This meeting of the Cedar Rapids City Council will come to order.

Welcome everybody to the Cedar Rapids City Council meeting for Tuesday, August 26, 2025.

I'd like to note that Councilmember Anne Poe is absent today.

I want to welcome our city manager, our city clerk, our city attorney, and thanks as always to the incredible city staff of Cedar Rapids for being here today to answer questions before and now certainly afterwards, should you have any following our meeting today.

And reminder to turn off all cell phones, electronic devices that you may have so we don't distract from our proceedings today.

And note that all of our council meeting minutes, agendas, videos are available on our city's website.

Regular sessions are also available to watch live and on replay via Facebook Live.

And now, as we always do, we'll begin with an invocation today by public safety chaplain Rick Gale, that will be immediately followed by our Pledge of Allegiance.

Will you pray with me?

Father, I thank you for our city leadership.

God, they give us the opportunity to meet with them here.

Thank you for that.

Thank you for our mayor, the city council.

Thank you for our city manager.

Thank you for our departmental leaders seated here.

God, would you honor them for their selfless God?

Honor them for that.

Give them wisdom as they deal with situations and issues every day.

God, I pray that you'll be there with them and for them.

And God, I pray that this is a good night.

And for this we say thank you.

Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

We'll begin today with a proclamation for the 19th annual five seasons stand down today.

And my colleague Scott Olson will be reading that proclamation today.

I don't know whether we have anybody here representing the stand down that wants to come up.

We're still going to read the proclamation here.

And uh as an Army veteran, I'm uh this is a wonderful event that's held every year, and uh it makes a difference for the veterans, those that served our country uh that live in our Lynn County area to come and provide or receive much needed services in a central location.

And so the proclamation uh is to honor this 19th annual uh stand down event uh here in our great city.

Whereas Valor Incorporated, in partnership with the Cedar Rapids Metro Area Veterans Council, the Iowa City VA Medical Center, and the Lynn County Consortium of Care will hold Lynn County's 19th annual stand down for homeless and near homeless veterans as well as non-veterans.

And whereas, stand down is a term used in times of war in which an exhausted combat units come off the battlefield to rest and recover in a place of safety.

And whereas, according to the U.S.

Department of Veterans Affairs, the first stand down was organized in 1988 by a group of Vietnam veterans.

Excuse me.

In San Diego.

And whereas today, stand down also refers to a community-based program that assists homeless and near homeless veterans transition to community living by providing access to human service agencies, including benefits counseling for through Social Security and Veterans Organizations, employment and training assistance, eye screenings, health care screenings, housing services, legal assistance, mental health care treatment, and substance abuse counseling, all in one location at the stand down.

And whereas stand downs have been used as an effective tool in reaching out to homeless veterans nationally, reaching more than 200,000 veterans and their family members.

Now, I therefore, Scott Olson be on behalf of Mayor Tiffany O'Donnell and the entire Cedar Rapids City Council to hereby recognize September 4th, 2025 as the 19th annual five-season stand down day, and encourage residents to recognize the positive impacts of this event to assist veterans and to express our gratitude to those who have served as well as continue to serve.

So hopefully, all is out of veterans uh stadium, I believe, again this year.

And it's a fabulous event, and we should all be proud of the fact that uh these groups have gotten together and provide this wonderful service to those who served us.

Thank you.

Thank you, Scott.

It's now time for our public hearing.

So I'll remind everybody who wishes to speak today, whether during a public hearing or during one of our public comment periods of a few matters to ensure we have an orderly meeting.

A reminder to stay and stand at the lectern.

You see over here on your right.

We have five minutes per speaker.

When the light in the console in front of you turns yellow, that means you have one minute.

When it turns red, we'll invite you to take your seat once again.

Third, please be aware that all comments must be directed to the matter of the public hearing, and that abusive, obscene, loud, threatening, or irrelevant comments are not allowed.

And finally, we need to hold an orderly meeting.

So we ask for no applause, booing, or other distractions from the audience today.

We thank you in advance.

Does the clerk have any written comments or objections in regard to any of our public hearings today?

Your Honor, there were no written comments or objections filed.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Item number one is a public hearing to consider the proposed amendment number eight to the urban renewal plan for the central consolidated urban renewal area.

Scott Mather is here.

Scott, I'll recognize you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Council, Scott Mather with the city manager's office.

I would like to request to combine items one and two as they're related.

Sure thing.

Okay.

So on July 8th, City Council selected uh the proposal from Capitol B LLC for the disposition of city owned land for a housing redevelopment project at 1100 through 1106 and 1417 through 1423 Ellis Boulevard.

As a result, uh urban renewal area plans are required to be updated to reflect activities such as new economic development projects.

Consultation with taxing agencies is also required, which was held on August 11th with no comments or objections.

So today we're here to consider the urban renewal amendment and development agreement.

This development agreement is a 1.6 million dollar capital investment for the construction of two four-plex units.

These are three bed, three-bedroom, two-bath with detached garages.

They are market rate rentals.

The standard incentive provides a 10-year 100% rebate of the increased taxes generated, an estimated 250,000 in total taxes generated over a 10-year period with 210,000 being rebated.

This site plan is showing the 1400 block.

However, it is exactly the same for the 1100 block as well.

And a rendering of what the fourplex will look like when it's completed.

So I'm here to recommend the approval of amendment number eight to the Central Consolidated Urban Renewal Area Plan as well as uh resolution authorizing the development agreement with Capitol B LLC.

With that, I'll return it back to you, Mayor.

Excellent.

Thank you, Scott.

This is a time and a place for public hearing on this matter.

Does anyone here wish to address council?

Let the record show a public hearing has been held with no objections for the record.

That brings us to council comments.

Seeing none here, the adoption of this resolution has been moved by Councilmember Scott Olson, seconded by Councilmember Todd.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say no.

And that motion carries.

Now for item number two.

This is a time and a place for public hearing on this matter.

Does anyone here wish to address council?

Let the record show a public hearing has been held with no objections for the record.

Council.

All right.

Seeing none, the adoption of this resolution has been moved by Todd, seconded by Van Orney.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say no.

And this motion carries.

Thank you, Scott.

Item number three is a public hearing to uh held to review the status of three projects that are funded through the CDBG uh DR single family new construction routes program and multifamily new construction programs.

Laura Shaw and Jay Wilson are here to speak on that.

I'll recognize you both.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Council, Flora Shaw Community Development.

Council, it's a pleasure to be here with you today.

Jay Wilson.

So today we're going to present our status of funded activity regarding funding received from the Iowa Economic Development Authority for Homeowner Re.

Nope, sorry, that's the wrong one.

That's my next one, sorry.

Uh we're so we're presenting a status of funded activities regarding our CDBGDR single family new construction program and our multifamily new construction program from the 2020 direct duratio disaster recovery.

This is our mid-project update for three developers.

So we have uh 16 single unit homes by abode construction, Foxtail Development and Foxcroft Drive Northeast.

25 single unit homes with TW homes, Greenacres Grove Development, 33rd Avenue Southwest, and then a 41 multifamily unit uh by Greyhawk LC.

Uh Greyhawk is at 8600 Prairie View Lane Southwest.

Okay.

So just to acknowledge some uh respective accomplishments with our development so far.

You can see here this is one of our uh completed duplexes, the Fox Croft at the Fox Croft Drive location.

We have six units sold, four units currently under contract.

Uh with regard to expenditures, we have a total project budget of 4.7 million dollars.

This is CDBGDR funding, which totals out to 1.9 roughly 2 million dollars, and other funding include including construction loans and estimated expenditures to date are around 865.

