best water in Iowa. And I fill up multiple gallons of water in Ames and then I bring it back here because I'm scared to drink the tap water and it's hard. It's like it's getting really really hard for everybody. I can't I don't understand how some of the college students I have a GI bill. I don't understand how some of these college students are even surviving. Um, I can feel the detrimental effects of drinking tap water if I drink tap water for more than a week. And even though water and as is now making me still not feel not very good either. Um, I don't know if my body is just extra sensitive of water, I could taste some of the chemicals and crap that they put it in in Fort Riley. And now there's huge lawsuits that are against Fort Riley, Camp Llejun, and all these other different military

installations. We are heading down not just an environmental collapse, but a collapse of health care. Have you seen the child cancer rates in Iowa? I don't think any of us want that. So, I think I'm just going to end with think about how bad our water already is and think about how these data centers are only going to make it worse. Iowa can be an example of how humans do not need AI. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. Appreciate it. Okay, Al, why don't you give us your name and address for the record?

I'm walking up here. I'll break a table. Um, my name is Al Womble, uh, 818 Ashmore Circle. Um, many on the council know that I am a giant history nerd. Um, I've had many great discussions with my brother Greg over there. Um, but it's one thing to read about history. It's one thing to watch uh, History the channel. It's another thing to actually watch history being made. In 1942, um, a woman named Charity Adams, there's a strong black woman, became the first commissioned officer in the United States Army. And that happened right here in Iowa. I've had the privilege now to see history being made once again by another strong black woman, my sister Renee Hardman. And I'll just simply add this one quote from Martin Luther King that makes me think a lot about Renee. Um, a lot of us talk about the size of our automobiles. A lot of us talk about the size of our financial wealth. Not everyone talks about the size of our commitment to working for society and public service. And Renee, you have shown us that in your eight years on this city council. And I'll just end with this. It's one thing to about read about history. It's another thing to see history being made. And Renee, you're one for the books.

Thank you, Al. Okay, I am Wendy. Wendy, come on up. Give us your name.

I'm going to at this point I was going to wait until later, but I'm going to now after the lovely woman that came up front first. Wendy Lina, 5372nd Street, Western Mo, Iowa, honor and a pleasure. When you first ran, I had a brief conversation with for clarity. I'm a political independent, true political independent. There are things that sometimes maybe a little more Democrat, maybe sometimes a little more Republican. There are few people that will have the conversation with people like me when they're extreme. Claire Celi was one of them. We disagreed, but she heard. We talked. We shared information. I loved it. Didn't have to agree. We both learned. You and I do the same thing. Anyone who did not vote for this woman, I plead to you. Reach out to her. There's a few issues that she and I know that we have differences of opinion. They're not extreme differences of opinion. This needs to happen, but make sure it doesn't create this. Um, this is important, but make sure it doesn't deplete that. And we've had those conversations, and some of them are very personal to me that have happened in my life, some of them very personal to you. And the same kind of conversation I'm proud that when you first ran for city council, I went stealth mode after that brief conversation and tried to get people to vote for you and you won on a short margin. You did the work, but if my couple of extra votes got you over that 80, I couldn't be more proud.

Thank you. And I think you've done an excellent job and I just wanted to thank you. Thank you. So, thank you so much. If you call her and she doesn't, call me. Okay, Wendy. Thank you, Wendy. Representative, come on up. Give us your name and address for the record.

Hi there. Thank you. I love you. Thank you. I love you.

Oh my god, he's gonna I can't kiss you. Well, you could. I'll take a rank shot.

We'll talk about it later. My name is Ao Abdul Samad. I live at 1506 18th Street, De Mo, Iowa. I wish I did live in West De Mo because of the growth of the city and because of Renee Harbin and the work that she's done and all of you. I come to you in with the greetings of peace. I was not able to make your election night because I was home. I was ill and as I watched the results come in, in fact, I was my high blood pressure was very high. And as I watched the results come in, it even got higher, you know. So, I want you know, you almost killed me that night.

Oh my god.

Yeah. But I want to say to the point of not only are you setting history, making history, you have been making history, you're a history maker. Not only are you an example for all of us, you are example for young people that are coming up today that's wanting to change their life, that's wanting to do something better with their lives, that have made a commitment with their life, not to be stereotyped, not to have their freedom taken away, basically their freedom of speech, but to be able to speak to truth because you have been the example of an individual that has stood for what is right. Even when individuals have backed away from you, you have stood for what is right. So that means your shoulders that you stand on have now broaden your shoulders for others to stand on. And we want to thank you for that. We want to say thank you. Thank God. We want to thank you. We want to thank your supporters that you have here. And we want to thank the supporters are out here because now you are also a voice for them on another level. And I want to say whoever sits in your seat, I hope they don't try to fill your shoes and they get their own shoes. They can't

because your shoes can't be filled. And I hope that whoever comes with that torch that they allow you to light that torch cuz you won't pass it on. You allow them because you will always reach back to this council. You will always be part of that because you have ingrained your work into this and we have to understand that. So Renee, we thank you.

We thank you. We thank you. We thank you more than anything or anyone could ever say, you know, and the kiss that I just got on the cheek, I promise you, I'm not going to wipe it off until I get on, but it's going to be there. But Renee, the key, and I want to say this to people who are listening tonight, the key isn't just to celebrate you tonight. The key wasn't just to vote, but the key is to be with you when you're standing on that floor up at the cap and your voice is speaking for us because you're not just speaking for Westy Mo. We're not going to give Westy Mo that priv privilege of you just being there. You belong to all of us.

You know, you're a winner for all of us. Thank you. Without a doubt. You know, and I want to a person said this today to me when she was talking about doing some things. It's just like Jack Johnson when he looked up and he won that fight and he just said, "I just didn't want. We all won." God bless you. All right, come on up. Give us your name and address for the record. Hello, I'm Holly Anderson. Um, my address is 20527th Street in West De Mo. I want to say congratulations too.

And we are really proud of you. I think West De Mo as a city and Iowa.

Thank you. Um but um I am was up here the last couple meetings I've been up here and I just want to reiterate my point that um I would like there to be a moratorum on the data centers just to pause and reflect while we continue to gather data about um what's needed for regulations to be safe for both the people and our environment. Um, and I think some things we want to look at specifically would be PAS pollution. What's happening with the e-waste? Um I think the newer from what I understood the last meeting I was at the meeting you guys weren't at the one of the side meetings and um the newest Microsoft data center is going to be using some upgraded technology to be better to fight against pollution which is great and I'm really happy to hear that. Um, I think that there is still some unknown though and I would like to see our previous data centers that we have. What are the retrograde things we're going to make to improve those to be um have less light pollution, sound pollution, e-waste pollution. What are we doing? Who's regulating it? Are we having mandatory reporting? Is that information publicly available and publicly reported? Um, those are just some things that I would like to double check with as it moves forward. Um, I would also say that I have heard about the flop cameras too being a security um, risk

especially for people who are targeted or track being tracked or extorted. those people pose flock cameras pose a significant risk to them and so I want to make sure that we are you know protecting our west citizens in that way too thank you so much for being here it thank you Dr. Sales, come on up. Give us your name and address for the record.

Good evening, council members. My name is Rich Salace. I reside at 15457th Court, West De Mo, 50266. I'm here to thank Renee. I don't want to be repetitive. I know so many different people have come up and they spoken from the heart about the gratitude they have for your leadership and the things that you've done. Personally, I just want to thank you, Renee, for always having my back. And I don't have to unfold any stories. I think you and I both know the challenges that we've had when it comes to advocating for diversity, equity, and inclusion. And so, when you say something in that particular space, it means something to me. It means something to the community. It's actionfilled. It's not performative. It's not just talk. You've always walked that talk. And for that, I'm so grateful. I know that we joke around a lot. You call me what brother from a different mother. And I do the same with you. But really, Renee, you are my sister. You are our sister, our leader, and you're going to continue to do great things in this next chapter of your life. Council members, I know that we've all learned lessons from each other, especially from Renee. I would challenge all of us, including myself, uh, to put those ideas into practice and work collectively, regardless of party affiliation. I know that Mayor Trimble cares about his community and I know that Matt, Council Member McKenna, I don't know the

rest of you on a personal basis, but I know these both of these individuals and I know that Renee worked closely with all of you. Let's continue to do that to honor Renee and to honor our community. Thank you so much. God bless. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Okay, come on up. Give us your name and address for the record.

Good evening. My name is Ivet Muhammad. I'm at 1508 McCormack in De Moine. And I'm here to give a very special thank you to Miss Renee Hardman for your leadership and your example. You are a true motivator and an inspiration for anyone who has aspirations to make a difference. Your voice is very important and will go very far on the state level. You AO is very right. You're doing more than making history. We're living in a point of history that is so very, very important. And I'm honored to be able to stand before you and thank you for your service. Your leadership has set a very high bar for those of us that aspire to be leaders as well. To walk in the path of your footsteps is amazing. And thank you so much for your dedication to this community. and for doing this work.

All right, Anna, come on up. Give us your name and address for the record. So weird being on this side over here. Um Renee, just want to say congratul Oh, Anelia Morgan, uh 188 56th place. Perfect. West De Mo, Iowa.

Renee, congratulations. Uh Rob and I made sure to vote before we left on vacation before um we we went on our trip. Um, I just want to say I know I agree with a lot of the sentiments from uh or from that everybody um mentioned today. I want to say personally thank you for uplifting others myself and my husband uh in the community. Thank you for uh giving that really encouraging the encouraging words. I I remember when I was running for office four years ago how encouraging you were. You didn't even know me, but you just were um you just were just so friendly, welcoming, and really made us feel like we belong. Thank you for making West De Moines a great city that I've learned to love the last nine years. Uh thank you for your service and thank you all of you as well. So, thank you so much. Okay. Anybody else in the chamber for Citizens Forum before I go online?

All right. Michelle, for a second time, come on up. Make it quick. Okay. Michelle Long, 106 11 Street, West De Mo. And this time, I'm standing as the founder and um director of Taste of the Junction. So, I'm standing here and I'm speaking for myself and our outstanding board of directors. Uh, I want to stand and first say happy new year. Happy new year.

Happy new year to everybody. And, um, I only have a few minutes, so I want to keep this brief, but I want to share our 2025 impact report. And, um, I'm going to breeze through it pretty fast, but it will be available on our website. I want to stand and express our gratitude for our for your continued support of the arts. Thank you for supporting Bravo. Thank you for being a cultural partner and all those that come together. There's about 17 of you that come together and uh provide Sally and the Bravo team the resources that they need so they can distribute um funds out into the nonprofit organizations, us being one of them. It's vital. It's important. Um, special thanks to our key supporters. Um, Prairie Meadows, Poke County Board of Supervisors, City West De Mo, West Bank, West De Mo Community Foundation, and there's others. Let me There's all the others. Um, takes it takes everybody. And we're so appreciative. That's why it was important for me to be able to publicly stand and thank each and every one of you. Um, just think about what would our lives be like if we couldn't attend a ballet, if we couldn't go to a play, if we couldn't go to a art exhibit, you know, this place where we live, work, and play when we got off, if we couldn't do these type of things. It's supporting the arts that makes all this possible. Last year, no question, we were um the arts community was presented with challenges, but I think we all found a way in our own different ways to navigate and grow from the experiences. Our board in particular, we rolled up our sleeves and we engaged in some

critical thinking and strategies. Our board chair, she asked us, "How would we describe taste the junction in six words? And here's what some of our board members had to say just in six words. Our board chair said, "Just a taste brings everyone back." Aland said, "Enriching and enhancing lives in West De Mo." Paula Bell, she said, "Gathering place, honoring culture, connection, legacy." Jasmine said, "Facilitators of historical remembrance with flavor." Dr. Jenny Dokarn said, "Celebrating our legacy and valuing the future." Matt McKini, he said, "People, culture, food, community unite." I said, "Here to create spaces for community." Uh, one of our new members, EMTT Phillips Jr., He said, "Tastes Junction curates culture while preserving history." And Dwight Jackson said, "Strengthening leadership to advance organizational impact." These were some of the things that came out of our strategic thinking and planning and how we were going to go forward. It's all for us, it's all about growth. Over the last five years, we've have ex experienced significant growth not only in our revenue because we started with nothing. We we come we came from the dirt and we came from, you know, when we started this out, we didn't have a dollar and it was a community. It was people like you that just gave your personal dollars. I remember Kent Gear, I mean, uh Steve Gear was the mayor then and he said, "Relle, a lot of people know you on a personal level, but they don't know you on a business level as a businesswoman." and he said, "So, you're going to have

to get out there and prove yourself." And he said, "So, don't be disappointed when you go ask people for money and they don't give it to you." So, it was just plain everyday people that started Taste of the Junction. But, like I say, we've experienced growth, not only in our revenue, but in our physical presence. We moved from PO box to brick and mortar space that houses our office and gallery. In our strategic planning, we're now into our 2.0 0 version of it. Uh we're we're enhancing our board of directors, our community partnerships, and our volunteer base. And as a result, we have increased our impact and attendance during our Labor Day weekend events, which is our signature weekend. For us, it's all about growth. We remain committed to our mission of creating spaces for the community to come together and share and preserve and celebrate the everchanging culturally rich history of Valley Junction which was the beginning of Westmore. So let me just end by sharing just a few slides and and like Renee knows best pictures paint a thousand words and so let me just share a few slides to show what we accomplished. Gotta wrap it up, Relle.

