Cytown Update

Developers have purchased land around Ames or looking to purchase and want to annex. By not allowing annexation they can’t develop, also the county would still have the same restrictions on that land around Ames so extremely limited development would be allowed with no annexation allowed under the county plan. It would definitely hamstring Ames. I follow local govt pretty closely and would agree current county board is less friendly to growth/dev. By limiting the available land I could see cost for what is available getting jacked up even more too.
The county cannot reject annexation (that I know of). Both the County and City need to be more forward thinking and pro-development. I agree with what you're saying other than I don't think the City is pro growth, but that lies more in the staff than the council. Ames is consistently the most difficult City to work with to develop in central Iowa.
 
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The county cannot reject annexation (that I know of). Both the County and City need to be more forward thinking and pro-development. I agree with what you're saying other than I don't think the City is pro growth, but that lies more in the staff than the council. Ames is consistently the most difficult City to work with to develop in central Iowa.
Which is absolutely hilarious when you hear those involved with the city cry about how much Ankeny has/is exploding, Waukee, etc.
 
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This is off topic for this whole thread, but I'm interested to hear more how you see Ames as pro-growth and the county is actively prohibiting growth. My experience has been the exact opposite. The natural resource plan I haven't dove into much yet so I can't speak to that other than it may restrict rural development, nothing inside Ames jurisdiction. The urban fringe plan is ambitious growth by the City and will lock up a very significant portion of land surrounding the current City from any development or modifications until annexation occurs which there is no plan for. I see this as stalling any likely development through the new agreement.

The county’s plan absolutely applies within city limits. I don’t know the details, but my understanding is that the county pushed back hard on the urban fringe plan (I said Growth Plan earlier, which was wrong). Probably should have also couches “pro-growth” with a “compared to 20 years ago.” There is no way the new Industrial Center would have happened when the ‘no new mall’ crowd was in charge.
 
The county cannot reject annexation (that I know of). Both the County and City need to be more forward thinking and pro-development. I agree with what you're saying other than I don't think the City is pro growth, but that lies more in the staff than the council. Ames is consistently the most difficult City to work with to develop in central Iowa.
The city, county and Gilbert have a 28E agreement that requires approval by all entities for annexation to move forward. They are trying to approve anew agreement since the old one is expiring. Most places don’t have something like this in place.
 
Where is that recording posted at?
https://art19.com/shows/iowa-state-cycast

right here idiot ya just have to search it
Thanks idiot.
Nobody is calling you an idiot.

Wait. :D

Thanks for posting. I tried to find your link, and couldn't. Who's the 'idiot' here? LOL. Is there a home page for these Coaches Corner radio shows? They are pretty good. Maybe on cyclones.tv (I couldn't find anything recent there)? I came up with this, is all.
 
So they're gonna wait until the end of spring semester to start tearing up C3 and C4, and they'll be working sunrise to sunset 7 days a week to try to get them done before football season begins.

I'm guessing there's a good chance they may not accomplish that goal. As someone who parks there for tailgating, it makes me worry where we'll end up having to park.
 
The city, county and Gilbert have a 28E agreement that requires approval by all entities for annexation to move forward. They are trying to approve anew agreement since the old one is expiring. Most places don’t have something like this in place.
Correct except the 28e agreement is about land use/zoning not annexation. Basically the new plan will stop any subdivision/development in the county as rural developments (there have been many successful developments in the proposed fringe areas in the last 10 years). It correlates to annexation because in order to develop in these areas you can only do that through City annexation.
 
So they're gonna wait until the end of spring semester to start tearing up C3 and C4, and they'll be working sunrise to sunset 7 days a week to try to get them done before football season begins.

I'm guessing there's a good chance they may not accomplish that goal. As someone who parks there for tailgating, it makes me worry where we'll end up having to park.
I'd imagine that whole area will be RAGBRAI heavy too.
 
The county’s plan absolutely applies within city limits. I don’t know the details, but my understanding is that the county pushed back hard on the urban fringe plan (I said Growth Plan earlier, which was wrong). Probably should have also couches “pro-growth” with a “compared to 20 years ago.” There is no way the new Industrial Center would have happened when the ‘no new mall’ crowd was in charge.
I'm pretty familiar with the details on the urban fringe plan. The county pushed back because too much land in the fridge plan would be held hostage from being developed as a county property. Essentially nothing could be done with those properties until they are annexed. So if your property was 1 mile outside of Ames you would not be and to split it and sell half your 40 acres to your son unless you annexed. You can't annex until 80% of landowners between you and the City agree to annex and potentially pay for the public improvements required with annexation. And you have to work with Ames to get that done.

I'd be surprised if the update to the natural resource areas ordinance applied inside city limits but I will look into that. The ordinance already exists but is being expanded and clarified.

Fair enough on the City is more pro growth than 20 years ago. Hopefully they continue to think forward.
 
I'm pretty familiar with the details on the urban fringe plan. The county pushed back because too much land in the fridge plan would be held hostage from being developed as a county property. Essentially nothing could be done with those properties until they are annexed. So if your property was 1 mile outside of Ames you would not be and to split it and sell half your 40 acres to your son unless you annexed. You can't annex until 80% of landowners between you and the City agree to annex and potentially pay for the public improvements required with annexation. And you have to work with Ames to get that done.

I'd be surprised if the update to the natural resource areas ordinance applied inside city limits but I will look into that. The ordinance already exists but is being expanded and clarified.

Fair enough on the City is more pro growth than 20 years ago. Hopefully they continue to think forward.

I’ll admit to assuming that applied inside city limits based on the large-scale deforestation that I’ve witnessed over the last 2 weeks. I read through the updated legalese today, and I would say that “expanded” might be the understatement of the century.
 
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I'm pretty familiar with the details on the urban fringe plan. The county pushed back because too much land in the fridge plan would be held hostage from being developed as a county property. Essentially nothing could be done with those properties until they are annexed. So if your property was 1 mile outside of Ames you would not be and to split it and sell half your 40 acres to your son unless you annexed. You can't annex until 80% of landowners between you and the City agree to annex and potentially pay for the public improvements required with annexation. And you have to work with Ames to get that done.

I'd be surprised if the update to the natural resource areas ordinance applied inside city limits but I will look into that. The ordinance already exists but is being expanded and clarified.

Fair enough on the City is more pro growth than 20 years ago. Hopefully they continue to think forward.
Yea, I get the concern over restrictions on what can be done on that property. I think if the current counterproposal by Ames (which significantly whittles down the urban reserve and eliminates some restrictions) isn't accepted the city should let the agreement die altogether. Then land owners will be more free to do what they want with their properties and developers with land adjacent to Ames will be able to annex it. Really the only concern should be development of rural residential or commercial subdivisions adjacent to Ames.
 
Yea, I get the concern over restrictions on what can be done on that property. I think if the current counterproposal by Ames (which significantly whittles down the urban reserve and eliminates some restrictions) isn't accepted the city should let the agreement die altogether. Then land owners will be more free to do what they want with their properties and developers with land adjacent to Ames will be able to annex it. Really the only concern should be development of rural residential or commercial subdivisions adjacent to Ames.
Agreed!
 
Toppling would be pretty sweet! Will be interesting as we start to figure out some of the stuff going in and rumors leaking out.
 

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