Uh remaining work for this respective property is uh we have four completed units that are currently under construction, and we are beginning the final six for a total of 16 for sale.

Uh with our 33rd Avenue Greenacre's Groom location, we've completed 10 units sold, six under construction, and with regard to expenditures, we have a total projected budget of 8.5 million.

CDBGDR funding uh totaling out at 4.5 million, and then other funding including construction loans and estimate expenditures to date being uh just over 2 million dollars.

Uh the remaining work for this project is that they're completing six units, which are currently under construction, and we're beginning uh the final of nine units for 25 units in total.

And then for 8600 Prairie View Lane uh Southwest location.

Uh one of the major accomplishments that we have is first the foundation, and we as you can see we're starting up the framing with regards to expenditures.

We have a total projected budget of 8.6 million.

Uh CDBG DR funding totaling out to just under 3.7 million, and then other funding uh including this is just construction loans and estimate expenditures to date are just at one million.

Uh remaining work is just gonna be the siding, the interior work, and the landscaping.

And then as far as just project changes that have uh occurred with these respective properties for our Foxcroft locations, there have been no substantial changes, and the timeline for completion has shifted to December 26th and December 2026, respectively.

And for uh our 8600 prairie view location, we've added an additional unit.

Uh we were able to benefit from getting some additional funds from the state uh at about 200,000, and this timeline has shifted to being uh March 2026.

We'll take any questions.

Thank you.

This is a time and a place for a public hearing on this matter.

Does anyone here wish to address council?

Let the record show a public hearing has been held with no comments for the record.

Council.

Councilmember Olson.

Laura, could you remind us how then how when these units are sold?

How does that work?

They they do get a special pricing, etc.

Could you just review the advantages of uh of the of this grant program?

Absolutely.

Jay, you want to take it?

Yes, sir, councilmember, I'd be glad to answer that question for you.

Um, so with the parameters that we have as part of this program, we have a total uh cost that is 175.

So that is what uh the immediate cost of an applicant is seeing.

They also stand to benefit from receiving another 35,000 in down payment assistance.

So that brings that total down to about 140.

And then I'm sure we could agree that the cost of housing has gone considerably up.

Uh so we do have a uh construction benefit uh that is paid to us by the state as well.

Rentals uh for the rentals, uh we are working uh with that, and I'd be more than glad to provide more information.

Uh council would be anyone else on council, Council Mr.

Hager.

Can you explain?

I think there's a partnership with some of the developers with neighborhood finance corporation um and what that uh what what product that they're given to the developers to help offset some of their cost.

Uh yes, sir.

So uh councilmember Hager, uh, we do have some applicants who are able to work with that uh for uh that particular program.

It is just on a case-by-case basis, but I'd be more than glad to provide you with more specifics on that.

Councilmember Meyer.

Thank you, Mayor.

To follow up on your question, was your question related to developer incentives, not necessarily home purchasers?

Perfect.

That's okay if I take it.

Yeah.

Um, so we have recently uh learned about some of the additional products that uh NFC Neighborhood Finance Corp is working through.

So we don't have any, we haven't been included on much of the details about it, but I am happy to get those for you to see what they look like in the end.

Sir Thank you.

Anyone else on council?

All right, we're gonna move on.

There's no resolution for this, so thank you both.

Item number four is a public hearing to review the status of funded activities uh for the CDBG housing rehabilitation program.

This administer this is administered through the East Central Iowa Council of Governments EC COG to rehabilitate homes.

And Laura, once again, I'll recognize you.

Thank you.

So Laura Shaw Community Development.

I'm Nicole Beuse, and I'm the housing recovery coordinator at the Central Iowa Council of Governments.

So today we're presenting our status of funded activities regarding funding received from the Iowa Economic Development Authority for Homeowner Rehabilitation.

The city received around two and a half million dollars in funding, and we partnered with EC COG as the program administrator.

So Nicole is going to explain the status.

So the primary goal of this program was to assist 50 low to moderate income households with essential home repairs and address any lead and radon hazards that might be present.

When this program was first launched, it was uh initial focus was to address Doracio related repairs following the August 10th, 2020 storm.

However, in February of 2025, we were able to expand the program to just help with general housing repairs.

So that definitely broadened the impact to address other critical needs in the community.

Umigible repairs for this program consisted of uh roofing, siding, lead hazard reduction, uh, window replacement, radon mitigation, drywall repair, mold remediation.

So quite a wide range of repairs were eligible.

Um it's important to note though that there were some exceptions.

We couldn't do general updates, uh fences or sheds, those were things that were excluded.

Um as the program has progressed, there have been two amendments that were approved.

On June 13th, 2024, a contract amendment was approved to allocate uh budget for 10 homeowners to be assisted under the urgent need national objective.

Uh, this allowed for us to assist homeowners with slightly higher income limits.

Um, November 15th of 2024, an additional $30,000 was added to the budget specifically for households.

Um, I'm sorry, uh for the temporary relocation of homeowners during lead hazard remediation.

Um if there was lead found in a home, um, if there was a child under the age of 18, we're required to relocate them to a hotel while construction is being done.

Uh so in terms of project status on June 28th, 2023, the city of Cedar Rapids entered into a contract with the Iowa Economic Development Authority for 2.5 million dollars.

Uh the first applicant was approved on October 17th of 2023.

Um, and since that time, 53 households had been approved under the program.

Uh the status of those are as follows.

20 projects are completed, eight are under contract.

Um, of those eight, five are in construction, and three are waiting on just contractor scheduling.

Um, the other 25 that are in progress are in a uh one of these four uh categories.

They're either need to be inspected, they're under an environmental review, duplication of benefits check, or um procurement.

Uh in terms of funding out of the $2.5 million contract, uh $1,038,849.72 has been spent to date.

And then uh of that money, uh $702,543,63 cents was on rehab, uh, and $336,36.09 was on project delivery.

Um to note uh the project delivery that does include administration relocation costs, recording fees, and the purchase of an XRF lead analyzer gun.

So this map shows kind of the range of assistance of where we've been able to help homeowners.

Uh so there have been 17 projects on the northwest side of Cedar Rapids, uh, 12 projects on the southwest side, three on the northeast side, and 21 on the southeast side.

Uh per HUDS requirement, we have also been tracking some demographic information that the program and of those 43 of the households include a disabled resident.

Uh, 28% are elderly households, 37% have children in the home, and 15% identify as having a racial identity other than white.

Um so we have definitely uh helped uh many homeowners across the city and also just a broad spectrum of spectrum of residents as well.

Now I have some before and after photos of projects that we have completed to date.

This first project here repairs consisted of siding, gutters, fascia, soffit, uh garage door replacement, tree removal, front steps that needed repaired, and first floor windows.

Project three here repairs consisted of siding front porch and side porch rebuild and then installing a new AC unit.

And then lastly, um repairs on this project consisted of a major interior repairs to drywall, um, replacement of all first floor windows and some minor exterior siding repairs.

So thank you.

Thank you so much.

Uh this is the time and a place for public hearing on this.

Does anyone here wish to address council?

Let the record show a public hearing has been held with no objections for the record.

Council.

Councilmember Van Ordy.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor.

Um, my question really is just we've been working on the service line uh inventory for a while now.

So when we're identifying, um, I know it's gone considerably down from the unknown, but what as we work through that, are are people getting automatic notices of these programs so that they can get in line and we can see how many people would benefit from it?

I'm specifically with the lead replacement service lines that they're responsible for.

Um so in terms of marketing for this program, we have um, I believe we have information on the city's website, EC Cog's website, um, we've also done some Facebook posts, social media.

Um I know we've done a few press releases.