Okay, just be fair with everybody. I'm gonna go quick. Got 30 seconds. Wrap it up. 30 seconds if you can. 29 28 27 26 Oh, there's math. 25 My goodness. 24 23 22 20 life 19. These are long seconds. Literally after

I have I have literally have like 18 seconds. So, just save the date because here we're going to be here we're going to be again celebrating our 14th annual over the Labor Day weekend and we look forward to everyone to coming and sharing and uh as we continue to create space because it's about all the people, it's about all the culture and it's about all the cuisines. All right. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Michelle.

Okay. Anybody else for citizens forum in the chamber before I go online? Okay, I'm a little afraid, but I'm going to go online. Anybody online for citizens forum, please hit star six to unmute yourself. Star six to unmute yourself. Give us your name and address for the record. Is there anybody online that would like to address the council on citizens forum? Going once, twice. Three times. going twice. All right, citizens forum is closed. We are now going to move on to item three, mayor council manager report, other entities update. And uh I will start uh down to my right with city manager Tom Haden.

Your report, your honor. Thank you, Tom. All right, Councilman Hudson. I will share some remarks uh at the end. But uh it is wonderful to see just such an outpouring for our colleague and friend Renee Hardman. Just uh so thank you all for coming and being a part of uh of this evening. It's certainly important. I'll share more later at the end, but other than that, congratulations on your win. Councilwoman and state senator elect Hardman. Let me go back to you. Share your ear rocks now. We're going to take things a little bit out of order. You should like to speak now while people are still here.

Absolutely. So, why don't you, if you have any other remarks, why don't you go ahead and do them and we'll go on down the line and uh do the resolution as well. We'll take it out of order. We've done a lot of weird things tonight. All right, Councilman. We're going to do the resolution, right? Proclamation as well. All right, council.

Okay. Um, sure thing. Um, it shouldn't be lost upon us that if you drove to city hall tonight, uh, it was just a brilliantly bright evening. If you drove here and you looked in the at the night sky and the evening sky, it was so beautiful and bright. And it should not be lost upon us that the word light has been used to describe you many times this evening, uh, councilwoman, because, uh, you have been a bright light in this community. And I will abbreviate my my remarks because I could speak a great deal of time about you and your work to this community. But I will just say that uh since I teach at Valley High School, it's been a wonderful experience to invite Councilwoman Hardman into my classroom. I teach AP African-American studies and uh each year, each semester since the semester course, I have invited Councilwoman Hardman. I have invited a school board member, Finette Elliot, and other African-American leaders within the West De Mo community who live and work here, including Audrey Kennes in the back, to speak with my students uh during a a unit about uh black political leadership. And we just let them talk to one another. Uh the students get to talk with Renee, with Finette, and let me tell you, it's one of the most meaningful uh lessons. And it's great cuz I don't have to do anything because I shouldn't do anything because uh all I need to do is invite folks into the classroom and have a conversation. And when I see the students speak with you and when I hear you speak with the students, there are it's such a strong connection. It's like a lightning bolt where uh sparks happen in the sense that understandings are made and uh and and the room is brighter. And so when you've been here

at the dis for these last eight years, I've only been here six, but you have been a bright light to the entire city of West De Mo. And that light doesn't end. That light grows. And that light grows and your voice is going to be amplified at the state capital. And so I just wanted to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Thank you for all that you've taught me. Thank you for our conversations. Thank you for our work. West De Moine, I told you a couple minutes before the meeting started, I think it's been a kick butt eight years for the city of West De Moines. And and those last eight years you have been here. Yeah, we're all up here working hard. City staff is doing tremendous work. Um, but at this exact moment, I wanted to say from the bottom of my heart, Renee, thank you and God bless.

Councilman McKini.

Well, uh, well said, Councilman Hudson, and and, um, Mayor, my remarks will just, uh, relate to, uh, our new state senator. So, um, congratulations, Renee. Um so excited for you and proud uh of you and um I like so many others want to you know from the bottom of my heart thank you for your service uh to our community. There's no question, you know, I'd be at a kids soccer game or, you know, some other activity and my phone would light up and it'd be a photo of Renee at some event and then the next night I'd be out doing something. Here's another photo of Rene at another event. And nobody can question your um participation and showing up and and uh being involved and that you know some somebody a lot of people say half of life is showing up. you show up all the time and uh we're grateful for the way you've shown up and um and when I showed up here in the council chambers, it was a very warm uh welcome and I know that uh the remainder of my colleagues certainly uh felt the same and it was a foreign environment for me, right? and uh you embraced uh me and and the approach that I brought to the dis uh with uh with open arms and I'm I'm grateful for that and I know you'll do the same uh up at the capital. Um I'll certainly miss you at development and planning. I we we've spent a lot of time together, hours sometimes. I think uh I probably got too far into the weeds for myself, let alone you. Uh but I will certainly miss you on that committee and um you know I I know that uh while you're you'll be downtown um uh we will be looking to talk to you quite a bit about what the impact of things are going to be here in West De Mo. So um and you know thanks for all not just documenting kind of the activities you were doing but for the activities we

were doing you know like the Christmas card you'd shared. It was a photo of all of us out here on uh on Christmas uh for the tree lighting and you always made it an effort to make sure that you know we captured the things we did together. So, thank you for doing that. Um you're going to be a great addition to the Senate and I look forward to working with you in a different capacity up there. Yeah. Best of luck. All right, we're going to skip over her and we're going to go to Councilman Travillian.

All right, I got got a couple of things. First of all, yes, Renee, uh, congratulations on your election to the Senate. Uh, you're going to do um, great things for, uh, West De Mo, Windsor Heights, and Clive up there. Um, I've enjoyed serving with you for these last eight years. When you came onto the council, you brought a new uh, perspective and vision to the city council, so I applaud you for that. Um, and yeah, as Matt said, we're we're going to miss our uh chief photographer because I I don't think any of us even think about that.

I'm going to I'm going to be claimed sexist, but it's a guy thing. I think we don't think about taking pictures, right? My wife's always telling me, "You need to take more." Yeah, Sunny takes pictures all the time. But, um, somebody's got to step up and start being the chief photographer because otherwise they're going to think we're not at any events. But uh again, congratulations on your election uh to the Senate and we will miss you here at the council. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

And I have been asked to read this. Um I received this email today from a resident who was unable to be at the city council meeting uh and also was not going to be able to participate even by phone. So I've been asked to read this. Uh dear uh city council, I recently learned that Mr. Westein has proposed the demolition of properties at 308, 312, and 316 4th Street. The unification of these properties into one then the construction of a 12plex apartment building. I would like to raise my voice in opposition of such use of these properties. One, removal of these homes takes away from the stock of the muchneeded single family dwellings in Pulk County as well as West Mo. A few calls uh to area housing agencies have given me a number of between 32,000 and 42,000 unit shortage in the de mo metro area. Removal of these properties takes three more units out of much needed single family units and changes the structure of the surrounding neighborhood. two, the properties are currently uh inhabited through the authority of the West De Mo rental inspectors. Have these homes deteriorated this quickly to be deemed by the owner as uninhabitable? When was the last inspection of these units? If recently, an investigation needs to be started to see if questionable practices by the rental inspection department or the property owner have occurred. Three. Two years ago, the city completed the study and recommendations for future construction in the Valley Junction business areas, transition zone of fourth and sixth streets, the railroad and 63rd Street business district, and the industrial areas of Maple in the areas of 11th Street south of Railroad. These recommendations, as passed by the

committee, were subsequently adopted by the city council unanimously. In no place in the transition zone recommendations was anything like a multi-unit apartment complex such as proposed by Mr. Weederstein allowed. Any construction in this area was by to be familystyle buildings with approved architectural details and building materials. These buildings may be built with a firstf flooror business in mind with apartments or single family residents above or least uh favorable to the residents at the meeting was town homes. After the tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars that have been spent on this committee, I think those recommendations should be followed to the letter. But I think the most irritating issue is the fact that those recommendations as proposed by the historic valley junction committee and accepted by the city council have not yet been codified by the city. I've talked to my city council members and uh as well as the mayor and have received uh unsatisfactory answers. I think it's absolutely disgraceful how the city has drugged their feet on this issue. two years after this committee and nothing is done. It is time to move this thing along and give the residents of Historic Valley Junction the protection this area needs. He asked me to read this and then sign Nick Wagy 136 Third Street and I've I forwarded this on to U Ryan Jacobson and asked him to include this as permanent record into the council meeting.

All right, thank you Councilman.

All right, Councilman Lot. Well, last but not least, um I want to uh thank you, Councilwoman, Senator. Um I'm I'm gonna I sit next I tell my kids all the time, 80% of the battle is just showing up and you have always shown up. Um and you serve with passion. Um and I'll never forget to tell a little light-hearted story like like I like to do up here sometimes. The first time when I decided to run for this seat four and a half years ago, first time we met um was at the West and White Democrats meeting in the summer. It was probably June or so. And they let me go first and I thought, "Oh, that's great. I get to go first." And you were running for re-election at the time, too. And I sat up there and I did my three to five minute speech and everybody was cordial and good. And I thought, "Okay, I did great." And then you came up and you spoke with so much passion and so much like I was like, "Wow, I've got to step up my game big time. Step up my game." Anyway,

after four years of serving with you, you've become more than a colleague. You're a friend and I thank you for that. And when dumb things happen at the state house, I am going to call you just like Senator Celi before you. So, thank you. Thank you for your friendship. Yes. All right. Not so fast.

Renee, I had no idea who you were when you first ran and I had no idea what to expect. I saw you sitting out in the audience here. I had no idea who you were. It took some time to get to know one another. And during that time, we had just a a couple minor skirmishes. After one of the skirmishes, we both walked away a little bit upset. And I think we genuinely scared both Councilman Hudson and McKini, who I think it was their first budget meeting. After that discussion and with a little help of our good friend Jennifer Han, I gained a deeper understanding of who you were as a person uh and where you were coming from. And I gained a deeper appreciation and understanding of the road you've traveled and continue to travel every single day. As a friend and a colleague, you've helped open my eyes to a deeper way of thinking about things from a perspective of someone whose shoes you may never can't ever walk in. And for that, I'm extremely extremely grateful. It has truly helped shape me and has helped me grow as a leader and as a human being. Over the last eight years, we've had so many great discussions personally and professionally, and it's been great getting to know you. Over the last eight years, we've shared so many laughs, and we've also shared a few tears. Over the last eight years, we've spent hundreds of hours together at events and in subcommittees, workshops, and on this dis. We've dealt with easy, mundane issues that people pay us to care about, but that no one else really does.

