The Council Bluffs City Council met on January 12, 2026, for a regular meeting. The agenda included approval of the consent agenda, three public hearings, ordinances on first and second reading, four resolutions, and citizen requests. Key discussions centered on a proposed rezoning of a College Road property, amendments to the alarm system ordinance, and a $600,000 contract for a comprehensive plan and downtown master plan. The meeting concluded with public comments on a deteriorating downtown building and a pedestrian bridge project.
Thank you again to senior district court judge uh Judge Stenlin and thanks Jody for arranging all of that for us. I appreciate it. Um, right after our study session, if any friends or family would like to stick around and take pictures, um, we'll be invite anybody to come up into the gallery at that point in time. And there are cookies for anybody who wants one. And there are cookies on the way up. So fantastic. Um, next on the um agenda for today is to review our agenda for tonight. Um is there any questions on the consent agenda. Yes. Um College Road. That seems crazy to me. So right now he has two parcels. His house, it's on one parcel on R3. He owns a separate track that right now is zoned R one. He wants to build a detached structure on that separate track of land. Um in an R1 district, you can't have an accessory structure without there being a principal structure on the same lot. And so he has to have those two properties combined together so that the house on the same lot as the garage that he wants to build. As part of doing that, we spoke to Jamie, who's the applicant. It makes sense, and if you're going to join these two properties together to have it as one consistent zoning, so that from here in perpetuity, you're working on one set of rules for it. And there's really two options. The one that the lot that the house sits on right now is zoned R3, and that's low density, multi-family. And when he built it, it shouldn't, which is zoned wrong. Right? It should be R1. It's a single family house. Well, I mean, the zoning was in place before he bought it. And if you look to the west, you already have an existing multifamily development. So I think the zoning is right, and in an R3 district, you can have a single family detached structure. It's just that if you're going to combine these lots, you want to give some consistency. And so we met with Jamie. There was kind of two options proposed an R3 or the R1. He already built his house to conform with R3 district standards. So the thought and rationale was well, we'll just rezone this other sliver to R3 just to make it all consistent. Um it could certainly be rezoned to R1 as well, and the house would still comply. The only thing that it would change is that it wouldn't give him as much flexibility development-wise in the future if he goes to an R1. So under the R3, he can develop more of that property than he would an R1, meaning that an R3 you can have 45% lot coverage, and an R1, you're capped at 35%. In an R3 district, um, he could have multiple dwellings on there. So hypothetically, I'm not thinking it's gonna happen, but just hypothetically, maybe one of his children want to build a home on that land. They would be able to do that without having to go through a subdivision action, whereas in an R1 district, you're allowed to have one one dwelling, and that would be it. So it does give him some flexibility. At planning commission, he was certainly open to rezoning it to R1. It was just proposed as R3 just to make that small lot consistent with the same lot where his house is at. So either way, he'll come out ahead. It's just that if we go R1, it does have different setback regulations, building heights as compared to an R3. But he seemed open to either option. I just think then multiple houses on bigger lots in town would just want to rezone to R3. Does that make sense? Like I would. If I can put an extra house, an extra structure. Yeah, but his house is already on R three.