Uh I would say in the beginning, we were definitely trying to get the word out there to find homeowners, um, and that was a little bit of a challenge.

Um, but uh I would say the last few months we've really seen a large uptick.

And I don't usually the warmer months um I see a lot more people um come to me with interest in the programs, but I think that that's an ongoing challenge that we have is just getting the information out to homeowners on our programs and and um that they're available for them for to apply for.

Yeah, if we haven't already, um I think the city teams do a really great job of getting information out, particularly with our utilities of just having some inserts in there and stuff.

But if we have something that's unknown, we're still trying to inventory those lines inside the homes.

And um, if any of the homes have uh you know fallen to nuisance complaints, it would be just be a really great opportunity to send out with those notices saying these things exist.

Yeah, and we actually um that reminds me, we have uh met with code enforcement at the city.

We did present to them a couple months ago, and uh that is actually kind of when I started to see a lot more referrals and um uh being able to approve more people is got the word out through that.

So yeah.

Great idea.

Anyone else on council?

Councilmember Meyer.

Thank you, Mayor.

I I really appreciate the pictures.

It's fun to see before and after.

You know, so uh that was really nice.

And also the demographics and the variety and diverse populations that were were helping, which is fantastic.

Uh my question is um you had a slide regarding projects and progress, which I think were 25.

Um, but yet it seemed like half the budget is gone.

So just wanted to get assurance that you're comfortable that there is enough remaining budget to fund those projects as um your clients are expecting or hoping for.

Yes, um, that's part of my position is definitely tracking um all the dollars.

Uh you know, we have program budgets, so um when I you know approve a homeowner, I kind of have that that dollar figure, that budget in there as a placeholder um just to ensure that we don't go over budget and that we're able to assist that person.

Um so that's always fluctuating depending, you know, once projects get done and we get more final numbers.

Councilmember Todd.

Could you go back to that map for a second?

Sure.

I I just wanted to say uh uh just the thanks to staff, but to our friends at the Iowa Finance Authority, Iowa Department of Economic Development.

Years ago, these programs had a lot more money because of the disasters.

We were able to get a little bit more.

But when you talk about stabilizing neighborhoods, there's never enough money.

But what you have to do, you have to be strategic with it.

And you're doing you're being strategic in these core neighborhoods.

A lot of these properties that have languished out there, they've been in court, they've been in nuisance abatement.

It coupled with the other things that the city is doing.

I have to say that it has took time, but we are making a substantial difference in some of these blocks specifically.

All it takes is one house on a block to ruin that block.

And some of these might have been some of your case studies of that.

But you're going in there and you're fixing those folks, those homes, and you're giving people hope.

Uh and building a sense of community.

And that is in a subtle way a huge difference in some of these places.

In particular, my neighborhoods and uh Moundview and and over on the southwest, northwest side toward the core.

Uh and and you know, we don't talk enough about projects like this.

They sort of get lost in uh in the minutia of everything else that we do.

But when it comes down to making a key difference in the lives of people in these neighborhoods, this one hits the ball out of the park.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

All right.

No resolution on this, so we'll move on.

Thank you.

Item number five is a public hearing to consider the vacation and disposition of a.10 acre portion of right-of-way on 4th Street Southeast, between 8th Avenue and 9th Avenue Southeast, and this is the amount of 12,600 as requested by Loftist Holdings LLC.

Rob Davis is here to talk about that.

Rob will recognize you.

Good afternoon, Mayor, City Council, Rob Davis with Public Works Department.

Uh this project, uh the area location is on the north side of 9th Avenue.

It's the uh it's to 10 foot wide strip of right-of-way that Loftus Holdings has requested uh vacation for.

It has an assessed value of 12,600, and they've agreed to uh that price.

Uh it may not be clear where fourth street southeast is for a lot of the public because it's actually not existing as a uh roadway.

Uh the center of 30 feet of 4th Street Southeast is an easement for the Union Pacific Railroad.

Uh the city has the remaining uh rights of way that it can use, and we do use it for trails like uh that parallel at downtown.

Uh but we don't need a full 25 feet of uh uh right-of-way uh outside on either side of that in this area for their um uh outside the railroad easement.

So um the this area that's requested to be vacated is outside the Union Pacific Railroad easement.

It's not needed for um public uh the public purpose.

We still have some area between this area and the railroad easement.

Uh so um we reviewed that as staff and feel that it could be vacated.

Uh that would allow for additional parking um that office holdings is uh would be building uh to support their business on the south side of 9th Avenue.

Um so that would be for visitors uh of the business and uh residences there.

Um again, we've there's no uh concern that uh public staff has, and therefore our public has with the uh staff has with the public uh access there, excuse me, and therefore we would recommend approval of the resolution to vacate.

Thank you, Rob.

This is a time and a place for public hearing on this matter.

Does anyone here wish to address council?

Let the record show.

Public hearing has been held with no objections for the record.

Council.

All right, seeing none, the approval of the ordinance on its first reading has been moved by Van Orney, seconded by Overland.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye, those opposed say no.

And this motion carries.

Item number six is a public hearing to consider an agreement for an underground electric line easement at 309, 313, 317, 321, 325, and 329, F Avenue Northwest, as requested by Interstate Power and Light Company.

Rob, I'll recognize you.

Thank you, Your Honor.

Uh these properties were acquired by the city after the flood of 2008.

Uh this area uh is along the backs of those properties.

It's outlined here in uh orange.

It includes a five-foot-wide uh utilities on and then on the last property 309, a 12 by 12 corner for a transformer pad.

Uh this is to service the uh Cedar Crossing Casino project, and then also future development in that neighborhood.

Uh that development can occur once the fog control system is complete.

There are some deed restrictions in the area.

Um Power and White, aka Oliant will maintain this easement.

And then again, eventually we imagine the city will um dispose of these properties with those easements on there.

Uh we'd recommend approval.

Thank you.

Thanks, Rob.

This is a time and a place for a public hearing on this.

Does anyone wish to address council?

All right, seeing none.

Um council comments?

Nothing.

Oh, yes, Councilmember Olson.

Thank you, Mayor.

I need to recuse myself from consideration of this.

Okay, Councilmember Tyler Wilson recusing anyone else.

If there are no further questions, the adapter.

This resolution has been moved by Overland, seconded by Hager.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say no.

And this motion carries.

Item number seven is a public hearing to consider proposed plan, specifications, form of contract, and estimated cost for the 26th Street Southwest over Prairie Creek Bridge Deck Overlay project.

This has an estimated cost of 410,000.

Doug Wilson is here.

Doug, I'll recognize you.

Thank you, Mayor and Council Doug Wilson, Public Works Department.

This project is located south of Highway 30 on 26th Street Southwest.

In June of this year, the bridge deck overlay failed, and an emergency contract was executed to remove the existing overlay in the hopes that we could quickly uh re-overlay the bridge and open it for traffic.

Unfortunately, once the bridge overlay was removed, we found that extensive patching was needed to the deck prior to placing a new overlay, so it necessitated this bid.

The engineer's opinion of probable costs is 410,000.

Construction is expected to start in September of 2025 and be completed in October of this year.

All the businesses in the area are aware of the closure of the bridge and the time frame that we expect it to be open.

The public works department recommends approval of the resolution.

Thank you.

Thanks, Doug.

This is a time and a place for public hearing on this.

Does anyone wish to address council?

All right, let the record show.

Public hearing has been held with no objections.

Council.

All right.

Seeing none, the adoption of this resolution has been moved by Hager, seconded by Meyer.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say no.

And this motion carries thank you.

Adam number seven, or rather, at in number eight, rather, is a public hearing to consider the proposed plan, specifications, form of contract, and estimated cost for the Jones Dog Park project with an estimated cost of 1.8 million dollars.