And we've dealt with our fair share of controversial issues that people care deeply about with people on both sides of the issue. In every one of these cases, we tried desperately to come up with a win-win. And in many cases, we were successful coming up with a reasonable compromise. But in some cases, a win-win wasn't possible. But in every case, you listened. You heard all sides of the issue. Oftentimes doing additional work, taking or making phone calls, and often meeting with people, where they were at to get a better understanding of who they were, where they were coming from, and what the issue was at hand. And what I really admire about you is that after hearing all voices, you always made a careful determination of what was right, what was fair, and what was best for the city as a whole. And when you did that, no matter how difficult the vote was, given the people on the other side of the issue, you held firm. You held to your convictions and you voted the way you felt was best for all. You never wavered. Together over the last eight years, we cut taxes. We helped the private sector grow jobs in the economy. Together, we helped our businesses attract and retain the best and the brightest workers through adding, get ready for it, gamechanging quality of life amenities and affordable housing. Together, we revitalized Valley Junction and delivered high-speed, affordable, reliable internet to every home and every business in this city. And together, we helped build a city that

treats everyone with dignity and respect. A city where everyone has an equal opportunity to grow, thrive, and succeed. A city where everyone feels safe. a city where everyone feels welcomed and where everyone knows that they matter.

We have accomplished so much over the last eight years and we've got so much to be proud of and yet there's so much more left to do. While tonight I reluctantly accept your letter of resignation, I will be sad to see you go. You have been such a great friend and such an instrumental part of this incredible team. We will all miss you on this DAS. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your friendship and for your service to this city over the last eight years. Thank you for your passion. Thank you for caring so deeply about this city, its staff and its citizens. Thank you for listening to all voices before making a decision. Thank you for being firm in your convictions and for never wavering. Thank you for sharing your empathy for people and for always leading with your heart. Thank you for your big personality and your great sense of humor. Thank you for all the laughs. and for the tears. Thank you for always being you.

I think I speak for everyone in this room when I say we will all miss you. But for now, it's time for you to go up to the Golden Dome. And as you so often like to say, you need to go up there and you need to do you. You've done pretty well doing you over here and I'm pretty sure that you will do really well doing you up there. Don't ever stop doing you, Renee. Doing you is what you do best and what we all expect. Congratulations, Councilwoman and Senator Elect Renee Hardman. Thank you for your friendship, camaraderie, commitment, and care over the last eight years. God bless and good luck, my friend.

Okay, now it is your turn, Councilwoman and Senator Elect Renee Hartman.

Thank you. and thanks for going out of order because I want people to go home and get dinner and stuff, but you know, um, first of all, thank you for everyone that has said their words and came up and spoke. Um, I'm appreciative and I I'm grateful and humbled, but I just want to say good evening to Mayor Rush Treble, Councilman Kevin Trevillian, Doug Lo, Matt McKini, and Greg Hudson. This is a bittersweet moment. When preparing for tonight, I found a De Moines Register article and it's in my car. I thought I had it in my bag that covered my swearing in on Monday, December the 11th, 2018. And I also reviewed my first campaign card that I circulated when I was door knocking. You're so naive when you first start. But it did say my priorities were affordable housing, reasonable strategic business growth, enhanced citizen engagement, and local control of water utility. Three out of four isn't bad. Um, but what I've come to realize is that being a city council member is so much more and you evolve over time. I've had the distinct honor of serving as mayor promp. Thank you, Mayor Trimble, chair of public safety, which I've enjoyed. I've been a chair for eight years on such committees as the library, human rights, planning and development, West Wayne Chamber and its foundation, and the Valley Junction Development Citizens Engagement Committee, which we served on for about almost a year and a half, two years. and the Valley Junction Foundation. I have spent countless hours cutting

ribbons, which I loved, and just being present to support our residents. A couple of my most proud memories was speaking to a group of men and women in fatigue uniform at Camp Dodge as they were moments from boarding a bus to go for training for a deployment out of the country to serve this country. and I got to see their faces and it was an honor of my life to be able to thank them for what they are about to do. Also, the voting to stay to name a street after the legendary Long family after a long long opportunity. It was an honor. I am also grateful that we continue to support human services within this city, which is a place where people are treated with dignity, compassion, and care, which is what our citizens all deserve. I can't leave out the game changer, as mayor always calls them, the reclex and top golf and raccoon river park and bridge, the Athen Raccoon River Park and Bridge, and so much more, the big and the small. But what this role calls for is the ability to see beyond self and make decisions for the good of the city. Put action into the words of service when you say you're a public servant. And more importantly, always remember that people matter. Regardless of their bank account, what they live in, their religion, their culture, their race, they're all people at the end of the day, just like me and you. I've attempted to just meet people where they're at, trying to give them a voice and being a voice regardless if we disagree on the outcomes. And there certainly have been some disagreement on outcomes.

But as I close, because the hour is long, I just want to say a few thank yous that I'd like to uh first thank the citizens of this great city for electing me three times and trusting that I will make good on this gift. I've tried. I may have made some mistakes along the way, but my heart has been in it. Thank you, Tom Haden, for being one of the best city managers anyone can ever ask for. I also call you a friend and thankful for what you have taught me along the way. As I began to approach running for city council, Tom Haden was one of my first meetings. He kind of scared me off because he was talking about tiffs and urban development and all this stuff. I'm like, what? What does that mean? What are you saying? I don't know about all of that. Okay. But he equipped me with all the knowledge of what finances is all about. He took the time. And when I was sick, he would call and ask, "Do I want to?" Or if I couldn't drive because I had surgery, he would ask, "Do I need to pick you up?" So, it's beyond a job, Tom. It's a friendship. And I I thank you for that. Even in your busy schedule, you're calling me. Thank you to all the elected officials that I share this thus with. I will miss each and every one of you and many thanks for making me a part of your lives. I attended your family's graduations and we are family. We're family and you've opened your family to me and I appreciate all that you've brought to this table to make a difference. Mia Russ I've never met a person so passionate about the city

who breathes leaves sleeps what's the mo it is a sleep Russ I'm like Russ is enough okay we got this okay even on vacation

yeah uh even on vacation a p a person who accelerated my learning curve when I took this office and who has the deepest vision for this city and I pray and hope that your momentum and your vision comes to light. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your family as well. Finally, the most heartfelt thank you goes to the employees of West De Mo. As I look in the room, I want you guys to look behind you. These are the people that make it happen. Yes. I have never met a finer group of people who care and make each and every one of us look good and our jobs easier. It has been an honor to be your advocate, curious cheerleader, and one of one that respects, who you are, and what you do. I will miss you dearly. I did tell Chief I did tell Mike, firefighter Mike, that I better get invited to the annual pancake breakfast because I want to support you guys and flip pancakes together. So, there's a season for everything. As this season closes, I hope that our paths will continue to cross and that we'll continue to make this city the best place for all of us to work and to play and to thrive. It's been an honor beyond belief that I started this journey eight years ago and my journey will take me to a different journey and I'll miss the camaraderie and I know I'll have some challenges up there but I'll be calling we'll we'll see you guys at the hill at the Capitol. So, God bless all of you. Thank you for being

here and just thank you for um just thank you for everything and um I'm I'm just humbled and uh to glory uh to glory be to God for all that he's blessed my life to do and to interact. My life is richer because of all of you. So thank you. Thank you. Now, let's get on with the

with that. Ryan, can we go to Can we skip ahead in the agenda and go to item uh is it 9 A 9B? Yeah, as mayor, you can take it out of order. We can do 9B now. We're going to go out of order. We're doing a lot of weird things tonight. Um All right. Item 9A, we've got a resolution of appreciation for council member Renee Hardman. Does somebody want to approve? Okay, it's been moved. Is there a second? Okay. And with that, I will read.

Whereas Renee Hardman has served the city of West De Moines as an atlarge member of the city council for eight years. Whereas Renee Hards Hardman's election to the city council made history as she was the first black woman to be elected to the West De Moines City Council. And whereas Renee Hardman served with loyalty and distinction during a period of significant growth and development in the city of West De Moines. And whereas Renee Hardman greatly contributed to the quality of decision-making of the city council through both her council subcommittee and general city council duties. And whereas Renee Hardman worked diligently to asssure that every viewpoint was heard before a policy decision was made, as she embodied her personal philosophy, that she was elected to listen, to learn, and to lead. And whereas Renee Hardman made substantial personal sacrifice while serving on the city council, spending countless hours on city business. And whereas during Rene's tenure as an elected official, she always made clear her dedication to asssure that every West De Moines citizen prospers from our growth, development, and success. Whereas Rene's commitment to hard work, highly competent fiscal, and policy analysis of the issues, and a commitment to honesty serves as an example for all public officials to follow. Now therefore, be it resolved by the city council of the city of West De Mo and Iowa that all residents have benefited by Renee Hardsman Hardman's dedication to the community and we applaud her excellent work as a member of the council.

Thank you. Congratulations. And we will vote and then we will get a picture down front. All right. Please vote. Thank you, sir. You got to vote for your own. I'm just going to vote no. All right. All right. Five. Yes. All right. And with that, let's get a group picture down front. Yeah.

Are you new to the member. I want yall know that means you're moving to West De Mo. I did. Hey, that special census didn't reveal what we wanted.

Anybody like to come up and be a part of the picture?

Everybody. Everybody Let's do it. You should be in this. Yeah, I'm not Audrey, I figured out one, two, three.

Thank goodness practice or anything. really happy to practice and also bring up like that. Not something really big. the flowers. Okay. All right, we're going to move on with the meeting here. Item four. Item four, consent agenda. Are there any items that any council person would like to have pulled and voted on separately?

Otherwise, I would take a motion to approve the consent agenda as distributed. So, move. Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Please vote.

Five. Yes. Okay. Uh, moving on to item five, old business. Item five. Russ, I believe we have uh some folks for the Martin Luther King proclamation. No. Yes, we Oh, nobody ever pulled it. Nobody pulled it. I got Yes, we we can still do the do the You can read it and we can do the photo. All right. All right. We're going to We're going to do We're going to do the uh proclamation uh honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And uh for anybody following along in your programs at home, this is item 42.

All right. Uh can I get a motion to approve? No, no motion. We already approved it. Okay. So it's taken care of. You can just read it and then All right.

Whereas Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. devoted his life to advancing equality, justice, and opportunity for all, challenging everyone to participate in the never-ending work of building a beloved community. And whereas, despite his untimely death, Dr. King's teachings continue to guide us in addressing perennial challenges in our communities. And whereas we are forever indebted to him for his sacrifice. So, we honor his life each year by recognizing the profound impact he had locally and globally. And whereas millions of Americans have been inspired by the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to challenge injustice, serve with compassion, and center the lives of those most underserved. And whereas each of us has the a responsibility to improve our community with increased access and opportunity for all residents. And whereas the King Holiday and Service Act, enacted in 1994, is one of only two federal holidays commemorated as a national day of service and offers an opportunity for individuals to give back to their communities through collective action. And whereas I encourage West De Mo residents to make it a day on, not a day off, by volunteering with agencies like meals for the from the Heartland or throughout the year with our human services department to help feed our most food insecure residents. Now therefore, I, Russ Trimble, mayor of the city of West De Mo, Iowa, do hereby proclaim January 19th, 2026, Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a day of service in West De Mo and call upon the community to pay tribute to the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today and throughout the year. And with that, people are here for people that are here for this uh proclamation, if you can meet us down front, we'll get one more picture and then we will move forward the rest of the agenda.

Not better. Wait a minute. All right. Thank you so much. You got it. You got it. Okay, there they are.

Okay, Ryan, thank you for keeping us on the straight and narrow tonight. Appreciate you. Absolutely. Now, we'll move on to item five, old business. Item 5A, ordinance amendment. Amendment, amend title 9, zoning to modify regulations pertaining to uncovered decks in the front yard, city initiated. Uh we've got an ordinance amendment for approval of the second reading waiver the third reading and 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. Move consideration second reading. Second. All right. It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion?

All right. Please vote. And we will just hold the machine open quickly here for uh Councilman McKinn stepped out. Yeah, he should be back. He'll be back any second. We don't want to run anything normal tonight. No. This is also a good time to remind everyone that uh the city is hosting its MLK celebration on January 19th. It's out at the reclex, so everyone should absolutely attend. Absolutely.

Celebration gets bigger every year. Okay, we're just waiting for your vote on item 5A uh dealing with the uh uncovered decks in the front yard. Thank you. Five. Yes. ordinance amending the city code of the city of West Iowa 2024 title 9 zoning chapter 7 setback and book density regulation pertaining to allowance of uncovered decks in the front yard. Move approval of the second reading. Second. Please vote. Five yes. Move waving the third reading and adopting final form. Please vote.

Five yes. Okay. Item 5B, ordinance amendment, title 9, zoning to modify regulations pertaining to SIC 58, eating and drinking places in the professional commerce parks zoning district, Serenity, Coutur, Salon, and Spa. Uh, we've got an ordinance amendment for approval of second reading, wave of third, adoption of final form. There are no outstanding issues and no changes from the previous reading, which was adopted unanimously by the council last meeting. Move consideration of the second reading. Second. Okay, it's moved and seconded. Is there any discussion?

Okay, hearing none, please vote. 5 north amend city code of the city of western Iowa 2024 title 9 zoning chapter 6 commercial office and industrial zoning district pertaining to the allowance of bar restaurant class 2 and bar no drive-thru as a permitted and permitted conditional use in the professional commerce park zoning district move approval of the second reading second okay please vote five yes move to wave the third reading and adopt in final floor second please vote Five. Yes.

Okay. Item 5C, Global Aviation, vacate 172 square feet of South 78th Street right ofway, Shojot Properties. We've got an ordinance for approval of the second reading. Waver 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. Move consideration of the second reading. Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Okay, please vote. Five. Yes. Nor vacating 172 square feet of right away of South 87 78th Street. Move approval of second reading. Second. Okay. Please vote.

Five. Yes. Move adoption of third reading and to final form. Second. Second reading. Okay. Uh waiver third reading adoption final form. Please vote. Five. Yes. Okay. Item 5D, uh, approval of traffic code amendments, special stops required, South 34th Court and Park Haven Drive, South 43rd Street and Timberwood Drive, South 56th Street and Southwest Lake Drive. Uh, we have got an ordinance amendment for approval. The second reading, waver the third reading, adoption of final forum. There are no outstanding issues and no changes from the previous reading which was adopted unanimously by the council at our last meeting. Move consideration of the second reading.

Second. Okay. It's a move and second. Is there any discussion? Anything to get the mayor to slow down in his neighborhood? Let's put this stop sign in. I feel bad it's going in my neighbor's yard and I don't think he's pleased with it, but it's all about safety. All right. Please vote. Five. Yes. Nor amend the city code of city west of Iowa 2024 by amending provisions pertaining to the traffic code relating to official traffic controls. Move approval of the second reading. Second. Okay. Please vote. Five yes. Move to wave the third reading and adopt in final form. Second. Please vote.

Five yes. Okay. Item six, public hearings. Item 6A. at this time in a place for a public hearing to consider Davis Estates west of Southeast 35th Street and south of Veterans Parkway. Amend the zoning map to establish single family residential zoning initiated by Hubble Realy Company. This is continued from the December 15th, 2025 meeting. Ryan, would you please read the date the notice was published? December 1st, 2025 in the De Mo Register and we received any written comments of this hearing. The plan zoning commission by a vote of six yes with one absent adopting a resolution recommending approval of the zoning request.

Okay. Anybody in the audience would like to address the council on item 6A, please come to the podium here. Give us your name and address for the record. Anybody online, hit star six to unmute yourself and do the same. All right. Go ahead and give us your name and address for the record. Brent Hyfield, 30001 North Catail Creek, Coming, Iowa. Welcome, Mayor. Mayor, council members as as your uh uh excuse me, you're you're uh excuse me, take take a second, mayor. You used to be on this side, not on the other side. We appreciate you visiting and we appreciate your concern. So, just take a second and we'll start your five minutes when you find your place.

I lost my notes. the comprehensive plan in West De Mo and and which butts up against the the recommended area are both right now currently zoned or recommended as single family. We highly encourage you to continue as single family as well. The multifamily could create some extra problems with the traffic. Um South 35th Street when you enter coming from West De Mo is a seal coat road. Right now it's on our CIP plan. Hopefully within two to three years we can get that done. That's not uh solid in stone. Also the the school districts, we're concerned about the school districts. If the school district are aware of the onslaught of houses coming on there and if if this does pass, I would like to recommend that we work as a city with your city and also Hubble Reality to slow down the traffic and to control the traffic entering into our cities as we move forward into that.

Okay. Thank you, mayor. We appreciate your concern. We've taken it seriously. Staff has taken it seriously. And um we have worked out something with with Hubble um where we've got an option here to approve this. I believe um in a in a different format uh than I think it was approved through um planning and zoning. So, we will take a look at that. The council will definitely consider that. Thank you. Y Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Come on up. Give us your name and address for the record.

Hello, my name is Joe Wood. I live at 3424 North Fernwood Drive. Um, I actually have two speaking points. The first one is the 135 acres and then we'll have an opportunity to speak on the other one, I believe. So, yes, correct.

Okay. Um, yeah. So, I'm here to express my concerns on the Davis Estates and the zoning change to R1 on the approximately 135 acres. During the previous PNZ meeting, my neighbor Mike Billingsley brought his concern up about the wetlands north of his house. During that meeting, it wasn't clear to me if that was actually wetlands there. Uh, one of the staff mentioned that it possibly could be. I then started to do more looking and came up with a 35page uh permit that I have here in my hand that was recorded in Warren County 1129 of 2007. In 2007, the Paradise Group wanted to build a 27 acre development at the intersection of Mil Civic Parkway and 68th Street in West De Mo. This property had a 1.5 acre of wetlands that was going to need to be removed and relocated

before they could move forward with their development. I believe that's where the Kohl's is at now and a lot of other establishments. In this permit here that I have from the Army Corps of Engineer, the Paradise Group requests that the ground that's uh that they're going to purchase from a company called Davis Estates relocates the wetlands to another property that Davis Estates owns on 35th Street in West De Mo. This new site is called Davis Estates Wetland Mitigation Site. This site is 3 acres of wetlands and another 1.21 21 vegetative vegetative buffer. This mitigation area is protected by a conservation easement. In this permit, it is mentioned how the new site is better because of its remote location and the function will be greatly enhanced and will provide highquality wildlife habitat in a remote area. This permit clearly states that any future development or land use conversion of the wetland mitigation area or any part thereof, so the surrounding area for any purpose that may interfere with or be detrimental to wetland functions is prohibited without prior written approval from the Iowa DNR and the Army Corps of Engineers.

I guess my concern is is this all done correctly and has that already been done yet? I'd also like to note that I also found a 2.22 acre of wetlands that shows up on the national wetlands database at the northwest corner of this property. I'd also um ask that you would take a look at that 2.22 acres that is up there in that corner. Um while moving forward with this development, I feel like P&Z um heard about the wetlands and didn't take into consideration the wetlands or they didn't know about it. There was some uh discrepancies whether that was a wetlands or not. Uh this shows that there clearly is uh should I guess um I think they should have done more due diligence. Um should Army Corps of Engineer and Iowa DNR approve this before moving forward with R1 zoning? Thank you for your time. Thank you so much. And maybe we'll have staff come up and address this after uh after I close public hearing, but you my understanding in the notes that we have here uh is that uh this this wetland will be reviewed and can be protected accordingly even under single family zoning. So, um but we will have staff address that after I close the public hearing. Is there anybody else that would like to address the council? All right, Caleb, come on up. Give us your name and address for the record.

Good evening. Uh Caleb Smith with Hubble Realy Company, 6900 Westtown Parkway here in West De Mo. Um so we've got two things here. So I'm going to focus on the single family at this point in time. Um the comprehensive plan clearly states that this area is supposed to be single family. So I think the zoning use here makes sense. But specifics to the wetlands, we're in the process of evaluating this. So, as we go through the development process, there's a kind of a a multi- parallel process we go through. One thing is we got to make sure we can do what we want to do from a land use perspective. That's what we're here for tonight. We're also continuing to do our due diligence on this side to understand the wetlands. We've contacted the core. We've contacted NRCS. We contact all the folks that we could think of that would control this. None of them have expressed any concerns with this at this location. Uh this document is not something that our title search has done. So, we'll continue to do our due diligence on this as we work through it. But this approval of single family is critical to our process to decide if we're going to close on the ground here later on this spring. So again, would uh sure appreciate a positive vote of support here so we continue through that process to figure out if we can make something happen here in West De. Thank you so much. Uh anybody else that would like to address council item 6A.

All right. Give us your name and address for the record again. Riley Lester, 1201 Office Park Road. Um, and your unit as well, please. Uh, yeah. Uh, it's apartment 2. Okay.

Um, I just wanted to establish uh I I was unaware of this zoning thing until just now, but I just wanted to establish the importance of wetlands. As someone who does serve in the conservation corps myself, uh, working in local wetlands around Iowa has been a very integral part of keeping the carbon footprint um, in this area as low as possible. Um, if you you you guys might know that we have less than 1% of prairie remnant remaining in Iowa, as well as less than 1% of natural wetlands in Iowa. And anything any precautions that we can take to uh preserve them is essential to a sustainable future. And that's it.

Sometime you and I will sit down, I'll talk to you about the three pages of things that we've done from an environmental standpoint. I'm not sure if you know all those things that we've done. So, no, I'd love to talk. Love to sit down and talk to you about them sometime. Okay. Anybody else that would like to address the council on this issue? Is there anybody online that would like to address the council on item 6A? Okay. Hearing no one. I'll declare the public hearing closed. We've got an ordinance for approval of the first reading for assignment of zoning and there are no outstanding issues. Motion to consider first reading. Okay. Is there second? Second.

Okay. It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion on the dis uh staff? Is there anything else that needs to be further explained regarding wetland mitigation and preservation of our environment?

Uh Lyn Twe, director of development services. Um as Caleb pointed out, this is just the first step to establish the zoning on the property. Um, as part of the platting and storm water management procedures, they will be looking at the wetlands and trying to figure out what needs to be done, what is should be protected, what are the proper permits that need to be obtained. So, that is all things that are yet to come in the process. Okay. Councilman. Uh, yeah. Lyn, what uh I'm just I'm thinking more maybe it kind of also relates to the next item that's up. Um but in terms of the comprehensive plan, what what is the current comprehensive plan color here?

Uh it is yellow detached residential. Okay. And what will that permit you know when we go down the road relative to when we adopt the zoning ordinance? Only detached residential houses. Okay. So it fair enough. Yep. On this on this action right here, that's what the 135 acres would be is all detached. Okay. Uh and the reason I asked is I know when we adopted the comp plan there was a whole lot of like uh concept about you know flexibility on what can be done in different areas and I know I just didn't know exactly what it was here. Thank you. Okay. Thank you Lynn. Uh any other discussion may

I'm I'm sorry. No we've I'm sorry. Public hearing is closed and so that portion is over. Um any other discussion on the dis before we vote? Okay, with that please vote. Five. Yes. Nordmen official zoning map of the city of Westin Iowa 2024 by many title 9 zoning chapter 4 zoning districts and maps. Motion to approve. First reading. Second. Okay. Please vote.

Five. Yes. Sir, I'm sorry I couldn't let you speak. Public hearing at that point in time was closed. I can assure you that all the steps are being taken in the right order and that we will take a look at the wetland uh mitigation, make sure that everything's done properly. Okay. Item 6B. This is a time and a place for public hearing to consider Davis Estates west of Southeast 35th Street and south of Veterans Parkway. Amend comprehensive plan land use map to designate mixed residential land use and amend the zoning map to establish multifamily residential zoning initiated by Hubble realy company. This is also continued from the December 15th meeting. Ryan, would you please read the date that notice was published? December 1st, 2025 in the de mo register and have received any written comments of this hearing.