Steve Krug is here, joined by uh our director Kerry as well.

I'll recognize you both.

Thank you, Marion City Council.

Uh Carrie Mardorf, Director of Parks and Recreation.

We're excited to present the Jones Dog Park this afternoon.

This project has been in the works for several years, and we're excited to reach this milestone.

So just really quick as context, the Jones golf course closed in 2020, and City Council approved a resolution shortly thereafter to look at the redevelopment of Jones golf course into what the community wanted.

So in February of 2021, uh the city went out to the residents, sent out 20,000 surveys, 2,000 people responded, asking uh what the highest priority would be for the redevelopment of that area.

18% said a dog park was in their top one, two, or three priorities.

So since then, we've been working on the planning and design.

And uh with that, I will turn it over to Steve to talk about the details.

Okay, thank you.

Um the new dog park will uh conclude uh main dog park area, a small dog area, an air divided training area, and a rentable area with a shelter.

Uh the park will have its own entry off a C street southwest and an accessible parking lot, and all the paved walking areas in the park will be fully accessible.

Uh there will be water, electrical, and portable restrooms.

Uh the project is currently out for bid and bids are due in tomorrow, August 28th.

Estimated project cost is 1,800,000.

The Jones Dog Park brings large dog park amenity with easier access to more citizens on the southwest side of Cedar Rapids.

Uh the Jones Dog Park is a safe off-leash area for pets and their owners, builds upon the existing amenities available at Jones Park, including Pickleball, Disc Golf, and the Rmodel Jones Lodge and other activities in the area.

Just have a couple pictures of the parking lot and the entry drive off of C.

And then the rest of the dog park to the south with the pickleball off to the west.

Any questions?

All right, thank you.

This is diamond a place for public hearing on this matter.

Does anyone wish to address council?

Let the record show public hearing has been held with no objections for the record.

That brings us to council comments.

Councilmir Van Ordy.

Yeah, thank you.

That this is something people have been talking about for a long time.

So I appreciate that we're at this point.

And I know I've got two excited pups who are ready just to run their little hearts out here.

That being said, um, can you just walk us through, I think, some of the breakdown of costs and and also, I mean, this it's it's quite large, right?

So just understanding the acreage and kind of some of the breakdown of what the costs are that make up this uh investment.

Yeah, I can provide that.

Um so this is approximately 10 acres, which is just slightly smaller than the canine acres dog park that is out on the east edge of town.

Um when you look at down the breakdown of costs, the it's we're really starting from scratch here.

So the majority of the cost is grading, it's storm sewer, it's pavement, it's sidewalk, and really electrical.

So all the infrastructure and the utilities kind of behind the scenes supporting this place, that's where the majority of the costs lie.

No, I appreciate that.

I think from a layman's perspective, it can look like a really hefty price tag.

But then when you realize that you have structures and you have bathrooms and you're having shelters, um, and then all the electrical and uh sewers and stuff like that that you're putting in, it actually adds up pretty quickly.

Also, that other park is really massive, and it's an incredible amenity.

But um to know that we're gonna have something this close um that's like that is I think it's gonna be great.

We're consistently investing in um infill over there.

So this is going to be just up the street, probably what, like three, four blocks from where we just uh at last council meeting approved two different housing projects, so um, all within uh very walkable areas that just continue to make it a great place to move into and uh continue to put homes and people back into.

So thank you.

Council Mr.

Overland.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh I remember uh when we were having all the problems with Jones Park frequently flooding uh many years in the last 10, 15 years, we certainly saw very little usage out there.

But uh when we did close the golf course, uh the city spent uh a couple of years uh figuring out what people want because you don't get an opportunity to reinvent a large portion of an existing park very often.

And so a lot of thought was gone into this, and a few years ago we built the pickleball course because people wanted that.

Um we also partnered with a group that um with the frisbee golf and improved that uh in a rather short period of time.

And certainly uh when we were out at uh Jones here a couple weeks ago for the anniversary of the Duray Show, you realize, and I don't go there too often, but it's a very beautiful park, and this is a function that um people said they wanted, and um percentage of people that own dogs will get a lot of use out of this, and I think it'll be an additive uh item for our community to enjoy for an awful long period of time.

And at the same time with other dog facilities, I know there's one out at Wanity Park, but that's not in Cedar Rapids, and it's always out there for most folks.

So I think it's a great idea, and I think in the long run, uh we're gonna be glad that we did this and move forward with it because I believe the people support it and we'll use it very heavily.

Councilmember Meyer.

Um thank you, Mayor.

Um, I just also want to clarify, you know, we talk about support for this.

So you mentioned 18% of the people had it in their first, second, or third priority.

That means more than four-fifths of the people surveyed are not interested in this as a top priority.

I I find the cost, and I know this has been in in the works since 2021.

Um, I just find the cost benefit prohibitive.

I I look at what projects, um basic maintenance of projects that we have in our parks, and I just can't justify this price tag.

If I look at um, you know, I'll give one example.

Um, there is a park in Wellington Heights called Wellington Park.

It doesn't have a tree, it doesn't have a canopy, it has nothing, and it sits there barren.

Um, and it's also in an area of the city um where there's uh a high concentration of um underserved individuals.

And I know they're uh I I I thought that that was owned by Willis State.

I didn't realize it was the city until I saw those beautiful new signs that mark all of the parks in the city, so thank you for that.

So thank you for that.

You know, I think about the West Side Library Park.

You know, we don't have funding for that.

So many of our pools need maintenance and repairs.

And if I think about the long-term costs associated with the maintenance and the staffing, I don't know the details, but I remember I don't know if it was at council or where, but you know, just the cost of that small dark dog park in the city, which is beautiful in uh the Newbow area, um, and just like the maintenance and the repairs that have had to go into that small space.

Um I would also be remiss if I didn't talk about the uh Cedar Rapids Animal Um control facility, right?

Um we've there's been a number of communications publicly internally about the status of that facility.

Uh I want to read uh a quote from the state inspection that was completed.

Uh the city has abandoned their responsibility to maintain a structure that was completed in 2013.

We don't have funding to repair that facility.

Um it's a hazard to the employees.

Um it's uh extremely depressing um place for animals.

So what what I would ask is that um we really be comfortable that this is the right way to use these funds to make sure that our existing properties are cared for and that we are ensuring equitable access to green space throughout the city.

Thank you.

Consumer Olson.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um what I really appreciate about the the project is the is the fact that it's part of a long-term plan.

And I think one of the things that the city does well and is one of the key contributors to our success in a lot of different areas, whether it's water infrastructure or economic development or um, in this case, parks and recreation, is that um we go through a planning process, we get a lot of public feedback, um, we set out a long-term development plan, um, and then most importantly, we execute on the plan.

Um, and so um as we as we do that, you know, obviously there are going to be things um that come up along the way, and and one of those was was just mentioned.

Um, but the I think the great part about our organization and our team is that we're able to handle more than one thing at a time.

So I don't believe that moving forward with the dog park means that the issues um at the animal uh control shelter um are not being addressed.

Um we have been receiving weekly uh communication at least, if not more, uh, from the city manager's office about um those issues, and um as soon as the city was aware uh of the mold and other issues, um, repairs happened uh right away or began right away.

Um so this project does not take away from um all of those other projects that uh the city is doing.

Um it's just one in a long series of projects um and an important um amenity, quality of life um thing for for the community, but particularly for uh for the west side and for the southwest side.

So um we can do many things at once in the community um for the community.

Uh the city's got a great team, uh, and I'm confident that we can build this amenity uh that the community has has asked for, um, and we can also address some of the urgent uh needs that have been raised today.

Councilmember Todd.

Thank you, Mayor.

I want to reply specifically to an allegation uh in terms of the parcel on Fourth Avenue.

Uh since I was involved in buying that uh years ago through the neighborhood association.

The reason why there's not trees on there is because a guy by the name of Marcelo Evento had a little soccer team uh of Hispanic kids that would play soccer on that parcel.

And so we didn't do that uh at the time.

And then the decision was made and has been proposed on several occasions for uh Willis Dady to turn those those parcels into affordable housing projects, and that hasn't happened.

So it's not as if you know we're we're not planting trees on those sites because we don't have money.

And so I just wanted to provide some context there.

I I would suggest that any time you want to talk about park and rec and budgetary and maintenance needs, I think that's a conversation the council would certainly welcome and enjoy because there's certainly those needs, but I would defer to our new parks director to help her uh uh decide her priorities uh that I would suggest are no more different than any park urban park system in any other city, uh those same maintenance long needs long term, short term that we're all cognizant of.

And so uh that's why we wish you the best of luck.

Anyone else?

Councilmember Vanorty.

I was just gonna say um, you know, with regard to the this is my childhood park, and uh, you know, I think we tried to hold together golf there for a long time because it was a favorite of the golfers in our community, which is actually a really um uh popular sport, one of the more popular sports in Cedar Rapids.

Um, but it did become a point where we were very financially responsible and realized it was no longer worth the long-term investment.

Um unfortunately, it was just getting pummeled by you know continuous flooding and disasters.

And so we've always um had a precedence to be very financially responsible with regard to our parks and maintenance.

When we um issued out that survey, though, that went out to 20,000 persons with 2,000 response back.

Um my understanding and and recollection of it though is it's very open-ended.

So what happens when you're just generally saying, what would you like to see with no prompting, is you're gonna have such a plethora of responses that what ends up happening is that the top answers, it's not uh we should just be more transparent.

And I think maybe put out some of the surveys in the next time we present this to explain what that really was of some of the ideas people had.

Um, because we have been working on this for a long time, but those are the ideas that rose to the top.

It's not that four-fifths of persons said that they did not want that or it was not interesting to them.

It's just that these were actually the highest issues that rose, and it still was only 18 percent.

But other people were saying, you know, different things.

And so um I think it's just it's important to be as transparent as possible about like why it seems like a low number, but is actually one of the uh biggest uh or most popular ideas that came out of that survey.

Yeah, that's that's correct.

Um because it was open-ended, it even though it was only 18 percent, it was one of the higher ranked amenities across the board.

Councilmember Todd.

I I was just gonna uh uh Steve, you've built a lot of restrooms in your day.

And and this is to to many in the public, uh it's a perplexing question because there is an appearance that it's a pretty significant cost.

But what we've learned over time, I mean, I I think years ago 75,000, 100,000.

But now these these are buildings that sit outside in the cold, in the heat, you know, year long.

And they they have to uh they they have to, you know, withstand these severe conditions on top of vandalism and on top of all the ADA code issues.

And so that price is I mean, it is certainly increased.

Uh the second thing is you don't want to be cheap with the restroom, because if you do, you're gonna end up having to come back and repair it.

And so it makes sense to spend money.

Any feedback there?

Um, I guess just to be clear on on this project, we're starting out with Portigani's and the restroom is a future.

Um but yes, new restrooms do cross.

The most recent ones were 280,000 to 300,000 dollars.

Okay, good.

Okay.

You know, and I'm just gonna add, first of all, this is not an or, Councilmember Meyer.

Um to allege that we don't have the money to repair the animal care and control facility, it's just incorrect.

We are repairing the animal care and control.

So it's also and you know budgets and finances and pots of money.

Unfortunately or fortunately, this is money that can only be used for this project.

This is CI, these are CIP dollars, not designated for operations or repairs.

You know that.

Correct, but there this isn't the only CIP project or project that those funds can be used for.

It's it's been in the budget that you approved for the I mean, I believe you approved our budgets.

Budgets change.

Priorities change.

Okay.

That's your stance.

The budget is change.

Um I'm I'm gonna echo what Councilmember Olson said about the ability of this city to plan long term.

And while it's frustrating for people who like things done yesterday, um I mean, especially me, there are real reasons why these projects need to be planned out years in advance so that we can raise funds to use intentionally for these projects.

Without that planning, I'm afraid you know we'd be making decisions willy-nilly, and we wouldn't get anything done.

So having this specific plan on the books for two years is really important, and to change course midstream is just honestly irresponsible for this large of a space in our city.

It really, we're so fortunate to have this oasis in the middle of a city, and certainly the west side that is you know long been um you know set aside for projects.

And I don't know if you lived here when we did Beaver Park, um Beaver Park, Redmond Park on the east side.

I mean, we've had some really great investment on the east side, and this is a strong signal to the to the west side that we are can continue to invest, not just in our parks, but um it also becomes an economic development opportunity, an attraction opportunity, and unfortunately, I'm looking at a parking lot there too, which is probably a half a million dollars.

Am I am I off on that?

So you're when you say starting from scratch, you are talking like grading, digging you know, sewers, pipes, half a million in parking lots.

So, you know, projects like this need to be planned years out, and I think to change course on a project like this would be irresponsible.

And honestly, not what you know, those of us who are aware of of the budget and the plan approved.

Um, and we have to do a lot of things at once.

This is absolutely not, you know, doing this does not preclude us um from doing any of the awesome things that we're doing in this community.

So it's my hope that that number is um it's an estimate.

So it's my hope that we can come in underneath that.

And I understand um that this isn't this isn't really just about a dog park and putting a fence around some grass.

This is an area that used to flood.

And and you could also argue that it's you know, yet one more way that we're you know using flood mitigation, um, turning that into an amenity and something that we were gonna have to get rid of because of consistent flooding.

Um, that we're gonna turn this into an attraction.

So um I obviously I wholeheartedly support that.

Um if there aren't any other further comments or questions on this, then uh we'll go ahead and adopt this resolution by uh councilmember um Tyler Olson, seconded by councilmember Todd.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say no.

No.

And this motion carries.

Thank you, council.

Here in the city of Cedar Rapids, we have two public comment periods.

The first is a chance for the public to address the city council on any subject pertaining to council action schedule today.

And I have received the sign-up sheet, and no one is signed up to speak.

So we will officially close out that first public comment period.

City Manager Pomrance, do you have any changes to the agenda?

Okay, thank you.

Do any council members need to recuse themselves?

Councilmember Olson.

Thank you, Mayor.

I need to recuse myself on item 12.

Item 12.

All right.

Oh, Hawkeye Downs.

Yeah, got it.

Anyone else?

All right.

That brings us a motion to approve the agenda.

The approve of the agenda has been moved by councilmember Todd, seconded by Van Orney.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say no.

And this motion carries.

Thank you, Council.

That brings us to our consent agenda.

The approval of the consent agenda has been moved by Todd, seconded by Van Orney.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say no.

No.

Okay.

Can we uh mayor?

I'd like to request to move item 26A and B to the regular agenda.

26A and B.

Yes, please.

Yes.

Moving 26A and B to the top of the agenda.

All right.

Alyssa, do we need to approve this amended agenda?

We're amending this.

Okay.

So the approval of this amended consent agenda has been moved by Van Orney, seconded by Overland.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say no.

And the motion carries.

Thank you, Council.

Moving on to our regular agenda, and we're going to begin with an item from the consent agenda 26, which is resolutions appointing and reappointing individuals to our commissions.

Councilmember Meyer.

Thank you, Mayor.