The plan zoning commission by a vote of five yes with one no and one absent adopted a resolution recommending approval of the comp plan amendment and reszoning request. And there are also several uh citizen correspondences received that are included with the council communication. Okay. Uh anybody who would like to address the council on item 6B, please come to the podium, give us your name and address for the record. Uh anybody online, hit star six to unmute yourself and do the same. All right, Caleb, name and address for the record again, please.

Caleb Smith, Hubble Realy Company, 6900 West Parkway. um before you I think is probably the area of the development that's probably most in question and that's the proposed multif family section in the southeast part of the of the project. When we started looking at this community uh what it could potentially be, one of the things we were trying to be cognizant of is is price points of homes that could exist within within this development. Um when you have 150 acres of ground uh you get a lot of opportunity to do unique and creative things. as we started looking at the uh expectations that the city had from transportation at land use um overall the amount of single family homes that we thought we were going to have in this community and the just the generalized demand of homes in West De Mo it's proved to be a very positive business move to have different price points within the community. So this area here this roughly 15 acres of ground is being proposed for multifamily based off the city code but the true intent's always been town homes. We've been very successful in West De Mo with a variety of town home products that we're using in Delvita and in Mill Ridge. And we're trying to take that idea back down here. Uh in Devita, for example, um we have villa town homes. Uh outsides are all taken care of, but they're detached homes. These are backed up. Immediately behind them is single family residential. So from a price point perspective, you've got villa units that can get up to 500,000. You've got single family homes on the other side that are 500 plus. We've seen no issues with compatibility or uses or sales in that area. So, as we looked at this parcel and and appreciate tableabling it last time, taking some time with staff to revisit how maybe we can look at this a little differently. We've made some changes to what we'd like to see here. Originally, we had proposed to do this as RM12, which allow up to 12 units per acre. After this, we've continued to work through this and refine our concept. Um, we've we've agreed to reduce that down to RM9, which does a couple things. one, it really does kind of push more into the town home sector of what could potentially be developed there. Secondly, we're also proposing that everything along the

south border of this would be villa town home units. I don't believe, and maybe I'm missing the agenda. If I did, I apologize. I wanted to show the current concept just so that everybody here at meeting tonight can see it. And this is what we're currently proposing.

Along the north side, we've got attached units. This is very similar to what we built in Delvita in the southwest part there of that development. We also have that approved for Mill Ridge. Um inside you get some more of what we call our Lacona plans. We're showing some by attached units here and then on the south end these are the detached villas that we've talked about. We've had a lot of success in a lot of other communities. The change that's been made is that we had some other attached units here and we're proposing to keep those as villas all the way along the south border. The unique piece of this area is to keep in mind is we have high pressure gas lines that run through the south side of this. It's about 70 foot in width of easement that's going to be there in perpetuity. So as we think about proximity of these units to existing folks to the southeast of the south, you not only have 120 foot of rideway, which is south 35th, you also have 70 foot of easement and buffers and easements. You start to get to be around 200 feet away from another house. I think it's important to remember that that distance is going to be fairly significant as you consider this lens. Um, at this point in time, this is our plan. We plan on on developing these units, um, as soon as we get approval and continue to move forward with this development. Um, this is a project we'd like to continue to refine with staff and, uh, bring more details for consideration down there.

And and Caleb, my understanding is that we also have a height restriction proposed here as well that no higher than two stories. Yeah, we don't need to be more than two stories for products we're trying to do. Okay, perfect. To the north of this then, what is that single family on that other side of that street? It is. Yep. We have a detention basin that's located right here just north and east of there that serves the development, but otherwise it's a single family. Then to the west of that would be single family, correct? Okay. Okay. Thank you so much. All right. Anybody else would like to address the council on this item? Please come on up. Give us your name and address for the record.

Hi, I'm Rachel Wood. Um 3424 North Fernwood Drive incoming. Um, so I live uh about 200 feet from this proposed um area right there on Fernwood. We bought our house in May of 2023. And since we're debating a zoning change and a change to the comprehensive plan, I just wanted to um step back and look at why that comprehensive plan might be important to a homeowner such as myself buying their home or someone who might buy my home in the future. So, I went out to the um Iowa State Extension Office and just a few things that um I just wanted to read a few things about the comprehensive plan. So, it says the comprehensive plan, also known as a general plan, master plan, or land use plan, is a document designed to guide the future actions of a city or county. The Iowa Supreme Court has stated that the legal purpose of the comprehensive plan is to direct the use and development of property by dividing it into districts according to the present and potential uses. Um it also says it provides guidance for shaping the appearance of the community. Um a plan sets forth policies that foster a distinctive sense of place. It provides justification for decisions. um can be used um by communities to defend their decisions if challenged in court. A plan developed through a robust um public input will enjoy strong community support. Um medium density housing wasn't part of the comprehensive plan in this area. There is um medium density housing up by Veterans Parkway. Um to me it wasn't considered a potential use. it wasn't considered the appearance of the overall community when uh the comprehensive plan was put together. Um or the plan would have said so. According to the Iowa State Extension

Office report, the comprehensive plan should have justified the Jo the zoning decision, but it seems like what I feel like happened at the December 8th planning and zoning um meeting was that that area was spot- zoned. Um and just to to tell you why I mean why I think that um the Iowa State Extension Office says about Z spot zoning is zoning is not appropriate if it is for the financial benefit of an individual property owner but detrimental to the surrounding area. According to the Iowa courts the factor of primary importance is whether the reszone track has a peculiar adaptability to the new classification as compared to the surrounding property. spot zoning for the sole benefit of the land owner and contrary to the comprehensive plan is unreasonable. Um so I'm just asking that you consider this is a very rural area um as indicated in the wetlands report and so this change to have medium housing right there is a huge change um for homeowners that have been there for a long time. Um a lot of my neighbors have been there for 20 years. Um, so I just want you to consider kind of the surrounding area. Hubble also has I think 155 acres or something like that that they can um build on. And so is there not another spot in this 155 acres where they can put medium density so that the homeowners that are going to buy properties around that area know that they're going to live next to medium density and not in a rural area like like we thought when we purchased our house. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

All right. Give us your name and address for the record again, please. Joe Wood, 3424 North Fernwood Drive. Okay. Iowa.

I'm going to overlap a little bit with my wife. Sorry about that. But I'm here to express my opposition to the requested resoning uh that was RM12 and is now RM9 at the southeast corner of the Davis Estates. That's approximately 15 acres. At at the previous P&Z meeting, Caleb uh Smith mentioned the unique challenges. He was referring to the pipeline. Um I I I just want to be clear on this that the the pipeline setback is the only unique challenge. Um this is a flat field that was soy beans right up to the fence line uh when they took them out this fall. So uh the only unique challenge there is is the setback. Um sorry I lost my spot. Um, so I I believe that uh what they're doing here is um to work around this unique challenge is they're just trying to lack of better words uh cramm as many dwellings as they can in that 15 acres because of the setback of the pipeline. ISU analyzed different court cases and determined when spot zoning may be legal. Examples when spot zoning helps implement the overall comprehensive plan. This does not when it serves p public health safety or efficiency. This does not. Our closest fire station is about 15 minutes away. Um efficiency will suffer as the road system going south uh from this development is Norwok school system. So there's going to be a lot of this traffic going to the south which is now a seal coat road. Um, has any traffic study been done? I know on other developments, traffic studies were done before they got to this point.

Um, I don't know as of any traffic study that was done, but there is possibly, you know, between the R9. Not saying they could fit this many in there, but they legally could fit in as many as they want, as long as they follow the site plan kind of, um, it'd be 135 dwellings in that 15 acres could be upwards of 500 dwellings. 500 550 dwellings in that 160 acres. Um Iowa State University states that spot zoning cannot be done for the sole financial benefit of the land owner and the developer. The surrounding infrastructure cannot support can not support it. Um, I believe that PNZ uh ignored this issue when they said that um it was not spot zoning. I feel that uh the fact sheet that we got from Iowa State University, that's exactly what this is is less than 10% of this 160 acres is being put in this corner here uh for the financial gain gain of Hubble. Uh, thank you for your time.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.

Matt Sherwood, 3348 North Fernwood Drive. Coming. I grew up in West De Moines. Graduated from Valley. Um, bought our first home in West De Mo. Still own property in West De Mo. Um, I'm also vice president of engineering for Fairway Stores. I sit on Fairway's real estate committee. I'm here to tell you that personal background because I'm not an outsider living in in a neighboring town. I This is my home, too. Um I'm also not against development. Uh I play in that sandbox through my entire career, at least for one more day. I retire tomorrow. Um 22 years ago, um we were wanting to get away from the city, build out, get some elbow room for our kids and raise a family and build a new house. Um Prairie Shores was perfect development and coming for us. Estate lots, one to three plus acre lots, the entire subdivision, that's what we signed up for. Um, we knew there was a land across the street and one day that was going to get developed. But when the comprehensive plan came out that it was going to be R1, wasn't our first choice. We would prefer some more state lots to transition to the R1, we were okay with it. We understood the economics that Caleb described that you got to have more lots to to pay for all the streets and infrastructure. Um, so so we ended up not pushing back on that. I ask each one of you um I guess the medium density is what's what's the big hangup for all my neighbors. We we bought assuming we were going to have estate lots next to R1 and now this is all changing. Um I just ask all of you to think about that if you were in our position.

Also have been sat through several PNZ meetings myself. Uh I wasn't unable to attend that last one and uh I was quite shocked that um PNZ went against what your staff recommended at the time. I understand they've had additional meetings now and somehow through some I'm trying to be kind here. Deals were made obviously and now state staff has changed their opinion. Um I think their first opinion was the true and honest opinion. So, I would like you to consider that. All we're asking for is to go by what the original city staff recommendation was is allowed and what the PNZ report said was the change in this zoning should be placed within Hubble's development away from us somewhere centrally located so that when people buy lots around that medium density, they know what they're getting into. That's not an option for us anymore. Um, and I quote, city staff, not force this upon adjacent property owners outside of the Hubble development. Um, we built first and uh, I guess I'd just like you to take that into consideration. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

My name is Z Han. Okay. I know Mr. Hudson was my son's teacher. So I lived in West Mode for 16 years. I paid a lot of taxes and everything. I love the city and we moved to coming on the uh 2021. I bought this uh piece of the property at the end of the 2017. Um you know when I when we when we all the neighborhood we heard this development we were a little kind of shocked you know because um Westoid and coming we are neighbors you know we are basically neighbors very close we want to if you want to treat you you want to treat your neighbor as you treat yourself you know we are part of the West Demoid. So when we when we you know we think when west want to have a development or something like that you have to consider what do you want to do to yourself to your neighbors coming has a unique unique touch you know it's a very close to demo it's also kind of the rural you know it's a very small city it's this touch and when we when I bought this property and at the January of the 2017 because that time I called the city council they were saying that Our population is only maybe 300 plus or something like that. So if HAB want to develop this thing R9 per their per their analysis if 15 acres if they do nine per acre they can put 45 you know basically it's a 135 units if they only have two three people on each house. That's close to 400 people on this 15 acres. You guys, I mean, they are recruiting a city of the coming in 15 acres. That will be a significant

dramatic change of the character of the coming when you guys consider this development. I really want you guys to think about it. How both purpose is going to make more money? They're going to make the maximum money they want. But who is going to think about us? You know you guys are we elected you guys are elected representative you represent people us. So we don't want to block your development. We just want you guys do the development to fit the culture your neighbors to protect your neighbor as yourself. That's the only thing we are asking. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you so much. Hi.

Hello. Name your address for the record.