I specifically wanted to talk about the appointment of Lauren White and then the not reappointing of Alicia Faust to the Affordable Housing Commission.

And just for some background.

Sometimes things don't get resolved before Monday or before Tuesday.

And for those who may not know, the way the process works for commissions is that the mayor appoints City Council approves.

And my question was why is Alicia Faust not being reappointed to the Affordable Housing Commission?

Alicia House, Alicia Faust is the current executive director of Willis Dady Homeless Services.

She's been employed there since 2016.

I believe she's been the executive director since 2021.

She's the vice chair of or was the vice chair of the commission.

That means that her peers on that commission appointed her to be the next president of that commission.

Obviously, that would not happen if she was removed from the commission.

Alicia and just recently, Alicia earned her master's in leadership earlier in 2025.

Just today, she was announced as one of the 40 under 40 leaders in our community.

If you look at our our unhoused unhoused population in the city, we've seen that number decrease.

So just can I ask what you're implying?

In the clearest terms.

Yeah.

I I think you I think Alicia is a strong, powerful woman who didn't always agree with you or some other people on city.

And I think it was a petty personal reason why you didn't reappoint her.

Okay.

I that okay.

I couldn't, I couldn't disagree more.

Um I'm not here to talk about the merits of Alicia.

I don't think that's fair to her.

I don't think it's fair to Lauren either, who who I did appoint.

Um I think the I think your implication is more of a projection of you than certainly of me.

You couldn't be more incorrect about that.

I think we lean on Alicia Faust in many of our you know homelessness services meetings.

She helps us with our um you know experienced homelessness advisory groups.

She's absolutely um an integral part of our strategy.

Um Lauren, I mean, I just Lauren's been with them since 2020, and she's the director of programs, has a masters as well, has a width, I mean, just the the breadth and width of her experience in terms of oversight in terms of team leadership in terms of financial management.

I think she's gonna bring a tremendous um perspective to this commission.

You know, it's a little bit like when I appointed David Meyer to the arts commission way back when if there were a David Meyer on the council at the time, they probably would have said, why would you do that?

Guy doesn't have a background in art.

He just moved here.

And I saw it as somebody who you know loved art, loved our city, could bring a new voice to the to the commission.

Um, and you're certainly less qualified for that position than Lauren would be for this.

So I'm I just I find it just really, you know, completely off.

I'm glad you were clear about that.

We are nodding your head in disagreement or I I think your comments to me were personal and petty just now, so it kind of reinforces they were factual, David.

I'm being factual.

The last thing I am is petty.

You're you're attacking my choice, and it's like I I don't want to debate these people.

I think they're I think Lauren's gonna be terrific, and I look forward to continuing to work with Alicia.

But I think we'll we've got a need for new ideas and new energy on that commission.

I think she's gonna be terrific.

I won't expect you to approve her today.

Mayor, I'd like to move that we vote on uh the I think it comes forward and uh we we've been asked to vote on this.

Would you mind I would like to second that, Mayor?

Thank you.

Can I have a roll call for approval of those appointees?

Aye.

I no.

Okay.

How can we move on with the other work of this council?

Item number 33 is oh, oh, B.

Oh, we have another one.

Okay, that is okay I would second.

Okay, all in favor say let's do motion, let's do roll call again.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye, aye.

Councilmember Hager.

Aye.

Councilmember Meyer.

Councilmember Meyer is aye for B.

Okay, great.

Okay, now we'll move on to 33.

This is a report on bids for F Avenue Northwest and the Levy project.

Estimated cost for stage one is six hundred and sixty-seven thousand dollars.

Estimated total project cost is seven million twenty thousand dollars.

Rob Davis is here, Rob will recognize you.

Thank you, Your Honor.

Uh Rob Davis Public Works Department.

This has been a very uh exciting month and a half on this project.

Uh, when we put this out for bid, we put out for bid $7 million, 20,000.

It's the Hall of F Avenue rebuilding of First Street, uh rebuilding of uh third uh third street, putting a levy in, and then eight days after we put it out for bid, the federal government uh announced a 25 million dollar build grant for this um area.

Very, very exciting.

Uh we have uh since uh issued by addendum to remove a good portion of that work uh to work out the details of that grant agreement with the federal aid because it overlaps what we just put out for bid, and they need to agree with the terms of uh our funding agreement.

So that's why we have a project we put out for bid for seven million dollars and a little bit of 500 in the 500,000s range, is because we addendum out um most of the work.

The area that uh we have remaining here is actually outside the footprint of that federal grant.

It's in yellow here.

It's the south half of uh third uh street uh northwest reconstruction.

Uh the project uh that we're keeping here includes just the 2025 work, the addendum removed to 26 and 27 work.

Uh it also includes paving uh here where I have the cursor to convert E Avenue to two-way construction.

That was always the work planned for 2025, so there's been no change here.

Uh we will uh come back upon uh completion of working through the details of this with the uh U.S.

Department of Transportation and expect to rebid the uh second uh a stage 2026 and 2027 work uh so that the casino can continue to uh have its entrance in time for their opening next year.

Uh so what's left?

We have the third street uh northwest reconstruction south of the alley.

What that does is provides uh access to the midnight smoker restaurant during the main 26-27 work, access to existing businesses is extremely important.

Uh we'll do the paving as I mentioned, and there'll be some minor utility relocation, storm sanitary, and water.

Uh the cost estimate for this uh stage one work is now six hundred and sixty-seven thousand dollars.

Uh we had the bid opening last week.

Uh we'd like to start as soon as we can, uh, no later than uh September 22nd for the contract and get that first stage of work done by November 11th.

Um the uh majority of this uh work now is flood control bonds again, doesn't have any of the grant work that will come in an area in the in the future that we anticipate the grant will be um executed by 2029.

We're looking to remove that area um up to the seven million and proceed with that.

Uh the six of the six bids we received on 20th, uh the low bid was uh 576,738 dollars and sixty-one cents, and it ranged to 789,397,000 dollars and 14 cents.

And so that uh those bids are right in line with our uh revised cost opinion, and we would recommend approval of the contract and the amount of 576,7938 dollars and sixty-one cents with Trader Excavating Grading Company.

Thank you.

I'll turn it back to you, Mayor.

Thanks, Rob.

Pretty big delta between the highest and the lowest, though.

Any ideas as to why?

I would say, you know, this is work that we're bidding in August for work we wanted to start next month and finish by November.

So it really depends how busy the contractors are.

Okay, okay, thank you for that.

Uh council, Councilman Van Orney.

Can you go back to the map, Rob?

Like the overhead.

So, yeah, we had just we were this is really tangential.

So I if you can't answer it, that's okay.

Um, but we were just talking about where we're having the underground utilities buried.

Is that can you just kind of maybe show us where that might be?

That's pretty much in the area of this uh right over here.

So the the vacant parcels are um on the south side of F Avenue between fourth and third.

So it's just to the west of the midnight smoker, so it's right here where I have the cursor.

Okay.

So that's also outside the footprint of the federal aid.

Yeah.

No, I I think um thank you for this presentation.

Um I've I've got full faith and credit in everything that you do.

You've you've led us um uh you know into a really great spot uh in terms of recovery through all of our floods and have really been moving us along through many different uh administrations, grant opportunities, everything like that.

So I appreciate that.

My commentary really is just because I think it helps sometimes to just show the concurrent projects that we're talking about when we're talking about an overhead like this.

And obviously, uh, when we're trying to put new things in here, like the Greenway Plan, like potentially some other development there at some point, um, like uh the uh casino project.

Um, you know, I I always get very fixated on uh where possible bearing the lines.

Um and so it's advantageous in this because of the development that we have there and because of the flood control systems that we have.

But I also want to make sure that our utility partners are also hearing me every time that I say that we need to be bearing the lines other places throughout the city, um, because this is best practice to do this.

It is expensive.

I know it's expensive, uh, but it's also expensive when the power lines uh fall, um, when there's trees that fall, and when we have to replace all the sidewalks and everything else that comes with them because they are um exposed.

So just for any utility companies listening, uh, would love this in other parts of the southwest side.

Thank you.

Council Brahgar.

And if you explain this, I'm sorry, I was lost in a little bit of it.

So is it $25 million grant one that we're applying for and competing to hopefully get to cover some of this cost?

And then when would we know when the award is?

And then I guess my question is is it delayed the actual project itself years down the road while we wait to see if we get awarded the $7 million?

No, actually, we've been the announcement has been of the award of $25 million.

So we applied for the grant uh at the end of January.

So then you know there was no casino approval at that point.

The very the very next week after the uh we applied for the grant, the uh uh racing gaming commission approves the license, and then um you know there were some appeals back and forth, so we put this, you know, we find out they get the uh uh the license, the appeals have been dropped, we put the project out for bid, and then as soon as we put the project out for bid the next week we we get announcement of the grant.

So uh we do have the grant, but because it overlaps, it just federalized this area, and we have to work with the federal government to get their permissions to put this out for bid and not jeopardize the amount of money they've just announced for us.

So I think it's worthwhile to say we can put this in two bid packages, go back out for bid.

The expectation is about three months from now.

We can have that deal worked out with the federal government.

We can still get this bid in say December and do the 26 and 27 work on the same schedule we announced at the public hearing, and the casino would see no difference to what we did.

We would just do it in two different construction contracts, but that would keep and preserve the federal award of 25 million.

Would that answer a question?

That's perfect, thank you.

I and I'm sure you probably went through it a little bit in your presentation, but I was trying to track everything and but congratulations and thank you.

Thank you.

It's been very complicated, it's probably consumed about half my time the past few weeks trying to balance both of these on the casino opening.

So yeah, it's very complicated.

So you really didn't miss anything.

It's hard to explain.

It's a good problem to have.

Thanks, Rob.

Okay, if there are no other further questions, the adopted this resolution has been moved by Hager, seconded by Councilmember Scott Olson.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those of those say no.

And this motion carries.

34 is a presentation and resolution accepting a proposal from Prairie Rose Rental Company and Horizons, a family service alliance for the redevelopment of two city-owned properties along 10th Av and Fifth Street Southeast and Oak Hill Jackson.

Noah Zeker's here.

Noah, I'll recognize you.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

Noah Zeker, community development.

Uh I am presenting on the disposition and potential awarding of two city-owned parcels, uh, 916 Fifth Street Southeast and 512 10th Avenue Southeast.

Um for a bit of background, in October 2023, the city issued a request for proposal for uh redevelopment after an inquiry.

Uh these properties were acquired by the city in 2010 and 2011, respectively, uh, using CBDG funds.

The parcels are both located in the Bohemian Viable Business District.

Um combined, they total about 7800 square feet, uh, our zoned traditional residential and are in the 100-year floodplain.

Uh notably, while 512 10th Avenue doesn't have access to city water, uh, both parcels have access to other uh relevant utilities.

Uh here you can see an overhead of the parcels with uh 10th Avenue on the bottom left and 5th Street Southeast on the uh bottom right.

And here are the street views of both parcels.

Um the house on the left side of uh uh 916 5th street is no longer there.

Uh the objectives of the RFP uh included conformance with the city zoning ordinance, uh preference for residential uses, uh financial feasibility and demonstrated development developer experience.

Pardon me.

Uh the city received one proposal.

Um due to that, we are recommending the proposal from uh Horizons, a family service alliance and Prairie Rose Rental Company, which includes a single family home with two ADUs, one detached and uh one attached, and a section for extended lane parking for the um NTS buses.

And the um uh development agreement uh if adopt if awarded would come to city council uh this fall.

Um here are some renderings of the residential aspect of the project.

Um the detached ADU is above the garage.

Uh so there uh three stalls each for the single family and the two ADUs.

So you can see those extended lanes along with a uh parking space for the residential properties, and to the right is the site plan a uh stakeholder review group as convened, consisting of uh city staff, an OKL Jackson Neighborhood Association representative, a non-competing developer, and a commercial lending professional.

Uh the group unanimously unanimously recommended awarding the project to Prairie Rose and Horizons, citing both the feasibility and the capacity of the development team.

Shown here is the timeline starting in um October on October 24th, 2023, when the RFP was initiated.

The proposals were due on December 1st of that year.

Um by city council, the development agreement would come before you uh later this year.

And with that, I'll pass it back to the mayor.

Thank you, Noah.

Council.

Any questions?

Councilmember Van Orney.

Uh I think just a simple statement of support.

Um, sometimes we've had the question to recommend a pause if we've only had uh you know limited interest or limited um uh response.

However, um Horizons does such a nice job at everything that they do.

Um, I feel very confident moving forward with this, um, knowing that they have done other projects very well, and so I I'm satisfied with their application.

Councilmember Todd.

This is my question: who's developing the property?

Is it Horizons or Prairie Rows?

Uh Horizons would be responsible for the parking lot section and prairie rows for the residential.

Okay, so my my concern with all of these, and not necessarily this one, but that there is some form of a clawback clause in the event that that property does not get developed in a certain time frame.

And so staff can figure out what makes sense there, and you can put that in the development agreement, but that would be my only concern.

Okay.

Does that not exist right now?

A timeline.

Uh we do not have a set timeline for uh construction.

Okay.

That's a good idea, Councilmember Todd.

It it needs to be sensitive to the capacity of the organization to raise funds to do it right.

I I don't want to I don't want to see something built quickly simply because they're afraid that they're gonna lose the property.

But at the same time, I've seen organizations hold on to land and then sell it.

Uh and and so it puts us in sort of an awkward position, but this is a good project as council member Van Orney mentioned, and uh look forward to uh the redevelopment of this these parcels.

We've come a long way with ADUs, haven't we?

It's amazing.

It's great.

If there are no further questions, adoption of this resolution has been moved by Van Orney, seconded by Todd.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye, those opposed say no.

And the motion carries.

And that closes out our formal business today and brings us to our final public input period.

This is a chance for the public to address a city council on any subject pertaining to council business.

As with earlier public comment period, as a council, we are here to listen.

So I'll remind everybody to stay at the lectern.

Comments are limited to five minutes.

When the light turns yellow, you have one minute.

When it turns red, we ask you to take your seat.

No abusive, loud, threatening, or personal comments will be allowed.

If you sign up to speak, please approach the microphone when called upon.

And we have two speakers.

First is Tom Pape here to speak.

No par no parking in fire lane road.

Coming up to this podium.

And when the light turns yellow, I got four minutes.

You it's right.

Yellow, you got one minute.

Okay.

First of all, my name is Tom Pape.

I live at 1624 O Avenue Northwest.

I've been a resident there for 10 years.

I'm 74 years old.

Um I want to thank the council real quickly that I appreciate you listening to what I have to say.

The reason I'm here is um to discuss a recent enforcement action by the fire department for no parking fire lane designation on our private road.

Okay.

This was a total surprise to the residents that live there.

There was no discussion in 2019.

There was a discussion and it was dropped.

But there was no discussion, and we have new neighbors since then.

Um and uh see.

This is a was a private access road.

The signs were going on private uh property.

Um I did immediately when I got the certified letter, went down and talked to the fire marshal, and was under the understanding that it was because of long standing compliance issues since 2019.