Yep. Jackie Han, 712 North 35th Street, Iowa. I live directly on the street that's in question here. Um, I come to you as a mother. I have three small children. I live on a nonpaved road. There's no sidewalks. My children are outdoor children and that's why we moved to from West De Moines. I live or I work in West De Mo every single day. Um, but I worry about my children. I'm also a member of the law enforcement community and I know that Cummings response time is not what it is in West De Mo. You're adding all of these people on North 35th Street who are going to travel to and from endangering the safety of my children who like to bike, walk, um skate on North 35th Street and we will call 911 but we won't get West De Moines services. We have to wait for Warren County. So think of that. think of us. Please put the traffic on Veterans Parkway. You have a beautiful, beautiful highway there so you could relocate this town home development, not on North 35th Street, and that would help your neighbors here in Coming. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, come on up. Give us your name and address for the record, please.

Yeah, my name is Ray Webster, 3212 North Fernwood Drive in Cam, Iowa. And uh I'm just a retired physician, a retired uh major general in the Air Force Air National Guard. So uh mayor, council members, and senator elect, thank you for sending our troops off. Uh keep praying for them. They're in harm's way. I'm I'm basically going to reiterate what my uh basically my neighbors have said here. We've moved into this area and we were under the presumption that we would have R1 development up there. What what I'm coming to you now and is asking you to reconsider again what Matt Sherman Sherwood said here. Your staffing individuals went and looked at this and basically gave a withdrawal and then a deny. And now after meeting with Hubble and seeing this plan, they basically given what I consider a very tepid approval to this. Okay. it doesn't address the concerns that we've raised here with regard to density, with regard to traffic, with regard to safety. And so again, I'm going to ask each and every one of you to consider if you were living there, you know, would you allow this to take place in your backyard? And so I'm going to respectfully ask that you take that into consideration. I believe that if Hubble were to take this whole 160 acres, make it R1, it solves the issues that everyone's concerned about here, it's this multi-residential, sticking it right kind of in the middle of an area that it just doesn't fit. And you guys have driven around in areas and you go, "Boy, this just does not fit. Who was thinking about this when they put that here?" And that's what this is going to look like. It just is going to be out of place. It doesn't fit with the aesthetic. And so again, I respectfully ask that you deny this multi-residential request, that you consider it to be R1 residential for this section as well as what you've just approved that this

whole thing be single family and I think we will be comfortable with that. So, thank you for your time and consideration. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Anybody else uh in the chambers? Go ahead. Give us your name and address for the record.

Um yes, my name is Dave Chelve. I live at 3236 North Fernwood Drive in Iowa. And that street or basically right where I live, right across the street is West De Moine. So I'm just a short distance down from this area where they're talking about. Um about the time that uh West De Moine annexed that property in shortly after that uh I was elected to fill a term on the coming city council and I was reelected two more times till I chose not to run. So uh at that time uh Tom Becker was a mayor. Uh Tom and I went to several different meetings with uh staff and individuals from West De Mo. At that time we were the plan was is R1. So we're matching up basically uh what was for lots on coming and West De Mo was going to kind of match that up. This kind of goes against that plan. Um I think there's like two of us Matt and I I think have been there. Uh I built like 18 years ago and some of the people that were there before have moved away and there's been several new houses. Um if we would have known this is the type of development that's just going to be down the street, uh I probably wouldn't have built there and I know several people wouldn't have built their new house there or bought the existing houses. So, I'd like to just have, you know, people realize, you know, that if if they've got 150 acres, if they want to put something off in another corner where people if they want to live next to it, they can make their choice and move there. But I kind of agree with what's been said before is this really shouldn't be put where other R1 houses are already built and appreciate you considering that. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Okay, give us your name and address for the record, please. Savannah Savage, 3324 North Fernwood. Um, I agree with what all my neighbors have said. Um, my big concern is safety. I have two little ones. Um, we're stuck on a small culde-sac. If we go out to 35th, it's we don't have any sidewalks. We can't get to other neighborhoods. We moved out there for privacy. Um, we've heard that there's going to be apartments or condos closer uh to veterans off of 35th. I'm not sure why they just won't move this project closer if that is going to be the case to the other um area that is more comprehensive to plans typically. Um yeah, and I'm just overall concerned about our safety out there.

Okay, thank you. Thank you so much. Anybody else? Okay, come on up.

Uh Charlie Ampa, 3401 North um Drive, Coming, Iowa 50061. I appreciate the time for public comment especially for individuals that are outside your corporate limits. Um ultimately uh short and sweet would like to council to reconsider amending the zoning plan that would allow for higher density uh versus detached residential as initially intended. And a lot of the comments were made as far as potential road safety downstream, the impacts that could have on your neighboring community. And um totally get all that whether it's true or not. I do I do think there is a um road study in process or at least talked about in the packet and at the very least I'd like the council to to consider delaying the decision until you understand or until it's further known what that impact downstream would be to the to the u residents um south there. Whether it be um the road structure isn't able to handle the inc potential increased traffic. if that means that that road at some point in time needs to be redone or rebuilt to handle the the traffic up north. And in the city of coming, we've done a a lot of work to develop the community just like West De Mo, obviously a lot smaller. Um, and one of the focuses have been how do we transition from low density, which was a major makeup within our community not that long ago, and add some more density, um, and do it in a way where it naturally transitions to major roadways. And I think we've done a pretty good job at that over time. Nothing's perfect, but um, you know, to one of the prior comments, this one just doesn't seem to fit. It seems like it's kind of mid block, um, especially when it butts up to residential estates. And I I think that's something that I would like uh this council to at least consider um what this would look like. And I think at the end of the day, we're just trying to figure out a better way to knit the two communities together so it's a seamless you don't know where you go from West De Mo to coming initially and

vice versa. And I'd just like to um thank you guys for your time and um thank you. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Okay. Further public comment, please give us your name and address for the record. Sarah Webster, 3212 North Fernwood. Um, I wasn't planning on getting up here. Um, I didn't bring my notes, but somewhere at the last meeting there was mention about what Diligent was doing and their plan of action in developing the adhood and on the Great Western Trail. It was pointed out that their kind of housing that is like this is out on the coming road um over if you look at over um in west de mo by the chicken just uh what would be just west of the chicken those are types of housing that you're talking about cramming into this little 15acre square. I don't understand. Um West De Moines has is is at the end of the road for themselves and it's our line. It's coming. It's us. It's our houses. I can't figure out why on earth you cram these in when Diligent has done it out on a major road. West De Moine has done it out on the the Veterans Parkway and then all of a sudden there's this odd place and you're going to cram it in here. It doesn't make sense and it's very disappointing. So, thank you.

Thank you.

Caleb Smith again. I'll be brief. Uh just a couple things. Uh first of all, South 35th Street is classified as an arterial street. So a pretty major road within the city of West De Moine. The uh street that's along the north side of this project is considered a major collector. That's a pretty big road as well. So as we look at how this is how the ground is going to change as we go look to the north, that corner there is very typically a place that you would see some town home product just because of the intensity of the road network that's expected there. We're in the process of going through preliminary plan with staff and one of the things that's been made very clear is South 35th Street needs to be rebuilt. And so we've been discussing that re reconstruction with the developer to the east and the developer to the north that would rebuild South 35th Street from Veterans Parkway to the southern limits of our of our property. Sounds like the city of of has their section planned here in the next two to three years. So realistically, if you think about it, the timeline we're going to be at, we wouldn't have residents out in this project is 2027. And at that point, you're talking about what 20 30 homes. So maybe maybe 100 people. By the time we get the mask development completely done, we'll be 12, 13, 14 years down the road, these roads will be improved. I think from a traffic and safety perspective will be dramatically improved because this development happened. When we look at other parts of the project, the only other point that was brought up I wanted to be clear, you look north, the terrain is just doesn't work. When you start thinking about town home projects, you need flat terrain. And this southern the southern part is the only spot that made sense for that kind of development because as you go north it's just too much grade to deal with. So that's why we this is where we settle on between the gas man on the south the road connections we've got on both sides of us the separation to the folks to the southeast as well as we've met with diligent multiple times on this and they have no issues with the project. We just felt like this was the solution that could allow us to bring some more achievable home prices within this development that wouldn't otherwise exist.

Okay. Anybody else that would like to address the council on this item? Okay. With that, I'm going to declare the public hearing closed. And uh so we do have a unique situation here. Um we've got P&Z that approved one thing and we've got another uh option here as well. Um, we've got a resolution for approval of the comprehensive plan land use map amendment and we've got an ordinance for approval of the first reading for assignment of zoning and we need to take these separately. Uh, does somebody want to first move approval of the resolution?

Mr. Mayor, uh, I appreciate the residents coming out and uh, I think we have a couple discussion. Let's That's right. Let's get a motion first. Move approval of the resolution. Okay. Okay, it's been moved. There are second. Which uh which part are we voting on? I just want to make sure we're we're taking the resolution first. The comprehensive plan land use map amendment. This the R1 R9.

Okay. Is there a second? If there's not a second, it will die for lack of a second. Okay. That's dead for lack of a second. And I will take another motion. Somebody want to make make another motion. Uh I would make like to make a motion to defer. Okay. Is there a second? A second. Okay. It's been moved and seconded to defer. Councilman Hudson, I'll go back to you.

Sure. More specifically, uh I would love for uh the development planning subcommittee to really take a harder look at this because I think the residents who have come out, I was going to say this earlier, so I apologize for going out of order. my apologies, but uh I really do think Caleb, thank you for being here and sharing. Uh we have a couple different issues that we're thinking about. One is the traffic, one is the density. Um if there's single family homes down there, I think you all know that there will be additional traffic, but as Caleb correctly said, not for 3 years, 5 years, 8 years, 10 years, and beyond, right? Obviously, a higher density, more people down there. We get that. So, there's two different issues. But when it comes to the density, uh I would like uh the development and planning subcommittee to take a harder look at this. That's the purpose of a subcommittee and that is why I'm deferring that specifically. Not because I'm against this development from eventually happening, but more because I want to find out a little more detail. And our capable sub uh committee chair Matt McKenna, I know that he can and continues to be a rockstar as he takes a deeper dive, which is the purpose of our subcommittees in the first place. So that is why I made the motion to defer and I wanted to explain.

Councilman McKenna.

Yeah. I um I appreciate uh the concern that's been raised. Um I think uh development is going to be inevitable in this area. And the question is whether or not you know um it it fits the fits the area. And um I hear your concerns about traffic. Um, typically when these sinks come up before development and planning, we'll have uh somebody uh in our traffic uh area help us understand whether or not these roads are going to be capable of serving it. My guess is they are, but you raise a question. Sounds like we got several years until something's going to happen. If we delay this for a couple weeks to to verify that in fact we have the capacity in those areas. I think that's reasonable to do. um we can talk about uh any of the other issues uh at that at that that point in time. So, you know, we're here in the middle of I guess the very first part of January. I don't know that it needs to happen right away. Uh in terms of an approval tonight, if we can take a moment, evaluate it fully and then come back. I think I'd be supportive of that.

Okay. Councilwoman Hardman.

Yeah. Um first of all, I want to thank everybody for being here tonight. um as one of my probably last votes. I'm just like this is a big issue. And um you know when you come out and you kind of speak your uh your thoughts about how this is impacting a decision that you made sometimes I heard you said 18 years and 12 years and 13 years. Um you you do want to kind of put yourself in that position to say okay um what would I think? I I I do want to say that I am not against the project necessarily. I I want to share that and I am a member probably soon to be former member of the planning and development meeting uh committee with Matt Councilman McKenna. Um I think what what what's most important for me is this road study. I know there's some stuff in the packet. I'd like to understand the impact of the road study and really what's that finality. I don't know how long it takes to complete that, but the road study is a really important piece to this. So I'm not trying to kick the can down the road. I I am saying I agree with the pause until we can figure out more of the kinds of impacts that might impact this project. Again, not saying I'm against it. Need more data um to to look at as it relates to the roads and the impact.

Kevin, Council Trill, you got your light on?

Yes. All right. Um I don't need any more study. I don't really care what the roads will handle. Um, and I do put myself in your shoes. And you already basically made a concession among yourselves without fighting it that it was not going to be one to three acre lots. It's going to be um smaller single family lots. To then have nine dwelling units per acre in a 15 acre lot is to me just ridiculous. I think the whole thing should be single family. Again, I don't I don't know what we're going to gain by, you know, deferring this, but I guess I will support the deferral, but I just don't think it makes sense. Um I don't know what we're going to gain by it. you know the roads are going to be what the roads are. The concern is that you all bought, you know, knowing some of you that it is going to be single family. And to me, that's what we need to to stand by, not not worrying about, as Caleb talked about that that um um the other developer is okay with this. I can't think of the name now. Um

diligent. Diligent that they're okay with it. To me, it doesn't matter if a developer is okay with it. It's what the residents around it want. I wouldn't like it if I lived out there. So, whenever this comes back to us, I won't be supporting it. Thank you. Thank you.

Well, I'll go next. And I think if this was an industrial use case or something other than that, I don't believe this is that jarring. And I look around the city and I say, "We need housing for people. We're going to R9 here." And I appreciate everybody that spoke. I really do. But I'm thinking about my own kids. I got two of them in college right now. Where are they going to live? A detached town home. If I own an acre and a half, and I do, not that big a deal to me. And so I'm voting my heart. I'm thinking about the future. I'm thinking about how is this city going to grow? We've done this in other places. I want to in my mind I'm keeping precedent here. And I am empathetic to everybody that came. But if we buckle every time somebody has an objection on something, we'll never have development come here again. And developers Hubble will not want to work here. So I think we need to consider that as well.

I want my kids to live in West De Mo someday. Yeah. I appreciate all the comments that were made here and I appreciate seems like half the town of is here tonight including the mayor and uh former council people and

this isn't lost on us. I mean we we try to make the best decision that we possibly can after taking in all of the facts, right? But it's not easy. We got two cities that butt up against each other. You guys make decisions, mayor, that work for your city. We have to make decisions that work for our city. One of those decisions is how you're actually able to pay for the development, how you're actually able to pay for the road and the infrastructure and all those things. You need to take all of that in consideration. And I appreciate the um study about Iowa State Extension or wherever you got that information on the comprehensive plan. I've got a master's degree in public administration for state and local government. We've studied comprehensive plan in school. I've dealt with it here multiple times. a comprehensive plan. I I would love it if just stayed that way and never changed, right? So everybody could have just definitive like that's what it's going to be, right? First of all, probably one in 10 people and that might even be high even know that there is such a thing as a comprehensive plan, right? I didn't before I was a council person and mayor. Let's be realistic. And it is a living breathing document whether you like it or not. Every five years, if you're doing your job as a city, you're reviewing the comprehensive plan and making changes based on things that have changed in your community, things that have changed in your city, things that have changed in your country. At one point in time, we had a comprehensive plan that had so much blue on it. Office everywhere. Office development isn't happening, guys. So, what did we do? We looked at the comprehensive plan. Matter of fact, I called for a look at the comprehensive plan because I know when Councilman Trailion and I first got on this council back in 2010, we had reviewed this comprehensive plan. I think the last time they did it was 1993. It had gone too long. And so we looked at it and we

sat here for hours and hours on end. We had council meetings until midnight. I leaned over to mayor then Steve Garrett said, "My god, is this what you guys do on a regular basis?" No, we just have the comprehensive plan. We had 150 meetings. We got feedback and input from all of the residents and we made changes to the comprehensive plan. But like you guys, other people said the same thing. And I don't blame them for the ones that actually when they bought their house knew, specifically took a look, oh, this is what this can be. That might be one in 10 people. Um, doesn't mean that you can just willy-nilly change a comprehensive plan. We try to keep it as consistent as we can, but things change. Uh I the mayor, your mayor, he's a great mayor. He reached out to me right away after you guys reached out to him. I brought this uh attention to staff. I said, "Is there something we can do here? We want to be good neighbors. These are our neighbors coming, you know, and uh and and PNZ passed it." And my understanding at that time was you guys were worried about apartments. You were worried about multifamily. That's what a lot of came across to me. But at that point in time, I asked staff to reach out to Hubble and to try to come up with a reasonable compromise that worked for our city and was more reasonable for you all. And that's where they came up with the RM12 down to RM9 and they pushed harder and they agreed to have the height restriction as well. I mean, these are essentially single family homes, villas. Maybe they're more dense than would a single family uh neighborhood in this area be. We got to be able to pay for the infrastructure and everything else. We've got to take some of these other things in consideration. I agree with taking the time out. We've we've learned a lot tonight. We appreciate you guys being here. Let's bring it back to development and planning, which is going to be a oneman oneman band at this point

in time. When we lose, you've got alternates. There's alternates. I'm sure I can get We'll have to have an alternate that will step in. We'll draw straws. Um, Mr. Mayor, what you said to uh get the short stroke. It's not an easy issue. I praise I praise the council woman for tough for for making tough decisions but making the right decisions for the betterment of the community at large. This will not be an easy uh issue. Not be discussion. We'll take it back to our subcommittee and we'll have Councilman McKenna and whoever the alternate is uh come in and take a look at it, but we will take a time out for now. And I just wanted to recognize that. That's right. What? It's me. It's you. Okay. I'll take it if you don't want it. Oh, I'll take it. Uh,

all right. Let's take a few more comments. We got to wrap it up. Uh, we have another chance to deliberate this.

The fact that uh that our two mayors had a conversation, the fact that city planning uh department worked on this Hubble, they brought together a new plan that put these basically single family homes along the southside. I don't know what conversation is going to happen at DP because I won't be there. But I do know that you'll take a hard look and I know the good folks at Hubble who are willing to develop in our city and I'm always grateful for that and for the next two weeks uh I don't know when the next meeting will be but uh we'll work out a time to to do that. I just wanted to say I want to recognize that we already have a compromise and I don't know what other compromising there is but a deeper dive would be warranted at this point. That's why I support the deferral and made the motion. Your honor, I got one question.

Go ahead. Councilman Caleb, I'd like to ask you to come up with a uh approximate cost of what a single family house will cost and that 135 acres and then what the cost of one of these town houses would cost and then let me know what that would be. Okay. Don't do it right now. Just Yeah, I can get those numbers for you. Y Thank you. Thank you. And and again, Caleb, to you to Hubble, thank you for Thank you for listening. Thank you for considering the compromise. Thank you for agreeing and putting forward what we have today. And we'll continue to have discussion. Thank you to staff for working on this as well. So, all right with that, and thank you to all the residents from coming to for coming here and voicing your concerns.

Got a little bit of time. Council Travian hopes that we annex you guys and you're part of his ward. Oh my. No, your fine stay is coming. That don't you be putting words in my mouth. I'm kidding. All right, please vote. Can we clarify the What do we vote? We're voting on a different role. Okay, we're voting to defer and to bring this back. When is the next development and planning subcommittee meeting? Do we? Probably the Well, it's the It's a council meeting. So, council meeting probably the MLK the 20th, right? Okay. Probably Tuesday the 20th then. Uh and that that meets the morning of council the right the morning of the council meeting that evening correct

is that is that going to be enough time to to gather all the information and depends if you're look at all the issues that they talk about with safety I Okay. So let's let's put a date on it or do we can we say that when it's ready to come back rather than rather than rushing everybody to get this thing done. We'll some Lyn Tweet director of development services if you do not continue to a date certain we have to renotice everything and start the process over so it's better if you don't think we'll hit the 19th push it out to one of the dates in February and give us a date certain otherwise this whole thing starts again just renotice

I think the first meeting in February probably that that would be fine um I don't want to keep moving it moving it moving it moving moving it uh because we will need to have a resolution. Caleb, I don't want to hamstring you and Hubble. If it's if it's two weeks away, it's four weeks away. Do you have a comment on that? I would love to hear from you on that particular point of timing. Our due diligence ends in the middle of February. After that, we have to proceed to closing. So, if we wait till that meeting, it is it's all or none for us. If we don't get the zoning in place, it may be enough that we have to hold the plug and walk from it, to be honest. So we could take it up at development planning on the 20th of January.

Whatever we want to do at that point in time, we would have until if we put it on the calendar for February 2nd. Yeah. Monday, the very first Monday of of uh that's kind of our our drop dead date. It may not move forward. It may move forward, but at least there is a path one way or the other. Fair enough. Appreciate it. Hey, thank you for your flexibility. Appreciate it. Y thanks. Okay. So, the motion is is to defer um and bring this to the development and planning meeting on January 20th and bring it back to council for consideration on February 2nd. Yes, that would be my motion.

Okay. And there was a motion and a second. All right. Please vote. Four yes. one. No. Okay. Moving on to item 6 C. I believe on this one we're also asking to defer this. Hold on one second. Give me a second to get to my Yeah. motion to continue to January 20th. January 20th. Okay. It's been moved and seconded. Uh please vote.

Five. Yes. Time out. Wait a minute. Time out. Uhoh. Oh, sorry. Continuing to January 20th. February 2nd. We're We're continuing We're This is branch. Okay. Did we do a continuation on the zoning, too, though? Then February 2nd. Both of them are second. 6C. Yeah. Yeah. That was the whole Yep. So, the whole thing, the resolution and the zoning. Okay. All under 6B and now we're on to 6C. Correct. All right. Now we're on 6. We're done with 6. Now we're on to 6D.

Okay. This is a time and a place for a public hearing to consider 2026 street reconstruction program initiated by the city of West De Mo. Ryan, would you please read the date the notice is published? December 12th, 2025 in the De Mo register. And have you received any written comments at this hearing? None, your honor. Okay. Anybody in the audience would like to address the council on item 60, 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 in the council chambers or online that would like to address the council on item 60? Move approval. Second. Oh, hold on. Hold on one second. Hold on a second. Sorry. Sorry. We're we're we're all over the place tonight. That's partly my fault. Public hearing.

Okay. Hearing and seeing no one, I'll declare the public hearing closed. We've got two resolutions and a motion we can take at the same time. And there are no outstanding issues. Now, Councilman McKenna, uh, move approval. Second. It's moved and seconded. Uh, is there any discussion on the DIS? Hearing none, please vote. Five. Yes. Okay. Item 6E. This is a time and a place for a public hearing to consider Grand Avenue sewer abandonment South 33rd Street to Jordan Creek initiated by the city of West De Moines. Ryan, would you please read the date the notice is published? December 12th, 2025 in the De Mo register. And have we received any written comments at this hearing? None, your honor.

Okay. Anybody in the audience that would like to address council item 6E, please come to the podium, give us your name, address for the record. Anybody online, you know what to do. Hit star six to unmute yourself and do the same. Is there anybody either online or in the chamber that would like to address the council on this item? Okay. God bless you. It's going around. uh hearing and seeing no one, I'll declare the public hearing closed. God bless you. Once again, we've got two resolutions and emotions we can take at the same time. There are no outstanding issues. Um somebody want

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Uh is there any discussion on the DAS? Okay, hearing none, please vote. Five yes. Okay. Item 6F. This is the time and place for a public hearing to consider 2025 storm pipe rehabilitation program initiated by the city of West De Mo. And Ryan, would you please read the date the notice is published? December 12th, 2025 in the De Mo register. Have we received any written comments of 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. Anybody online, hit star six to unmute yourself and do the same. Is there anybody either in the chamber or online that would like to address the council on item 6F? Okay. Hearing and seeing no one, I'll declare the public hearing closed. And once again, we've got two resolutions and emotions we can take at the same time. And there are no outstanding issues. So moved. Second. Okay. It's moved and second. Is there any discussion? This is just the three the third engineering project that we've approved tonight that has come in under the budget and the plan. So that's always good news. Thank you to Brian Hemth and the fine folks in engineering department for all their diligent work.

Absolutely. Amen. Thank you to the finance committee too. Amen to that. All right, please vote. Public services, too. Five. Yes. Okay. Item seven, new business. Item 7A, Hope Landing, southwest of the intersection of South 85th Street and Cascade Avenue. Approve a preliminary plat to create one lot for multif family residential development, two outlots, and three street lots. Hope Development and Realy. We've got a resolution for approval of preliminary plat and there are no outstanding issues. This was also approved unanimously by PNZ. Motion approved. Second.