I've been watching our access road.

I take pictures, videos, I have documentation, I have everything.

There's not a compliance issue with our road.

The only time I can think of that might be when we're seal coding the road.

This particular access road runs 24 foot parallel to O Avenue.

And I'm gonna, is it okay to step forward?

One for each side there.

This requires us my property is 90 foot wide, and I have to put four signs on my property.

Now I talked to my realtor.

We we were planning on putting her house up for sale downsizing, it's gonna devalue the property.

Um I went down to the city fire marshal office and talked down there.

I said, Can you give me some example or show me any other place where I can go look and see you know signs like this?

Couldn't get an answer.

I went to the building department.

The lady there said, Hey, this is absurd.

That's the comments I I got back from them.

But uh, so I'm looking for documentation.

Um I want to point out that what's going on if you look at them signs.

I said, our house, my house is less than 100 foot from O Avenue.

My neighbor's houses are 80 foot.

I can go down O Avenue and I can show you all kinds of houses that are much further back, houses that should require these access roads.

So I'm I'm really concerned.

Are are we just being targeted?

Uh, because I had we have a neighbor that complains a lot.

That's that's the whole issue.

And um, and I'm not gonna go through all the examples and so forth of of the complaints, but it's been every they know them at the Senate Animal Shelter and the fire department and the police department and the building department.

So, but anyway, I'm looking for some consistent and if the city's gonna enforce this stuff.

I want to know if there's gonna be some uh consistency.

I personally went out and measured roads, all this is all within a mom house.

That our access road is 22 foot wide.

I measured city roads 20 foot, 21 foot, parking allowed on both sides.

I I don't understand this, and I it's kind of like we're being targeted or we're being I feel sorry for my neighbors.

Some of them are just been there for a year.

That you know their value of their property stuff is is uh gonna decrease all because all because of one individual's uh attitude, just he you know, he just gets upset about little things.

So and if uh the if if this really was uh safety concern, oh Avenue was rebuilt several years ago.

At that time they they modified our access road.

Why didn't they make it two foot wider?

If if it was gonna if it was really gonna be a problem, it should have been taken care of at that time.

And uh that kind of tells me that the timing is that this here's uh this current order is an arbitrary decision just to get somebody so they don't complain to a person anymore.

Mr.

Pape, your time is up.

I will tell you, we do have the chief here today.

Uh so I'm gonna encourage um Chief Smith to connect with the I think I met with him in 2019.

Okay, and I want to I just want to see am I my time up?

Your time's up, okay.

Yes, but thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you again.

I'm looking for help for mediation from anybody that would like to help.

Yes.

Well, the yeah, I I would wait for the chief.

Thank you.

Uh Melissa Duffield here to speak on public notice.

Thank you, sir.

Can we pass them out to everybody and police chief and fire chief, please?

This is a legal notice.

My name is Melissa Steffi.

I am a civil rights advocate, and I need to provide public notice to the city of Cedar Rapids.

This is in accordance with the USCS rules of civil procedure, as well as Rule 17 and Rule 20 of the United States Supreme Court.

The Constitution of the United States has an overreaching requirements that every state must follow.

States cannot enact their own alternative legislation, subsist subsided by the guarantees of the Constitution of the United States.

That would mean that the state laws are more powerful than the Constitution, and that is unlawful.

For example, Clause 1 of Amendment 5 states no person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless a presented or indictment by a grand jury.

However, the state of Iowa has enacted its own alternative legislation that permits prosecution attorneys and police officers to charge in a way of information as opposed to indictment.

That is unconstitutional.

And an emolument emolument violation is when you pay a public official to break the law.

That's also you two paying each other to break the wall.

The Constitution has two areas that enforces this.

Article 1, Section 10 says no state shall create any law that shall impair the obligation of contracts.

Police officers, prosecutors, judges, city officials, and all are all under contract.

A contract to perform based on the oath of affirmation that they took to support and defend the Constitution.

Contract parameters are defined within the Constitution of the United States.

And when the state enacts an inferior law or a city that directs their agents to disobey the Constitution of the United States, that is a violation of Article 1, Section 10.

The 14th Amendment is the other place that you will find reinforcement of this issue, and that is where it states that no state shall create or enforce any law that shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the United States citizens.

The privileges and immunities of the United States citizens are at minimum those enumerated within the Bill of Rights.

The first ten amendments.

Unfortunately, the state of Iowa enforces officers for whom to all pay to violate the Constitution of the United States.

As a result, there is an innovator amount of people currently imprisoned in the state of Iowa, illegally and unconstitutionally.

And some of these are advocates in our community that have spoken out against you guys.

So you might want to pay attention.

Tanawadanuing, litigating this issue, United States Supreme Court, and I'm here to notify that you that if you continue to pay public officials, i.e.

CRPD and others, to break the law, criminal sanctions can form from that.

Officials must be aware that paying people to disobey the law isn't an emulment violation.

It is illegal, it is unconstitutional, and it is a crime, a federal crime.

I'm asking you, honorable and not so honorable individuals, to please take a look at the cause one of the amendment five.

Confirm what I'm saying to be true, and then direct your public officials to act in a lawful, constitutional manner, consistent with the obligation that you are codified in the Constitution of the United States of America and have a notice that I would like to put on record, which I have given to you.

This is my personal statement.

You vote for unlawful surveillance of the United States citizens.

You poison our environment for corporate gain, including your dog parks, and your drain of our natural resources Google centers.

You sign off on shady public-private deals and you funnel taxpayer dollies into corrupt deals.

And mayor, you sit on banks, boards with major conflicts of interest.

And then we have Dale Todd and Scott Olson and other people that have all these real estate deals that you don't think that us layman pay attention to.

And Van Orney, you signing off on bills payable, which by the way, tonight you actually voted on an LLC that is administratively dissolved to give millions to.

Good job to you.

The legal notice puts you on record from this moment forward that you cannot deny.

You knew you are are you are tied to paper trails of targeting, retaliation, conspiring, and committing crimes against whistleblowers and civil rights activists like me.

The next phase of legal action, of course, is federal cases.

There's already one existing Rico Billy Dwayne Frazier.

And then I actually won one against the cronyism racketeering, gang stalking, conflict of interest, and your weaponizing of the judicial system of your buddy mayor, right?

Chad Pelley.

One on my own without having an attorney represent because I represented myself because it was that easy to prove that I wasn't lying and that crimes are being committed.

It's on the record that I'm not a liar and that malicious prosecution in Lane County is now exposed.

Ties of collusion and deprivation of rights against families, advocates, federal witnesses, corruption whistleblowers, and safe sport whistleblowers like me.

This community will exercise its right to remove every single one of you that does not report a crime that you know has existed to the Department of Justice.

You will be prosecuted, you will be taken care of civilly.

And by the way, it does not cost, because I grew up in construction 1.8 million dollars to build a dog park, and also someone that played in that park.

That is not a testament nor a tourism experience or a highlight of the Southwest side of Cedar Rapids.

So good luck to you, Mayor.

I enjoy seeing your petty attitude and your unprofessionalism, your leadership skills show beautifully tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

And on that note, as lovely as it was.

And on that note, as lovely as it was, um, that will close out our public comment period.

So uh City Council or City Manager Pomerance, do you have anything to add to these proceedings?

Okay.

You don't?

I'm okay.

Are you sure?

Nothing to attack, nothing to no names to call.

Okay.

Uh just to be clear, if there's no further business to come before council, council member Tyler Olson moves to adjourn, seconded by councilmember Overland.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye, those abode say no.

Do we really want to adjourn?

Let's adjourn.

We are adjourned.