Okay, it's a move and second. Is there anybody in the audience or online that would like to address the council on this item? Is there any discussion on the dis? Okay, hearing none, please vote. Five. Yes.

Okay. Item 7B, Microsoft DSM18, 1475 Southeast Mafet Lake Road, approve a major modification of the site plan to allow construction of a data center building, Microsoft Corporation. Uh, we have a resolution for approval of the major modification of the site plan and acceptance of associated legal documents and there are no outstanding issues. There are three conditions of approval regarding allowing gravel around the industrial buildings, allowing a 12-oot untraceed retaining wall, and not requiring trees in parking lot islands due to security concerns. Those are the usual three uh items that we uh consider when we consider these things. Okay, it's been moved. Is there a second? Second.

Okay, it's moved and second. Is there anybody in the audience who would like to address the council on this item? Okay, give us your name and address for the record again, including your unit. Uh, Riley Lester, 1201 Office Park Road, Department 2. Okay.

Um, I understand that there's a lot of really bad things about AI and the environment that y'all have no control over, but there are some things that uh we do collectively have control over. Uh, so I'm just going to ask you to stick with me for a minute. Um, as I mentioned before, uh, we are in the current, uh, six mass extinction event. There's no denying it. Science proves it. Since 1970, over 60% of all bird species have gone or of all insect species have gone extinct. 30% of all bird species have gone extinct. Since 1960, around 40 to 50% of all species in the world have gone extinct. Uh this year we just crossed uh the planetary boundary for coral reefs, meaning all coral reefs are going to be dead by 2050 I think is the current projection. Um there's nothing we can do about it. We already passed it. It's gone. Same thing with the 1.5° C uh target uh that was set in the Paris Accords in 2016. We have officially crossed that planetary boundary. It's gone. We can't go back. So all I ask you to do is consider every single little thing that we do. It makes a difference. AI data centers do contribute a great carbon footprint uh on our environment. Especially here in Iowa, Iowa is already the most ecologically destroyed state, destroyed place in the history of the world. Over 98% of our total landscape has been completely changed from what it originally was. This is unprecedented. It's not seen anywhere else in the world. Every little thing that we do makes a tremendous difference here considering what little we have left of our natural resources. So, and I and I understand that one building might not seem like a lot, but when every city council in in every county in the in the United States votes on one extra building, it it adds up to the carbon footprint. Um, and I know I know Microsoft is throwing money in in your faces because they have it. You know, these big tech tech corporations are trading four trillion dollars. Nvidia, uh, Google, uh, Microsoft, they're just trading this money back and forth. They

have unlimited money. It doesn't mean anything to them. So, we see it and we think that can help our community and in the short term, which it does, but in the long term, we won't have a community to sustain if if we keep on this trajectory. Um, we're we're facing serious concerns of a dust bowl here in Iowa in 20 years because of our current uh big farming practices and our our draining and polluting aquafers aquafers. Um, every everything makes a difference. Every little thing makes a difference. And I'm not even going to go into the bad implications of AI itself. I'm just talking about the bad environmental impacts. And Iowa doesn't have much uh more land to give. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much.

Okay. Is there anybody else in the chamber or online that would like to address council on this item? I'm not shocked. All right. Come on up. Holly, give us your name and address for the record. Thank you. Holly Anderson 20527 Street West De Mo Iowa. Okay. Um are you going to share something new because I would ask that you do that. Yes. So this specific project the clearance for this it already has the base built for this. Am I correct or what is what is in place already for this specific data center? We've got Microsoft here and um they are coming up to answer that question for you. Yeah.

Good evening. Uh Ryan Har, CEO of Civil Design Advantage, uh 4121 Northwest Urbanale Drive, Iowa. Um civil engineer working on the project for Microsoft. Um so when this data center property um campus was was originally planned, it was it was planned for this data center. Um infrastructure is already in place for for this. The grading was done uh with the initial project on this campus five five years ago. Um, one thing to note, you know, Microsoft is very um, forward thinking when it comes to the to the environment and the technologies that they continue to evolve and implement into these projects. Um, just want to note that that this particular project is kind of the cutting edge technology that uses um, closed loop cooling methods. It doesn't use um, water like some of the the the older styles of data centers. So it's it's it is a much more ecologically friendly data center than what you see in um other jurisdictions and and other designs. So just wanted to note that and be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Any questions at all for Microsoft because this one is in a pre-existing site because this is not in a completely different and new. We didn't this is in a pre-existing site. That's what I'm asking. It is an existing site but but but the technologies that are implemented at the site are more of an evolution of technology and things are are um more water friendly from an environmental perspective just from um the nature of the evolving technologies. More specific I mean we didn't choose a site a blank field three miles away and now we're putting a random Microsoft data center there. This isn't a site that already exists. That's that's what I'm saying. Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you. I have a question. No. Well, you've already come up to speak. Ali, you've already spoken as well. Um,

I I wish and this is the Microsoft. I wish Microsoft toot their own horn horn more because Microsoft is very environmentally conscious. Microsoft cares very deeply about our environment and they've proven that to us here in West De Mo. You talk about the water usage. I think they've represented 2% of the total water usage. the the greatest usage of water comes from all of us watering our lawns. Okay, we have worked with Microsoft to come up with a budgeted aotment of water that they would use at each one of the data centers and they've never exceeded that. They have been great corporate citizens. They have worked with us to help purchase trees to be planted by our residents uh with the shade crusade and have done all kinds of other things that are environmentally responsible. They're working to develop better technologies, to be better stewards of the environment, to use less water, and all kinds of different things. But if there's one thing that Microsoft is really guilty of, it's not tooting their own horn. So, and I still will give you an invitation to sit down and talk about the three pages worth of environmental things that we have done in the city of West De Moine since Councilman Trailion and I have been here over the last 16 years. So, appreciate the concern brought up. We hear you. We're hearing your concerns. Um, appreciate appreciate your opinion. Okay. Anybody else that would like to address the council on this item? Okay. Any discussion in the DAS? Okay. With that, please vote. Four. Yes. one abstension due to potential conflict of interest.

Okay, with that, moving on to item eight, receive file and/or refer. Item 8A, we will reluctantly receive and file Councilwoman Hardman's letter of resignation. Uh, moving on to item nine, other business. Item 9A, we handled earlier in the meeting, the resolution of appreciation for Councilwoman Hardman. Thank you.

Yep. Item 9B, special election for at large council member. Uh, so this is um I will just say that there are certain things that the election office in PK County has to consider and it's other elections. We are a city that has runoff elections. We are not primary uh elections. Um, so they have got certain timelines that that make sense that have to line up. Um, I went and worked with them to try to provide some additional time for people to be able to get signatures uh and do their due diligence and that is what we have before us here. Um, the nomination papers. I'm sorry, I've just lost my on the hard.

Here we go. Nomination papers um will be due Friday, January 23rd. There are 179 signatures that will be needed to get your name on the ballot. The special election date will be Tuesday, February 17th, with the potential swearing in of the new council member Monday, March 2nd. If there is a runoff election, then that runoff election will be Tuesday, March 17th, with the potential swearing in of that council member then being March 23rd. That starts to get into other deadlines for filing for statewide office and other things like that, which is I think what was pretty difficult um to come up with this timeline. So with that, I guess I would uh ask first for a motion uh to approve uh to to proceed with the special atlarge city council election authorizing the city clerk to coordinate set election with the P county auditor's office to proceed with the approval or motion to approve the uh special election. Yep.

It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Are there any clarifications, Ryan, that need to be made? Anything that residents need to know that are considering potentially running for this seat that I have not covered? Councilwoman Hart, you've covered it. Just any questions? Okay. Contact contact our city clerk, Ryan Jacobson if there are any questions that anybody has. One thing that I am going to point out because I've had more runoff elections, I think, than anybody in the city of West De Moines. Um just for those that are listening online or here in this the chambers if you do not if there's uh more than I guess what two candidates okay and nobody gets 50% of the vote

plus one then there's a runoff election between the two top vote getters. So if there's three people or four the bottom one or two do not move on it's the top two vote getters. That's how the special election order. I don't have a comment question and mayor you might be able to answer this. So in terms of the election uh actual the 17th um this is the most time that the elections office given us or

this was they they originally had proposed yeah they've got the election office the pole county election office has got a bunch of other deadlines that they're up against with other elections coming. They've taken a look at what you know what the letter of the law is and what they need to follow and they've looked at the other elections and filing deadlines and other things that they've got coming behind this knowing that we are a runoff election city and could have this election all the way till March. And so they pro they provided what was a a pretty tight turnaround. Having run for office a few times in my life, uh I thought this is great for us to get another member elected and sit up on this dis with us, but this is very very tight and I think somebody that's done this and is experienced on it is is going to struggle to do it.

You will literally be drinking out of a fire hose. So, I asked that we get a little bit more time, but they talked to me about some of the other filing deadlines, of the other elections coming up, the primaries that are coming in June, and all these other things that they're up against, uh, that they're competing with. And so, with that, we were able to come to a compromise of getting an extra week for people to basically get those signatures. And Mayor Trembley, you deserve credit. I know uh Ryan and Julius at the city clerk's office who we just appointed again tonight which I'm proud to do because they do tremendous work over there as they pour through the state code on special elections because every time that happens it's a little wild. Uh but I know Mayor Trumbo you worked to try to get us that extra week because when you are campaigning it's it's a tough thing. So I wanted to say thank you. Thank you. Thanks to the city clerk's office and uh by all means

and thank you. Thank you to Jamie Fitzgerald and John Chido who worked with us, worked with me to try to come up with as reasonable of deadlines as we possibly could for people to go through the process, get their names on the ballot, and run run a campaign and get elected. It's going to be a tight turnaround for everybody. Everyone's going to have the same advantage, disadvantage. Um they're going to have to get in order and start getting those signatures tomorrow.

Yeah. Counciloman and and a person that has just finished a special election. uh with uh probably a bit more time than this. I I agree it's going to be very tough. Um it is very protracted. Um so for those that are um folks that have any remote interest, like you said, they're going to have to get started yesterday almost. Um because it is just the most and I I know people worked on it, but it is so protracted and just haven't gone through a special election. It's it's it's going to have to be boots on the ground as of yesterday.

Absolutely. And Ryan, people can start, correct me if I'm wrong, they can start getting signatures on the nomination petition tomorrow. They could start today getting signatures, but they have to have their petitions. All right, Council.

Hey, I two items. one, I want to uh echo Greg's uh comments, Councilman Hudson Hudson's comments, Russ, I know there was uh an effort to extend it, and I know you did everything you can to push it out as far as you could uh with within the bounds of what P County could do. So, thank you for taking the effort to do that over the holidays and everything else that was going on. So, that's number one. Number two, uh I appreciate this council deciding to go down the special election path as opposed to appointing someone for for such a term. Um it was it was something that could have been done and I'm grateful and you know I assume it's all unanimous here that we chose to go down the path of allowing the electorate uh to choose who the next atlarge council person would be uh to serve for the full four term or four-year term. So thank you.

Absolutely. Good points. All right. Is there any other discussion before we vote? Um, I just wanted to ask uh once the session is done if someone could take a picture since this will be the last time that the six of us are sitting up here together at the end of a council meeting. I would love to have a picture. Renee, you've taken some pictures before, but we will have a picture taken of us. We'll put that in the script. We'll take a picture before we uh before we head into executive session, which is forthcoming. Perfect. Thank you. Okay. Any other discussion before we vote? One last selfie. All right, please vote. Five. Yes.

Okay. Is there any other matters that any council person has and like to share for the good of the order? We could just keep going here. All right. Hearing hearing none, we are adjourned. We will go into executive session up in the boardroom. Yes.

Up in the boardroom. All right, let's get a picture and then we're going to head out into executive session. I go into photos to be scissors to Well, Yeah, I do.